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Social Influence Flashcards

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1
Q

What is meant by majority influence?

A

When an individual’s behaviour/beliefs are influenced by a larger group of people

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2
Q

What is a definition for conformity?

A

Yielding to group pressure

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3
Q

Who came up with the 3 types of conformity?

A

Kelman (1958)

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4
Q

What are the 3 types of conformity?

A

Compliance
Identification
Internalisation

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5
Q

What are 2 features of compliance?

A

It is public and temporary

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6
Q

What are 2 features of identification?

A

Public and private, it is also temporary

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7
Q

Is internalisation public or private?

A

Both

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8
Q

What is meant by compliance?

A

When an individual accepts influence because they hope to achieve a favourable reaction. Behaviour is adopted because of its rewards and approval

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9
Q

What is meant by identification?

A

When an individual adopts an attitude/behaviour because they want to be associated with a particular person or group

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10
Q

What is meant by internalisation?

A

When an individual accepts influence because the content of attitude/behaviour is consistent with their own value system

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11
Q

What might be an example of internalisation?

A

Conversion to religion

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12
Q

What is a strength of Kelman’s types of conformity?

A

It has applications to real life

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13
Q

What are 2 weaknesses of Kelman’s types of conformity?

A
  • It is difficult to measure

- Hard to know to what extent an individual has accepted the beliefs privately

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14
Q

What might be a negative effect of conformity?

A

It can reduce a persons independence and individuality - it could lead to harmful outcomes such as radicalisation

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15
Q

What might be the positive effects of conformity?

A
  • Helps society function smoothly and predictably

- Individuals need to co operate and agree in order for groups to form and operate, conformity helps this process

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16
Q

Who came up with the theory as to why people choose to conform?

A

Deutsch and Gerard (1955)

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17
Q

Why do people conform?

A
  • Informational social influence
  • Normative social influence
  • Cognitive dissonance
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18
Q

What is normative social influence?

A
  • Humans have a need for social companionship and a fear of rejection
  • Individuals believe they are ‘under surveillance’ by a group
  • This leads to people conforming to the majority but they do not endure it over time or carry it on into private settings
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19
Q

What is informational social influence?

A
  • The result of a desire to be right

- Looks to others for guidance in order to gain evidence about reality (especially in unfamiliar situations)

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20
Q

What is cognitive dissonance?

A
  • Unpleasant feelings of anxiety created by two contradictory ideas
  • To reduce dissonance, cognitions need to be changed
  • Bogdonoff et al (1961) found that stress levels were reduced by conforming
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21
Q

What was the aim of Zimbardo’s 1973 Stanford Prison Study?

A

To find out whether the brutality in American prisons was due to the personalities of individuals themselves or if it was due to the prison environment (situational)

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22
Q

What is a dispositional explanation?

A

Explaining behaviour in terms of an individuals personality

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23
Q

What is a situational explanation?

A

Explaining behaviour in terms of environmental factors

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24
Q

What are the strengths of normative social influence?

A
  1. Adolescents exposed to the message that the majority of peers did not smoke were less likely to start smoking (Linkenbach and Perkins)
  2. Hotel guests told that 75% of guests reused towels, this reduced towel use by 25% (Schultz)
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25
Q

What are the weaknesses of normative social influence?

A
  1. People don’t admit to it or recognise it

2. Negative behaviour (gangs)

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26
Q

What are the strengths of informational social influence?

A
  1. Wittenbrink and Henley experiment showed participants exposed to majority racist views would agree with this as they want to be right
  2. Reaction of audience in a televised debated influenced the political opinion of candidates as they want to adopt the ‘right view’
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27
Q

What are the weaknesses of informational social influence?

A
  1. Only works in certain situations - mostly formal

2. Majorities only seem to exert influence when concerning fact rather than opinion

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28
Q

What is the procedure for Asch’s experiment?

A
  • Confederates and 1 participant around table
  • Participant sat 2nd to last
  • Shown one standard and 3 comparison lines
  • Took turns to call out which of the 3 was the same length as the standard
  • Confederates were instructed to give the incorrect answer
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29
Q

What did Asch aim to find out for his experiment?

