Social Influence Flashcards
1
Q
What is conformity?
A
A change in behaviour as a result of real or imagined group pressure
2
Q
What are the 3 different types of conformity?
A
Compliance, internalisation and identification
3
Q
What is compliance?
A
Publicly conforming to the behavior or views of others in a group but privately maintaining your own views (most shallow type of conformity)
4
Q
What is internalisation?
A
A true change of private views to match those of a group, new beliefs become permanent even when you leave (such as religion)
5
Q
What is identification?
A
Mixture of both compliance and internalistion. A person wants to be part of a group so adopts the attitudes and behaviours of that group
6
Q
What are the 2 main explanations of conformity?
A
Normative social influence and informational social influence
7
Q
Who developed the ideas of normative and informational social influence?
A
Herbert Kelman 1958
8
Q
What is normative social influence?
A
When a person conforms because they want to fit in. They want to be accepted by the group and seek approval - they may privately disagree
9
Q
What is informational social influence?
A
A person conforming because they want to be right, they are unsure on how to behave so they follow whoever they think has the right answers
10
Q
When is informational social influence more likely?
A
In new or ambiguous situations
11
Q
Who investigated conformity into social roles?
A
Zimbardo
12
Q
Where was zimbardos research held?
A
Stanford Prison Experiment
13
Q
What are social roles?
A
Parts that people play as members of various social groups
14
Q
What did zimbardo want to find out?
A
Whether the change in behaviour was due to the nature of people themselves or is it a consequence of of the situation hypothesis
15
Q
What was zimbardos aim?
A
To investigate how people conform to roles they are given
16
Q
What is the dispositional hypothesis?
A
People conform to their roles because of the nature of their personality
17
Q
What is the situational hypothesis?
A
People conform to their roles because of the situation you are in
18
Q
How did zimbardo recruit his participants?
A
Local newspaper ad
19
Q
How many participants did Zimbardo have?
A
24 from US and Canada (eliminated any mental problems and disabilities)
20
Q
How much were zimbardos participants paid?
A
$15 a day for 2 weeks
21
Q
How were participants allocated?
A
Randomly
22
Q
What is dehumanisation?
A
Blind folded, strip searched and given smocks and a prison number (ZIMBARDO)
23
Q
What did Zimbardo’s guards wear?
A
Mirror shades & khaki outfits
24
Q
How many days until zimbardo’s prisoners rebelled?
A
2 days
25
When was zimbardo's first prisoner released?
36 hours - emotional disturbance
26
How many days did zimbardo's experiment run for?
6 days
27
How many of zimbardo's prisoners were released on the 4th day?
2
28
What did Zimbardo conclude?
We conform to the roles we are given not because of our natrual personality
29
What are the strengths of zimbardo's experiment? (2)
Good application - random allocation, uniforms etc
| Found out more about the ethical guidelines that we now have to abide by
30
What are the weaknesses of zimbardo's experiment? (2)
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Ethical criticisms (protection from harm, right to withdraw)
Demand characteristics - they know it was a study
Zimbardo was both prison warden and researcher so may have lost sight of the harm caused LOOSE VALIDITY
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31
What was the aim of milgrams study 1974?
To investigate destructive obidence
32
How did Milgram recruit his participants?
Advert in a newspaper - volunteer sample
33
Who were milgrams participants?
40 male Americans aged 20-50
34
Why was it important that milgrams participants were from different occupations etc?
Cancel out any individual differences
35
What did Milgram do in his experiment?
Introduced participants to a confederate who they thought was another participant, shown an electric chair and given a 45v shock to show it worked
Picked teacher or learner, always fixed
Participant had to give a shock for every wrong answer the learner gave (15v to 450v)
Experimenter gave 4 verbal prods
36
What did Milgram find?
100% of participants gave a 300v shock
65% of participants gave a 450v shock
Most participants showed signs of tension
1 participant even had a seizure & experiment had to be stopped
37
What did milgram's psychology students predict?
Only 3% would go to maximum voltage shock
38
What did Milgram conclude?
Ordinary people are shockingly obedient to those in authority
39
What ethical guidelines did Milgram break?
All except debrief
40
What are 3 weaknesses of milgrams experiment?
Low internal validity - participants may have behaved that way as they didnt believe set up was real
Ethical issues - decpetion, protection from harm, informed consent
Lack generalisability - only men (volunteer sample)
41
What are 2 advantages of milgrams experiment?
Good reliability - ability to control variables
| Good external validity - lab experiment reflected wider authoritative figures such as teacher and student
42
What consent did Milgram claim to have obtained?
