Social influence

Question 1

what is conformity?

Answer 1

A change in a persons opinions because of real or imagined pressure from a group.

Question 2

Internalisation

Answer 2

A deep type of conformity. The individual takes on majority group because they accept it as correct, leading to a permanent change.

Question 3

Identification

Answer 3

A moderate type of conformity. The individual acts in the same way as the group because they value it, but dont agree with everything.

Question 4

Compliance

Answer 4

A temporary type of conformity. The individual goes along with majority view but privately disagrees.

Question 5

Asch key notes

Answer 5

• To investigate the degree in which individuals would conform to a wrong majority.
• line study
• 123 American volunteering males

Question 6

Asch findings

Answer 6

75 percent of participants conformed at least once.
They feared judgement and wanted to fit in.

Question 7

Asch evaluation.

Answer 7

• ethical issues [deception, psychological harm]
• Not representative, cant be generalised [males/Americans]
• demand characteristics

Question 8

variables affecting conformity

Answer 8

Group size
Task difficulty
Unanimity

Question 9

Explanations for conformity

Answer 9

Informational social influence
Normative social influence

Question 10

ISI

Answer 10

Individuals agree with majority because they genuinely believe they are correct.
Can lead to internalisation

Question 11

NSI

Answer 11

Individuals agree with majority because they seek acceptance and approval.
Can lead to compliance

Question 12

ISI evaluation

Answer 12

+ Lucas et al. Students were asked to give answers to maths questions. Greater conformity showed when tasks were difficult.

• exposure to beliefs has negative impacts on society.

Question 13

NSI evaluation

Answer 13

+ Asch’s research shows people conform to be accepted

• NSI is limited when people do not care about being liked

Question 14

Zimbardo social roles study

Answer 14

• Guard and prisoner setting
  -Volunteer sampling
  -Participants randomly allocated roles
  Aimed to see how participants would conform to roles

Question 15

Zimbardo findings

Answer 15

Prisoners- submissive
Guards- aggressive
Prisoners adopted a prison role in doing as they were told and acted frightened.
5 prisoners had to be released early due to anxiety

Question 16

Zimbardo evaluation

Answer 16

• Unethical [ harm to participants, Zimbardo’s dual role meant he wasn’t aware of the harm caused]

+McDermott argues that because of how real the volunteers believed the prison was and how quickly they adapted, the study replicated social roles well. High internal validity

Question 17

Milgram’s obedience experiment

Answer 17

• volunteer sample
  -Aimed to find if American citizens would obey unjust orders.
  -40 male american
• shock test
  -mr wallace

Question 18

Milgram findings

Answer 18

• All participants went to at least 300 vaults
• 65 percent administered the full 450
• Participants showed extreme stress, 3 had seizures

Question 19

Milgram evaluation

Answer 19

• cannot be generalised
• Ethical issues including deception [ told participants he was studying punishment and learning] and harm.

+ replicable in many countries, showing highest obediance in spain at 90%

Question 20

Situational variables

Answer 20

Proximity
Location
Uniform

Question 21

Agentic state

Answer 21

A mental state where an individual feels no responsibility over their own behaviour. This is because they feel they are acting for an authority figure

Question 22

autonomous state

Answer 22

Being aware of the consequences of ones own actions and taking control.

Question 23

Agentic shift

Answer 23

The change from autonomous state to agentic. Shifting responsibility to authority

Question 24

Agentic state evaluation

Answer 24

+ a variation of milgrams experiment showed that when adding a confederate to administer electric shocks the percentage of people who went up to 450 rose to 92.5%

• the agentic shift does not explain why some participants did not obey in milgrams study.

Question 25

Legitimacy of authority

Answer 25

An explanation for obedience which suggests individuals are more likely to obey people who they think have authority over them.

Question 26

Evaluation of LOA

Answer 26

+ Blass and Schmitt showed Milgram experiment to students and asked them to point out who was responsible, they said the researcher - Rank and Jacobson study found that 16/18 hospital nurses disobeyed orders from a doctor to give excessive drug doses to a patient.

Question 27

Authoritarian personality [dispositional]

Answer 27

A personality that Ardono et al argued was susceptible to to obeying authority figures

Question 28

Ardono research

Answer 28

Used the F-scale to study 2000 middle class white americans attitudes towards racial groups higher scores= strong, disrespectful, hatred for weak

Question 29

Authoritarian personality evaluation

Answer 29

+Milgram and Elms conducted interviews with individuals involved in Milgrams study. 20 who were obediant had authoritarian personalities -The Fscale has flawed methodology. It is easy to geta high score if the same box is ticked each question.

Question 30

Evaluation of social support

Answer 30

+ In 1943 a group of gestapo women protested against the gestapo who had been holding Jewish men. The women stood their ground through threats made against them until the men were set free

Question 31

Evaluation of locus of control

Answer 31

+ Holland repeated milgrams study. He found that 37% of internals did not continue to 450V whereas only 23% externals id not continue. -Rotter found that LOC is only important in new situations .

Question 32

Minority influnce evaluation

Question 33

Social change evaluation