Social Influence Flashcards

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1
Q

What is obedience?

Milgram study outline and evaluate

Carried out at Yale uni (prestigious)

A

Obedience is where somebody acts in a manner to fulfil an order from direct authority. Person has choice to comply with order or refuse.

Milgram’s shocks aim was to try and see if somebody would go against their conscience and obey authority.
Sample size was 40 males ages 20-50. Volunteer sample who were given $4.50 to participate.
P’s told they were in a study about learning. P’s told they were randomly assigned role of teacher and the confederate was assigned role of learner.
If confederate answered wrong participant would give them a shock. Level of shock would increase with every wrong wrong answer by 15v. Same tape recording each time to improve consistency. Experimenter (man in white lab encouraged them too carry on.) confederate said phrases like ‘I can’t stand the pain’ and experimenter ‘you must continue’
Found all p’s gave atleast 300v. At 315v confederate stopped responding. 65% of people gave upto full 450v
Shows ordinary people very obedient to authority even to point of killing somebody.
All p’s debriefed and given questionnaire and 84% of p’s said they were happy too have participated

Sample lacks pop val as only males and only ages 20-50 so hard to generalise to women and other ages. Women generally less aggressive and more maternal so may have had different results.
16% weren’t happy to have participated could have caused psychological damage
Lab settings lack ecological validity
Milgram’s findings replicated in other cultures
Right to withdraw sort of removed when he said you must continue

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2
Q

Hofling et al- bonus study linking to Milgram’s

A

Studied obedience in nurses in real life hospital setting
Nurses were tang by a DR Smith on the telephone and asked too give a drug too a patient.
Nurses should not take orders over phone and dosage was twice the normal amount. However still 21/22 nurses complied which therefore acts as supporting evidence to Milgram’s work showing obedience does occur in real life. Study has real life application showing people do obey authority in real life even if it may harm somebody.
All females- maybe males behaved differently in the era due to different societal role and less likely to obey

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3
Q

Why do people obey?

Explain the situational variable proximity

Outline location effect

Uniform effect on obedience

A

Situational variables eg. Uniform, proximity, location
Social psychological factors and dispositional factors

Baseline at Yale was 65%. Vs 40% same room, 30% teacher puts learners hand onto plate, 20.5% orders over phone. Pressure to obey therefore varies by proximity. Also when victims near you, you can see them and the consequences it has

65% Yale baseline (prestigious uni that’s respected). Prestigious setting gave more authority than at run down office which had 47.5%. That study therefore no longer linked to Yale so no longer have the status linking to the authority figure. Location controls amount of power. Different places different people have power.

Uniform symbolises somebody’s authority eg. The police. In this variation experimenter pulled away at last minute and member of the public in normal clothes brought in. Member of public doesn’t have as much authority as they don’t necessarily know what they’re doing. Experimenter posted by member of public had 20%

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4
Q

Bickman study explain

Evaluation for situational variables study

A

3 male confederates either dressed in normal clothes, milkman or security guard. Asked passers by too do task for them such as pick up litter or give them a coin for parking . P’s 2x as likely to obey security guard as they were the man in normal clothes. Supports idea that uniform therefore affects obedience.

Good control over variables with only one variable such as proximity manipulated at a time. There is a lack of internal validity as people may have guessed aim when experimenter replaces with member of public which would affect their results.
Do the findings of the study warrant evil behaviour and suggest it’s acceptable if we are obeying authority.

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5
Q

Social psychological factors what do they suggest?

What’s the agentic state?

A

Suggests other people can influence our behaviour and not just situational variables.

We aren’t responsible for actions in agentic state, we are just a puppet to authority figure. We feel powerless to disobey. We are acting as an agent to an authority figure. Agentic shift happens when we believe somebody else has higher social status. We go from being autonomous to an agent

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6
Q

Legitimate authority

Evaluation of legitimate authority

A

Certain people are obeyed in society due too having authority eg. Parents, teachers, police etc. We have trust in them and we believe that if we disobey them we may experience punishment. If we believe person giving orders is a legitimate authority figure we are more likely to obey them.

