Social Influence

Question 1

What is social psychology?

Answer 1

How people interact and influence each other

Question 2

What is social influence?

Answer 2

How the behaviour of others can cause individuals to change their behaviour

Question 3

What is conformity?

Answer 3

When the behaviour of an individual/small group is influenced by a larger/dominant group

Question 4

What are the 3 types of conformity?

Answer 4

1) internalisation
2) compliance
3) identification

Question 5

What is internalisation?

Answer 5

1) going along with the majority
2) believing in the majority’s views
3) accepting and internalising the views - making them your own views
3) private AND public

Question 6

Give an example of internalisation.

Answer 6

When you’re in an unfamiliar situation, where you don’t know what the ‘correct’ way to behave is. You’d look to others for information on how to behave

Question 7

What is compliance?

Answer 7

1) going along with the majority
2) not sharing their views
3) public ONLY
4) superficial + temporary

Question 8

What is identification?

Answer 8

1) accepting social influence to be associated with a role model/social group
2) changing/imitating behaviour of a role model

Question 9

What are the 2 explanations for conformity?

Answer 9

1) normative social influence

2) informational social influence

Question 10

What is normative social influence?

Answer 10

1) avoiding behaviour that will lead to exclusion + rejection from the group
2) people have a fundamental need for social approval + acceptance

Question 11

Why is normative social influence effective?

Answer 11

People like those who are similar to them

Question 12

What does normative social influence lead to?

Answer 12

Compliance

Question 13

What is informational social influence?

Answer 13

1) relying on the opinions of others to check you are correct
2) people have a fundamental need to be right + have an accurate perception of reality

Question 14

When is informational social influence more likely to happen?

Answer 14

If the situation is ambiguous

Question 15

What does informational social influence lead to?

Answer 15

Internalisation

Question 16

What did Asch’s (1951) test?

Answer 16

Whether people would conform to a majority’s incorrect answer in an unabiguous task

Question 17

What is an unambiguous task?

Answer 17

One where the answer is obvious

Question 18

What was the method for Asch (1951)?

Answer 18

1) placed a naïve participant in a group of confederates
2) asked participants to say which of three ‘test lines’ was the same as the ‘standard line’ without discussing and gave their responses out loud
3) confederates gave wrong answer on 12/18 trials even though the answer was obvious
4) naïve participant was always last or second to last

Question 19

What were the findings for Asch (1951)?

Answer 19

1) 33% of responses given by participants were incorrect
2) 75% of participants conformed at least once
3) 5% of participants conformed on every trial
4) 25% of participants did not conform on any trial
5) majority of conforming participants didn’t want to look different

Question 20

What situational factors affect conformity?

Answer 20

1) group size
2) task difficulty
3) unanimity

Question 21

What did Asch (1956) find when he changed group size?

Answer 21

1) 1 confederate = 3% conformity rate
2) 2 confederates = 13% conformity rate
3) 3 confederates = 32% conformity rate
4) little change to conformity in groups beyond 4 confederates
5) small majorities easier to resist than larger ones

Question 22

How did Asch (1956) adjust task difficulty?

Answer 22

Making the test lines more similar in length

Question 23

What did Asch (1956) find when he adjusted task difficulty?

Answer 23

1) conformity increased
2) people are more likely to conform if they’re less confident
3) the more difficult the task, the greater the informational social influence + conformity

Question 24

What did Asch (1956) find when the group had unanimity?

Answer 24

Conformity increased

Question 25

What did Asch (1956) find when the group was not unanimous?

Answer 25

1) conformity decreased
2) 1 confederate who went against majority reduced conformity from 33% to 5%
3) 1 confederate giving the wrong answer to the rest of the group reduced conformity from 33% to 9%

Question 26

What are social roles?

Answer 26

The behaviours society expects of an individual who occupies a social position/status

Question 27

Give an example of a social role

Answer 27

In our society, a woman who has a baby might be expected to look after and love her child - ‘mother’

Question 28

What did Zimbardo (1973) test?

Answer 28

Whether people would conform to the assigned roles of prisoner or guard in a mock prison

Question 29

What was the method for Zimbardo (1973)?

Answer 29

1) stimulated prison created in the basement of the Stanford University’s Psychology department
2) 24 emotionally + psychologically young men recruited + randomly assigned to role of prisoner/guard
3) prisoners were ‘arrested’, taken to ‘prison’, given uniforms + numbers
4) guards also given uniforms + mirrored sunglasses
5) guards told to maintain order using any means except physical violence

Question 30

What were the findings of Zimbardo (1973)?