Presumptive consent (spoke to students before they didnt predict what actually happens)
43
What was milgrams defence to deception, right to withdraw and protection from harm?
Deception was necessary to not show demand characteristics
Persuading participants to stay showed power of authority
They did not anticipate the pain caused
44
What were Milgrams 3 variation studies?
Location (run down building instead of uni, levels dropped to 47.5%), proximity (in same room as learner & experimenter forced hand on, levels were 40% & 30%), uniform (experimenter called away and levels dropped to 20%)
45
What are the advantages of Milgrams variation studies? (3)
Supporting research - Bickman 1974 (3 men in different outfits picking up litter)
Cross-cultural replications (Miranda et al found over 90% of Spanish students found obedience rates NOT LIMITED TO AMERICAN MALES)
Re-done over and over again with approx 1000 participants which increases reliability
46
What is the disadvantage of Milgrams variations studies? (2)
Lack of internal validity - Ore and Hollands example was that participants probably wouldnt have believed a member of the public would actually come and take over an experiment
Takes away ownership from a person by saying they were beyond their control (provides an obedience alibi)
47
What are the 3 explanations of obedience?
Situational variables
Social Psychological Factors
Dispositional explanation
48
What is social psychological factors?
Agentic state and autonomous state
49
What is the agentic state?
We are no longer independent but according to instructions from someone else (people justify their behaviour by saying they were ordered to do so)
50
What is the autonomous state?
We act according to our own conscience and we feel responsibility for our actions
51
What is the agentic shift?
Autonomous state moving to the agentic state when confronted by an authoritative figure
52
What are binding factors?
Aspects of the situation that allow a person to minimise the damaging effect of their behaviour
53
Who supported the agentic state?
Blass and Schmitt 2001
54
What did Blass and Schmitt find?
People who saw Milgram's study blamed the experimenter indicating they believed participants were just following actions from a person in authority - it could be due to social-psychological rather than the situation
55
What is legitimacy of authority?
Societies accepting that certain positions hold authority over the rest of us (teachers/parents)
56
What is the limitation with legitimacy of authority?
Some people are granted power to punish others - problems arise when it becomes destructive (Hitler)
57
Where do we learn legitimacy of authority from?
Childhood
58
Are there any weaknesses to legitimacy of authority?
NO
59
What are the strengths of legitimacy of authority? (2)
It is a useful account of cultural differences in obedience
BICKMAN (the security guard got more people to obey as they have legitimate authority in our society)
Legitimate authority was taken away in Milgrams variation studies so obedience levels dropped
60
What is dispositional explanation?
Explains obedience in terms of an individuals personality
61
What does the dispositional explanation look at?
Authoritarian Personality
62
If you have an authoritarian personality these are some of your characteristics...
Extreme respect to authority
Believe in hierarchy
Hostile to those inferior to them
Hold traditional views
63
Who investigated causes of obedient personalities?
Adorno et al 1950
64
What did Adorno do?
Used questionnaire to asses unconcious attitudes of more than 2000 middle class white americans and their attitudes towards other racial groups
65
What was Adorno's scale?
F-Scale
66
What did Adorno find?
Those who scored high on F-Scale were likely to have authoritarian personality as they were concious of their own status
67
Where did Adorno think the origin of authoritarian personality was from?
Linked to childhood as a result of harsh/critical parenting which made the child hostile
68
What is a strengths of the dispositional explanation?
Research evidence to support - Milgram et Elms 1966 investigated milgrams participants using f-scale, found that those who scored high on f-scale were fully obedient - positive correlation
HOWEVER correlations do not establish a cause and effect so therefore we do not know that authoritarian personality causes high levels of obeidence
69
What is a weakness of the dispositional explanation?
It cannot explain all cases of obedient behviour - could not explain all the individual differences in pre-war germany and their behaviour as to why they obeyed
70
What is resistance to social influence?
The ability of people to withstand the social pressure to conform to the majority or obey authority
71
What are the 2 explanations for resisting social influence?
Locus of control and social support
72
What is locus of control? (obedience)
How much a person believes they have control over events that happen in their life, usually measured along a scale with external and internal at either end
73
What is internal locus of control?
You believe what happens to you is a consequence of your behaviour
74
What is external control?
You believe what happens to you is controlled by external factors and other people (luck and fate)
75
People with an internal locus of control are less likely to obey, why?
Because they would feel more responsibility for their actions and seek less approval
THEY ARE LESS SUSPECTIABLE TO NORMATIVE SOCIAL INFLUENCE
76
What is the advantage to locus of control?
