Social Influence Flashcards
Findings of Asch’s study?
Naive participants confirmed on 37% trials
25% never conformed
What were the variations of Asch’s study?
Conformity increased up to group size of four
Dissenter reduced conformity
Conformity increased when task was harder
What are some evaluations of Asch’s study
A child of its time- Perrin and spencer found less conformity in 80’s than 50’s
Artificial situation - demand characteristics meant participants played along with trivial task
Limited application- Only conducted on American men
Ethical issues
What were the procedures of Zimbardos research?
Mock prison with students randomly assigned guards or prisoners
Findings of Zimbardos research
Guards became increasingly brutal
Prisoners increasingly withdrawn and depressed
Conclusions of Zimbardos research
Participants conformed to their roles as guards or prisoners
Evaluations of Zimbardos research
Random assignment to roles increased internal validity
Lack of realism- participants play acting their roles according to media derived stereotypes
Dispositional influences- 1/3 of guards brutal so conclusions exaggerated
Ethical issues
Procedure of milgrams research?
Participants gave fake electric shocks to a ‘learner’ in obedience to instructions from the ‘experimenter’
Findings of milgrams research
Low internal validity- participants realised shocks fake
Replication with real shocks got similar results
Good external validity- findings generalise to other situations (hospital wards)
Game of death found 80% fave maximum shock, similar behaviour to milgrams participants
Ethical issues
Could be social identity theory?
What is internalisation
Private and public acceptance of group norms
What is identification
Change behaviour to be part of a group we identify with
What is compliance
Go along with the group publicly but no private change
What is informational social influence
Conforms to be right
Assumes others know better then us
What is normative social influence
Conforms to be liked or accepted by group
Evaluation of ISI
Research support- more conformity to incorrect maths answers when they were difficult as predicted by ISI
Evaluation of NSI
Individual differences in NSI
Naffiliators want to be liked more
Evaluation of both NSI and ISI
Isi and nsi work together
Dissenter may reduce power of ISI And NSI
Three situational variables of obedience
Proximity
Location
Uniform
Explain how proximity affected Milgram’s research
Obedience decreased to 40% when teacher could hear learner
To 30% in touch proximity conditions
Explain how location affected Milgrams research
Obedience decreased to 47’5% when study moved to run down office block
Explain how uniform affected Milgrams research
Obedience decreased to 20% when ‘member of public’ was the experimenter