Social influence

Question 1

Define conformity

Answer 1

A change in a person’s behaviour or opinions as a result of pressure from a person or group of people

Question 2

Name the 3 types of conformity

Answer 2

Compliance
Identification
Internalisation

Question 3

What is compliance?

Answer 3

• Occurs when individuals adjust their behaviour and opinions to those of a group to be accepted or avoid their disapproval
• Private opinions and behaviour remains the same

Question 4

What is identification?

Answer 4

• When individuals adjust their behaviour and opinions to those of a group because they want to be a member of that group
• Behaviour and opinions change both publicly and privately whilst they desire to be a member of that group

Question 5

What is internalisation?

Answer 5

• When individuals genuinely adjust views publicly and privately
• E.g a change of religion

Question 6

Explain informational social influence explanation of conformity

Answer 6

• We agree with the opinion of the majority because we believe it is correct
• Therefore the person changes their behaviour or opinions because of a desire to be right
• E.g being new at a school and following where everyone else goes when the fire alarm goes off

Question 7

Jenness (1932)- informational social influence

Answer 7

• Participants made predications of how many sweets were in a jar privately
• Participants met and discussed as a group
• Participants made a group prediction
• Participants made a second prediction privately
• Found that the participants’ answers converged towards the group norm which suggests they were changing their behaviour due to a desire to be right

Question 8

Explain normative social influence explanation to conformity

Answer 8

• We agree with the opinion of the majority because we want to be accepted, gain approval ad be liked
• Therefore the person changes their behaviour or opinions because of a desire to be like
• E.g smoking because your friends do

Question 9

Asch (1951) normative social influence

Answer 9

• Male undergraduate participants entered a room with 6 other males thinking they were taking part in a task of perception of line lengths
• The other 6 males were actually confederates
• The actual participant sat at the end of the row and each participant was asking in turn which line matched the one shown to them (right answer was always obvious)
• In 12 of the 18 trials, the actors answered incorrectly
• In the 12 critical trials, there was a 32% conformity rate to the wrong answer
• 5% of the 123 participants conformed in every single trial
• Asch decided to conduct interviews with participants after the experiment to gain further insight to why they behaved as they did. Asch found that the majority of participants said they knew they were answering incorrectly but wished to avoid ridicule

Question 10

Asch variations

Answer 10

• Group size: Asch repeated the study sing 1 actor instead of 6. Conformity decreased to 3% because it was less intimidating
• Unanimity: Asch repeated the study but instead of having 6 actors in agreement, he used 5 actors in agreement and 1 who ave the correct answer. Conformity decreased to 6% because there was less pressure

Task difficulty: Asch repeated the study but made it harder by making the line lengths more similar. Conformity increased

Question 11

Evaluate Asch’s study

Answer 11

• Participants were deceived
• Low population validity (123 undergraduate males)
• Low ecological validity

Question 12

Define social roles

Answer 12

The parts people play as members of various social groups. These are accompanied by expectations we and others have of what is appropriate behaviour in each role

Question 13

Outline the procedure of Zimbardo’s 1971 prison experiment

Answer 13

• Zimbardo set up a mock prison in the basement of the psychology department at Stanford university
• They advertised for students and selected those who were deemed emotionally stable after psychological testing (24 healthy young men with no criminal record)
• Paid $15 a day
• Students randomly assigned to the roles of guards or prisoners
• The ‘prisoner’s we arrested in their homes and delivered to the prison
• The prisoners daily routines were heavily regulated
• There were 16 rules they had to follow enforced by the guards
• Guards had uniforms
• Guards were told they had complete power over the prisoners

Question 14

What were the findings of Zimbardo’s prison experiment?

Answer 14

• The guards took up their roles with enthusiasm and their behaviour became a threat to the prisoners
• The study was stopped after 6 days instead of the intended 14
• Within 2 days, the prisoners revelled against their harsh treatment
• The guards harassed the prisoners constantly
• After their rebellion, the prisoners became subdued and depressed
• The stimulation revealed the power of the situation to influence people’s behaviour
• All participants conformed to their roles

Question 15

Evaluate Zimbardo’s prison experiment

Answer 15

• Demand characteristics: Zimbardo placed himself within the study as the chief superintendent. Zimbardo instructed prisoners to keep control ‘by any means possible’. After the experiment, prison guards reported that they felt pressured by Zimbardo to give him the results he waned
• Physical and psychological harm
• Lack of informed consent regarding the arrest of the prisoners
• Deceived of the start of the stuffy
• Not fully given the right to withdraw. Participants who wanted to leave were discouraged from doing so and asked to ‘sleep on it’
• $15 a day was a lot of students. The financial inducement may persuade participants to carry o with the study when they might have otherwise withdrawn
• Low ecological validity
• Low population validity

Question 16

Outline the procedure of Milgram’s (1961) obedience study

Answer 16

• Milgram recruited 40 male participants through newspaper adverts. He said he was looking for participants for a study about memory
• There was a rigged draw for their role. A confederate always ended up as the ‘learner’ whilst the true participant was the ‘teacher’. There was also an experimenter dressed in a lab coat
• The learner was strapped in a chair in another room and wired with electrodes
• The teacher was required to give the learner an electric shock (increasing severity each time) when they got an answer wrong
• The shocks weren’t’ actually real
• When the teacher turned to the experimenter for guidance, the experimenter said things such as ‘it is absolutely essential you continue’

Question 17

What were the findings of Milgrams study?

