social influence Flashcards
3 types of conformity.
internalization
identification
compliance
state in order the different types of conformity from strongest to lowest
s - internalization
M- identification
l- compliance
what is internalization
makes beliefs, values and aims from a group their own
permanent change to peoples views/opinions
what is identification
short change to behavior and beliefs only in the presence of others
what is compliance
- follows others ideas to gain approval from others.
- publicly agree but privately disagree
- their change of view is on temporarily
what are the2 explanations for conformity
informative social influence
normative social influence
what is informative social influence
someone conforms to be right, look at others by coping them.
what does informative social influence lead to
internalization, as it occurs when we do not have the knowledge or expertise to make our own decisions
what is normative social influence
someone conforms because they want to be liked and be apart of a group
what does normative social influence drive towards
compliance as it often occurs when a person wants to avoid the embarrassing situation of disagreeing with the majority
who conducted a study to investigate the variables that are affecting conformity
Asch Line Judgement task
Asch’s aim and amount of participants
- investigate conformity and majorities influence
- 123 male American undergraduates put into groups of 6
Asch’s procedure
- participants and confederates presented 4 lines, 3 comparison lines and 1 standard lines.
- asked to state which line is was the same length
findings for Asch’s study
- 36.8% conformed
- 25% never conformed
- 75% conformed at least 1
- 1% response given by participants were incorrect
what are the 3 factors/variables affecting the levels of conformity
group size
task difficulty
unanimity
what is group size
when individuals are more likely to conform when they are in a larger group
what is unanimity
when individuals are more likely to conform when the group is anominous.
what is task difficulty
individuals are more likely to conform when the tasks are difficult
how was group size manipulated in Asch’s research
he varied the amount/number of confederates.
how was unanimity manipulated in Asch’s research
he sometimes arranged for a confederate to give a different answer to the majority.
how was task difficulty manipulated in Asch’s research
he made the answers less obvious by having lines of the similar strength
strengths for Asch’s study
It’s Lab experiment, so the extraneous and confounding variables are strictly controlled, meaning the replication of the experiment is easy.
- has high internal validity
- supports normative social influence.
- the researcher breached ethical guideline for deception
weakness for Asch’s study
- lacks ecological validity, findings cannot be generalised to real life
- lacks population validity due to sampling issues- the study was subject to gender bias
- lacks validity
who conducted a study to show people conforming to social roles
Zimbardo conducted his Stanford Prison Experiment to conform Social Roles
what was Zimbardo’s Aims and Participants
24 American Male Undergraduate students
aim was to investigate how people would conform to the social roles in a stimuli experiment
what was Zimbardo’s procedure
basement of the Stanford university was converted into a temporarily prison
students volunteered to take part, randomly allocated to one of the 2 roles: guard and prisoner, both wore uniform
prisoners were given numbers for identity. Both were given props and uniform
findings within Zimbardo’s research
- identification occurred very fast
- both prisoners and guards adapted to their roles and played their part
- Guards began to Harass and torment the prisoners
- prisoners only spoke about prison issues, significant evidence that they believed the prison was real
strengths for Zimbardo’s study for social roles
- ethics was controlled by the participants being fully and completely debriefed about the aims and the results of the study
- the amount of ethical issues for the study led to more ethical considerations taken into considerations for future studies to make them safer
weaknesses within Zimbardo’s Study on Social Roles
- lacks ecological validity- suffers from demand characteristics. participants knew that they were taking part in the study so therefore changed their behaviour
- lacks population validity- the sample only considers American Male students, findings can’t be generalised
what is the Agentic State
a person believes that someone else will take responsibility for their own actions
what is the autonomous state
state in which a person believes they will take responsibility for their own actions
what is the agentic shift
a person shifts from an autonomous state to the agentic state
what is the legitimacy of authority
describes how credible the figure of authority is.
in milgrams study how was legitimate authority used
people saw the experimenter as legitimate as they knew he was a scientist and therefore likely to be more responsible
state the 3 situational factors
location. proximity and authority figure
proximity
state of being near in someone in space or time
location
a particular place or position
authority figure
a person who has or represents authority
why are people more likely to obey with someone wearing uniform
they give higher status and a greater sense of legitimacy
why do people obey to location in Milgram’s study
conducted a prestigious American University, obedience was greater than in a variation of the study conducted in a rundown office
why do people obey within proximity
more likely to obey when they are less able to see the negative consequences of their actions and closer to their authority figure.
a strength within the agentic state and the legitimacy of authority
their theories can be used to successfully explain several real life examples of obedience towards destructive authority figure.
a weakness within Milgram’s study linking within the situational variables
Milgram’s variations, particular the removal of uniform as situational variables may have lacked validity , i.e. they do not measure what they were intended to measure
Milgram’s aims within the variables that affect obedience, aims and amount of participants
he randomly selected participants- 40 male volunteers
- aim was to observe whether people would obey a figure of authority when told to harm another person
Milgram’s participants
participants = role of teacher
confederates = role of learner
decided through random allocation
Milgram’s procedure
participants asked confederates a series of questions
when confederates answered wrong, they would have been given an electric shock
milgrams method for his experiment
each participant completed several personality questionnaires, including Adorno’s f-scale
findings for milgrams experiment
- the obedient participants scored higher on the F scale, in comparison to disobedient participants
conclusion for Milgram’s experiment
obedience is influenced by the authoritarian personality
