Social Influence Flashcards
What are the key terms for Types of conformity.
Internalisation - when a person genuinely accepts group norms and results in a private and public acceptance and they change their opinions/behaviour. Permanent change.
Identification - where you publicly agree with everything a group says because you want to be part of it but privately you disagree with some of the stuff mentioned.
Compliance - goes along with things in public but privately does not agree with anything said. The behaviours of the group stop as soon as they are away.
Outline the 2 theory’s into types/explanations of conformity
Informational social influence:
Happens in situations which are new or there is a sense of ambiguous.
It happens because you are unsure about what to do as you don’t know all the information so you go along with other people because you think they are right. INTERNALISATION links.
Normative social influence:
It occurs in unfamiliar situations or with people you know
You are unsure of the social norms and you desire social acceptance so you go along with what others are doing. Links to COMPLIANCE.
Evaluate the types and explanations of conformity
STRENGTH - Lucas et al asked students to give answers to maths questions. There was a higher rate of conformity in the harder questions especially by the students who didn’t think they were good at maths. ISI
LIMITATION - individual differences. People who are nafilliators seek social approval more than others. McGee and Tegan NSI
STRENGTH- lickenback and perkin found that if people are told the majority don’t do something it reduces the behaviour NSI
STRENGTH- when as asch interviewed the participants they said they conformed due to NSI.
Describe Aschs research
he investigated compliance and how other people’s opinion can effect your own. Compliance definition. 50 males USA told they were taking part in a vision test. He asked participants to match lines. One Participant was paired to 6 confederates who said the wrong answer 12/18 times. 36.8% of the time participants did comply to the rest of the group.
Evaluate Aschs research
LIMITATION - child in time. The research took place in 1950 America when conformity was high.
LIMITATION - Perrin and spencer repeated the experiment in 1980 and they saw less conformity.
LIMITATION - only applys to certain groups. Cultural variations . Smith et al did a meta - analysis and found differences in indervidulistic and collectivist culture.
LIMITATION - the findings only apply to certain situations. William and sogan conformity higher when with friends and family
Describe research into social roles
Identification - it is a type of conformity which involves a person taking on the views or behaviour of another person/group they admire. Public and private change.
Zimbardos research:
24 male students USA
Set up a mock prison they were randomly assigned roles of guard of prisoner. Prisoners were given numbers, wether the guards had complete control. 3 prisoners left. The guards started using violence. The experiment ended at day 6 instead of 14 because of the violence used. 1/3 behaved brutally, 1/3 didn’t identify with the role, 1/3 helped a bit.
Evaluate the research into conformity of social roles.
LIMITATION- Ethical issues - didn’t have the right to withdraw, little protection from harm, informed consent (they didn’t know what was happening.)
LIMITATION - Zimbardo himself was in the experiment as super intendant and he took that role more serious than psychologist.
LIMITATION - BBC replicated the prison experiment but found participants didn’t conform automatically to the roles.
LIMITATION- 1/3 still helped the prisoners
Outline the experiment done into obedience.
40 male participants - were led to believe that they were giving potentially lethal electric shocks to other people who were getting the answer wrong. They were actually being tested on there obedience to see if they would follow the instructions and to what point. The participant had to say 5 times if they wanted to leave and the ‘experimenter’ would have a que to say each time which included “you have no choice, you have to go on”
Results:
No one stopped before 300V
12.5% stopped at 300V
65% continued to 450V (this would kill a person)
Participants behaviour showed clear tension
Sweating
Shuttering
3 had seizures
However 84% said they were glad they took part in the experiment
Evaluate the experiment into obedience
LIMITATION- Ethical issues: they only had the right to withdraw if they said it 5 times, there was no protection from harm, informed consent.
STRENGTH - French TV show replicated the experiment and 80% delivered the lethal shock.
LIMITATION - Perry discovered that one of milgrams assistants had split the participants into ‘doubters’ and ‘believers’ the doubters were more likely to disobey.
STRENGTH - Hoffling did a similar study on nurses where they were given a Telephone call from a doctor asking them to give a lethal dose of medication to a patient 21/22 nurses did it.
LIMITATION - Volunteer bias, a ad was put in a newspaper only certain type of person may apply
Describe the situational variables that affected milgrams experiment
Proximity - when the teacher had fully put the persons hand on to a plate the obedience dropped to 30% but was still very high.
Location - when they Changed the location from Yale to a run down office building the obedience rate dropped to 48%
Uniform - when the experimenter changed from a white lab coat to everyday clothes the rate dropped to 20%
Uniform had the most effect.
Evaluate the situational variables that affected milgrams experiment
STRENGTH - Bickman - looked into uniform a milk mans outfit, suit and tie, and a security guards outfit people were more likely to obey the security guard.
STRENGTH - it is seen as a good thing that milgram only changed one thing as it limits the amount of extraneous.
LIMITATION - milgrams conclusion provides an obedience alibi -milgrams findings are an excuse for obedience suggesting it is the situation not the person responsible. Which could affect survivors of the holocast.
Outline the psychological factors
Agentic state:
The Agentic state is when a person believes that they were acting on another persons behalf and therefore takes no responsibility for their actions. They start in the autonomous state where they believe their actions are all due to them and then over time they take the Agentic shift into the Agentic state. This was all ruled from Eichmanns trial to do with the holocaust and he said he was acting in the behalf of another.
Legitimacy of Authority:
We obey people at the top of the hierarchy and if is socially agreed by the rest of society. We hand control of our behaviours over to authority figures dud to trust and upbringing. Charismatic leaders use their legitimate powers of authority for destructive purposes only.
Evaluate the psychological factors
Legitimacy of authority:
STRENGTH - Bias and Schmitt showed students a film of milgrams study and asked them to identify who was responsible they all said the experimenter.
STRENGTH- Tarnow found that in a plane crash the crew will always listen to the officer even if he is making risky manoeuvres because they assume he knows what he is doing.
Agentic State:
LIMITATION- lifton believed that people do not continuously shift states, the change however is gradual and is a long term change.
LIMITATION - this provides an obedience alibi.
LIMITATION - you can’t compare German doctors to milgrams participants as the participants stayed in the autonomous state.
What was the variation to Aschs experiment
He changed the number of confederates (group size) between 1 and 15
You only need 3 confederates to say the wrong answer for conformity
He added a confederate who always said the right answer (unanimity)
As long as you have a friend you will go along with them no matter how they look.
He made the experiment harder by putting the lines closer together (task difficulty)
Conformity increases as the task got harder ISI.
Outline the dispositional factors
Conventionalism - where you conform to social norms
Authoritarian aggression- you feel aggressive to people who don’t conform.
Authoritarian submission - you must be submissive to authority.
Ordorno - 2000 white middle class Americans, the F scale, a questionnaire that consisted of 50 questions investigating authoritarian personality the questions are looking towards a certain viewpoint (internal where you believe everything you do and achieve is down to you) (external where you believe that everything you achieve is due to luck or fate) if you have an authoritarian personality you score higher on the F scale , have a clear sense of hierarchy. Most likely have strict parenting.
