Social Influence Flashcards
What is the definition of conformity?
What is another definition of conformity?
What are the two types of conformity?
What is the definition of compliance?
Why do the individuals here adjust their own actions?
A change in a person’s behaviour or opinion as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people
Choosing a course of action that is favoured by the majority of other group members
Compliance and internalisation
Individuals go along with group to gain approval/avoid disapproval
Adjust own actions to fit in with views/actions of others.
What does and doesn’t compliance result in?
What is the definition of internalisation?
What does internalisation encourage?
What two things does validation mean?
Where does acceptance of majority of view occur?
Doesn’t result in change of attitude (private), only change of behaviours or views expressed in public
Individuals go along with group because of an acceptance of their views
Exposure to views of other encourages individual to engage in validation process
False/wrong and true/right
Both privately and publicly.
What is the definition of identification?
What element of compliance is there in identification?
What element of internalisation is there in identification?
What is the definition of normative social influence?
What basically is normative social influence?
What do humans have a need for as a social species?
When does normative social influence occur?
What does an individual conform to in normative social influence?
Acceptance of group/individual influence because of desired association with group/individual
Purpose of adaptation is to be accepted as a member of the group
Accepts attitudes/behaviours as right/true
Going along with the majority without really accepting their point of view
Need to be liked
Social companionship and a fear of censure or rejection
Occurs when individual believes they are under surveillance by the group
The majority position in public but does not necessarily internalise views.
What is the definition of informational social influence?
What do humans need to feel?
How are perceptions/beliefs tested in informational social influence?
When is informational influence more likely?
What is the result of informational social influence?
The acceptance of information from others as evidence about reality
Confident that their perceptions/beliefs are correct
Objectively or through opinions of others
When situation is ambiguous or where others are believed to be experts
Individual changes behaviour in line with group position both privately and publicly.
Describe the following evaluation points of Asch’s research (full description):
- A limitation is that Asch’s findings may be considered a “child of the times”
- A second limitation is that the situation and task were artificial
- Another limitation is that the findings may have gender and cultural biases
Perrin and Spencer (1980) found just one conforming response in 396 trials. Participants (UK engineering students) felt more confident measuring lines that Asch’s original sample, so were less confident measuring lines than Asch’s original sample, so were less conformist. Also, the 1950s were a conformist time in America and people might be less likely to conform in subsequent decades. The Asch effect is not consistent over time, so is not an enduring feature of human behaviour
Participants knew they were in a study so may have just responded to demand characteristics. The line task was trivial so there was no reason not to conform. Also, the naïve participants were in a group, but not like groups found in everyday life. Findings do not generalise to everyday situations where consequences of conformity are important, and where we interact with groups more directly
Only men were tested by Asch. Neto (1995) suggested that women might be more conformist, possibly because they are more concerned about social relationships (and being accepted). Participants were from the USA, an individualist culture (people are more concerned with themselves than their social group). Smith and Bond (1998) suggest that conformity rates are higher in collectivist cultures (eg China) which are more concerned with group needs. This suggests that conformity levels are sometimes even higher than Asch found; his findings may be limited to American men.
Describe the following other evaluation points of Asch’s research (full description):
- Additionally, the findings only apply to certain situations
- A final limitation involve the ethical issues associated with Asch’s research
Participants answered out loud and where with a group of strangers they wanted to impress. Conformity would be higher than usual. But Williams and Sogan (1984) found conformity was higher when the majority were friends rather than strangers. Therefore, the Asch effect varies depending on circumstances
Naïve participants were deceived. They thought the others in the procedure (confederates) were genuine. But this ethical cost should be weighed against the benefits of the study. The main benefit was highlighting people’s susceptibility to group conformity and the variables affecting it.
What was the procedure of Asch’s research?
What was the findings of Asch’s research?
Describe the Asch effect?
What did participants state as a reason that they conformed?
What would the explanation for this be?
What did Asch test and why?
Describe group size in Asch’s research?
Describe unanimity in Asch’s research?
Describe task difficulty in Asch’s research?
123 male undergraduate students- with 18 trials and 12 critical trials
- Participants gave incorrect answer 36.8% of the time
- 25% did not conform on any of the trials
- 75% conformed at least once
Extent to which participants conformed, even when situation was unambiguous
Participants stated they conformed to avoid rejection
Normative social conformity
Tested various conditions to investigate what might lead to an increase or decrease in conformity
Conformity rose when there were more confederates in the room giving their answers
If one disagrees, will stick by their views despite the rest of the group. If everyone agrees, more likely for conformant
Harder the task became, the higher the conformity rate.
What was the background of Zimbardo’s research?
What was the procedure of Zimbardo’s research (full description)?
What is de-individuation?
What were the four findings?
What was the conclusion of Zimbardo’s research?
Brutality of guards towards prisoners in America in the late 1960s
- Mock prison set up in basement of Stanford University
- Used volunteer sample and selected participants based on emotional stability
- Participants randomly assigned role of prisoner or guard
- Social roles of prisoners and guards were strictly divided
Loss of personal identity
- Guards took up their roles enthusiastically
- Behaviour became a threat to prisoners psychological and physical health
- The more the guards identified with their roles, the more brutal and aggressive they became
- Prisoners became subdued, depressed and anxious
Participants and researchers all conformed to their social roles within prison.