A

Asch wanted to see if participants stuck to what they knew was right or if they chose to conform to the majority even though it is obviously wrong

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30
Q

What were Asch’s findings?

A
  • Average conformity rate was 32%
  • 25% never conformed
  • 50% conformed on 6 or more
  • 5% conformed on all 12
  • 75% conformed at least once
  • In the post experiment interview participants admitted to trusting their judgement privately but still changed their public behaviour
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31
Q

What were Asch’s conclusions?

A
  • Judgement of individuals are affected by majority opinions

- Participants conformed publicly not privately, this suggests Normative Social Influence

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32
Q

What are some general weaknesses of Asch’s experiment ?

A
  • Unrealistic and lacked mundane realism
  • Unethical - involved deceit as participants believed it was a study of visual perception
  • Caused stress for participants about disagreeing with others
  • Average conformity is only 32% not majority
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33
Q

What are some general strengths of Asch’s experiment?

A
  • Gives evidence for NSI as 75% conformed at least once

- Paradigm for future studies

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34
Q

What are the 3 reasons that participants conformed in Asch’s study?

A
  1. Distortion of perception - believed they came to see the lines in the same way as the majority
  2. Distortion of judgement - doubted their own accuracy
  3. Distortion of action - gave wrong answers to avoid disapproval
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35
Q

What were the 3 situational variables that Asch changed for his experiment?

A

Group size
Unanimity
Task difficulty

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36
Q

What is obeying?

A

Complying with a direct request - usually made by someone of a higher social status

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37
Q

What was the aim/motive behind Milgram’s study of obedience?

A

Milgram investigated the circumstances under which people might act against their consciences by inflicting harm on other people

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38
Q

What was the procedure for Milgram’s experiment?

A
  • 40 males paid to attend Yale
  • Participants played role of teacher and gave electric shocks to a confederate learner if they answered incorrectly on a word pair test
  • Activity required for them to give a fatal level of shock
  • If participants refused, they were given prompts to continue by the researcher
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39
Q

What were the findings for Milgram’s experiment?

A
  • All participants went to 300V (painful) and 65% went to the maximum level of 450V - beyond what was labelled “Danger - severe shock”
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40
Q

What did Milgram conclude from his experiment?

A

Situational factors contributed to the individuals obedience to authority and the suspension of their ability to make individual decisions

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41
Q

What 3 situational variables did Milgram manipulate in his experiment for obedience?

A
  • Proximity of the victim
  • Proximity of the ‘authority figure’
  • Presence of allies
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42
Q

What happened when Milgram changed the proximity of the victim?

A

When the learner and teacher were closer together and in the same room, the participant could observe the distress more clearly - obedience fell to 40% because of this

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43
Q

What happened when Milgram changed the proximity of the ‘authority figure’?

A

When the experimenter left the room and only communicated by telephone, only 21% of participants continued to maximum shock level

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44
Q

What happened when Milgram added the presence of allies?

A

2 fake teachers joined the set up and refused to carry on to maximum level and only 10% of participants continued to obey with the presence of allies

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45
Q

What are the 3 main components in obedience?

A
  • Gradual commitment
  • Role of buffers (distance)
  • Justifying obedience
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46
Q

What is meant by the role of buffers?

A

Distance would be a buffer. The more distance between the teacher and the learner meant they are more likely to obey

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47
Q

What is meant by justifying obedience?

A

Participants believed they had a good cause to explain their actions (scientific reasoning)

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48
Q

What were the 3 main ethical concerns with Milgram’s experiment?

A
  • Deception/lack of informed consent
  • The right to withdraw
  • Protection my psychological harm
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49
Q

How was there deception in Milgram’s experiment?

A
  • Aim of research was not revealed (Milgram argued this was necessary for validity)
  • Deceit in procedure (use of confederates)
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50
Q

What were the ethical issues concerning the right to withdraw in Milgram’s experiment?

A
  • Milgram argued that they knew they could leave however the use of prompts contradict this
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51
Q

Why was there a lack of protection from psychological harm in Milgram’s experiment?