Research evidence to support link between LOC and resistance to obedience HOLLAND 1967 - repeated milgrams study and measured whether people had high or low LOC
37% of internals did not continue to max voltage compared to 23% of externals
77
What is the disadvantage of locus of control?
Research evidence to contradict
TWENGE 2004 - analysed obidence studies over 40 years and found that young americans increasingly believed fate was determined more by luck but also became more resistant to obedience (becoming more external but also internal as they are resisting obedience DOESNT MAKE SENSE)
78
What is social support? (conformity)
Helps people resist conformity as pressure to conform can be reduced if others are resisting it too
79
What 2 studies helped support the idea of social support?
Asch. One of his variations was to decrease unanimity by having another non-conforming confederate and levels of conformity decreased
Milgram variations. Teacher paired with 2 confederates refusing to obey, levels dropped to 10% but 2 confederates obeying levels increased to 92.5%
80
What is an advantage of social support?
Research to support
| Allen and Levine 1971 did Asch's study and a man said he couldn't see properly but particpiants still went along with it
81
What is a weakness for both informational and normative social influence?
Individual differences (cannot explain every situation)
82
What is a minority influence?
Refers to the situation where 1 person or a small group of people influence the beliefs and behaviors of others (Nelson Mandela, gay rights activists)
83
What is minority influence most likely to lead to?
Internalisation - deepest type of conformity where you really change your views
84
What is the difference between minority and majority influence?
Minority influence doesn't maintain status quo and can bring about social change
85
What was Moscovici's study 1969?
To look at if a consistent minority affects the opinions of a larger group
CALLING A BLUE SLIDE GREEN
4 participants and 2 confederates, 2 groups one where confederates were consistent in either blue/green the other they were inconsistent.
8.42% of p's in 1st group said green but in incosistent only 1/25% of p's said green
86
What does Moscovici's study show?
Minorities can change the opinion of the majority, particularly when they are consistent
87
What are the 3 behavioral characteristics of the minority?
Consistency, commitment and flexiability
88
Why must the minority be consistent?
Must have consistent behavior over time (diachronic consistency) and must be consistent with members (synchronic consistency)
It can make people rethink their own views
89
Why must the minority be committed?
As some minorities engage in extreme activities and it needs to demonstrate commitment to the cause
90
What is the augmentation principle?
You wont change your views unless you are committed
91
Why must the minority be flexible?
To be persuasive, need to be more than just consistent, need to find the balance
92
What is the snowball effect?
If you hear something new you may think about it more, especially if the view comes across as passionate. Over time people are converted to the minority position and then it gradually becomes the majorities view
93
What is social cryptoamnesia?
People have a memory that change has occurred but dont remember the events that lead to that chnage
94
What is a strength of the minority influence?
Wood 1994 carried out a meta-analysis of almost 100 similar studies to Moscovici's and found minorities who were consistent were more influential
95
What is a weakness of the minority influence?
Artificial tasks -
Findings of the minority influence such as Moscovici lack external validity as they are limited in what they can tell us about real life situations
Social change happens slowly if at all -
Nemeth 1986 argues effects of minority influence are likely to be indirect and delayed
96
What are the 6 steps a minority should adopt to bring about social change?
```
Drawing attention
consistency
deeper processing
augmentation principle
snowball effect
social cryptoamnesia
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97
What can we learn about the lessons from conformity?
Asch's study where when 1 confederate gave correct answers throughout broke power of dissent so could lead to social change
98
What can we learn about the lessons from obedience?
Milgrams research demonstrates importance of disobedient role models (obedience levels dropping when confederate refused to give shocks)
99
Why did Diane Mackie 1987 disagree with minority influence?
Presents evidence that it is majority influence that creates deeper processing, as we like to believe others share our views and if they don't we are forced to think about their argument and reasoning
100
What was Asch's study into conformity?
To see whether participants would conform to the majority and give wrong answers when they were obvious. 7 males shown cards with lines, had to say which one matched first individual card out of 3. 6 confederates and 1 participant, confederates gave wrong answers obviously., 50 male college students
101
What did Asch find and conclude?
32% conformed always
74% conformed at least once
26% never conformed
Therefore strong group pressure to conform
Different reason for conforming - doubting own interpretation, wanting to fit in
102
What did Asch say increases conformity?
Majority of group - up to a certain point stays the same
| Task difficulty - answer less obvious
103
What did Asch say decreases conformity?
Unanimity - less likely to conform if 1 other person agreed with their own view, they no longer felt alone