Doesn’t explain why some p’s didn’t obey eg.35% of ps’s didn’t give full 450v.
Legitimate authority is good explanation of cultural differences in obedience eg. Germany 85% gave full series of shocks whereas Australia only 16%. Perhaps therefore Germany respects society more and are more likely to obey.

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7
Q

Authoritarian personality what is it?

When and how does it form?

A

A personality type that makes you very susceptible too obeying authority figures. They show extreme respect for authority. Look down on those lower in social hierarchy. They believe that strong leaders are necessary.

Forms in childhood and perhaps due too harsh parenting involving strict discipline, criticism and impossibly high standards. Child then may feel resentment but can’t display it too parents so places these feelings on those whom are felt too be lower in society

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8
Q

Adorno et al study

A
Over 2000 middle class Americans did a survey studying attitudes towards religious and ethnic minority groups (on the F scale). Those who had authoritarian Personality looked down on weak and had negative preconceptions and had prejudices and stereotypes against others.
Elms and Milgram studied obedient p’s abd found they scored higher on F scale and were less likely to be close to their father in childhood

Elms and Milgram only shows causation not correlation.
Supports idea of authoritarian Personality.
Large sample size so perhaps good val. however only middle class Americans studies so hard to generalise so lacks pop val and results may show culture bias. Limited explanation as can’t explain fully pre war Germany as surely not everybody had authoritarian Personality type yet majority of people obeyed. Links to determinism with that surely not being the case

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9
Q

3 Types of conformity ?

A

Compliance - change public behaviour but don’t change private behaviour or beliefs. Generally a short term change and occurs due too normative social influence eg. You say you like drill rappers in class too act cool but then privately you hate it.

Internalisation- deepest level of conformity where you change public and private beliefs and occurs as a result of informative social influence eg. Somebody is influenced by a group of Christians he then starts to believe in the faith and his beliefs are same publicly and privately.

Identification- changes public behaviour as associate with group group and value it even if they don’t agree with the groups beliefs privately. Is dependant on group presence and is in between compliance and internalisation

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10
Q

Normative and informative social influence as explanations of conformity

A

Normative social influence is when somebody conforms too fit in and seek approval from the social group or avoid disapproval from other group members. Will lead too conformity. Links to compliance and identification. They will follow the normal behaviours of society. Eg, own clothes day you wear what’s supposedly cool even if you don’t like it too avoid rejection. Normative social is an emotional rather than cognitive process and is most pronounced in stressful situations

Informative social influence is where we conform as we believe somebody else too have greater knowledge and be correct. This explanation leads to internalisation where we change our public and private beliefs on a topic. Can happen when they are uncertain themselves about a correct answer so look to the group for advice. More prominent in stressful situations or when somebody’s new so doesn’t know what to do in a situation and so doesn’t know what’s right

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11
Q

Asch’s line study outline and evaluate

A

123 American male p’s
The extent to which social pressure from a majority could affect somebody’s answer and cause them to conform
Naîve participant put in a room with 7 confederates who had pre planned answer to line task. Real participant believed all the rest were real. Answers were always obvious and you had to say which line was the same length as the line the man showed you (there was always 3 choices). 18 trials in total and confederates gave wrong answer in 12. 75% conformed atleast once and 1/3 went along with nearly all.

People confirmed as wanted too be part of the group- normative social influence. Could show demand characteristics with social desirability.
May receive different results now too then as carried out in the 50’s just after the war where America was more conformist than it is now so there may be historical bias.

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12
Q

What impact did Asch’s change of procedure have on his results? And what were the 3 things he changed.

A

Task difficulty, unanimity and changing the size of the group.
Greater task difficulty was introduced by using lines that were more similar in length. This meant the effect of informative social influence was increased where people would look to others for the answer as they believed they had greater knowledge. Effect of informative social influence was increased as with more similar length lines there is a greater chance of getting a wrong answer.

