Social Influence

Question 1

What is conformity?

Answer 1

(majority influence)
Tendency to change what we do, think/say in response to the influence of real/imagined pressure from others

Yield to group pressure

Individual chooses a course of action that is favoured by the majority of other group members

Question 2

Three main types of how people conform?

Answer 2

Compliance: appear to agree with others, whilst disagreeing in private

Internalisation: agree with others both in private and public

Identification: want to be perceived to belong

Question 3

The three main types of conformity range from shallow to deep, what is the order?

Answer 3

Compliance - shallowest
Identification- moderate
Internalisation- deep ( most permanent )

Question 4

Define internalisation

Answer 4

Private and public change
Usually permanent because attitudes have been internalised
Highest level
Result of ISI

Question 4

Define identification

Answer 4

Public change and possibly private change too
Behaviour stops when not in the presence of the group
Medium level
Result of NSI

Question 5

What is compliance?

Answer 5

Public change but not private
Temporary and stops at soon as group pressure stops
Result of NSI- avoid disapproval
Lowest level

Question 6

What are the two main reasons why we conform?

Answer 6

Normative social influence and informational social influence

Question 7

Explanation for conforming- normative?

Answer 7

Conform because we want to fit in, social approval ( want people to like us), don’t want to be the odd one out

May occur with people we know because we are concerned about the social approval of our friends
Or happens in a situation with strangers where you may feel concerned about rejection

Question 8

Explanation for conforming- informational?

Answer 8

Conform because we lack information and want to be right

It’s about who has the best information- you or the rest of the group

Question 9

Informational- Jenness (1932)

Answer 9

To test conformity, need to use ambiguous task
In this case, it’s not clear what the correct answer is
1. Individuals make estimate of how many beans in jar
2. Make estimate in a group
3. Make estimate individually again

Results:
Individuals change estimate to be closer to group estimate after discussing in a group, so, conforming to majority because of lack of information
Also females were more likely to conform

So, the judgements of individuals are affected by majority opinions especially in uncertain situations. Discussion is not effective in changing opinion unless the individuals who enter into discussion become aware of differences in opinion held by others

Question 10

Normative- Asch (1951,1955)

Answer 10

Procedure:
Asch tested conformity by showing participants two large white cards at a time.
On one card was a standard line and on the other card were three comparison lines.
One of the three lines were the same length as the standard and other two were always substantially different.
The participant was asked which of the three lines match the standard.

Participants in the study were American male undergraduate students. Each naive participant was tested individually with a group of between six and eight Confederates. The naive participant was not aware that the others were Confederates

On the first few trials the Confederates gave the right answers but then they started making mistakes. All Confederates were instructed to give the same wrong answer. Altogether each participant took part in 18 trials and 12 critical trials the Confederates gave the wrong answer. The trial was one occasion identifying the length of the standard line

There was also a control group of 36 participants who were tested individually on 20 trials

Findings:
The control group had an error rate of only 0.4%. The participants gave a wrong answer 32% of the time. Overall 25% of the participants did not conform on any trials, which means that 75% conformed at least once.
The term ‘Asch effect’ has been used to describe this result
When participants were interviewed afterwards most said they confirmed to avoid ridicule

Question 10

Evaluation of explanations for conformity

Answer 10

Research support for ISI- Wittenbrink and Henley found that participants exposed to negative beliefs about African Americans (which they were lead to believe was the majority view) later reported more negative beliefs about a black individual
Consistency in research findings for ISI increases the reliability of it as an explanation for conformity

Research support for NSI- US research has shown the relationship between people’s normative beliefs and the likelihood of them taking up smoking. Linkenbach and Perkins found that adolescents exposed to the simple message that the majority of their age peers didn’t a joke were subsequently less likely to take up smoking
Consistency in research findings into NSI increases the reliability of it as an explanation for conformity

Artificial task and situation- most research on the explanations or conformity is conducted under laboratory conditions. Participants know they’re taking part in research and so their behaviour may not be the same as in normal everyday life, reducing ecological validity
Also demand characteristics which will reduce internal validity

Question 12

What are the three variations of the original study?(Asch)

Answer 12

Group size, unanimity and task difficulty

Question 13

Impact of a variation in group size?(Asch)

Answer 13

One real participant and one Confederate = 0% conformity

One real participant and two Confederates = 14% conformity

One real participant and three Confederate = 32% conformity

After three Confederates, conformity levels stay the same

Question 15

Impact of task difficulty ( Asch )

Answer 15

Asch made the line judging task more difficult by making the standard line and the comparison lines more similar in length.