A
  • May have been traumatic

- Participants were put under great strain

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52
Q

What did Asch do with group size as a situational variable in his experiment?

A
  • Less conformity with 1 or 2 confederates (No NSI, there isn’t a group)
  • Conformity dropped to 30%
  • Size of majority is important but only up to a point, after 3 confederates the conformity rate didn’t rise much
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53
Q

What did Asch do with unanimity as a situational variable in his experiment?

A
  • When there is no unanimous choice, conformity fell from 32% to 5.5%
  • Lone dissenter (different wrong answer) lead conformity to drop to 9%
  • This shows NSI as they don’t want to answer differently to everyone else and they feel threat from the unanimity
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54
Q

What did Asch do with task difficulty as a situational variable in his experiment?

A
  • Made difference between line lengths smaller so that the answer was less obvious and so task difficulty increased
  • Conformity increased as participants were more anxious about being wrong
  • This shows ISI because they fear being wrong and have more confidence in conforming with the majority
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55
Q

What are 3 individual variables/differences that could affect conformity? (Asch)

A
  1. Gender
  2. Mood
  3. Culture
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56
Q

How does gender affect conformity rates? (Asch)

A
  • Jenness (1932) found females were more likely to conform because task was more male orientated (ISI)
  • Maslach (1987) found males tended to be more independent whereas females were more sensitive
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57
Q

How does mood affect conformity rates? (Asch)

A

Tong (2008) found participants were more likely to conform if in a positive mood because they are amenable to agreeing with others

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58
Q

How does culture affect conformity rates? (Asch)

A

Smith and Bond (1993) found differences between collectivist cultures (greater conformity) and individualistc cultures (less conformity)

59
Q

How has Asch’s experiment had real world applications?

A

Asch’s work has shown potential problems in group decision making situations such as the jury in court

60
Q

What was the procedure for Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Study?

A
  • Converted uni basement into a mock prison
  • Applicants were interviewed to eliminate those with existing psychological problems/criminal history
  • Participants given either role of guard or prisoner
  • Upon arrival prisoners were stripped naked and deloused, given a uniform & ID number
  • Guards were told to do whatever was necessary to maintain the law
  • Zimbardo observed behaviour of both roles
61
Q

What did Zimbardo find from the prison study?

A
  • Both sides took the role seriously from the beginning
  • Prisoners felt dehumanised
  • Guards generally began to harass and intimidate prisoners
  • Prisoners were submissive and guards were authoritative and aggressive
  • One prisoner went crazy with uncontrollable crying and rage
  • Zimbardo had to terminate it on the 6th day
62
Q

What did Zimbardo later comment about his experiment?

A

He began to adopt his role of prison warden rather than psychologist

63
Q

What conclusions did Zimbardo make from the prison study?

A
  • People will readily conform to social roles they are expected to play especially if roles are strongly stereotyped (guards)
  • Findings support situational explanation as no ‘guards’ showed sadistic tendencies beforehand
  • Deindivdiuation may explain the behaviour of the participants
64
Q

What is meant by deindividuation? (Zimbardo)

A

When you become so involved with the norms of the group that you lose your own sense of identity and responsibility

65
Q

What are the strengths of Zimbardo’s prison study?

A
  • Lead to improvements in the prison system, especially how juveniles are treated
  • Findings are supported by Abu Ghraib
  • Lead to formal recognition of ethical guidelines by ASA
66
Q

What are the weaknesses of Zimbardo’s prison study?

A
  • Zimbardo also took on his role, no longer just an observer
  • Findings disproved by BBC prison study
  • Not all participants conformed, this could reflect individual differences
  • Ethical issues - distress, deceit
67
Q

What is a study you could use to support Milgram’s study of obedience?

A

Hoflings field experiment-

He tested nurses at a hospital where a doctor gave instructions over the phone to give drugs to a patient. Nurses were aware that it was against regulations to the instructions over the phone. The dosage was lethal. 21/22 nurses complied

68
Q

What are 2 key weaknesses of Milgram’s study?

