social influence Flashcards
What is the definition of conformity?
Conformity is the act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to group norms.
True or False: There are three main types of conformity.
True compliance, internalisation, identification
what is compliance?
publicly conforming to behaviour or views of others in a group but privately maintaining ones own views temporary behaviour stops as soon as group pressure ends
what is internalisation?
conversation of private views to match these of the group new attitudes and behaviours have become part of their value system showing this publicly or privately
what is identification?
adopting views/behaviours of a group both publicly and privately because you value being part of the group usually temporary and don’t last outside group
Which type of social influence involves changing one’s behaviour to fit in with a group, often for acceptance from the majority to appear with the norm
Normative social influence
What is informational social influence ?
Informational social influence is when individuals conform to a group because they believe the group is better informed or has more accurate information as there’s no distinct answer (more uncertain more likely to conform) cognitive process
what type of conformity would likely occur as a result of NSI?
compliance, occurring in situations where we are most worried about our own reflection
what type of conformity would likely occur as a result of ISI?
internalisation - situation new to a person can be intense causing cognitive process
evaluate individual differences in NSI
some research shows NSI doesn’t affect everyones behaviour in the same way as some are less concerned with being liked. those who have a greater need for affection and relationships with others tend to conform more as they want to be liked according to McGhee and teevan 1967 study on students
evaluate sherif’s experiment 1935 on ISI
pps in a dark room observed a small light that appeared to move (though it was stationary) where pps where uncertain about the lights movement so they tended to see how others answered then adjusted their answers even if the others answered where incorrect
describe the procedure of Asch (1951) study on conformity?
devised an experiment where there was no obvious answer line judgement task so a incorrect answer would be due to group pressure
asch put one naive pps in a room with 7 confederates who had pre agreed an answer
each pps then stated aloud which line was most similar to the target line real pps going last
18 total trials confederates giving wrong answer in 12
results of asch 1951 study on conformity
33.3% of pps in each trial went along and conformed to clearly incorrect majority 75% conformed at least once
evaluate artificial situation and task from Asch’s study on conformity
pps knew they were in a research study and may of gone along with the demands of the study (demand characteristics) also although pps was in a group it didn’t resemble groups from everyday life therefor findings don’t generalise to everyday situations. especially true when there is consequences making us take more consideration before conforming unlike this study
evaluate ethical issues of asch 1951 study on conformity
pps where deceived because they other the other pps where real pps rather than confederates however the ethical cost is far less than the benefits from this study
evaluate independent behaviour rather than conformity asch 1951 study on conformity
we should remember only 33.3% of trials where majority gave the wrong answer produced a conforming response in other words 2/3rds stuck to their original judgement despite being faced with an overwhelming majority asch believed his study showed strong independent behaviour
what 3 ways did asch variate his study
group size, unanimity of majority and difficulty of task
what affect did group size have on conformity levels asch 1951
addition of more confederates made little difference suggesting there is no need for a majority more than 3
what affect did unanimity of majority have on conformity asch 1951
asch wanted to know if the presence of another non conforming person would affect the naive pps conformity so he introduced another confederate who disagreed with majority which led to a decrease in conformity as 25% conformed instead of 33%
what affect did increasing the difficulty of line judgement task have on conformity asch 1951
made it more similar in length leading to conformity increasing under these conditions suggesting ISI plays a greater role when task becomes harder as situation is more ambiguous so look to others for advice
describe the procedure of zimbados stanford prison study 1971
pps where all male psychology students who volunteered and randomly allocated role of either prisoner or guard
prisoners where arrested at their homes unexpectedly and taken to the mock prison in the basement of stanford psychology department
prisoners spent 23 hrs a day in the cell the guards given uniforms and sticks and where able to go home after shift
describe the results of zimbardos Stanford prison study 1974
experiment called off after 6 days (supposed to last 2 weeks) after guards become overly abusive so brutal 2 prisoners had a form of mental breakdown. prisoners did exactly what guards told them conforming to the authority
so immersed in the make up norm that prisoners lost sense of identity and personal well being
evaluate the control of the stanford prison study (make another card on reicker and haslam
strength as zimbardo had some control over variables like the selection of pps who where all mentally stable this was a way zimbardo tried to rule out individual personality differences as a explanation to the findings
how was informed consent not given in zimbardos stanford prison study
behaviour of guards towards prisoners couldn’t of been foreseen therefor the consent to participate wasn’t valid
how was protection from harm not given in zimbardos stanford prison study
prisoners were stressed day and night we know this as 5 prisoners had mental breakdowns and those who didn’t break down emotionally were obedient to the corrupt authority who did terrible things
what is obedience?
