Social Influence Flashcards
Informational Social Influence
Conformity is due to the desire to be right
Normative Social Influence
Conformity is due to the desire to be liked
Compliance
Individual goes along with the group to gain approval, publicly but not privately
Identification
Temporarily accepting and conforming to a group publically and privately
Internalisation
Publicly and privately accepting the beliefs of an individual or group
Cognitive dissonance
feeling anxiety when holding two contradictory ideas
Confederate
Actors who portray themselves as a participant in the study
Situational Variables
Features of an environment that affect conformity
Individual variables
Personal characteristics that affect conformity
Social Roles
the parts individuals play in a social group
De-individuation
When a person moves into a group and loses some individual identity
Dehumanisation
Degrading people by lessening their human qualities
Obedience
Complying with the demands of an authority figure
Milgram Paradigm
Experimental procedure for measuring obedience rates
Agentic State
When an individual carries out the orders of another individual, acting as their agent and taking little responsibility
Autonomous State
Individuals are seen as personally responsible for their actions
Legitimacy of Authority
A person who is perceived to be in a position of social control
Dispositional
Individuals behaviour as a result cause by internal characteristics
Authoritarian personality
Having extreme respect for authority and is obedient to those who have power over them
Social support
Assistance and solidarity available from others
Locus of control
Extent to which individuals believe they can control events in their lives
Reactance
Occurs when a person feels that someone or something is taking away his or her choices
Ironic deviance
Takes place when we believe that the behaviour of the majority is the result of unreasonable pressure from authority
Minority influence
Where an individual influences the behaviour of a larger group
Social Change
process of a change in beliefs and attitudes of society
Asch Procedure
Individual participants were placed in groups from 7-9 and were asked to composer sets of lines
There were 18 trails and 12 of these were critical in which the confederates gave an incorrect answer
Who were the volunteers for Aschs study
123 american male students
What was Aschs control groups error rate?
0.04%
On Aschs critical trials, what was the conformity rate?
32%
How many of Aschs participants conformed at least once
75%
How many never conformed
25%
How many conformed on all wrong answers of Aschs study?
5%
What were Aschs participants three reasons for conformity?
- Distortion of action (to avoid ridicule)
- Distortion of perception (people actually believed they were wrong)
- Distortion of judgment (people doubted their accuracy)
Conclusions of Aschs study?
Judgment of individuals is affect by majority even when their evidently wrong
+ of Asch - Paradigm
became an accepted way of conducting research into conformity
- of Asch - uneconomical and time consuming
Crutchfield performed similar research but tested all participants all at once
- of Asch - unrealistic
lacked mundane realism
- of Asch - unethical
included deceit and harm (psychological stress)
- of Asch - unconvincing confederates
Conformity rate was actually only 32% which is quite low
- of Asch - 1956 USA
1956 USA was very anti communist therefore everyone would would most likely conform, if it was tested again results would most likely be significantly different
Who improved Aschs study and what was their improvement
Mori and Arai
- used females
- varied culture
Zimbardo’s Findings
- Both guards and prisoners settled into roles quickly
- Five prisoners had to leave the study early due to extreme psychological stress
- Was terminated after 6 days due to how consumed the participants became in their roles
Zimbardos Conclusions
- Illusion merges into reality - cant trust human perception
- People are ready to conform if the roles are heavily stereotyped
- Situational hypothesis
Zimbardo - EXTREMELY BAD ETHICS!!!
No protection from harm
No right to withdraw
Deception
Loss of privacy
+ of Zimbardo - intention improved prisons
hoped to improve however he acknowledged they were worse now than in the 1970s
- Zimbardo - conflict of interest
He actually took part in his own study
+ Zimbardo - ethical consent
was accepted by committee and did offer debriefing for several years
What were the prompts from Milgrams study
- Please continue
- The experiment requires you to continue
- You have no other choice but to continue
Findings of Milgram
65% went to 450V
only 12.5% stopped
Conclusions of Milgram
Ordinary people are likely to still obey even if it goes against moral code or distress
Adorno - F Scale
people who scored higher of the F Scale tended to have parents in an authoritarian lifestyle (absolute obedience)
Why do people resist
- Social Support
- Locus of control
Examples of lack of resistance
- Junior doctor
- Co pilot
Internal Locus of Control
Make things happen
- More independent
- Less reliant on others opinions
External Locus of Control
Things happen to them
- Dependant on others
Spectors Locus of Control
Measured in regards to normative and informative social influence
- Relates to normative as people usually conform when they desire to be liked
Internals are more persuasive
- Spector
Internals before better under pressure
Hutchins
Minority Influence three features to success
Consistent
Flexible
Commitment
Consistency study
Blue Slides
- 2% conform to minority when consistent
- 25% conform to minority when inconsistent
Commitment
Xies tipping point only needs 10%
Factors of Social Change
Attention Conflict Consistent Augmentation Snowball Cryptoamnesia
Social change through majority
Social Norms Interventions
