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Social Influence Flashcards

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1
Q

What is CONFORMITY?

A
  • yielding to group pressure
  • majority influence
  • the influence of a group to change a persons attitudes/beliefs
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2
Q

What is COMPLIANCE?

A
  • weakest form

- public change of behaviour/not private

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3
Q

What is IDENTIFICATION?

A
  • intermediate level
  • change publicly and privately
  • only while member of that group
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4
Q

What is INTERNALISATION?

A
  • strongest level
  • true change of public and private beliefs
  • truly believe majority is right
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5
Q

What is NORMATIVE SOCIAL INFLUENCE?

A
  • humans have a need to be accepted and approved
  • conform to majority behaviour to be accepted and approved
  • change behaviour to fit into group
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6
Q

What is INFORMATIONAL SOCIAL INFLUENCE?

A
  • humans have a desire to be right

- conform to majority behaviour to behave in correct way

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7
Q

What are the 3 variables affecting conformity?

A
  • group size
  • unanimity
  • task difficulty
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8
Q

What is GROUP SIZE?

A
  • conformity increases as majority size increases

- reaches a point where majority size doesn’t effect conformity

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9
Q

What is the research connected to GROUP SIZE?

A
  • ASCH (1956)
  • 13% conformity with 2 confederates
  • 32% conformity with 3 confederates
  • adding extra confederates had no effect on conformity levels
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10
Q

What is UNANIMITY?

A
  • conformity reduces when majority is not unanimous

- if one member of group express’s different view, person less likely to conform to majority view

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11
Q

What is the research connected to UNANIMITY?

A
  • ASCH (1956)
  • if 1 confederate gave correct answer, conformity rate dropped to 5.5%
  • if they gave the other wrong answer, conformity rate dropped to 9%
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12
Q

What is TASK DIFFICULTY?

A
  • conformity increases as task difficulty increases
  • individuals look to others for guidance
  • informational social influence
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13
Q

What is the research linked to TASK DIFFICULTY?

A
  • ASCH (1956)

- when lines were more similar to each-other, ppt more likely to conform

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14
Q

What are SOCIAL ROLES?

A
  • roles of individuals in a social group

- their roles meet expectations of the situation

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15
Q

What is OBEDIENCE?

A

-complying with the demands of an authority figure

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16
Q

What is AGENTIC STATE? (AGENCY THEORY)

A
  • milgram suggested people operate in two social states
  • autonomous individuals: choose actions and aware of consequences
  • agentic state: not responsible for their actions
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17
Q

What is a reason for the AGENTIC STATE?

A
  • stay in agentic state to deal with moral strain and anxiety
  • experience anxiety and conflict when ordered to do something immoral
  • don’t want to challenge authority
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18
Q

What is LEGITIMATE AUTHORITY?

A

-we are more likely to obey if we believe the authority is legitimate

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19
Q

What are SITUATION VARIABLES?

A
  • external explanations of obedience

- features of environment that affect obedience levels

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20
Q

What are 3 examples of SITUATIONAL VARIABLES?

A
  • proximity
  • location
  • uniforms
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21
Q

What is PROXIMITY?

A
  • how aware individuals are of the consequences of their actions
  • when obeying authority figures
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22
Q

What is LOCATION?

A
  • location can increase/decrease perceived legitimacy of authority figure
  • higher perceived legitimacy=higher obedience rates
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23
Q

What are UNIFORMS?

A

-authority figures perceived more legitimate when wearing uniforms

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24
Q

What are DISPOSITIONAL EXPLANATIONS for obedience?

A
  • obedience caused be personality characteristics

- authoritarian personality proposed to explain obedience to authority

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25
Q

What does UNANIMOUS mean?

A

-not all in agreement

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26
Q

What does AMBIGUOUS mean?

A

-uncertainty

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27
Q

What is AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY?

A
  • absolute obedience
  • submission to authority
  • developed in childhood by authoritarian parenting
  • fearful of social change
  • measured using the f-scale
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28
Q

What is the F-SCALE?

A
  • ADORNO (1950)

- measures an individuals degree of authoritarian personality

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29
Q

What is RESISTANCE TO SOCIAL INFLUENCE?