where one behaves as instructed but not necessarily changing ones opinion - person giving order seen to have authority and can punish if obedience isn’t shown
describe milligrams 1974 study on obedience
- German hypothesis = germans have a sort of character defect making them more obedient
milligram selected pps by advertising for males to take part in a study at Yale uni
the pps (teacher) was paired with a confederate (learner) the teacher then administered a shock (not real) to the learner for incorrect answer increasing the voltage for each incorrect one 15v to 450v pps believing it was real experimenter used prompts to keep pps in study to see if they wold obey
65% obeyed and administered a fatal (fake) shock
some subjects began showing distress by twitching, sweating and shaking
how was deception an ethical issue in milligrams study
pps were deceived due to not knowing electric shocks were fake and learners were actors swell pps thought study was on memory
how was right to withdraw an ethical issue in milligrams study
teacher (pps) asked not to continue as they thought they were hurting the learner told by researcher to continue through prompts
if person dies wouldn’t be there fault was very unclear if they could withdraw
was milligrams study ecologically valid?
at first glance is may appear to lack ecological validity due to occurring in a lab however the central feature was the relationship between authority figure and pps
milgram argued the lab experiment accuracy reflected wider authority relationships in real life and can be generalised
are there individual differences e.g gender in milligrams study?
an assumption was made that women would be more susceptible to social influence than men
eagly 1978 thought we would find gender differences in obedience
milgram had a condition with all female pps and found females carried out the maximum shock at a rate significantly higher than men
evaluate the power of uniforms from milgrams variation study (bickman 1974)
Bickman found that pps were more likely to obey the researcher dressed as a guard (80%) than a civilian (40%)
what is the agent state - explanation of obedience
socio-psychological factors:
acting as a agent for a authority figure means a person doesn’t feel responsible for their actions e.g nazi soldiers feeling innocent at trials
Hamilton 1978 suggests obedience levels drop significantly when pps are told they are responsible
what is the autonomous state - explanation of obedience
opposite of acting as an agent meaning independent
people feel free to behave according to their own principles and therefor feel a sense of responsibility for their actions
what is an agentic shift?
autonomy to agency
milgram 1974 suggested this occurs when a person perceives someone else as an authority as they have a higher position on the social hierarchy
what are binding factors - explanation for obedience
binding factors of the situation allow the person to ignore or minimise the damaging effect of their behaviour and thus reduce the moral strain they should feel
what is legitimacy to authority
someone who is perceived to be in a position of social control within situation
the power of a legitimate authority stems from their perceived position rather than certain characteristics
what is a destructive authority
milgram work on obedience found people will obey an authority if specific situational factors are present even to the point of harming others
we see this through history through leaders like hitler and ghenghis khan can use their power for destructive purposes
cultural differences milgrams study evaluation
kilman and mann 1974 replicated milgrams study in Australia and found only 16% gave the max volt on the other hand mantell 1971 found 85% of germans delivered max voltage showing in different cultures authority is more likely to be accepted
what are situational explanations?
explaining someones behaviour based on external factors in the environment rather than internal personality traits
what are dispositional explanations
obey authority due to their own internal personality traits
what is an authoritarian personality
a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority also seen to be submissive to those of higher status
describe the procedure of Adorno’s study on obedience
studied more than 2000 middle class white Americans and their unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups done by creating the F scale
findings of adorno’s study on obedience
people who were high on the F scale (authoritarian) were generally opposed to weak people and followed the strong
conscious of their and others status strong positive correlation between authoritarian and prejudice
evaluate correlation not causation of adorno’s study on obedience
they found positive correlations between variables but we can’t say that one caused the other e.g we can’t claim that harsh parenting caused the development of authoritarian personality only that the variables are linked in some way
describe the political bias of adorno’s study on obedience
christie and jahoda 1954 argued that this is a politically biased interpretation of authoritarian personality which is a limitation of adorno’s study as its not a comprehensive dispositional explanation that can account for obedience to authority across the whole political system
what is independent behaviour
term used to describe behaviour that seems not to be influenced by others occurs when pressure to conform or obey is resisted
describe research on resisting conformity (asch)
asch 1956 found that the presence of social support allowed individuals to resist conformity easier we see this through asch variation introducing an ally which led conformity to drop from 33% to 5.5%
describe research on resisting obedience (milgrim)
in one of milgrams variations the pps had to other confederates testing the learner who both declined to continue this influenced the real pps as only 10% conformed to the max voltage
what is an external locus of control?
perceives their behaviour as being caused by external influences. luck, God or fate
what is an internal locus of control?
perceive themselves as having a great deal of personal control over behaviour and more likely to take personal responsibility
evaluate holland 1967 on the effect of locus of control
he repeated milgrams study and measured whether pps where internal or external loc
he found that 37% of internals didn’t continue to the highest shock whereas 23% of externals didn’t continue showing internal loc people are more able to resist obedience than external
what is minority influence
situations where one or a small group of people influences the beliefs and behaviours of other people this differs from conformity where the majority do the influencing
describe moscovici study 1969 on minority influencing majority
all female group placed in a group of 4 with 2 confederates then shown 36 slides that where different shades of blue and asked to state the colour out loud
first group confederates were consistent and answered green every slide second group were inconsistent and answered green 24 times and blue 12 times
consistent group had 8.42% of trials agreeing with majority and 1.25% in the inconsistent group
what are the 3 behavioural characteristics the minority should possess to influence majority
flexibility commitment and consistency
Reicker and haslam (2006)