Unanimity- Asch found when a dissenter was introduced it reduced conformity as it provided social support to the person. Introduction of dissenter decreased conformity by 25%.

group size- It was found there is no need for a majority greater than 3 in order for conformity too occur. A majority of greater than 3 would not affect conformity levels.

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13
Q

Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment outline and evaluate including like: aim ,procedure etc
It’s a study showing conformity.

A

Was funded by US navy. It’s aim was too see if people would conform to new social roles.

-Volunteer sample of all male psychology students from prestigious Stanford uni. Random allocation of p’s into 2 groups of security guards or prisoners. Prisoners were meant to be locked in cells for 2 weeks of uni wing and guards meant too keep the prisoners under control and behaving. Arrested at home unexpectedly then: stripped, deloused etc and referred too as their number not their name and in prison cells 23 hours a day. Prison guards had uniforms, sticks and mirrored sunglasses.

Experiment called off after 6 days due too brutality eg. 2 prisoners had nervous breakdowns. Prisoners didn’t stand upto guards and did as they were told despite it being unpleasant. Shows that the p’s in the experiment conformed to the behaviors of their social roles.

Stanford prison experiment is partially limited due too it not being realistic enough as it was carried out in the prestigious university of Stanford which would have the same feel as an ordinary prison so p’s behavior may differ too if they were in a different location.
Study sample consists of all white males so experiences culture and gender bias therefore making it hard to generalize and it lacks population validity.
Volunteer sample means only certain outgoing kind of people are taking part in the study so it perhaps lacks population validity.

Study has had practical application as helped revolutionize the human rights of prisoners meaning they get better treatment. However this experiment is also limited due to effects on p’ causing psychological harm eg. such as 2 p’s experiencing nervous breakdown. Also maybe hard too generalize too other cultures as different places have different sorts of prisons eg. America still has death penalty.

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14
Q

Conformity definition

A

It’s where people adapt their behavior and attitudes to the behaviors and attitudes of significant others like teachers. It’s a response too indirect group pressure.
You tend to act the same way or similar too people in your reference group and it’s referred too as yielding too group pressure

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15
Q

What’s social support?

A

One way people may resist the pressure to conform or obey is if they have somebody who shares their perspective. Having somebody who shares their viewpoint can help build their confidence and stay independent. eg. Asch’s variation of his line study in the unanimity variable where the introduction of a dissenter decreased conformity by 25% due too the social support.

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16
Q

Locus of control what is it?

A

It’s thought too be part of our personality and varies from strong external locus of control at one end too strong internal locus of control at the other. Basic idea of locus of control is how much power somebody has over the events that happened to them.
Strong external locus of control is somebody who believes all the events that happen too them are not within their control and are due too luck or fate and is controlled by external factors and the environment such as: what other people are doing. eg. somebody believes they did well in exam due too a good revision guide.

Strong internal locus of control describes somebody who believes they are in control of the events that happened too them. eg. they do bad on test and believe it was since they did not revise enough.

17
Q

Few key terms to do with Zimbardo study:

Define deindividuation, social roles and dispositional attribution

A

Deindividuation- Where people lose their sense of identity eg. being called just by their number in the prison rather than their name. Happens due too normative social influence and causes people too follow the attitudes and behaviours of the group and the groups social norms rather than their own.

Social Roles- It is the part people play in a social group eg. parent, child, student etc. Each role we have behaviours which are expected of the role eg. caring as a parent.

Dispositional attribution- Method of explaining a certain behavior that occurs due too our internal characteristics that stick with us. This is instead of external influences from the environment.

18
Q

Social influence definition

what is social control?

what is social change?

A

Social influence is the process in which individuals or groups affect each others behaviours and attitudes causing them too change. Includes conformity, obedience and minority influence

Social control is a method of trying to regulate individual behavior or group behavior to enforce conformity and compliance and establish social norms and expectations. 2 types= informal (unwritten rules) +formal which is like written and legal enforcement.

