Social influence

Question 1

what is conformity?

Answer 1

a change in a persons behavior or opinions as a result of a real or imagined pressure from a person or a group.

Question 2

who suggested that there are three ways that people conform?

Answer 2

Herbert Kelman (1958)

Question 3

what is internalisation?

Answer 3

when a person genuinely accepts a new belief. changing their public and private thoughts and behaviors. this change is a permanent one that persists even when the initial influence is gone.

Question 4

what is identification?

Answer 4

when a person changes their public and private views and behaviour in order to fit into a new group. this change is not permanent.

Question 5

what is compliance?

Answer 5

when a person simply goes along with a group. changing their public opinion but not their private opinion. it is superficial and very temporary.

Question 6

who put forward the ‘Two Process Theory’?

Answer 6

Morton Deutsch and Harold Gerard. (1955)

Question 7

what is Informational social influence?

Answer 7

an explanation of conformity that sees people conform because they believe that the majority is correct. ISI is about wanting to be correct. may lead to internalisation.

Question 8

what is Normative social influence?

Answer 8

an explanation of conformity that sees people conform due to a need to fit in and be accepted by a group. NSI is about wanting to be liked. may lead to compliance.

Question 9

evaluate the two process theory.

Answer 9

• Research support for ISI: Lucas et al. asked students to give answers to easy and hard mathematical problems. conformity was higher for harder questions. especially in students who rated their ability as poor.
• individual differences in NSI: some people have more of a desire to fit in and be liked - nAffiliators. Mcghee and Tavern found people with a high need for affiliation conformed more than others.
• Both processes are often involved: when conformity is reduced to a dissenting ppt. in Asch’s study it reduces both ISI and NSI. in real life the lines are even more blurred.
• Asch can basically be used for all evaluation.

Question 10

describe Asch’s procedure.

Answer 10

• showed participants two cards, one standard line and three comparison lines
• tested 123 male undergraduates
• each participant was placed in a group of between 6 and 8 confederates.
• confederates began to give wrong answers.
• 18 trials overall, in 12 critical trials the confederates gave the same wrong answer.

Question 11

describe Asch’s findings.

Answer 11

participant gave the wrong answer 36.8% of the time. 25% of participants did not conform on any trial. 75% conformed at least once. when interviewed afterwards participants said they conformed to avoid rejection (NSI)

Question 12

describe the procedure and finding of Asch’s group size variation.

Answer 12

with three confederates conformity rose to 31.8% but any further addition of confederates made little difference.

Question 13

describe the procedure and finding of Asch’s unanimity variation.

Answer 13

Asch introduced a confederate who sometimes gave the right answer (different to the other confederates) conformity was reduced to 5.5%

Question 14

describe the procedure and finding of Asch’s task difficulty variation.

Answer 14

Asch made the length of the comparison lines more similar to the original line to increase the difficulty of the task. conformity increased suggesting that conformity was down to ISI when the task became more difficult.

Question 15

Evaluate Asch.

Answer 15

• Temporal validity: Perrin and Spencer repeated the study with engineering students in the UK. just one student conformed in 396 trials. possibly because 1950’s America was a much more conformist society.
• Artificial situation and task: the task was very trivial so demand characteristics may have encouraged ppts. to conform anyway. the groups Asch used also don’t have a high ecological validity.
• limited application of findings: Asch only tested men, no women. America is an individualist culture, studies done in collectivist cultures like China imply higher levels of conformity

Question 16

describe the procedure of the Stanford Prison Experiment.

Answer 16

• Zimbardo set up a mock prison in the basement of Stanford University
• He advertised for students willing to volunteer and selected those deemed emotionally stable.
• the students were randomly assigned the role of guard or prisoner
• prisoners were arrested in their homes, strip searched, deloused and given a uniform and number.
• guards worked on shifts, three at a time, enforcing 16 strict rules and only addressing prisoners by number.
• guards were given their own uniform, sunglasses and wooden club.

Question 17

describe the findings of the Stanford Prison Experiment.

