Social Influence Flashcards
1
Q
What is conformity?
A
-The change in behaviour and opinion due to real or imagine pressure from a group.
2
Q
What are the three types of conformity?
A
- Compliance.
- Identification.
- Internalisation.
3
Q
What is compliance?
A
-Shallowest level of conformity, conform publicly but privately doesn’t, behaviour stops when group pressure stops.
4
Q
What is identification?
A
-Conform to group because value it, identify with group (want to be part of it), publicly change but privately may not.
5
Q
What is internalisation?
A
-Deepest level of conformity, both publicly and privately because accept views of group, change in behaviour persist even in absence of group.
6
Q
What are the two explanations for conformity and who made them?
A
-Deutsch and Gerard developed, Need to be right (Informational social influence), and need to be liked (Normative social influence).
7
Q
What is ISI?
A
-Cognitive process, all about who has the better info and who is right, want to be right not wrong.
8
Q
What is NSI?
A
-Emotional process, want to be liked by majority, want to gain social approval rather than rejection.
9
Q
When does ISI happen?
A
- New situations.
- Ambiguous situations.
10
Q
When does NSI happen?
A
- Situations with strangers.
- Stressful situations when we needs social support.
11
Q
What are the strengths of conformity?
A
- 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.
12
Q
What are the weaknesses of conformity?
A
- 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.
13
Q
What was Asch’s research?
A
-Assess how much people will conform to others opinion even if the answer is certain.
14
Q
What was Asch’s procedure?
A
- 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.
15
Q
What were Asch’s findings?
A
- 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
16
Q
What were Asch’s variations?
A
- Group size.
- Unanimity.
- Task difficulty.
17
Q
How did group size affect conformity?
A
-Found no need for more than 3 confederates for conformity to take place.
18
Q
How did unanimity affect conformity?
A
-Non-conforming confederates reduced conformity, allowed more independence for PP.
19
Q
How did task difficulty affect conformity?
A
-Conformity rose as task difficulty increased, suggest ISI plays greater role.
20
Q
What are the strengths of Asch’s study?
A
-Asch’s variations were true and studies confirmed them.
21
Q
What are the weaknesses of Asch’s study?
A
- 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.
22
Q
What was the Stanford prison study?
A
-Zimbardo wanted to know whether prison guards behave brutally due to sadistic personalities or due to social roles.
23
Q
What was Zimbardo’s procedure?
A
- 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.
24
Q
What were Zimbardo’s findings?
A
- Study stopped after 6 days not 14.
- Prisoners began to rebel, and guards constantly harassed them.
- Prisoners showed psychological disturbance, went on hunger strike.
25
What were Zimbardo’s conclusions?
- Power of situation/role influence person's behaviour.
- Everyone conformed to role.
- Behaved as in real prison not mock.
26
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.
27
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.
28
What is obedience?
-Social influence in which person follows orders from a high authority.
29
What was Milgram’s research?
-Wanted to establish a method to observe obedience.
30
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.
31
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.
32
What were the prods?
- If teacher refused to shock, experimenter gave prods;
- ”Please continue”
- ”It is essential you continue”
33
What were Milgram’s findings?
- No PP stopped below 300V.
- 12.5% stopped at 300V.
- 65% continue to 450V
- PP showed extreme tension, sweating.
34
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.
35
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.
36
What are situational variables?
- Milgram wanted to change original study slightly to see what factors affect obedience.
- Proximity, location and uniform.
37
How does proximity affect obedience?
- 1st=T+L in same room=obedience dropped to 40%
- 2nd= T forced L’s hand on shock plate=30%
- 3rd=Experimenter left room+order by phone=20.5%
38
How does location affect obedience?
- Experiment the same but instead in a run-down building rather than uni, obedience dropped to 47.5%.
- More legitimate location=higher obedience.
39
How does uniform affect obedience?
-Experimenter in lab coat called away and replaced with ordinary member in ordinary clothes, obedience dropped to 20%.
40
What are the strengths of situational variables?
