Social Influence Flashcards
What is majority influence
When a person changes their attitude beliefs or actions in order to fit in with a larger group
What is minority influence
When a person or small group of people influence the majority to change their attitudes beliefs or actions
What is conformity
Yielding to group pressure. Changing behaviour due to the pressure of a group, conformity reduces independence
What are the 3 types of conformity
Compliance, Identification and Internalisation
What is ISI
When people conform because they are unsure on how they are supposed to think or act, we have a natural human instinct to be correct and if the majority are acting in a certain way we assume they are correct so conform
What explanation for conformity is ‘when people conform because of a need to belong to or be accepted by a group’
NSI - belonging to the group may be rewarding, the person wants to avoid rejection, the group may have the power to exclude those that do not fit in
What was the aim of Asch’s line study (what were the ppts told?)
To investigate the degree to which individuals would conform to a majority who give obviously wrong answers
(Study of visual perception)
In Asch's line study.... How many ppts were there? How many confederates in a group? How many critical trials? How many in the control group? How many control trials?
123 7-9 12/18 36 20
What were the findings of Asch’s line study
Control group: 0.04% error rate 32% conformity 25% never conformed 79% conformed at least once 5% conformed to all 12 wrong answers
What were the reasons for conformity in Asch’s line experiment
Distortion of action, perception and judgement
Evaluate Asch’s line study
\:) paradigm \:) wrong answered genuinely explained by conformity as error rate was 0.04% \:) reliable and replicable \:( time consuming \:( uneconomical \:( unrealistic \:( highly manipulated to lacks mundane realism/ecological validity \:( unethical and deceitful \:( bias \:( demand characteristics
What are the variables affecting conformity
Group size, unanimity and task difficulty
How did Asch investigate unanimity
1 confed against other confeds = 5.5% conformity
1 confed against other confeds and ppt = 9% conformity
How did Asch investigate group size
1:1 = low conformity
1:2 = 13%
1:3 = 32%
No increase beyond 15
Conformity peaks at 4/5 confeds
What was the aim of Zimbardo’s experiment
Investigate to the extent people would conform to the social roles in a role play prison
Test dispositional and situational hypotheses
Describe Zimbardo’s prison experiment
21 male university students
10 guards and 11 prisoners
Arrested by real local police, finger printed, stripped and deloused
Prisoners wore smocks and a chain around one ankle (dehumanisation)
Guards wore uniform, reflective sunglasses and held weapons
What were the findings of Zimbardo’s experiment
36 hours until 1 prisoner was released
3 more prisoners released after
1 prisoner developed a rash after his parole was denied
Prisoner rebellion
Stopped after 6 days despite an intended 2 weeks
What were the conclusions of Zimbarodo’s prison experiment
Situational hypothesis favoured
Ppts conformed readily to social roles demanded by the environment
Give 1 strength and 1 limitation of Zimbardo’s experiment
Strength - ecological validity
Limitation - ethics? Demand characteristics, bias, researcher effects, ethnocentrism
What is obedience
Complying with the demands of an authority figure
How many ppts were there in Milgrams experiment
40
What were the findings of Milgrams shock experiment
100% up to 350 V
65% obedience rate
Evaluate Milgram’s study using research
Deception, Informed Consent and Protection of Participants
Lack of realism
Androcentrism: King (puppy experiment) 100% obedience in females but only 54% in males
Historical validity: Burger
Reliability: Blass
Ethnocentrism
Lacks ecological validity (lab)
What are the 4 explanations for obedience
Situational variables
Authoritarian personality
Agentic state
Legitimacy of authority
A) what did the obedience rate fall to in Milgrams experiment when the learners hand was held on the shock plate by the teacher? B) what did the obedience rate fall to when the teacher had to look at the learner
What situation variable is this testing?
30% up to 450V
Obedience fell to 40%
Proximity
What situation variable was Milgram investigating when he did his experiment in a run down office block and what was the result
Location - obedience dropped for 48%
What state is it if you take responsibility and act according to your own values
Autonomous state
What are the 2 reasons for resistance to conformity
Social support and locus of control
If you perceive yourself as having a lot of control over your behaviour and take responsibility do you have high internal or external locus of control?
Internal
Who investigated LOC and resisting conformity? How?
Avtgis: meta analysis, individuals with high internal LOC are less easily persuaded so less likely to conform
Who investigated minority influence
Mosovici
What are the conditions for conversion
Consistency
Commitment
Flexibility
What does flexibility mean
The minority must not appear too rigid or dogmatic, they must not force their opinion and be prepared to compromise, NEMETH: compensation
What is social change
When society adopts a new belief or way of behaving which then becomes widely accepted as the norm
What type is SI does the majority influence use
NSI
What are the stages of social change
1) put forward new ideas = ISI
2) internalisation through the conditions for conversion
3) snowball effect = minority becomes majority
4) compliance to the majority = NSI
5) social cryptoamnesia
What are some of the traits of an authoritarian personality
Extremely obedient Rigid beliefs Hostile to those who are inferior Servile to those who are superior Strong belief in class system
What is a strength of the authoritarian personality
Measurable by F scale
Describe the authoritarian personality
Hostile to those who are inferior, servile to those who are superior, rigid, strong belief in class system, measured by the F scale, discovered by Adorno