Answer 17

• the study was stopped after just 6 of the intended 14 days.
• within two days the prisoners rebelled against the guards, shouting and ripping their clothes. the guards responded with fire extinguishers.
• the guards tried to divide the prisoners, reminding them of who was in charge and constantly harassing them.
• the guards conducted frequent headcounts, often in the middle of the night.
• the guards would use every opportunity to punish the prisoners.
• after their rebellion was put down the prisoners became subdued
• one prisoner left on the first day after showing signs of psychological disturbance
• two more prisoners were released on the fourth day
• when one prisoner went on hunger strike he was shunned by the other prisoners and was put in ‘the hole’

Question 18

what conclusions can be drawn from the Stanford Prison Experiment?

Answer 18

guards, prisoners and even the researchers themselves conformed to their role within the prison. even volunteers who came in for just a short amount of time.

Question 19

what was a strength of Zimbardo’s study?

Answer 19

he had good control of variables. students were randomly assigned to their role and due to the simulated environment the experiment had high internal validity.

Question 20

what are the weaknesses of Zimbardo’s study?

Answer 20

one criticism is that the prisoners and guards were both just performing what they believed to be the stereotype of a prison. However data collected by Zimbardo during the experiment claimed that 90% of the prisoners expressed the belief that it was a real prison.
Another weakness is that Fromm suggested Zimbardo overplayed the effect of social roles and ignored the influence of personality. only 1/3 of the guards behaved in a brutal or sadistic manner towards the prisoners.
It is also contradicted by the BBC Prison Study in which the prisoners overthrew the guards - this supports their theory of social identity and forming a cohesive group.

Question 21

what are the ethical issues involving Zimbardo?

Answer 21

Zimbardo had a duel role in the study. not only was he the researcher but also the prison superintendent. he often spoke to the prisoners in this role rather than as a psychologist. he seemed more concerned with the maintenance of his prison than the protection of his participants from undue psychological harm.

Question 22

what is the meaning of obedience?

Answer 22

a form of social influence in which an individual follows a direct order. the person issuing the order is usually a figure of authority, who has the power to punish disobedience.

Question 23

outline Milgram’s procedure.

Answer 23

• flyers and adverts to select 40 male ppts aged 20 to 50. they were from a range of areas and professions and were payed $4.50.
• took part in a rigged draw with a confederate, one teacher one learner, ppt always teacher.
• learner supposedly hooked up to a volt machine, in a different room to the teacher. an experimenter in a lab coat gave instructions.
• each time the learner made a mistake (memory task) the teacher gave them a shock.
• started at 15V and went up to 450V. at 300 and 315 the learner would bang on the wall.
• experimenter used four prods - please continue etc.

Question 24

what were the findings of Milgrams experiment into obedience?

Answer 24

• no participants stopped before 300V
• 12.5% of participants stopped at 300V
• 65% continued to 450V
• Milgram observed that participants would show signs of distress such as sweating, nervous laughter or even ‘seizures’

Question 25

what is the debate over how internally valid Milgram’s experiment was?

Answer 25

Orne and Holland thought that Milgrams participants didn’t really believe the shocks were real - low internal validity. Gina Perry agreed with this and found that in recordings many participants expressed their doubts.
However, Sheridan and King conducted a study where shocks were given to a puppy. 100% of women and 54% of men still went to the highest shock level - despite them definitely being real.
Milgram himself reported that 70% of participants believed the shocks were real.

Question 26

evaluate Milgrams experiment on obedience.

Answer 26

it has good external validity as it was conducted in a lab, which reflects situations in real life where authority will give instructions - such as Hoflings experiment with nurses where 21/22 obeyed a doctor.
a French TV show called the game of death replicated Milgrams experiment and found that 80% of participants delivered the maximum shock and showed many of the same physical signs of distress.

Question 27

what is a situational variable?

Answer 27

factors related to the external circumstance rather than the personalities of the people involved. they influence the level of obedience shown by people.

Question 28

describe the procedure and findings of Milgrams proximity variation.

Answer 28

• learner and teacher in the same room - obedience fell to 40%
• teacher forces learners hand onto shock button (touch proximity) - obedience fell to 30%
• experimenter gives instructions over the phone - obedience fell to 20.5%

Question 29

describe the procedure and findings of Milgrams location variation.

Answer 29

the original study was done at the very official and prestigious looking Yale University so he changed it to a run down office block - obedience fell to 47.5%

Question 30

describe the procedure and findings of Milgrams uniform variation.