- Research support=NY study, 3 dressed in milkman, guard and jacket, ordered public to do tasks, obeyed 2x more when as a guard that milkman.
- Control of variables=systematically altered one variable at time.
41
What are the weaknesses of situational variables?
- Obedience alibi=an excuse for evil behaviour.
- Lack of internal validity=Holland accused Milgram’s study as fake, and PP knew shock were fake, which gave unclear conclusions.
42
What is the agentic state?
- When we see higher authority we act as “agent”, so not responsible for actions but follow orders.
- Sense of anxiety and moral strain but feel powerless.
43
What is autonomous state?
- Opposite of “agentic state”.
- Independent and free will over our actions.
- Sense of responsibility for own actions.
44
What is agentic shift?
-When ordered by high authority, we make shift from autonomous to agentic state.
45
What are binding factors?
- Stay in agentic state even if we don’t want to due to factors, these reduce stress and moral strain.
- E.g. reassuring ourselves it’s not our responsibility.
46
What is legitimate authority?
- Taught from young age the social hierarchy, e.g. police and teachers have legitimate authority.
- We trust them to exert appropriate power over us.
47
What is destructive authority?
Some exploited legitimate authority to cause destruction.
| -DA=order lower people to act in evil ways.
48
What are the strengths of social-psychological factors?
- LoA explain real-life obedience= My Lai massacre.
- AS research support= Blass+Schmidt (2001), students recognised legitimate authority was cause for obedience.
- LoA has cross-cultural support=Kilham+Mann repeated M’s study, 16% Australians and 85% Germans gave top V.
49
What are the weaknesses of social-psychological factors?
- AS doesn’t explain findings=Hofling’s study-nurses didn’t show anxiety knew it was destructive.
- AS can’t account for Nazi behaviour=German police obeyed orders to shoot polish civilians but they weren’t direct.
50
What are dispositional explanations?
-Explanation of behaviour which highlights the importance of the individual's personality.
51
What is authoritarian personality?
-Adorno believed high level of obedience was a psychological disorder, he tried to locate the causes of it.
52
What was the procedure of Adorno’s research?
- Investigated cause of obedience, 2000 PP.
- Developed F-scale=measures authoritarian p.
- E.g. “Obedience and respect for authority is most important virtues children learn”.
53
What were the findings of the authoritarian personality?
- AP identified with “strong”, & disrespected “weak”.
- Conscious of their own social status.
- AP had cognitive style=fixed stereotypes.
- Strong correlation between AP and prejudice.
54
What are the authoritarian characteristics?
- Extreme respect and obedience to authority.
- Disrespect to people they view inferior.
- Conventional attitudes to gender, sex, race etc.
55
What is the origin of authoritarian personality?
- Formed in childhood as a result of harsh parenting.
- Experiences cause resentment in child but can’t express it due to fear of revenge.
- Fears displaced on others who are weaker.
56
What are the strengths of authoritarian personality?
-Research support=Milgram conducted interviews with fully obedient PP=scored highly on F-scale, so link between AP and obedience.
57
What are the weaknesses of authoritarian personality?
- Limited explanation=more realistic is social identity-German identified with Nazi’s.
- Political bias=f-scale is toward extreme right-wing ideology, Jahoda argued it’s biased.
58
How can social support resist conformity?
- Pressure to conform reduced if a dissenter is present (non-conforming PP)
- Asch’s study=dissenter enabled naive PP to follow conscience.
59
How can social support resist obedience?
- Pressure to obey reduced if other disobedient PP present.
| - Milgram’s variations=fell from 65% obedience to 10% when confederate present.
60
What is locus of control?
-Rotter (1966) proposed concept concerned with internal versus external control.
61
What is internal control?
-Believe things that happen to them are controlled by themselves or as a result of their actions.
62
What is external control?
-Things happen because of the world around them, out of their control, due to fate or luck.
63
What is continuum?
-Continuum with high internal LOC at one end and high external LOC at the other end.