He found that conformity increased under these conditions.

This suggests that informational social influence plays a great role when the task becomes harder. This is because the situation is more ambiguous. So we are more likely to look to other people for guidance

Question 16

Impact of unanimity ie agreement ( Asch )

Answer 16

He wanted to know if the presence of another nonconforming person would affect the naive participants conformity.

To test this he introduced a Confederate who disagreed with others, sometimes the new Confederate gave the correct answer and sometimes gave the wrong one.

The presence of a dissenting Confederate lead to reduce conformity, whether that the dissenter was giving the right or wrong answer.

The figure was, on average, 25% conformity. The presence of a dissenter enabled the naive participant to behave more independently. This suggests that the influence of the majority depends to some extent on the group being unanimous

Question 17

Evaluation of Asch’s research on variables affecting conformity

Answer 17

Perrin and Spencer (1980)- repeated Asch’s study with engineering students and only 1 student conformed in a total of 396 trials. This may be because the engineering students felt more confident about measuring lines than in the original sample and therefore less conformist. But it’s also possible that in the 1950s when the original study was done it was an especially conformist time in America and so it made sense to conform to established social norms

Gender differences- only men were tested by Asch. Other research suggests women might be more conformist possibly because they’re more concerned about social relationships (Jenness)

Independent behaviour rather than conformity- in two thirds of the trials the participants resolutely stuck to their original judgement so Asch believed that rather than showing human beings to be overly conformist, his study demonstrated a commendable tendency for participants to stick to what they believed to be the correct judgement ie show independence

Question 18

Conformity to social roles as investigated by Zimbardo

Answer 18

Procedure:
He set up a mock prison in the basement of the psychology department at Stanford university

They advertised for students willing to volunteer and selected those who are deemed emotionally stable

The students were randomly assigned the roles of guards or prisoners

To heighten the realism of the study the prisoners were arrested in their homes and brought to the prison, blindfolded, strip-searched and issued a uniform and number

The social roles of the prisoners and the guards were strictly divided. The prisoners daily routines were heavily regulated. There were 16 roles to follow, which were enforced by the guards who worked in shifts, three at a time. The prisoners names were never used, only their numbers.

The guards had their own uniform complete with a wooden club, handcuffs, keys and mirror shades. They were told they had complete power over the prisoners

Findings:
The guards behaviour became a threat to the prisoners psychological and physical health and so the study was stopped after six days instead of the intended 14
Within two days the prisoners rebelled against the harsh treatment by the guards. They ripped their uniforms, and shouted and swore at the guards who retaliated with fire extinguishers
One prisoner was released on the first day because he showed symptoms of psychological disturbance. Two more were released on the fourth day. One prisoner went on a hunger strike. The guards attempted to force feed him and then punished him by putting him in the hole, a tiny closet

Question 19

The BBC Prison Study ( Reicher, Hassan 2006)

Answer 19

Procedure:
They randomly assigned men to the role of guard or prisoner and examined their behaviour within a specially created ‘prison’

15 male participants were divided into five groups of three people, and from each group of three, one person was randomly chosen to be a guard another two prisoners. The study was to run for eight days.

Findings:
participants did not conform automatically to the assigned roles.
the prisoners increasingly identified as a group and worked collectively to challenge the authority of the guards
The guards failed to identify with their role which made them reluctant to impose the authority on the prisoners
it led to a shift of power and the collapse of the prison guard system

Question 20

Definition of obedience?

Answer 20

A form of social influence in which an individual follows a direct order. The person giving the order is usually an authority figure

Question 21

Milgram ( 1963 )

Answer 21

Procedure:
Milgram recruited 40 male participants through newspaper adverts. The ad said he was looking for participants for a study about memory. The participants recruited were aged between 20 and 50 and their jobs ranged from unskilled to professional. They offered $4.50 to take part

When participants arrived at Milgrams lab they were paid the money and there was a rigged draw for their role. The Confederate called Mr Wallace always ended up as the learner and the true participant was a teacher. There was also an experimenter dressed in a lab coat. Participants were told they could leave the study at any time.

The learner was strapped in a chair in another room and wired with electrodes. The teacher was required to give the learner an increasingly severe electric shock each time the learner made a mistake on a learning task (the task involved learning word pairs). The shocks were demonstrated to the teacher. The shocks were not real.

