Social Influence Flashcards
Name the social factors that affect obedience
Proximity
Agency and authority
Social hierarchy
Task difficulty and expertise are two factors to affect conformity. Use an example to describe how each of these factors could affect conformity.
If a task is more difficult, people are more likely to conform, e.g solving a hard maths problem than if the task is more easy e.g answering what is 2 plus 2.
. If a participant has expertise they could use e.g being a mathematician, they would less likely to conform than when they do not have relevant knowledge.
Briefly evaluate Adorno’s theory of the Authoritarian Personality.
Adorno has not provided proof that an authoritarian personality actually causes high levels of
obedience. He only found a correlation between personality type and obedience. This means that
cause and effect cannot be proved.
• Some of Milgram’s most obedient participants did not have the authoritarian/strict upbringing as
Adorno suggested they would.
• Researchers have found that people with lower educational levels are more obedient. This suggests
that other dispositional factors may be important, and that personality type is not enough on its own.
Briefly explain two weaknesses of laboratory experiments. Refer to Asch’s study of
conformity in your answer.
Laboratory experiments often use artificial tasks that people do not normally have to do in real life. In
Asch’s study they had to compare the length of lines which is nothing like an everyday task that people do.
Laboratory experiments need to be ethical and ask participants to do tasks that are safe. This often
means that the tasks are trivial – like comparing the length of lines.
Describe Piliavin’s subway study.
Piliavin’s aim was to investigate the effect that a victim’s appearance would have on helping
behaviour.
• His study was a field experiment carried out on a subway train in New York City. On a number of
different journeys, an actor pretended to collapse in a train carriage. Each time, the actor’s
appearance was changed. In some of the trials he appeared to be drunk, in others he appeared to be
sober and carried a walking stick.
• Observers recorded how often and how quickly the actor/victim was helped.
• When the actor/victim was carrying a walking stick, he was helped within 70 seconds in 95 per cent of
the incidents. But when he appeared to be drunk, he was only helped 50 per cent of the time.
What is meant by the term deindividuation?
Deindividuation is becoming so immersed in the norms of the group that people lose their sense of
individuality/identity and self-awareness, resulting in feeling less responsibility for their actions.
Describe strength of Piliavin’s subway study.
. This study was carried out in a natural setting and the participants were doing what they did on the subway station. This reduces demand characteristics from the participants, increasing ecological validity
Describe two weaknesses of Piliavins study.
.It was a field experiment which means he had less control over extraneous variables, reducing its reliability as we don’t know if the IV was the only thing affecting the DV.
. Participants were unaware they were taking part in a study, therefore they were not able to give consent or the opportunity for the researcher to ask permission to use their results, making the study questionable .
Describe Milgrams Agency theory of obedience.
• We are more likely to obey orders when we are in an agentic state/when we believe we are acting on
behalf of an authority figure.
• Because we believe the authority figure will take on responsibility for our actions, we no longer feel
responsible.
• When someone we believe to be a figure of authority gives us an order, we go from an autonomous
state to an agentic state (an agentic shift).
Name Strengths of Milgrams theory of obedience .
There is real world evidence to support Milgram’s theory – for example the Nazi guards in
concentration camps during the Second World War.
There is research evidence to support Milgram’s theory – for example Milgram’s ‘electric shock’ study
and Thomas, Blass and Schmitt (2000).
Name weaknesses of Milgram’s theory of obedience
Theory doesn’t fully explain why some people are not as obedient as others. In Milgram’s study – only
65% of his participants were willing to give the fatal ‘electric shock’ to another person. This may mean
that some people are more likely to enter the agentic state than others.
Milgram only addresses social factors that may affect obedience, but other psychologists (eg Adorno)
think dispositional factors such as personality are very important.
Describe Adornos theory of Authoritarian Personality
Adorno believes that personality type determines whether or not someone is likely to obey
In his research, Adorno found that having an Authoritarian personality makes and individual more likely to obey for example, These people have an exaggerated respect for authority
.Adorno believes an authoritarian personality is made rather than born, through:
• Overly strict parenting
. So, a child who has strict parenting, internalizes these feelings and expects everyone to behave like this.
. they feel hostility towards their parents because of the high standards and conditional love as well as on people who are inferior
What is social loafing?
.Making less effort when working with others than working alone.
Outline Asch’s study into conformity.
.Participants were sat in a semi circle with 6-8 Confederates (actors)
.Aim: To investigate the effect of peer pressure on an individuals opinion in situations where the answer was obvious.
Sample: 123 male Americans who didn’t know the aim of study.
Procedure:
Men were shown two large cards shown two large cards, one with a single standard line and one with three comparisons lines and then they took turns to decide which of the following three comparison lines was the same as the standard line
. The Confederates were instructed to give the same incorrect answer. 18 trials in total, 12 of the trials men conformed. 36.8 percent got wrong and 75 percent conformed
Strengths of Asch’s study.
.has high reliability. This is because the study was a lab
experiment with high control meaning that it is easy to repeat the study in order to gain consistent results into
conformity.
Weakness of Aschs study
. the task is artificial. This is because the task of matching line lengths
does not reflect everyday situations of conformity. The task was trivial and meaningless so pps may have
conformed more compared to if the task had severe consequences. This suggests the results of Asch’s line
experiment may be difficult to generalise to real life situations of conformity.
sample is not representative of all cultures. This is because
the research was conducted in America which is an individualist culture. Collectivist cultures may have been
more likely to conform because they believe in the good of the group. This suggests the results of Asch’s line
experiment into conformity may be difficult to generalise to all cultures.
What are the social factors that affect conformity.
. Group size
.Anonymity
Task difficulty
Describe and evaluate how group size affect conformity.
.The more people in a group, the more likely people are to conform as there is greater pressure.
One weakness of this explanation is that group size has different affects depending on the type of task. In Asch’s study there was an obvious answer but when there was no obvious answer. but when there was no obvious answer then group size does matter. People do not conform with 1 or 2 others, but do conform when the group gets to 8 or 10 people. This suggests that the task may affect whether or not people conform in relation to group size.
Describe and evaluate how anonymity affects conformity.
Asch did a variation of his study where pps were able to write their responses down anonymously
He found that conformity rates decreased.
One weakness of anonymity is that Asch used a group of strangers. Huang and Li
(2016) found that the affect of anonymity changes if the group are friends who are expressing their opinions anonymously would conform more than if they were strangers. Suggesting that anonymity may not be the only factor to consider, and it is dependent on whether you know the people.
Describe and evaluate how task difficulty affects conformity
In one of Asch’s variations of his study, he made the task harder by making the standard line and the comparison lines more similar in length . The people felt less confident and look to the group for the right answer
.One weakness of Asch’s research into task difficulty is that the task is artificial. This is because the task of matching line lengths does not reflect everyday situations of conformity. The task was trivial and meaningless so pps may have conformed more compared to if the task had severe consequences.
Name the dispositional factors affecting conformity
.Personality
. Expertise
Describe and evaluate how personality affects conformity
Those with an internal locus of control believe they control what happens to them and their behaviour is caused by their own personal decisions and effort.
Those with an external locus of control believe that what happens to them is determined by external factors
such as the influence of others, luck or fate.
.Research to support is Burger and Cooper