Answer 30

1) guards asserted authority quickly
2) prisoners resisted by sticking together
3) prisoners became more passive + obedient
4) guards invented nastier punishments
5) experiment abandoned after 6 days instead of 2 weeks because some prisoners became very distressed

Question 31

Why was Zimbardo (1973) highly unethical?

Answer 31

1) prisoners subjected to psychological harm

2) 5 prisoners had to be released early because of extreme reactions (crying/rage/acute anxiety)

Question 32

Why was the sample in Zimbardo (1973) unrepresentative?

Answer 32

All participants were:

1) white (with one exception)
2) young
3) middle class
4) male
5) students from Stanford University

Question 33

Why can the results from Zimbardo (1973) not be generalised to women?

Answer 33

Gender bias

Question 34

Why can the results from Zimbardo (1973) not be generalised to other cultures?

Answer 34

Culture bias

Question 35

Why was observer bias a problem in Zimbardo (1973)?

Answer 35

1) Zimbardo became prison warden
2) Zimbardo became too involved in the experiment + lost objectivity
3) the validity of the findings can be questioned

Question 36

How did demand characteristics play a part in Zimbardo (1973)?

Answer 36

Some participants reported that they thought the experimenters wanted them to behave aggressively and so they did

Question 37

How did individual differences play a part in Zimbardo (1973)?

Answer 37

1) some guards did not conform to the role + were reluctant to be involved in cruelty towards prisoners
2) some guards were very abusive
3) individual differences could be important when determining the extent people will conform to social roles

Question 38

What is obedience?

Answer 38

Behaving as instructed by an authority figure

Question 39

What did Milgram (1963) test?

Answer 39

Obedience

Question 40

What was the procedure for Milgram (1963)?

Answer 40

1) placed advert in newspaper asking for male participants for a study on effect of punishment on learning
2) 40 participants invited to Psychology Department of Yale University
3) met experimenter wearing white laboratory coat (actually a confederate)
4) participant introduced to participant named Mr. Wallace (actually a confederate)
5) both picked notes out of hat to determine the role of ‘teacher’ and ‘learner’ (set up so that Mr. Wallace was always learned + participant was always teacher)
6) participant told their role was to punish learner if they made a mistake by administering an electric shock, increasing the voltage every time a mistake occurred
7) learner taken to a room and hooked up to electric shock machine
8) electric shock machine was fake but looked very real. Switches raised in increments of 15 volts up to 450 volts, from ‘Slight Shock’ to ‘XXX’
9) as the shocks became more severe, Mr. Wallace demanded to be released (screamed/kicked wall/complained about weak heart/went silent)
10) if teacher hesitated during the process, experimenter prompted hi to continue, using one of four statements

Question 41

What four statements did the experimenter use in Milgram (1963) when prompting the participant to continue with the experiment?

Answer 41

1) ‘Please continue’
2) ‘The experiment requires that you continue’
3) ‘It is absolutely essential that you continue’
4) ‘You have no choice, you must continue’

Question 42

What were the findings of Milgram (1963)?

Answer 42

1) 100% of participants gave shocks up to 300 V
2) 65% (26/40) of participants gave shocks until the maximum 450 V
3) participants showed high levels of stress during the experiment (sweating/trembling/anxious + hysterical laughter/groaning)
4) most participants were obedient + willing to inflict potentially lethal shocks on a man with a weak heart

Question 43

What was the conclusion of Milgram (1963)?

Answer 43

Ordinary people will obey orders to hurt someone else, even if it means acting against their conscience

Question 44

Why did Milgram (1963) lack ecological validity?

Answer 44

The participants were unlikely to encounter the task in real life

Question 45

What were the ethical issues in Milgram (1963)?

Answer 45

1) participants were deceived on the true nature of the story - couldn’t give informed consent
2) participants weren’t informed of their right to withdraw - prompted to continue when they wanted to stop
3) participants weren’t protected from harm - showed signs of stress

Question 46

What situational factors affect obedience?

Answer 46

1) presence of allies
2) proximity of the victim
3) proximity of the authority
4) location of the experiment

Question 47

How did the presence of allies affect obedience?

Answer 47

1) having allies makes it easier to resist orders
2) when there were 3 teachers (1 participant + 2 confederates), real participant was less likely to obey if other two disobeyed

Question 48

How did the proximity of the victim affect obedience?

