Social Influence

Question 1

What is conformity?

Answer 1

Conformity is when someone changes due to social pressure

Question 2

Asch’s aims?

Answer 2

Asch aimed to use an unambiguous figure to investigate group pressure and conformity

Question 3

Asch’s method?

Answer 3

There were 123 naive male American participants. There were also confederates. Each naive participant was put in a group with 6-8 confederates. They were shown one standard line labelled ‘x’ then three comparison lines labelled a , b & c. They were asked which line matched x. At first the confederates chose the right answers. After, they did 12 ‘critical trials’ where they all chose the same wrong one.

Question 4

Asch’s results?

Answer 4

On the 12 critical trials, naive participants gave the wrong answer 36.8% of the time. There were big individual differences with 25% never conforming which means 75% conformed at least once. Some conformed most of the time.

Question 5

Asch’s conclusion?

Answer 5

Asch concluded that people are influenced by group pressure even when there’s a clear-cut answer. They called this the Asch effect. However, he also concluded that there was a high level of independence. Group pressure is strong but most participants gave the right answer.

Question 6

Asch’s evaluations?

Answer 6

W-these results may only reflect 1950s America which was very conformist. Another study similar to this in 1980s England only found 1 to conform in 396 trials.
W-artificial task, judging the length of lines doesn’t reflect everyday conformity
W- may only apply to individualist, not collectivist cultures

Question 7

Social factors that effect conformity?

Answer 7

Group size, anonymity, task difficulty

Question 8

Dispositional factors that effect conformity?

Answer 8

Personality(locus of control), expertise

Question 9

Study about obedience?

Answer 9

Milgram’s study

Question 10

What does agency theory consist of?

Answer 10

Agentic state, autonomous state

Question 11

What is the agentic state?

Answer 11

When someone acts on behalf of authority and therefore feels no responsibility for their actions.

Question 12

What is autonomic state?

Answer 12

When you act according to your own principles and feel responsibility for your actions.

Question 13

Social factors on agency theory?

Answer 13

Authority, culture(social hierarchy), proximity(how close you are to the situation(the moral strain becomes stronger)

Question 14

Adorno’s authoritarian personality theory?

Answer 14

He believes some people are raised in a certain way that makes them have an exaggerated respect for authority, more likely to obey orders, look down on people of inferior status and see things in a more ‘black and white’ way.

Question 15

Scapegoating?

Answer 15

Displacing anger and hostility to those of inferior status to offload anger off of yourself.

Question 16

What can cause an authoritarian personality?

Answer 16

Strict parenting and discipline

Question 17

Piliavin’s aims ?

Answer 17

He set to investigate bystander behaviour in a natural setting. He wanted to see whether certain traits made them more likely to receive help.

Question 18

Piliavin’s method?

Answer 18

103 trials were done by 4 students boarding a NYC train always at the same stop. One would dress as the victim and either carry a cane(disabled victim) or carry a bottle of alcohol(drunk victim). After 70 seconds the victim would stage a collapse and wait until forthcoming help. The victims acted identically in both conditions. 2 students made notes of behaviour around them and the other would give help if none had been given after a certain amount of time.

Question 19

Piliavin’s results?

Answer 19

The victim holding the cane was helped at some point in 95% of the trials, the drunk victim was only helped on 50% of the trials. In the first 70 seconds after the collapse, 87% helped the disabled rather than 17% with the drunk victim.

Question 20

Piliavin’s conculsion?

Answer 20

Seeming more or less deserving of help affecting whether people helped or not. Characteristics of the victim played a big role in whether they were helped. In this natural setting, the number of witnesses didn’t have an effect on giving help.

Question 21

Piliavin’s evaluations?

Answer 21

S-participants didn’t know they were being observed so their behaviour is high in validity
W- it was only an urban sample of people, it may not relflect typical behaviour of most people
S-collected both quantitative and qualitative data meaning you know what they did and why

Question 22

Social factors on pro social behaviour?

Answer 22

Presence of others(responsibility is diffused), cost of helping(eg. Danger and guilt)

Question 23

Dispositional factors on pro social behaviour?

Answer 23

Expertise(if you were qualified in a way that was relevant to help needed), similarity to victim(easier to sympathise)

Question 24

Which study investigated deindividuation?

Answer 24

Zimbardo

Question 25

Conclusion of Zimbardo’s study?

Answer 25

Anonymity and deindividuation made it more likely someone will act antisocially

Question 26

Which study found that riot behaviour can be ‘ruly’?

Answer 26

Reicher

Question 27

What is social loafing?

Answer 27

When you’re in a group you put in less effort due to responsibility being diffused in the group.

Question 28

Differences between collectivist and individualist cultures?

Answer 28

In a group, Chinese people(collectivist culture) will put in just as much effort as they would individually. American/uk people(individualist culture) would put in less effort in a group and more effort when individual.

Question 29

Personality affects on crowd behaviour?

Answer 29

Internal locus of control means in a crowd you’re more likely to still follow your own social norms and not to take on the social norms of the group. They are less likely to be influenced by crowd behaviour.

Question 30

Morality affects on crowd behaviour?

Answer 30

Higher moral strength means you’re more likely to follow your principles of right and wrong and less likely to be more concerned about the opinion of others when you follow these principles.