A
  1. Lack internal realism

2. The payment may have meant participants felt ‘contracted’ to continue

69
Q

Why did Milgram’s study of obedience lack internal realism?

A

Demand characteristics such as the researcher remaining calm despite the distress of the learner could have lead to the participant concluding they could not be suffering

70
Q

What is a criticism of Milgram’s original study concerning cultural bias?

A

In the time of the study, Americans were apprehensive about the Cold War and communism therefore they were very authoritarian at the point and may have felt like they had to conform and obey

71
Q

Was Milgram’s study androcentric?

A

Yes

72
Q

What does androcentric mean?

A

It is a male biased study

73
Q

What are the 3 explanations for obedience?

A
  1. Agentic shift (situational)
  2. Legitimacy of authority (situational)
  3. Authoritarian personality (dispositional)
74
Q

What is meant by the agentic shift?

A

Moving from an autonomous state to an agentic state

75
Q

What is the agentic state?

A

Feeling no responsibility for our behaviour because we believe ourselves to be acting for an authority

76
Q

What is the autonomous state?

A

Individuals feel personally responsible for their own actions

77
Q

Why does Staub (1989) criticise the agentic shift as an explanation for obedience?

A

He believes that it is the experience of carrying out evil acts over a long period of time that changes the way individuals think and behave

78
Q

What did Fennis and Aarts (2012) say about the agentic shift as an explanation for obedience?

A

The process of agentic shift is just a reduction in personal control. They believe that a reduction in personal control resulted in greater obedience to authority, bystander apathy and greater compliance to requests

79
Q

What is meant by bystander apathy?

A

The tendency to remain passive in the presence of unresponsive others when faced with an emergency

80
Q

What is meant by legitimacy of authority?

A

The degree to which individuals are seen as justified in having power over others (Boss of employees)

81
Q

Why is legitimacy of authority an explanation for obedience?

A

People accept justifications that are provided by a legitimate authority. Although it is the participant who performs the action the authority figure defines its meaning - they trust them and obey because they think they must be right.

82
Q

How would Milgram have been presented as a legitimate authority in his obedience study?

A

He was a scientific researcher at Yale University which would imply to the participant that his justification is legitimate

83
Q

Why do so many people have trust in the legitimacy of authority?

A

It is a socialisation routine that keeps order in society; people have always learned to obey higher social roles (parent-child)

84
Q

What are 2 examples of obedience to a legitimate authority?

A
  1. Co-pilot

2. Doctor paralysing boy

85
Q

How did Tarnow (2000) support the legitimacy of authority explanation?

A

He studied data from serious aircraft accidents and found excessive dependence on the captain’s authority - even when the captain took a risky approach

86
Q

What is meant by an authoritarian personality?

A

A distinct personality (sadisitic tendencies) and a belief in absolute obedience or submission to authority

87
Q

What is meant by a dispositional explanation?

A

The belief that behaviour is caused by internal characteristics of an individual

88
Q

How does non conformity occur?

A
  1. Independence

2. Anti-conformity

89
Q

What is meant by anti-conformity?

A

A consistent moving away from social conformity

e.g) adopting behaviours and norms from minority groups

90
Q

What are 3 explanations for resisting conforming to social influence?

A
  1. Social support
  2. Locus of control
  3. Individual differences (morality)
91
Q

How did Milgram’s variations in his experiment back up social support as an explanation for resistance?

A
  • Add 2 confederates with the real participant to test/shock the learner
  • One after the other they refused to continue shocking the learner
  • Their defiance influenced the real participants as only 10% continued to the maximum shock level of 450V
92
Q

How did Asch’s variations in his experiment back up social support as an explanation for resistance?

A
  • Introduced a confederate ally who gave the right answer

- Conformity levels drop from 33% to 5.5%

93
Q

What is meant by resistance to social influence?

A

The ways in which individuals try to stop attempts to threaten freedom of choice

94
Q

What is meant by social support?

A

The view that the individual has assistance available from others, and they are part of a supportive network

95
Q

How might social support relate to normative social influence?