Answer 48

1) proximity makes it harder to ignore learner’s suffering
2) 65% gave the maximum shock in original experiment
3) 40% gave the maximum shock with learner in the same room
4) 30% gave the maximum shock when told to place learner’s hand on shock plate - touch proximity variation

Question 49

How did the proximity of the experimenter affect obedience?

Answer 49

1) when the experimenter wasn’t close by, orders were easier to resist
2) when the experimenter gave prompts by phone form another room, obedience rates dropped to 21%
3) majority of participants missed out shocks/gave lower voltages that they were meant to

Question 50

How did the location of the experiment affect obedience?

Answer 50

1) 48% gave the maximum shock when the experiment was moved to a set of run-down offices
2) when the association with a prestigious university was removed, the authority of the experimenter seemed less legitimate and obedience decreased

Question 51

What did the experimenter wear in the alternative setting experiment (Milgram (1963)) and how did this affect obedience?

Answer 51

1) experimenter did not wear uniform (laboratory coat)

2) uniforms are symbols of power + status (or lack of) - police officer’s uniform/prisoner’s uniform

Question 52

What is an agentic shift?

Answer 52

The change from being in an autonomous state to an agentic state

Question 53

What does Milgram’s agency theory state?

Answer 53

When we feel we are acting out the wishes of another person, we feel less responsible

Question 54

How is agentic state shown in Milgram’s studies?

Answer 54

1) some participants asked who would take responsibility if learner was harmed
2) experimenter would take responsibility and participant would continue

Question 55

Why does agentic state occur?

Answer 55

1) authority figures are usually trustworthy
2) orders seem reasonable at first, becoming more aggressive - gradual commitment
3) people are psychologically protected from the consequences of their actions - buffers
4) maintaining a positive self-image

Question 56

What does it mean when you behave autonomously?

Answer 56

You don’t follow orders

Question 57

Why did Milgram (1974) think the agentic stage had developed during human evolution?

Answer 57

1) necessary for hierarchies to function in society - prevents chaos
2) in our society we are constantly submitting to authority figures (parents/teachers/police/doctors)
3) participants claimed they would have gone as far by themselves - following orders
4) some people resist pressure to obey authority - individual differences

Question 58

What are the situational explanations of obedience?

Answer 58

1) agentic state

2) legitimate authority

Question 59

What is meant by legitimate authority?

Answer 59

1) people are more likely to obey an order given by someone who has legitimate authority
2) people with legitimate authority are in a position of power within a certain setting

Question 60

What is the dispositional explanation of obedience?

Answer 60

Authoritarian personality

Question 61

What is meant by dispositional explanations of obedience?

Answer 61

Individuals’ personality characteristics determine their behaviour, not situational influences in the environment

Question 62

What did Adorno (1950) propose about authoritarian personalities?

Answer 62

1) over-strict parenting results in a child being socialised to obey authority unquestioningly
2) strict parenting means the child feels constrained - creates aggression
3) child fears discipline if they display aggression towards parents, so they’re hostile to weak/inferior people - minority groups

Question 63

What traits do authoritarian personalities have?

Answer 63

1) servile to people of higher status
2) hostile to people of lower status
3) preoccupied with power
4) inflexible in beliefs + values
5) conformist + conventional
6) likely to categorise people using ‘us’ + ‘them’
7) dogmantic

Question 64

What is the F (Fascism) scale?

Answer 64

A questionnaire measuring authoritarian personalities

Question 65

How does the F-scale work?

Answer 65

Participants are asked to rate how much they agree with statements such as ‘obedience and respect for the authority are important virtues children should learn’

Question 66

Evaluate authoritarian personalities.

Answer 66

1) participants who scored higher on the F-scale were more willing to adminster bigger shocks in Milgram’s experiment
2) other factors such as education could cause both authoritarian traits + obedience
3) situational factors such as proximity + location had a bigger effect on obedience
4) doesn’t explain how whole societies become obedient - not everybody has this personality type

Question 67

What is the social support theory?

Answer 67

When one person refuses to conform/obey it makes it more likely that other people will also resist social influence and refuse to obey

Question 68

Why does having social support make people more resistant?

Answer 68

1) easier to stand up to authority with support from others (ally) - no longer have to take full responsibility for rebelling (breaks unanimity of group)
2) people are more likely to display independent behaviour if they’ve got support from others
3) groups are more influential if unanimous
People are more likely to disobey if they see a disobedient role model refusing to obey - challenges authority figure’s legitimate authority

Question 69

What does a person’s locus of control indicate?

