Social Influence Flashcards
What is conformity?
-The change in behaviour and opinion due to real or imagine pressure from a group.
What are the three types of conformity?
- Compliance.
- Identification.
- Internalisation.
What is compliance?
-Shallowest level of conformity, conform publicly but privately doesn’t, behaviour stops when group pressure stops.
What is identification?
-Conform to group because value it, identify with group (want to be part of it), publicly change but privately may not.
What is internalisation?
-Deepest level of conformity, both publicly and privately because accept views of group, change in behaviour persist even in absence of group.
What are the two explanations for conformity and who made them?
-Deutsch and Gerard developed, Need to be right (Informational social influence), and need to be liked (Normative social influence).
What is ISI?
-Cognitive process, all about who has the better info and who is right, want to be right not wrong.
What is NSI?
-Emotional process, want to be liked by majority, want to gain social approval rather than rejection.
When does ISI happen?
- New situations.
- Ambiguous situations.
When does NSI happen?
- Situations with strangers.
- Stressful situations when we needs social support.
What are the strengths of conformity?
- Asch’s study showed NSI works=most PP went along with majority.
- Research support for ISI= students + math problem, those poor at maths conformed more.
What are the weaknesses of conformity?
- Individual differences in NSI and ISI=different people conform more/less.
- Unsure whether ISI or NSI is at work=not certain in real-life situations and conformity.
What was Asch’s research?
-Assess how much people will conform to others opinion even if the answer is certain.
What was Asch’s procedure?
- 123 male students, each PP tested with 6/8 confederates. PP sat last or next to last.
- Shown line X, had to choose matching A,B or C line which is same size. C gave wrong and right answer.
What were Asch’s findings?
- 75% conformed at least once.
- 25% didn’t conform at all.
- PP gave wrong answer 36.8% of time.
- When interviewed PP said conformed to avoid rejection
What were Asch’s variations?
- Group size.
- Unanimity.
- Task difficulty.
How did group size affect conformity?
-Found no need for more than 3 confederates for conformity to take place.
How did unanimity affect conformity?
-Non-conforming confederates reduced conformity, allowed more independence for PP.
How did task difficulty affect conformity?
-Conformity rose as task difficulty increased, suggest ISI plays greater role.
What are the strengths of Asch’s study?
-Asch’s variations were true and studies confirmed them.
What are the weaknesses of Asch’s study?
- Perrin + Spencer repeated study and 1 conformed in 396 trials= Asch’s not consistent or reliable.
- Artificial situation and trivial task= PP know in study, and doesn’t apply to real-life.
- Only men tested=biased.
What was the Stanford prison study?
-Zimbardo wanted to know whether prison guards behave brutally due to sadistic personalities or due to social roles.
What was Zimbardo’s procedure?
- Mock prison in uni basement, advertised for students to volunteer. Randomly assigned roles of guard & prisoners, prisoners arrested at home to make it real.
- Blindfolded, strip-searched, given uniform.
What were Zimbardo’s findings?
- Study stopped after 6 days not 14.
- Prisoners began to rebel, and guards constantly harassed them.
- Prisoners showed psychological disturbance, went on hunger strike.
What were Zimbardo’s conclusions?
- Power of situation/role influence person’s behaviour.
- Everyone conformed to role.
- Behaved as in real prison not mock.
What were the strengths of Zimbardo’s study?
- Zimbardo had control over variables=real conclusions.
- Very real situation= 90% of PP conversations were about prison life, some believed it was real.
What were weaknesses of Zimbardo’s study?
- PP play acting rather than conforming to role.
- Major ethical issues=psychological disturbance.
- Fromm accused Zimbardo of over exaggerating=conclusions overstated.
What is obedience?
-Social influence in which person follows orders from a high authority.
What was Milgram’s research?
-Wanted to establish a method to observe obedience.
What was Milgram’s procedure?
- 40 male PP, teacher and learner (confederate), experimenter in lab coat.
- Learner in chair with shock plates, teacher asks qu’s, if wrong learner gets shock(not real)at high voltage.
What was the learner dialogue?
- ”Ow, I can’t stand the pain”
- ”My heart is bothering me”
- ”Let me out”
- After certain voltage, learner quiet as if dead.
What were the prods?
- If teacher refused to shock, experimenter gave prods;
- ”Please continue”
- ”It is essential you continue”
What were Milgram’s findings?
- No PP stopped below 300V.
- 12.5% stopped at 300V.
- 65% continue to 450V
- PP showed extreme tension, sweating.
What are the strengths of Milgram’s research?
- Good external validity=tell us how obedience works in real-life situations.
- Supporting replication=repeated study in documentary, show same signs of tension.
- Results were reliable=70% of PP believed shock were real.
What are the weaknesses of Milgram’s research?
- Ethical issues=Baumrind said PP were under psychological and emotional distress.
- Unreliable results=Holland suggested PP believed shock were not real.
What are situational variables?
- Milgram wanted to change original study slightly to see what factors affect obedience.
- Proximity, location and uniform.