The shock level started at 15 volts (labelled slight shock on the shock machine) and rose through 30 levels (increment of 15 V each time) to 450 V labelled danger severe shock. When the teacher got to 300 V the learner pounded on the wall and then gave no response to the next question. After 315 V shock the learner pounded on the wall again but after there was no further response from the learner

When the teacher turned to the experimenter for guidance, experimenter gave a standard instruction: ‘an absence of response should be treated as a wrong answer’. If the teacher felt unsure about continuing, experimenter used the sequence of four standard prods, which were repeated if necessary

Findings:
No participants stopped below 300 V, 12.5% stopped at 300 V, 65% continued to the highest level of 450 V. Qualitative data was also collected such as observations that the participant showed signs of extreme tension, many of them were seen to sweat or tremble or stutter or bite their lips

Question 22

What are the explanations for obedience?

Answer 22

Situational variables
Social Psychological Factors
Dispositional explanation

Question 23

What are the situational variables as investigated by Milgram?

Answer 23

Proximity- physical distance of authority figure/ physical distance of teacher to learner

Location- place where order is issued. Prestige?

Uniform- symbolic of authority eg lab coat

Question 24

6 Variations of Milgrams original study?

Answer 24

Baseline study at Yale uni 65% went to 450V

Run down office 48%

Teacher and learner in same room 40%

Teacher forces learners hand into shock plate 30%

Experimenter gave orders by phone 20.5%

Experimenter played by member of public, not wearing lab coat 20%

Question 25

What are the two main social psychological factors affecting obedience ?

Answer 25

Agentic state- mental state where we feel no personal responsibility for own behaviour because we believe ourselves to be acting for an authority figure. High anxiety when they realise what they’re doing is wrong but feel powerless
Opposite is autonomous state, free to behave according to own principles. Shift from autonomy to agency is called an agentic shift

Legitimacy of authority- more likely to obey people who we perceive to have authority over us, justified by individuals position of power within a social hierarchy eg in Milgrams study, experimenter perceived to have legitimate authority over teacher

Question 26

What is the dispositions explanation?

Answer 26

The authoritarian personality
Adorno - high level of obedience was basically psychological disorder

Characteristics- extreme respect for authority,
Highly conventional attitudes towards sex/race, believe we need strong leaders, very aware of social status as very submissive to authority but expect people below them to be submissive to them

Origin- formed in childhood as result of harsh parenting, this creates resentment in child but child can not express these feelings to parent out of fear so these feeling are displaced onto others who are perceived as weaker ( scapegoating )

Measurement- F scale ( fascist ), how much they agree with statements

Question 27

What are the explanations of resistance to social influence?

Answer 27

Social support

Locus of control

Question 28

How does social support help resist social influence such as obedience and conformity?

Answer 28

Social influence refers to when the presence of people who resist pressures to conform or obey help others to do the same. These people act as models to show that resistance is possible.

Conformity- SS can help people resist conformity, pressure to conform reduced of other people present who aren’t conforming

Obedience- SS can help people to resist obedience, pressure to obey can be reduced if another person is disobeying. Milgrams study- obedience dropped from 65% to 10% when the genuine participant was joined by a disobedient confederate.

Question 29

What is Locus of Control?

Answer 29

Rotter 1966 proposed this concept. This concept is concerned with internal control vs external control

Internals believe things that happen to them are largely controlled by themselves eg if they do well in an exam it’s because they worked hard but if they don’t do sell it’s because they didn’t work hard enough

Externals believe things that happen to them are out of their own control. Eg if they did well in an exam they might say it’s because they used an excellent textbook but if they don’t do well it’s because the questions were too hard

Internals more likely to be able to resist pressures to conform or obey because they tend to be more confident, more achievement oriented and less need for social approval.

Question 30

Minority influence- what behaviours do minorities have to adopt to be successful?

Answer 30

Consistency - people start to reassess the situation and consider the issue more carefully. Wood et al carried out a meta analysis and found that minorities who were more consistent were more influential

Commitment - suggests certainty, confidence and courage

Flexibility - Mugny 1982 suggests flexibility is more effective at changing majority opinion than rigidity or arguments

Question 31

Research for consistency - Moscovici ( 1969 )

Answer 31

Procedure- each group had four naive participants and a minority of two confederates. They were shown a series of blue slides that varied in intensity and were asked to judge the colour of each slide. In the ‘consistent’ condition, the two confederates repeatedly called the blue slide green on every trial. In the inconsistent condition, the confederates called the slides green on two thirds of the trials and on the remaining one third of the trials called the slides blue. The the control condition, six naive participants and no confederates, participants called the slides blue throughout

Findings- consistent minority had the highest percentage of green responses and therefore conformity whilst the control group had the lowest