Social Influence Flashcards
I need to know what social infleunce is and how it affects our behaviour.
Social infleunce is a branch of social psychology which is all about the ways in which people affect each other, how they interact and influence each others behaviour.
As social creatures human beings are able to influence each other’s behaviour and social influence means that people change their behaviour/attitudes/beliefs to fit the situations they are in and depending on the people they are with
For example we might act differently around our parents than with our friends
Majority influences minority
I need to know what conformity is and the different types classified by research
Conformity also called Majority influence is when an individual’s behaviours/beliefs are influenced by a larger or dominant group (the majority)
Conformity is defined as yielding to group pressure.
Conformity is said to be a negative force when it reduces a person’s independence and results in harmful outcomes. An example might be…
In general, conformity is thought to have positive outcomes, helping society to function smoothly and predictably. Because much of human activity occurs in social groups, there is a need for individuals to agree so that groups are able to form and operate efficiently. By conforming, we can make it easier to get along with each other. Compare conformity to constantly challenging the beliefs of the majority - nothing would get done if people can’t agree!
Research by Kelman (1958) identified 3 types of conformity: compliance, identification and internalisation that each vary in terms of their level of depth, the reason behind the conformity, and the outcomes. Each type of conformity affects our belief systems in different ways
I need to know the different types of conformity starting with compliance
Compliance is defined as: publicly but not privately going along with majority infleunce to gain approval
Compliance is public but not private acceptance and is regarded as the shallowest/weakest type of conformity because a person changes their behaviour/opinions in order to go along with the majority even if they disagree.
Compliance is motivated by the desire to fit in/gain approval or to avoid ridicule/disapproval. In other words - we want to be liked!
It is a temporary type of conformity because we only show compliance in the presence of the group.
A popular example, is laughing at a joke you don’t understand or find offensive so that you don’t seem like the odd one out. Another might be pretending to be interested in the same sports team as your friends even if you don’t like that team or even sports in general.
“popular opinion” “going along to get along”
I need to know the different types of conformity ending with identification
I need to know the different types of conformity moving onto internalisation
I need to know the different reasons research has proposed for why we conform
There have been 3 reasons proposed by research for why we conform:
Informational social influence (ISI) and Normative social infleunce (NSI) were outlined by Deutsch & Gerard (1955).
With informational social influence individuals yield to majoirty influence in order to be correct. This was demonstrated by Jenness’ (1932) study
With normative social influence individuals yield to majoirty influence to be accpeted/avoid rejection. This was demonstrated in Asch’s (1955) study
Cognitive dissonace was outlined by Festinger (1957) as another explanantion of conformist behaviour, where conformist behaviour reduces the unpleasant feelings created by simultaneously holding two contradictory cognitions
I need to understand what is meant by informational social influence, what it means as an explanation for why we conform and research done into it
Informational social influence
Deutsch & Gerard 1955
Humans have a need to be correct/have confidence that their ideas/beliefs/behaviours are correct; gives us a sense of control
So, we are motivated to conform to the ideas of the group because we want to be right. We look to others for the right answer and then conform to that.
Research evidence by SHERIFF 1935
first major study into conformity
Sheriff used the autokinetic effect: a visual illusion that involved a light in a dark room that appeared to move but was really stationary. P’s were asked to guess how far the light moved. Guesses were made privately at first then Sheriff placed P’s in groups of 3. 1 P had a widely different guess from the other 2 who had similar guesses. He asked P’s again how far/not fast the light was moving. What Sheriff found was that the P with the widely different guess changed their answer to conform to the answers of the other two P’s. Sherif concluded that this was evidence of conformity, that conformity is a tendency. Especially in an ambiguous situation where the answer is unclear, we adopt the gorup norm rather than form independent judgements.
Evaluation
- Asch aruged that that the ambiguity of the situation made it hard to tell if people actually conformed or not. He challenged the validity of the experiment. How can people conform if there is no right answer?
- All male sample
- Only 3 in a group
- Lab experiment
makes it artificial but easily replicated
there is a lack of mundane realism thus ecological validity
I need to understand what is meant by normative social influence and how it relates to comformity
I need to understand what is meant by cognitive dissonance and how it relates to conformity
I need to know what variables affect conformity
Variables affecting conformity were researched by Asch (1956) and other researchers. These variables can be split into 2 groups of: situational factors and individual factors.
Situational factors:
- group size Asch (1956)
- unanimity/non-conforming role models Asch (1956)
- task difficulty Asch (1956)
- public/private answers
- era Perrin & Spencer (1980)
Individual factors:
- confidence/expertise Furman & Duke (1988)
- gender Eagly et al. (1981)
- culture Smith & bond (1993)
I need to understand conformity to social roles and Zimbardo’s research
When we conform to social roles we are conforming to the roles we play as members of a social group.