When whole societies adopt new attitudes, beliefs and methods of doing things instead of just individuals. Examples would be women getting equal rights and earth orbiting the sun ( majority of people agree with these and accept these.)

19
Q

How can minorities be influential?

A

Minorities can be influential if they adopt the appropriate style of behavior. If people always went along with the majority there would be no change or innovation. eg being gay was illegal until 1967 in the U.K however over time attitudes have changed and its generally accepted now in the U.K. and is considered normal variation of human behavior. Now rights of gay people are protected and gay marriage has been legalized in around 50 years.

20
Q

What features of minorities are needed too cause change?

A

Consistency, commitment and flexibility are 3 main factors causing change

A consistent minority increases the interest from other people. Two types of consistency = synchronic- where they all are saying the same + diachronic where minority have been saying the same thing for a period of time. Such consistency over time causes people to rethink their own viewpoints.

Commitment-Sometimes people do extreme things to outline how committed they are too a cause. People see the great commitment shown and think that perhaps they should reconsider their view. This is called the augmentation principle,.

Flexibility-A balance between consistency and flexibility is needed in order for your viewpoint too be considered. Rigidness isn’t appealing and is off putting and you need too accept valid points against your viewpoint/ argument and adapt your point of view.

All 3 above factors help minority become the majority.

21
Q

How does minority influence differ from conformity?

What does minority influence lead too if its successful

A

Minority influence differs from conformity as in minority influence the smaller group changes behaviors and attitudes of the larger group whereas in conformity the larger groups behaviors and attitudes influence the minorities and they adopt these attitudes and behaviors therefore influence the attitudes of these smaller groups.

Minority influence leads too internalization eg. both your public and private beliefs are changed due too the process.

22
Q

Moscovici study 1969 explain

A

Aim- Trying too look at effect of a consistent minority on opinions of a larger group possibly causing doubt and causing them too question and alter their views.
Procedure- All female sample carry out an eye test checking too see for colour blindness. Then placed in group of 2 confederates and 4 p’s. All shown 36 slides all different shades of blue then asked to say the colour out load of the slide (should theoretically answer blue every time). 2 groups in the experiment:

In 1st group p’s were consistent and answered green for every slide. Other group were inconsistent and did 24 green and 12 blue. In consistent group 8% of trials ended up in p’s answering green vs inconsistent group 1% of trials ending up in p’s answering green..

Conclusions of the study shows that minorities an affect the opinion of the majority especially if they are consistent in their attitudes and beliefs

Only carried out on females so has gender bias so is hard to generalize to the whole population.
Lacks ecological validity as its not a real life sort of task (it is an artificial task) so it does not have the importance of some real life situations such as in a jury so it is hard too generalize findings to a real life situation. Has good control so results are reliable and valid.

23
Q

Social change name the 6 steps of social change.

A

Drawing attention, consistency, deeper processing, augmentation principle, snowball effect, social cryptomnesia.

24
Q

Describe 6 steps of social change

A

Drawing attention is a process where you highlight a problem or specific area and use social proof as evidence eg.civil rights marches.

Consistency- The consistency of message and intent needs too be kept for social change too occur

Deeper processing- deeper processing occurs so people who accepted what was simply staying the same then started too think about how unfair it was.

Augmentation Principle- This is where people show their commitment to the cause through doing extreme stunts such as the suffragette Emily Davison stepping in front of a horse in a protest for women’s rights. Then people start too rethink their beliefs thinking if someone is that willing to risk their health for the cause their may be something too it.

Snowball effect- The attention is engaged of the majority and people start too believe the matter at hand is more of a significant issue and the beliefs of the minority are now in a process of transfer too the beliefs of the majority.

Social cryptomnesia- where people are aware that social change has occurred but don’t exactly remember the events that led too the change or how it happened.