A

They can take comfort in the fact they are not alone and won’t be the only one being judged/not approved of

96
Q

How might social support relate to informational social influence?

A

They may have more confidence that they are doing the right thing

97
Q

What did Allen + Levine (1971) conclude about social support in resisting social influence?

A

An ally is helpful in resisting conformity, but more so if they are perceived as offering VALID social support

98
Q

What are the characteristics of social support?

A
  • Providing allies
  • Breaking the unanimity of a group
  • Shows disobedience is possible
  • Provides an alternative role model
99
Q

What is a locus of control?

A

The extent to which an individual believes they can control the events in their lives

100
Q

What is meant by an internal locus of control?

A

They are responsible for what happens in their life

101
Q

What might the characteristics be of someone with an internal locus of control?

A
  • Independent
  • They make things happen
  • Less reliant on the opinions of others
  • More able to resist conformity
102
Q

What is meant by an external locus of control?

A

The outcomes of their actions depend on events outside their personal control

103
Q

What might the characteristics be of someone with an external locus of control?

A
  • Things happen to them
  • More passive
  • Take less responsibility
  • Less likely to resist conformity
104
Q

What did Avtgis (1998) do in his research study about locus of control?

A
  • Carried out a meta-analysis of studies of the relationship between LoC and different forms of social influence including conformity
105
Q

What did Avtgis (1998) find in his research study about locus of control?

A

The analysis showed that individuals who scored higher on external were more easily influenced than internal

106
Q

What did Twenge (2004) find in his research study about locus of control?

A

It might have a cultural bias. Americans are becoming increasingly external because they believe in fate and external influences more strongly than other cultures

107
Q

What is a strength of locus of control as an explanation to resisting conformity?

A
  • Spector (1983) found a positive correlation between externals and NSI.
    This is a strength because it supports the idea of external LoC being more likely to conform
108
Q

What are the main weakness of locus of control as an explanation to resisting conformity?

A
  • Twenge (2004) cultural bias/LoC is a spectrum
  • Demand characteristics (Asch)
  • Validity of LoC is questioned because self report is used and it is measured on a scale
  • Individual differences may affect LoC
109
Q

Is locus of control a continuum?

A

Yes, some people are between the two extremes and some people change/move along the scale. People might have a different LoC depending on circumstances

110
Q

What is meant by minority influence?

A

A form of social influence where members of the majority group change their beliefs/behaviours as a result of their exposure to a persuasive minority

111
Q

What might be an example of minority influence in real life?

A

Suffragettes getting the women’s vote (minority) influenced men who were the majority

112
Q

What are the 3 ways that minorities can best influence the majority?

A
  1. Consistency
  2. Commitment
  3. Flexibility
113
Q

What research study/experiment goes with consistency?

A

Moscovic et al (1969)

114
Q

What research study/experiment goes with consistency?

A

Moscovic et al (1969)

115
Q

What research study/experiment goes with flexibility?

A

Nemeth and Brilmayer (1987)

116
Q

What is meant by consistency?

A

Minority influence is effective provided there is stability over time and agreement among the members of the minority

117
Q

What is meant by flexibility?

A

A willingness to be flexible and compromise when expressing a position

118
Q

What is the main principle about flexibility in minority influence?

A

Minorities who are rigid and uncompromising in their beliefs/behaviour will be less persuasive

119
Q

What did Nemeth and Brilmayer do? (Minority influence)

A
  • Studied the role of flexibility in a simulated jury
  • A confederate put forward an alternative view and refused to change his position; he had no effect on the other group members
  • Another confederate compromised and showed flexibility with the majority; he did exert influence on the rest of the group
120
Q

How do flexibility and consistency differ?

A

Flexibility questions consistency because it challenges the view of being black or white and perfectly consistent, sometimes compromise is needed to successfully influence a majority

121
Q

What is meant by commitment?

A

The degree to which members of a minority are dedicated to a particular cause or activity. The greater the perceived commitment, the greater the influence

122
Q

How did Nemeth (2010) support minority influence?