For example being at a funeral requires behaving in a way that is very different to behaving at a club
Social roles are the parts indivuals play as part of social groups, which meet the expectations of that situation. Each role requires a set of behaviours that changes from situation to situation, so they are known as situational norms. We learn these behaviours through experience.
Zimbardo (1973) found that individuals conform readily to the social roles demanded of a situation in his prison simulation study
Aims of Zimbardo et al. (1974)
to investigate how readily participants would conform to roles in a simulated prison environment
to test the ‘dispositional’ over ‘situational’ hypothesis of human behaviour
which said that prison violence was either due to the personalities of criminals and prison officers or the environments inside prisons
dispositional: personality of guards and prisoners/naturally sadistic people
OR
situational: the brutal conditions of prison environments results in violence
Outline the procedure and findings of Zimbardo et al. (1974)
Procedure:
The study involved a volunteer sample of 24 male participants who were randomly allocated the roles of guard or prisoner
The basement of Stanford University’s psychology department was converted to a simulated prison
Prisoners were arrested from their homes unexpectedly, stripped, deloused, locked in cells, given smocks to wear and referred to by numbers instead of names
Guards were given uniforms, sticks and reflective glasses and given the instructions to keep the prisoners under control
Findings:
The experiment was meant to last 2 weeks – cancelled after 6 days, as participants conformed to their social roles quickly.
The guards:
- became more sadistic
- taunted prisoners
- gave them meaningless and demeaning tasks
The prisoners:
- became apathetic + submissive – did not stand up for themselves
- some sided with the guards
- Deindividuation - referred to each other by number
- after 36 hours – 1 prisoner released – fits of crying and rage
- 1 prisoner developed nervous rash
Conclusions:
situational hypothesis favoured over dispositional– it was the environment and conditions of the mock prison and social roles that resulted in the uncharacteristic behaviour of the participants
guards and prisoners showed behaviour from media (prison films) and models of social power
individuals conform to theroles demanded of in a situation
Evaluate Zimbardo et al. (1974)
students selected by Zimbardo
physically healthy, no abnormalities, checked that they had no criminal record or psychiatric background suggesting that any behaviour displayed was uncharacteristic and due to conformity to social roles
low ecological validity
mock prison not real/couldn’t be totally realistic
didn’t include homosexuality, racism, beatings, threats to life
hard to generalise to other settings
demand characteristics
However
mock prison tried to look as real as possible
P’s also arrested to increase realism
tightly controlled variables, i.e. random allocation
evidence that P’s believed they were in prison
prisoners referring to themselves as their numbers; became apathetic; 90% of conversation was about prison life; prisoners and guards continued their behaviour even when not being observed; the guards were always on time and some worked over time
low population validity
participants were white/male/university students
hard to generalise to other populations
no females
deception and lack of informed consent
necessary to maintain realism and internal validity; Zimbardo et al. only given full approval from police a few minutes before the PAR gave their consent
right to withdraw
wasn’t properly established, participants were told they couldn’t leave; Zimbardo accused of losing perception
protection from harm
physical, mental and psychological harm; even Zimbardo expressed regrets that he did not stop the experiment earlier
however
Attempts to protect P’s - guards not allowed to use physical violence
The experiment was abandoned when it became apparent that it was causing extreme distress
Zimbardo did not anticipate the extreme response
Group and individual debriefing sessions were conducted several weeks later, several months later and then at yearly intervals
Cost-benefit analysis – Zimbardo strongly argues that the benefits of the study (better understanding of human behaviour that can lead to improvements in prisons) should balance out the costs (distress to P’s)
There are several differences between conformity and obedience
With obedience:
- there is a direct request to change our behaviour
- the request usually comes from just one person
- the person influencing us is of a higher status, i.e. they have authority/power
- the person infleuncing us does not necessarily act the way we do, e.g. a teacher can tell you to keep quiet but they can continue to speak, your mother can tell you to clean your room while her own is very messy, teachers can tell you not to wear makeup or chew gum in school while they do all these things themselves
- obeying is usually seen as a positive thing and we don’t mind admitting to it because don’t see ourselves as responsilible for the consequences - the authority figure is
With conformity:
- we change our behaviour by choice and although there is no direct request
- it could be argued that there is a subliminal request because we feel pressured to change but we are not asked to
- the subliminal request comes from group pressure, from a larger group
- the people we conform to usuallly have equal status to us
- we conform to act the same way as everyone else and so we aren’t left out
- conforming is usally seen as negative but can be positive. On the one hand it tells us what to do but we are sually embarassed to admit we’ve been influenced