Answer 17

• 100% of participants shocked over 300V
• 68% of participants continued the experiment all the way to 450V
• Milgram concluded that humans are generally very obedient and the majority of people will carry out evil acts just because they are asked to do so by an authority figure

Question 18

Evaluate Milgrams study

Answer 18

• Highly controlled. e.g Milgram used recordings o the screams rather than relying on an actor who may differ slightly
• Lacks temporal validity- Milligram’s results might not be generalisation to the modern day because society has changed and people are more educations
• Psychological harm (thought they were actually giving harmful shocks)
• Not fully given the right to withindraw
• Debrief- Milgram let a lot of his participants leave the building still convinced they had been delivering 450V shocks, Only 11 months later Milgram sent out a full report of the experiment to his participants

Question 19

Bickman (1974) The power of uniforms

Answer 19

An actor was dressed either as a security guard, civilian or milkman and walked around the streets of New York telling people to do things such as pick up litter
-People obeyed the person dressed as the guard the most (38%) then the civilian (19%) and then the milkman (14%)

Question 20

What are the 2 psychological reasons why people do not conform or obey?

Answer 20

Finding social support

Having an internal locus of control

Question 21

Explain social support

Answer 21

people are less likely to conform or obey when they have someone who supports them in that refusal to conform or obey

Question 22

Explain locus of control

Answer 22

• This is how much somebody believes they are in control of events in their lives
• Internal locus of control- believes what happens to them is largely the result of their own behaviour.
• External locus of control- believes that what happens to them is largely the result of external factors such as luck or fate

Question 23

Shute (1975) Locus of control and revisiting conformity

Answer 23

• Participants were tested for their LOC using a questionnaire
• They were then given a conformity task where they were put in groups with people who were very liberal or conservative abut drug laws
• They found that participants with an internal LOC were less likely to conform to the groups’ attitudes about drugs laws suggesting they were less likely to comply and less kelly to be affected by normative social influence

Question 24

Schurz (1985) Locus of control and resisting obedience

Answer 24

• Schurz replicated Milgrams original obedience study, asking his participants to take a LOC questionnaire before hand
• Instead of giving electric shocks, the participants thought they were giving bursts of ultrasound
• Schurz found that participants with an internal LOC tended to take more responsibility for their actions than those with an external LOC

Question 25

Define obedience

Answer 25

A form of social influence in which an individual follows a direct order

Question 26

Name the 2 general explanations of obedience

Answer 26

The agentic shift and legitimacy of authority

Question 27

Explain the agentic shift

Answer 27

• Milgram argued that when people are given orders, they are more likely to carry them out if they can shift the blame onto the person who has delivered the order
• He said obedience occurs when you move from working autonomously (in charge of your own behaviour) and shift to working as an agent for someone else where you no longer see yourself as responsible as the orders have come from someone more seniority or expertise
• Agentic shift= A mental state where we feel no responsibility for our behaviour because we believe ourselves to be acting for an authority figure

Question 28

Milgram variation- agentic shift

Answer 28

• In one variation of Milgrams study, the researcher gave the orders down a telephone line rather than sat in the same from
• Obedience levels dropped from 68% to 20%
• This suggests that without the experimenter in the same room, they were less likely to shift the responsibility to the experimenter and saw themselves as responsible for the shocks

Question 29

Explain the legitimacy of authority explanation of obedience

Answer 29

• Suggests we are more likely to obey people who we perceive to have authority over use
• Obedience occurs when the person who is giving the order is seen as legitimate authority
• E.g police, teacher, boss

Question 30

Milgram variation- legitimacy of authority

Answer 30

• Milgram repeated the study in the poorer area of Bridgeport
• Obedience dropped from 68% to 47% suggesting that the participants did not obey as they did not see the men from the marker research business as legitimate an authority as the experimenter at Yale

Question 31

Explain situational factos affecting obedience

Answer 31

• Proximity. Milgram investigated this by changing his experiment so that instead of the learner being in another room, participants had to phsically hold the learners hand on the shock plate. Only 30% went to 450V which shows the effect of close proximity on obedience
• Location. Obedience dropped when Milgrams study was repeated at Bridgeport from 68% to 47%
• Uniform. Someone wearing a uniform seems more legitimate than someone without

Question 32

Explain dispositional factors affecting obedience

Answer 32

• Dispositional explanation= Any explanation of behaviour that highlights the importance of the individuals personality
• Adorno et al (1950) came up with the F scale questionnaire which has 30 questions assessing different aspects of peoples personality and how authoritarian they are
• Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality are especially obedient to authority and suggested that this forms in childhood due to strict parenting

Question 33

Milgram and Elms (1966) dispositional variables

Answer 33

• Replicated the original Milram study and then gave participants the F scale questionnaire
• They found that highly obedient participants had significantly higher f scale scores than those who disobeyed supporting the idea that obedience depends on the nature of the person

Question 34

Define minority influence

Answer 34

A form of social influence in which a minority of people persuade others to adopt their beliefs, attitudes or behaviours

Question 35

Define social change

Answer 35

When whole societies adopt new attitudes, beliefs and ways of doing things

Question 36

What must a minority be in order to be successful?

Answer 36

• Consistent. Minority influence is most effective if the minority keeps the same beliefs
• Committed. Minority influence is more powerful if the minority demonstrates dedication to their position. E.g making sacrifices
• Flexible. Minority influence is more effective if the minority show flexibility by accepting the possibility of compromise

Question 37

Explain how social change happens

Answer 37

• A minority is consistent in their demand and shows sacrifices such as giving up their time to protest. Also they are flexible and accept other proposals
• The minority persuades people to join them through informational social influence (desire to be right)
• Slowly the minority begins to turn into the majority- this is known as the snowball effect. People begin to join the majority not necessarily because of the desire to be right but the desire to be liked
• A legitimate authority brings about a change