Social Influence Flashcards
What are the three types of conformity?
Compliance, Internalisation, Identification
What are the explanations for conformity?
Informational Social Influence (ISI)
Normative Social Influence (NSI)
What is the difference between the two explanations for conformity?
ISI- the desire to be right, we beleive the group is more likely to be right so we follow them/ It is a cognitive process/Most likely to happen in new situations.
NSI- the desire to be liked, we want to fit in with the group/ It is an emotional process/most likely to occur when we fear rejection.
How do individual differences relate to NSI?
People respond to the desire to be liked more than others, they are known as nAffiliators.
What are the variables affecting conformity?
Group size
Task Difficulty
Unanimity
Who investigated the variables affecting conformity?
Asch
Who took part and what was the procedure of Asch’s experiment?
123 male undergraduates took part, asked to identify which of 3 lines shown was the same length as the standard line in a group of confederates giving incorrect answers
How many trials were there, and on how many did confederates give a wrong name?
18 trials, 12 wrong answers.
What was the overall conformity rate?
37%
What percentage of confederates conformed at least once.
75%
What variations did Asch investigate in his study?
Group size
Unanimity
Task Difficulty
How did he investigate these variations?
Group size- Wanted to see effect of conformity, found that with 3 confederates conformity was 31.8% and didn’t have much affect after that.
Unanimity- Introduced a non conforming confederate who didn’t agree with the group. Showed conformity to drop to 9%.
Task Difficulty- Made the task more difficult and conformity increased, shows ISI at play with a more difficult task.
Methodological evaluation of Asch’s baseline condition
Possibility fir demand characteristics as participants knew they were in an experiment.
However they were deceived on the aim so possibility of demand characteristics not at play.
What is Fiske’s criticism of Asch’s study?
The group wasn’t very ‘groupy’ as they had only just met each other, it’s hard to generalise to everyday situations where we most likely would know the people. (low ecological validity)
Why could Asch’s study be criticised for being a child of it’s time?
Perrin+Spencer repeated Asch’s experiment on engineering students in the UK and only 1 out of 396 trials did someone conform.
Asch’s study took place in a time of conformist society in America. (1950s)
Ethical evaluation of Asch’s study.
Participants were deceived about the aim of the experiment.
Stress caused due to having to answer out to a group.
Why could Asch’s study have limited applications?
Only male participants in America a very individualist culture compared to e.g communist country like China, where conformity rates would be a lot higher.
What did Zimbardo investigate?
Conformity to social roles.
What was the research method and IV in Zimbardo’s experiment?
Field experiment using observational methods
IV= type of social role prisoner or guard.
Who were and how were participants collected?
Participants were male undergraduate students at Stanford University. A volunteer sample was used where they were then screaned and the most mentally stable of them were chosen. They were then allocated guard or prisoner by random allocation.
How were prisoners inducted into their roles?
Striped and searched, given a uniform a stocking cap, a smock with no underwear and their identities replaced by a number.
How were guards introduced into their roles?
Given a uniform, cub and handcuffs, keys and mirror shades. They were also told they had control over rules and punishments.
what behaviour suggested prisoners had confirmed to their role?
Started refering themselves by their numbers
asking for parole rather than to leave
started getting anxious and depressed- 2 had breakdowns crying ect ..
what behaviour suggested guards had confirmed to their role?
they became aggressive and brutal and began to enjoy the power