Answer 30

in this variation the original lab coated experimenter was taken away and replaced by someone in plain clothes - obedience fell to 20%

Question 31

evaluate Milgrams situational variables.

Answer 31

• Bickman did a field experiment in New York, with three confederates asking people to pick up litter. people obeyed the confederate in a security guards uniform over a milkman.
• there is still the element of high demand characteristics causing ppts to think the shocks are fake.
• replications in developed Western countries support Milgram. Miranda et al. found conformity rates of 90% in Spanish students.
• no evidence from Eastern or less developed countries though.

Question 32

what is agentic state?

Answer 32

a mental state where we feel no responsibility for our actions as we believe that we are acting as an agent for an authority figure. therefore we are free from our consciences and can obey a destructive authority figure without guilt.

Question 33

what is the agentic shift?

Answer 33

the change from being in an autonomous state where we believe we are responsible for our actions to the agentic state where we are working on the behalf of an authority figure so feel no responsibility.

Question 34

evaluate the agentic state theory.

Answer 34

Blass and Schmidtt showed Milgrams experiment to students and asked them who was responsible for the harm to the learner. the students said that the experimenter was responsible because he had legitimate authority over the teacher
the agentic state is not a complete explanation as it doesn’t explain why some people do not obey, or why not all people show signs of distress when obeying a destructive authority.

Question 35

what is legitimacy of authority as an explanation for obedience?

Answer 35

an explanation of obedience that suggests we are more likely to obey people who we perceive as having authority over us. this position is legitimised by their position in a social hierarchy. we learn this from a young age - teachers, police officers etc have the power to punish us.

Question 36

what is destructive authority?

Answer 36

when a person with legitimate authority uses their power to make people do things against their own conscience.

Question 37

evaluate legitimacy of authority.

Answer 37

this explanation is supported by cross cultural replications of Milgram. in Australia just 16% went to max voltage but in Germany 85% did. this shows how different cultures perceive authority in different ways and increases the validity of the explanation.

Question 38

What is a dispositional explanation?

Answer 38

Any explanation of behaviour that highlights the importance of the individuals personality. Such explanations are often contrasted with situational ones.

Question 39

What is authoritarian personality?

Answer 39

A type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority. Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of a higher status and dismissive of inferiors.

Question 40

Describe Adorno’s procedure.

Answer 40

He investigated the causes of the obedient personality in more than 2000 middle class white Americans and their unconscious attitudes towards racial groups. He developed the F-scale for this purpose

Question 41

What are Adorno’s findings?

Answer 41

People who scored high on the F scale identified with strong people and hated the weak.
They also were very aware of social class and showed excessive respect to those of a higher status.
They also saw things in stereotypes
There was a strong positive correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice

Question 42

What did Adorno identify as the cause of authoritarianism?

Answer 42

Adorno thought that this personality developed in childhood, with strict parents with unrealistic expectations (conditional love)
The fear these kids have of their parents is displaced into this who are thought to be weaker - scapegoating

Question 43

evaluate the authoritarian personality explanation for obedience.

Answer 43

Milgram and Elms found a correlation between people who scored high on the F-scale and those who were fully obedient in Milgrams experiment. However this does not indicate causation, just correlation.
it is not a complete explanation of obedience as what about large-scale examples of obedience such as Nazi Germany - personalities would have been different. it makes the social identity theory more likely.
the explanation does not account for obedience over a wider political spectrum. it measures far right tendencies but not far left such as communism - which has many of the same characteristics.

Question 44

what is resistance to social influence?

Answer 44

the ability of an individual to withstand social pressure to conform to a majority or obey authority. the ability to withstand social influence is linked to both situational and dispositional factors.

Question 45

how can social support help people resist conformity?

Answer 45

the presence of another non conforming person helps to illustrate that resistance is possible, and in conformity reduces the effects of ISI and NSI. however the duration of this is short lived, if the supporter begins to conform again so will the individual.

Question 46

how can social support help people resist obedience?

Answer 46

the disobeying person will act as a model for the individual and free them from their own conscience. as shown in Milgrams variation where a disobedient confederate was put with the participant.

Question 47

evaluate the effect of social support in resisting social influence.

