Social Influence

Question 1

what is compliance?

Answer 1

when a person agrees in public with a group of people but privately disagrees. (Asch)

Question 2

what is internalisation?

Answer 2

an internal and public change of behaviour

Question 3

what is identification?

Answer 3

this occurs when someone conforms to the demands of a given social role in society. (Zimbardo)

Question 4

what is normative social influence?

Answer 4

the desire to be liked in a group and therefore conformity occurs. any change in behaviour will be temporary.

Question 5

what is informational social influence?

Answer 5

the desire to be right. this type of conformity may occur when the answer is unclear, this explanation leads to internalisation.

Question 6

what is the method of Aschs line study?

Answer 6

• standard line with three comparison lines
• only 1 true pp the rest were confederates
• the confederates were told to get the answer wrong on 12 of the 18 trials

Question 7

what were the results of Aschs study?

Answer 7

pps conformed on 32% of the critical trials where confederates gave the wrong answers
75% conformed at least once

Question 8

name 3 evaluation points for Aschs study

Answer 8

• gender bias
• ethical issues
• lack ecological validity

Question 9

what factors affect conformity?

Answer 9

-group size( Asch altered the number of confederates.
1 confederate = 3%
2 confederates = 13%
3 confederates = 32%)
-group unanimity ( Asch redid the experiment but this time a confederate that agreed with the right answer - reduced conformity as much as 80%)
-difficulty of task

Question 10

what was the method Zimbardo’s prison experiment?

Answer 10

• converted a basement of Stanford into mock prison
• randomly assigned roles
• both roles had to wear uniforms
• no physical violence was allowed
• Zimbardo observed the behaviour of the prisoners and guards and acted as a prison warden.

Question 11

what were the results of Zimbardo’s experiment?

Answer 11

• within hours of the experiment beginning some of the guards started harassing the prisoners.
• the prisoners adopted a prison like behaviour too
• the prisoners became more submissive however the guard became more aggressive and assertive.

Question 12

what are the evaluation points for Zimbardo’s?

Answer 12

• demand characteristics
• population validity
• a strength is that it has changed how us prisons are run
• ethics
• not protected from psychological harm

Question 13

what is obedience?

Answer 13

a type of social influence when a person follows orders from another person usually an authority figure.

Question 14

what is the method of Milgram’s study?

Answer 14

• had a teacher and a learner
• teacher was always the true pp.
• every time the learner gave the wrong answer the teacher gave a shock
• the experimenter wore a grey lab coat
• had 4 prods that he used if the pp did not obey.
  1) please continue
  2) the experiment requires that you continue
  3) It is absolutely essential that you continue
  4) you have no other choice but to continue

Question 15

what were the results of Milgram’s study?

Answer 15

• all participants went to 300 volts

- 65% were willing to go all the way to 450 volts

Question 16

what is the evaluation of Milgram’s study?

Answer 16

• low ecological validity
• ethical issues
• gender bias
• repeatable

Question 17

what is the agentic state?

Answer 17

people will obey an authority when they believe that the authority will take responsibility for the consequences of their actions

Question 18

what is the legitimacy of authority figures?

Answer 18

People tend to obey others if they recognise their authority as morally right and / or legally based (i.e. legitimate

Question 19

what are the situational factors in Milgram’s experiment?

Answer 19

• uniform

- proximity

Question 20

what is the authoritarian personality?

Answer 20

a person who favours an authoritarian social system and in particular admires obedience to authority figures. (Adorno)

Question 21

what are the two types of locus of control?

Answer 21

internal - they control what happens to them

external - fate decides what happens to them

Question 22

what is minority influence?

Answer 22

Minority influence occurs when a small group (minority) influences the opinion of a much larger group (majority).

Question 23

what was Moscovici’s method?

Answer 23

• female pps shown 36 blue slides
• 2 confederates (minority) 4 pps (majority)
• In the first part of the experiment the two confederates answered green for each of the 36 slides. They were totally consistent in their responses. In the second part of the experiment they answered green 24 times and blue 12 times. In this case they were inconsistent in their answers. A control group was also used consisting of participants only – no confederates.

Question 24

what did Moscovici find?

Answer 24

When the confederates were consistent in their answers about 8% of participants said the slides were green. When the confederates answered inconsistently about 1% of participants Said the slides were green.

Question 25

what is social change usually a result of?

Answer 25

minority influence