Answer 69

How much personal control the person believes they have over events in their life

Question 70

How is locus of control measured?

Answer 70

On a scale from internal to external

Question 71

What is meant by an external locus of control?

Answer 71

1) more likely to conform/obey
2) believe strongly what happens in life is out of control/determined by chance/other people - no ability to alter it
3) events are caused by external factors
4) have a less stronger control over their lives
5) less likely to exhibit independent behaviour

Question 72

Give an example of an external locus of control.

Answer 72

If a person does badly on a test they will blame it on bad luck or inadequate teachers

Question 73

What is meant by an internal locus of control?

Answer 73

1) believes what happens in life is a result of own behaviour + actions
2) can alter what happens in life
3) have a stronger sense of control over their lives
4) more likely to exhibit independent behaviour
5) less likely to conform/obey

Question 74

Give an example of an internal locus of control.

Answer 74

If a person does badly on a test they consider it to be a result of their own inadequate revision

Question 75

What characteristics do people with an internal locus of control have?

Answer 75

1) likely to be leaders than followers
2) less concerned with social approval
3) more self-confident
4) believe they control their own circumstances

Question 76

What is minority influence?

Answer 76

When persuasive small groups/individuals change the way the majority behaves + thinks

Question 77

Why does minority influence lead people to truly change their private views?

Answer 77

The cognitive conflict between the majority’s current believes and the new deviant ideas proposed by the minority leads to careful and creative thought

Question 78

What is conversion?

Answer 78

When individuals change their private beliefs + views because of minority influence (internalisation)

Question 79

What does minority influence lead to?

Answer 79

Conversion

Question 80

Why may people alter their behaviour in public?

Answer 80

To avoid being rejected (normative social influence)

Question 81

What is social crypto-amnesia?

Answer 81

When public opinion gradually changes over time, until the minority view is accepted as the norm, but people forget where the view originally came from

Question 82

What is the snowball effect?

Answer 82

When minority influence initially has a small effect but this then spreads, as more and more people consider the issue being raised, until it reaches a tipping point, where the minority becomes the majority

Question 83

What three factors must minority groups have to be convincing?

Answer 83

1) consistent
2) committed
3) flexible

Question 84

Why are minority groups more convincing when they are committed?

Answer 84

1) joining minority costs more than staying with majority
2) degree of commitment shown by minority is greater than majority
3) greater commitment means majority will take them seriously

Question 85

Why are minority groups more convincing when they are consistent?

Answer 85

1) people come to reassess the situation + consider the issue more carefully
2) natural to assume the minority is wrong at first

Question 86

Why are minority groups more convincing when they are flexible?

Answer 86

1) they are less powerful than majority and must negotiate their position rather than enforce it
2) rigid minorities that will not compromise risk being seen as narrow minded - failing to consider others’ opinions may be justified
3) minorities that are too flexible + willing to compromise risks being seen as inconsistent

Question 87

What two methods allow social change to take place?

Answer 87

1) conversion theory

2) social impact theory

Question 88

What is the social impact theory?

Answer 88

Social influence occurs when the combined effects of 3 factors are significant enough:

1) strength
2) number
3) immediacy

Question 89

How did the gay rights movements cause social change?

Answer 89

1) homosexuality used to be illegal in the UK
2) when it was decriminalised the age of consent was 21 (higher than for heterosexuals)
3) minorities in the gay rights movements successfully changed attitudes
4) the Equality Act 2007 made it illegal to discriminate against homosexuals
5) same-sex marriage was legalised in the UK in 2014

Question 90

In what ways can minorities bring about social change?

Answer 90

1) drawing attention to the issue
2) cognitive conflict
3) consistency of position
4) the augmentation principle
5) the snowball effect

Question 91

In what ways can majorities bring about social change?

Answer 91

1) conformity

2) obedience

Question 92

How does obedience bring about social change?

Answer 92

1) governments can use their power to change the law

2) changing the law means more people will be accepting as the law will become a social norm

Question 93

What is misperception?

Answer 93

The gap between the actual norm and the perceived norm

Question 94

What is social norms intervention?

Answer 94

The social change that occurs when communicating the actual norm to people in order to correct a widespread misconception

Question 95

What is a strength of Milgram (1963)?

Answer 95

1) after conducting a cost-benefit analysis, it was found the study was worthwhile - we know most people will potentially do the same thing
2) participants did not suffer long-term emotional harm - 84% said they were happy to have taken part + learnt something important

Question 96

What is a cost-benefit analysis?

