Social influence Flashcards
What are the 3 types of conformity Kelman (1958)?
Compliance
Internalisation
Identification
What is compliance?
Individuals go along with the group to gain approval or avoid disapproval.
Compliance does not change anyone’s underlying attitude, only in views and behaviours they express in public.
What is internalisation?
Individuals may go along with the group because of an acceptance of their views. Can lead to acceptance of group’s point of view publicly and privately.
What is indentification?
Combination of both compliance and internalisation. People accept the behaviour they are adopting as right
Does not necessarily change the views of the person’s views privately.
What is the longest affecting type of conformity?
Internalisation - change of public and private beliefs.
What is the shortest affecting type of conformity?
Compliance - change of public behaviour but not private and is temporary as it stops as soon as the group pressure stops.
What is normative social influence?
This refers to instances where someone conforms in order to fit in and gain approval / avoid disapproval from other group members.
What is informational social influence?
Refers to instances where people conform because they are uncertain about what to do in a particular situation so look for guidance.
1 strength of informational social influence, Lucas (2006).
Gave students maths problems to solve - easy or difficult. Found students tended to conform to the more difficult problems. Shows we look to other people when we are unsure and assume they would know better.
1 strength for normative social influence.
Adolescents exposed to the message that the majority of their peers did not smoke subsequently less likely to smoke.
1 weakness for normative social influence.
People do not recognise they are being affected by others
Who is normative social influence most likely to affect?
Affects people who seek approval of others more than people who are less concerned with being liked.
Individuals who have a greater need for affiliation more likely to be affected by NSI.
What was Asch’s studing into?
Study into conformity
Describe Asch’s study procedure.
`Sample : 50 male American students.
The naive participants entered the room and sat with 6 people who they thought were ppts but they were in fact confederates.
Each person in the room had to say aloud Which comparison line (A, B or C) was most like the target line ‘x’. The answer was obvious at the beginning. The real participant sat at the end of the row and gave his answer last. There were 18 trials in total and the confederates gave the wrong answer on 12 trials. Asch wanted to find out if the real ppts would conform to the majority view even when it was obviously wrong.
What were the three variables affecting conformity?
Group size, unanimity of majority and difficulty of task
What were the results of Asch’s study.
Results: The ppts conformed in 32% of the trials, 75% of the Ps conformed at least once. When they were interviewed after the study, the Ps said that they know the answer was wrong but they did not want to beridiculed. Asch (1951) Standard line Comparison lines
What percent of people were correct when tested alone?
98%
A strength of Asch’s study.
-Empirical support - Crutchfield, he did it on a larger scale proving the concept.
Weakness of asch’s study
- ‘may be a child of its time’ Cold war period, people were in a unique time of conforming.
- Lacks ecological validity : setting unrealistic as it is in a lab.
- Ethnocentric and androcentric. Mainly male dominant and only one ethnic group.
- Unconvincing confederates may have affected some results
asch variations
Asch-more variations Unanimity and social Support When one Other person in the group gave a different answer from the Others, then group was not unanimous, conformity dropped.
Asch found that even the presence Of just one confederate that goes against the majority choice can reduce conformity by as much as 80%.This suggests that individuals conform because they are concerned about what other people think of them (e.g. normative influence).
Difficulty of Task When the lines (e.g. A, B, C) were made more similar in length it was harder to judge the correct answer and conformity increased. When we are uncertain, it seems we look to others for confirmation. The more difficult the task the greater the conformity (informational social influence) Answer in Private When participants were told to answer in private (so the rest of the group do not know their response)conformity decreased to 12%. This is because there is less group pressure as there is no fear Of disapproval or rejection from the group. Therefore normative social influence is less powerful
asch evaluation
The Ps were men (androcentric sample) but women conform differently Larsen et al. (1979) so we cannot generalise the results to women.
Time validity-The social climate has changed and Larsen (1974) found a lower conformity rate when he replicated Asch’s study.
The Ps were American and Smith & Bond(1996) carried out a meta- analysis of replications in various cultures and found that there were variations between but also within cultures. The study took place in an artificial environment, the Ps were doing an artificial task so we cannot generalise the results to everyday situations especially as there were no consequences to the ps conforming but in real life there might be consequences. In the study, the Ps were not really part of the group as they did not know each Other, the ps might have acted differently if the group had been known to them. Sogon (1984) found that conformity was higher when the majority Of thegroup were friends Of the participants.
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When was Zimbardo’s study?
1973
What was the aim of Zimbardo’s study?
If ‘ordinary’ people were placed in a stimulated prison environment and some of them were designated guards and some designated prisoners, how would they behave in their new social roles?
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When was Milgram’s study?
1963
What was the aims of Milgram’s study?
To investigate what level of obedience would be shown when ppts were told by an authority figure to administer electric shocks to another person.
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What is agentic state?
A mental state where we feel no personal responsibility ,we believe we are acting on behalf of an authority figure.
What is the autonomous state?
People act according to their own values, and they take responsibility for the results of those actions.