Answer 47

Alan and Levine did an Asch like experiment and found that a non conforming confederate decreased conformity even when he wore thick glasses and complained of vision problems.
Gamson did a Milgram like study where participants were put in groups for the duration of the experiment. 29 out of 33 groups rebelled.

Question 48

what is Locus Of Control?

Answer 48

put forward by Julian Rotter. it refers to the sense we each have about what directs our lives. internals believe that they are mostly responsible for what happens to them and externals believe it is controlled by mainly outside forces. LOC is a continuum, you are not simply one or the other.

Question 49

how does LOC impact your ability to resist social influence.

Answer 49

people with an internal LOC are more likely to be able to resist social influence as they take responsibility for their own actions and base their opinions on their own beliefs.

Question 50

evaluate the LOC explanation for resisting social influence.

Answer 50

Holland repeated Milgrams study and found that 37% of internals did not continue to the highest shock but only 27% of externals did the same. increasing the validity of the explanation.
Twenge did a meta analysis of american LOC studies over a 40 year period and found that people have become more external but also more resistant to social influence, weakening this explanation. however these results may be due to a changing society overall.

Question 51

what is minority influence?

Answer 51

a form of social influence in which a minority of people persuade others to adopt their beliefs, attitudes or behaviours. leads to internalisation or conversion, in which public and private attitudes are changed.

Question 52

what is the importance of consistency in minority influence?

Answer 52

minority influence is most effective when consistent both over time (diachronic consistency) and across the group (synchronic consistency) both would make people reconsider their own views.

Question 53

what is the importance of commitment in minority influence?

Answer 53

minority influence is more effective when the minority shows commitment to the cause through personal sacrifice or risk taking. this shows that the minority is not acting out of self interest and believes in their cause.

Question 54

what is the importance of flexibility in minority influence?

Answer 54

being both rigidly committed and consistent can lead to the perception that the minority is harsh and uncompromising. in order to convert people there must be a slight element of flexibility to show they are willing to accept valid counter arguments.

Question 55

what is the process of change in minority influence?

Answer 55

the minorities argument often leads to deeper processing of information as it goes against what you accept as the norm. over time, more and more people switch to the minority view, the more this happens the faster the rate of conversion - known as the snowball effect.

Question 56

describe Moscovici’s study and findings.

Answer 56

• asked 6 participants to identify whether 36 slides were blue or green.
• in one group two confederates always said the slides were green. the participants said the same answer on 8.42% of trials and 32% gave the same answer at least once.
• in another group the confederates were inconsistent and participants only gave the wrong answer 1.25% of the trials
• in a control group 0.25% of trails gave an incorrect answer

Question 57

evaluate minority influence.

Answer 57

• Moscovici’s study showed the importance of consistency
• Wood et al. did a meta-analysis of 100 similar studies and got similar results.
• Martin et al. found that deeper processing played a role when a viewpoint was challenged or agreed with. students were less likely to switch to a counter arguments viewpoint after hearing a minority argument.
• Moscovici’s study has low external validity as the task of identifying slides is very artificial.

Question 58

what is social change?

Answer 58

occurs when whole societies rather than just individuals, adopt new attitudes or beliefs.

Question 59

outline the stages of social change.

Answer 59

1 - drawing attention through social proof
2 - consistency
3 - deeper processing 
4 - the augmentation principle
5 - the snowball effect
6 - social cryptoamnesia

Question 60

how is normative social influence involved in social change?

Answer 60

lessons from conformity research such as Asch that use a dissenting confederate show the importance of NSI. this is often used by minority groups wanting to cause change. for example handing out leaflets that say everyone else is recycling so you should too.

Question 61

how did zimbardo think social change could come about?

Answer 61

obedience can be used to create social change through the process of gradual commitment - once a small instruction is obeyed it becomes increasingly hard not to obey larger ones.

Question 62

evaluate the process of social change.

Answer 62

• Nolan et al. did a study where they hung messages on the front doors of houses each week. saying that everyone is trying to save energy. they then found significant decreases in the amount of energy used.
• the effects of social change happen slowly and are indirect, this may be because people focus too much on smaller, immediate issues and don’t look at the larger, central issue.
• it can be argued that deeper processing happens more when we disagree with a majority rather than with a minority because we like to believe that we share our views with most people.