Answer 96

Weighing the harm a study has done against the valuable knowledge it has provided

Question 97

What is a weakness of Milgram (1963)?

Answer 97

1) participants deceived about true nature of experiment - told it was about memory but it was about obedience
2) participants did not give informed consent
3) participants weren’t protected from psychological harm - extreme distress/hysterics/some participants thought they’d killed Mr. Wallace
4) no right to withdraw
5) sample is unrepresentative - all participants were white American males
6) gender bias - cannot be generalised to women
7) cultural bias - cannot be generalised to other cultures

Question 98

What is a strength of explanations for conformity?

Answer 98

1) normative social influence in Asch (1951) - participants claimed they knew the right answer but were worried the group would ridicule them if they answered differently to everyone else
2) informational social influence - participants estimated number of beans in a jar individually but then as a group where they roughly estimated the same value (uncertain about number of beans so genuinely influenced by group)
3) informational social influence using autokinetic effect

Question 99

What was the method for Sherif (1935) and the autokinetic effect?

Answer 99

1) small spot of light projected on screen in dark room appears to move
2) participants estimated individually how far light moved
3) participants tested in groups of 3 - 2 people with similar values, 1 with different value
4) each person said aloud how far light moved
5) person with different estimate conformed - group converged to common estimate

Question 100

What is a weakness of explanations for conformity?

Answer 100

1) suggested 3rd explanation for conformity - ingratiational conformity (similar to normative social influence + motivated by need to impress rater than fear of rejection)
2) dispositional factors (personality traits) may affect whether a person conforms - people with high self-esteem more resistant to conformity

Question 101

What is a weakness of variables affecting conformity?

Answer 101

1) may not have temporal validity - conducted 80 years ago where people may have been more conformist (post-war attitude where people should work together + consent)
2) lacks mundane realism + ecological validity - artificial + unlikely to occur in real life
3) gender bias
4) culture bias
5) lacks population validity - volunteer sample was used (certain type of people)

Question 102

What is a weakness of Zimbardo (1973)?

Answer 102

1) unethical - prisoners subjected to psychological harm
2) validity can be questioned - Zimbardo lost objectivity after taking on role of prison warden
3) unrepresentative sample - all participants were white (except one)/young/middle class/male students from Stanford University
4) gender bias - cannot be generalised to women
5) cultural bias - cannot be generalised to other cultures
6) demand characteristics make the study not valid - some participants thought experimenter wanted them to behave aggressively
7) individual differences - some guards did not conform whilst others were very abusive

Question 103

What is a strength of legitimate authority?

Answer 103

1) nurses obeyed dangerous order from a doctor because they were in a hospital location - Hofling (1966)
2) person in uniform more likely to be perceived as legitimate authority figure - Bickman (1974)

Question 104

What is a weakness of legitimate authority?

Answer 104

1) does not explain why some people are able to resist legitimate authority - 35% of participants in Milgram (1963) refused to obey experimenter even though he had legitimate authority

Question 105

What was the method of Hofling (1966)?

Answer 105

1) nurses received phone call from unknown doctor (actor) called Dr. Smith
2) doctor asked nurse o administer 20 milligrams of a drug to a patient
3) dosage broke hospital rules - twice the dse indicated on bottle
4) instructions given over phone/doctor was unknown/medicine was not on stock list
5) 95% of nurses carried out the instructions despite the danger

Question 106

What was the method of Bickman (1974)?

Answer 106

1) asked confederates to order passerby to pick up litter off street/move away from bus stop
2) confederates dressed up as guard/milkman/smart clothes
3) 90% obeyed guard
4) 50% obeyed civilian
5) person in guard uniform more likely to perceived as legitimate authority figure

Question 107

What is a strength of authoritarian personality?

Answer 107

1) participants were ordered to give themselves increasing levels of electric shocks when they made a mistake on a task - significant correlation between those willing to shock themselves + high scores on the F scale

Question 108

What is a weakness of authoritarian personality?

Answer 108

1) situational factors may be more important than dispositional - Milgram found obedience was 100% when Mr. Wallace made no noise/obedience was 0% when 2 authority figures disagreed with each other
2) dispositional explanations do not explain entire societies - fewer than 65% of people have authoritarian personalities (cannot be the only explanation)
3) lack of education could cause authoritarian personality + obedience - less educated people are more likely to have authoritarian personality/participants with lower levels of education were more obedient