Social Influence Flashcards
what are the 3 types of conformity?
compliance
identification
internalisation
describe compliance
you go along with the majority group temporarily in public, you may do this to appear normal
describe identification
when youre exposed to the views of others and change your views publically and privately. this change is temporary
describe internalisation
the deepest form of conformity. the views of the group are internalized and taken in at a permanent level publically and privately
what are the 2 explanations for conformity
normative social influence (liked)
informative social influence (right)
describe normative social influence
we go along with the group even though we may not agree with their views, we follow them in order to be liked. most like compliance
describe informative social influence
we look to the majority as we are unsure about how to behave. we generally believe theyre right. most like identification
describe and evaluate Asch’s line study, 3 W and 1 S
asch was interested in why we tend to do what other people do. so he conducted the ‘standard line test’. asch found that people will change their views in an ambiguous situation when the majority is obviously wrong.
Ps were tested on their visual perception. there were one naive Ps and 6 confederates who purposely gave he wrong answer.
the study was conducted in a lab
Ps had to match line X with A,B or C
results- 25% of Ps resisted conformity
overall conformity was 37%
5% conformed on every single trial
W- lacks ecological validity
W- deceives Ps
W- lacks temporal validity
S- high practical validity
what are the variables affecting confomity
increase size majority- increased conformity because there was more people agreeing with the confederate. with only 2 confederates conformity= 13%
3 confederate= 33%
unanimity- decreased conformity by 5.5% because there was also someone else disagreeing with the majority
task difficulty- increased conformity because Ps became Ps became unsure and copied the majority
who investigated conformity to social roles and describe and evaluate his procedure 2 S and 3 W
Zimbardo who took men whod never been in prison before and physically put them in a cell. this ‘prison’ was located under a uni. some of the Ps were made prisoners and some guards.
the guards took up the role with enthusiasm, their behaviour become a threat to the prisoners psychology and physical wellbeing. therefore the study was stopped after 6 days rather than 14. the simulation revealed the power of situations on peoples behaviour. Guards and prisoners all conformed to social roles
S- high ecological validity
S- practical application
W- poor protection of Ps
W- no right to withdraw
W- low population validity
describe agentic shift in terms of explanations for obedience
agentic state “youre an agent of someone elses orders. you dont feel responsability for your actions because you are simply following orders given to you”
autonomous state “ a person is incharge of their decisions and acting on their own accord”
agentic shift “ when a person moves from an autonomous state to an agentic state
describe legitimacy of authority as an explanation for obedience,
society is organised in a hierarchical way. we therefore give some people the right to have authority over us. as a result we give up some of our independence and allow them to instruct us
evaluate explanations for obedience, hofling and blass and schmitt
HOFLING- agentic shift predicts that, as nurses handed over responsibility to the doctor they should have shown levels of anxiety as they understood their role in a destructive process. but this wasnt the case, this suggests that as best agentic shift only accounts for some situations of obedience
BLASS and SCHMITT- showed Ps a film of milgrims study, there were asked to identify who was responsible for harm. the Ps blamed the experimenter as they had legitimate authority
describe holflings study into obedience
The procedure involved a naturalistic field experiment involving 22 (real) night nurses. Dr. Smith (a stooge) phones the nurses at hospital and asks them to check to see if they have the drug astroten. When the nurse checks she can see that the maximum dosage is supposed to be 10mg. When they reported to the ‘Doctor’, they were told to administer 20mg of the drug to a patient called ‘Mr. Jones’. Dr. Smith was in a desperate hurry and he would sign the authorization form when he came to see Mr. Jones later on.
The nurses were watched to see what they would do. The medication was not real, though the nurses thought it was. 1. They are not allowed to accept instructions over the phone. 2. The dose was double the maximum limit stated on the box. 3. The medicine itself as unauthorized, i.e. not on the ward stock list
results- 21 out of 22 (95%) nurses were easily influenced into carrying out the orders. They were not supposed to take instructions by phone, let alone exceed the allowed dose p
describe and evaluate milgrims study of obedience
advertised for a study of ‘memory of learning’. the naive Ps were given the role of ‘teacher’ and the confederate the ‘learner’. they did this by rigged allocation. the teacher was shown what 15V felt like. the teacher and learner were then in separate rooms. the teacher was told to ask the learner questions and whenever they got them wrong he was to shock them, going up 15V each time. the Ps were shown a tape of people screaming.
results- 14/40 Ps were shown signs of extreme tension. 100% went to 300V and 65% went to 450V. if the teacher wanted to stop he was prompted with “its essential that you continue” “you have no other choice but to carry on”
S- practical application, why people under the Nazi reign were willing to kill Jews when given orders to do so. W-ecological validity W- population validity W- right to withdraw W-protection of Ps