64
What are the characteristics of Internal LOC?
- High level of personal control over their life.
- Take personal responsibility.
- Resist pressure from other.
- Less likely to rely on other and conform.
65
What are the characteristics of external LOC?
- Life determined by environmental factors like fate and luck.
- More likely to be influenced by others and conform.
66
What are the strengths of social support?
- Research support-resistance to conformity=Allen (1971) found conformity reduced when one dissenter present in Asch’s study.
- Research support-resistance to obedience=Gamson (1982) found higher level of resistance during smear campaign.
67
What are the strengths of locus of control?
-Research support=Holland (1967)=repeated M’s study + measured whether PP were internal/external, 37% internal & 23% externals didn’t give highest shock=internals have greater resistance.
68
What are the weaknesses of locus of control?
- Limited role of LOC=little influence over behaviour.
| - Contradictory research=Twenge (2004)=analysed obedience studies over 40-years, people more resistant+more external.
69
What is minority influence?
- Form of social influence where minority persuade others to adopt their beliefs.
- Can lead to internalisation.
70
What is Moscovici’s procedure?
- 172 PP, groups of 4 PP and 2 confederates.
- PP state colour of 36 slides, all different blue.
- Condition A=C were consistent and called all slides green.
- Condition B=C inconsistent, called green 24 times and blue 12.
71
What are Moscovici’s findings?
- Control group (no C)=0.25% PP called green.
- In consistent=PP said green 8.42% of trials, and 32% said it at least once.
- Inconsistent=PP said green 1.25% of trials.
72
What are Moscovici’s conclusions?
Minority influence majority.
- Minority influence strongest when consistent.
- When less consistent=less influential.
73
What is consistency?
- Consistency in minority views increase amount of interest from others.
- Can make others rethink their own views.
74
What are the two types of consistency?
- Synchronic=consistency between people in minority.
| - Diachronic-consistency over time.
75
What is commitment?
-Minorities engage in extreme activities to draw attention to their views, actions are risky=show commitment to their cause-AUGMENTATION PRINCIPLE.
76
What is flexibility?
- Nemeth (1986) argues if minority is too consistent then they’re inflexible.
- Majority unlikely to change view.
77
What is the process of change?
- Hear something new=consider their view and deeper processing occurs to “convert” majority to minority.
- ”Snowball effect”=more people who convert the faster the process.
78
What are the strengths of minority influence?
- RS for consistency=Wood (1994) studies=minorities were consistent.
- RS for internalisation=private agreements in Moscovici’s study higher.
79
What are the weaknesses of minority influence?
- Artificial task=limited in real-life using slide study.
| - Little real-world application=more than just numbers involved in majority and minority influence.
80
What are the 6 steps to social change?
- Drawing attention.
- Consistency.
- Deeper processing.
- Augmentation principle.
- Snowball effect.
- Social Cryptomnesia.
81
What is drawing attention?
-Drawing attention to the cause/belief, e.g. through marches.
82
What is consistency?
-Consistently showing their view and belief to the rest of the majority.
83
What is deeper processing?
-Attention to the issue allow majority to process and think about the minority views.
84
What is the augmentation principle?
-When the minority becomes involved in risky activities to show their commitment to the view/belief.
85
What is the snowball effect?
-The more people that convert to the minority’s views the quicker the rate of conversion.
86
What is social cryptomnesia?
-People have a memory that a change has occurred but cannot remember what is was like before this change.
87
What are the lessons from conformity research?
- Dissenters can lead to social change.
| - Campaigns can lead to NSI, by drawing attention to what the majority is doing.
88
What are the lessons from obedience research?
-Obedience can be used to create social change through a process of gradual commitment.
89
What are the strengths of social influence and change?
-RS for NSI=Nolan (2008) and the reduction in energy campaign.
90
What are the weaknesses of social influence and change?
- Minority influence is only indirectly effective=Nemeth (1986) argues effects of minority influence are indirect and appear later.
- Methodological issues=low external validity due to artificial tasks.