A
  • Argued that dissent opens the mind
  • Dissenters encourage people to say what they believe and they help stimulate creative thought
  • This view is supported by Van Dyne and Saavedra (1996), who studied the role of dissent in work groups, finding that groups had improved decision quality when exposed to a minority perspective
123
Q

What limitation did Nemeth present about minority influence?

A

It is difficult to convince people of the value of dissent. The majority often prefer social norms and label the minority as deviant

124
Q

What limitation did Nemeth present about minority influence?

A

It is difficult to convince people of the value of dissent. The majority often prefer social norms and label the minority as deviant

125
Q

What limitation did Mackie present about minority influence?

A

People are closed minded and will just dismiss minority views if they are different from their own

126
Q

What is meant by social change?

A

This occurs when whole societies (not just individuals) adopt new attitudes, beliefs and ways of doing things

127
Q

What was the procedure for Moscovici (1969) minority influence experiment?

A
  • 32 groups of 6
  • 4 real participants, 2 confederates
  • Each group was shown 36 blue slides, with filters varying the intensity of the colour
  • In the consistent condition, confederates answered wrongly
  • In the inconsistent condition, confederates said 24 were green and 12 were blue
128
Q

What did Moscovici conclude in his minority influence experiment?

A

Although the consistent condition finding 8.2% seems a small figure, it is significantly higher than the inconsistent condition figure of 1.25% and so shows that although minority influence is relatively small, consistency is the important variable

129
Q

What did Moscovici conclude in his minority influence experiment?

A

Although the consistent condition finding

130
Q

What are the weaknesses of Moscovici’s minority influence experiment?

A
  • Lacks ecological validity
  • Does not test variables (group size, status, degree of organisation)
  • Unethical, involves deceit, informed consent could not be given
  • Only used female participants, cannot generalise
131
Q

What are the processes of social change?

A
  1. Draw attention to cause
  2. Cognitive conflict/deeper processing
  3. Consistency
  4. Augmentation principle
  5. Snowball effect
  6. Social cryptoamnesia
132
Q

What is meant by the augmentation principle?

A

If the minority are willing to suffer for their views and have made sacrifices, their influence becomes augmented or more powerful

133
Q

What is social crypto amnesia?

A

The source of the message is forgotten - people know a change has taken place but cannot remember how it happened

134
Q

What is cognitive conflict?

A

When a minority has an effective message, it creates conflict in the minds of the majority. The majority are forced to think deeply about the minority message and may internalise it

135
Q

What is meant by authoritarian personality?

A

A distinct personality (sadistic tendencies) and a belief in absolute obedience or submission to authority. These people tend to be hostile towards minority groups

136
Q

How is authoritarian personality measured?

A

California F scale (facist scale)

137
Q

What did Adorno find out about the F scale?

A

Those who scored highly on the F scale were raised by authoritarian style parents. Children acquire the same authoritarian attitudes through a process of learning and imitation

138
Q

What research study did Elms and Milgram conduct?

A

They selected 20 ‘obedient’ and 20 ‘defiant’ participants from Milgram’s obedience study and had them take an MMPI scale test and an F scale

139
Q

What is an MMPI scale?

A

A scale which measures a range of personality variables

140
Q

What did Elms and Milgram find?

A
  • Higher authoritarianism amongst obedient participants

- Obedient participants saw the authority figure as admirable whereas defiant didn’t

141
Q

What did Elms and Milgram conclude?

A

Obedient group were more likely to have an authoritarian personality

142
Q

How is the authoritarian personality a dispositional explanation?

A

Because their obedience is not circumstantial, their personality means they are more likely to obey and be submissive to authority

143
Q

What are the criticisms of the authoritarian personality?

A
  • Zillmer (1995) Nazi war criminals scored high on only 3 of the F scale dimensions
  • Milgram favoured situational explanation
  • Politically biased
  • Questions on F scale have a response bias due to their wording
144
Q

Is the authoritarian personality valid?

A

It doesn’t have much support as an explanation and authoritarian traits may just be a coincidence when it comes to obedience

psychology. (11 decks)

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