Social Influence Flashcards
What is conformity?
▪A change in a person’s behaviour or opinions as a result of the pressure of a person or group.
What are the three types of conformity?
▪Internalisation - when a person genuinely accepts the group norms, privately as well.
▪Identification - where we act in the same way with the group because we value it and want to be part of it.
▪Compliance - when we simply go along with others, but privately not changing personal opinions/ or behaviour. (Temporary)
What is Informational Social Influence?
▪Says we agree with the opinions of the majority because we believe it’s correct and we accept it because we want to be correct as well.
What is Normative Social Influence?
▪Says we agree with the opinion of the majority because we want to gain social approval.
Give three evaluation points of conformity
▪Research support of ISI - Lucas et al, the maths problems. When they got harder more conformity to the majority because we’re unsure and believe others must be right.
▪ISI and NSI working together - They both work together as if there’s a dissenting pp they can give Social support (NSI) or be an alternative source of information (ISI). So conformity decreases.
▪Individual differences in NSI - NSI doesn’t affect everyone, some people want social approval more than others. The people that are less affected by social approval are called nAffiliators. Shows that the desire to be liked underlies conformity for some more than others.
What was Asch’s investigation?
▪He put 123 American male undergraduates in groups, 1 group consisted of an undergraduate and 6-8 confederates. They were shown an example line and were given 3 other lines and had to match the line that had the same length as the example line.
At first the confederates the correct answer a couple times, then they began to get the answers incorrect. 36.8% of the time the naive participant gave the wrong answer. 25% didn’t conform, 75% conformed at least once.
What are Asch’s variations?
▪Group size - Increasing the group increased conformity but only to a point. Conformity levelled off when the majority was more than 3.
▪Unanimity - The extent of which all members agree, majority was unanimous when all confederates selected the same answer. This produced the greatest level of conformity.
▪Task difficulty - When the task difficulty is increased conformity increases as the naive participants assume the majority is more likely to be correct.
Give three evaluation points on Asch’s investigation
▪A child of its time - Perrin and Spencer (1980) repeated this in the U.K. Only one student conformed in a total of 396 trials. This shows that in the time the investigation was originally done society had been more conformist in America. This is a limitation of Asch’s research as it means that the Asch’s effect is not consistent across situations and may not be consistent across time.
▪Artificial situation and task - Participants knew they were part of an investigation and may have had demand characteristics. The investigation didn’t resemble the groups we are part of in everyday life. So the findings do not generalise to everyday situations.
▪Ethical issues - The naive participants were deceived because they thought the confederates were participants as well.
What are social norms?
▪The ‘parts’ people play as members of various social groups. Example, student, passenger, child etc…
What was the Stanford prison experiment?
▪Zimbardo set up a mock prison in the basement of Stanford university. He advertised for students willing to volunteer and selected those who were deemed ‘emotionally stable’. The students were randomly assigned to the roles of guards or prisoners. The prisoners were arrested in their homes, they were blindfolded and strip-searched, issued a uniform and number. The guards had their own uniform, with handcuffs, keys and sunglasses. They were told they had compete power over the prisoners.
One prisoner was released on the first day due to showing symptoms of psychological disturbance. Two more were released on the fourth day. One prisoner went on a hunger strike, guards tried to force feed him and then punished him by putting him in ‘the hole’, a tiny dark closet.
The guards identified more closely with their roles, their behaviour became more brutal and aggressive. Some prisoners referred to themselves as their number also conforming to their role.
Give three evaluations of the Stanford prison experiment
▪Control - Zimbardo had some control over variables. The most obvious example of this was the selection of participants. Emotionally stable individuals were chosen, one way of ruling out individual differences. Having control over variables increases internal validity of the study, so we can be more confident when drawing conclusions about the influence of roles on behaviour.
▪Ethical issues - Zimbardo’s dual role in the study had an ethical issue. Example, when a student wanted to leave the study he spoke to Zimbardo, but Zimbardo worried about the running of his prison rather than as a researcher with responsibilities towards participants, so he responded as the superintendent telling him he couldn’t be “released”.
▪Only a minority of the guards behaved in a brutal manner. Another third wanted to apply the rules fairly. The rest tired to help the prisoners by giving them cigarettes and reinstating privileges. This suggests that Zimbardo’s conclusion that participants were conforming to social roles may have been over stated. The guards were able to indicate right and wrong choices despite the situational pressures to conform to a role.
What is obedience?
▪A form of social influence in which an individual follows a direct order. Usually from a figure of authority.
What was Milgrams study?
▪Milgram recruited 40 male participants through newspaper adverts. The participants were aged between 20-50 years, and their jobs ranged from unskilled to professional. They were offered $4.50.
There was a rigged draw for the roles and the participant would always be the teacher and the confederate the learner. There was also another confederate “the experimenter” dressed in a lab coat. They were told they could leave at any time.
The teacher would give some questions to the learner and every time they got the answer wrong the teacher would “shock” them. The shock levels rose through 30 levels from 15-450 volts.
Findings were that no participants stopped below 300 volts, 12.5% stopped at 300 volts, 65% continued to 450 volts.
Qualitative data was collected, showing participants sweating, trembling and stuttering.
Give two evaluations of Milgram’s study
▪Low internal validity - participants didn’t believe in the study as they guessed the shocks weren’t real. The study was conducted again by King but with real shocks to a puppy. 54% of male students participated and 100% of females delivered shocks which they thought were fatal. Suggesting the effects in Milgram’s study were genuine as people behaved the same way with real shocks.
▪Good external validity - the relationship between the authority figure and the participant matches the relationships in real life. Nurses on a hospital ward showed levels of obedience to unjustified demands by doctors were very high. Suggesting the process of obedience to an authority figure can be generalised to other situations.
What are situational variables?
▪Several factors which influence the level of obedience. They are all external circumstances. They are…
▫Proximity - The distance of an authority figure to the person they’re giving orders to.
▫Location - The place where an order is issued.
▫Uniform - Authority figures often have a specific outfit symbolising their authority.
Give two evaluations of Milgram’s variations
▪Research support - Bickman had three confederates dress in three different outfits, jacket and tie, milkman and security guard. They asked members of the public to perform tasks like picking up litter. People were twice as likely to obey the security guard than the jacket and tie. Suggesting uniform increases levels of obedience as it shows authority.
▪Cross-cultural replications - Milgram’s findings have been replicated in other cultures. Suggesting Milgram’s conclusions about obedience aren’t limited to just American males, they’re valid across cultures.
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