A
  • when individuals resist social influence
  • disobedience
  • non-conformity
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30
Q

What are explanations of RESISTANCE TO SOCIAL INFLUENCE?

A
  • social support

- locus of control

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31
Q

What is SOCIAL SUPPORT?

A
  • perception that an individual has assistance from other people
  • ASCH and MILGRAM found social support decreases conformity and obedience
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32
Q

What is LOCUS OF CONTROL?

A
  • perception of a persons control over their own life and behaviour
  • measured between HIGH INTERNAL LoC and HIGH EXTERNAL LoC
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33
Q

What are characteristics of individuals with HIGH INTERNAL LoC

A
  • believe they are in control of their life
  • believe they can affect the outcomes of situations
  • don’t rely on external opinions
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34
Q

What are the characteristics o individuals with HIGH EXTERNAL LoC?

A
  • believe they’re at the mercy of external factors
  • believe what happens to them is out of their control
  • rely on external opinions
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35
Q

What is MINORITY INFLUENCE?

A
  • type of social influence

- motivates individuals to reject established majority group norms

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36
Q

What type of social influence is MAJORITY INFLUENCE and what speed does it have effect?

A
  • normative or informational influence

- fast

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37
Q

What type of social influence is MINORITY INFLUENCE and what speed does it have effect?

A
  • informational influence

- slow

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38
Q

What behaviours make a MINORITY GROUP more effective?

A
  • consistent
  • committed
  • flexible
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39
Q

What is CONSISTENCY?

A

-minority keep consistent beliefs and attitudes to influence majority

40
Q

What is the difference between INTRA-INDIVIDUAL consistency and INTER-INDIVIDUAL consistency?

A

INTRA=individuals in minority keep consistent view over time

INTER=agreement of views among individuals in minority

41
Q

What is COMMITMENT and why is it important?

A
  • suggests certainty, confidence and courage
  • commitment and sacrifices
  • makes majority take them more seriously
42
Q

What is FLEXIBILITY and what did MUGNY (1982) suggest?

A
  • minority group makes adjustments with their ideas to be more persuasive
  • too committed seen as dogmatic
  • too flexible seen as inconsistent which means less influence
43
Q

What is the process of MINORITY to MAJORITY Influence?

A
  • consistency, commitment, flexibility
  • snowball effect
  • social crypto amnesia
44
Q

What is the role of CONSISTENCY, COMMITMENT and FLEXIBILITY in minor influence?

A
  • make minority argument more persuasive
  • commitment draws attention to minority view
  • consistency and flexibility used to show truth and value of minority position
45
Q

What is THE SNOWBALL EFFECT?

A
  • members of majority move towards minority
  • minority grows and picks up momentum so more majority members convert to minority
  • minority grows into snowball so large it becomes majority
46
Q

What is SOCIAL CRYPTO AMNESIA?

A
  • society forgets the source of the message
  • accepts minority views without too much disruption of social order
  • minority views becomes integral part of society
47
Q

What is SOCIAL CHANGE and how does it happen?

A
  • change in the social behaviour of a community
  • when minority view challenges and takes place of majority view
  • resist the pressure to conform
  • usually a slow process to shift attitudes
48
Q

What are the roles of CONFORMITY and OBEDIENCE in causing social change?

A
  • when minority initiates social change, comes a tipping point, majority now supports the change
  • conformity happens
  • people change public views to be accepted by majority
49
Q

What was the aim of ASCH’s study?

A

-to what extent people will conform to a majority opinion even when it appears obviously incorrect

50
Q

What was the procedure of ASCH’s study?

A
  • 50 American male college students
  • group of 7
  • all other people were confederates
  • target line card and 3 different length lines card
  • ppt said which line matches target line
  • correct answer always obvious
  • confederates briefed with specific answers
  • 18 trials
  • 6 correct answers
  • 12 wrong answers (critical trial)
  • answers out loud, ppt always second from last
  • post experimental interview
51
Q

What were the findings of ASCH’s study

A
  • average level of conformity 32% in critical trials
  • no ppt conformed on very critical trial
  • 74% ppt conformed at least once
52
Q

What was the conclusion of ASCH’s study?

A
  • even when correct answer not ambiguous majority has huge effect on individual
  • people may go along with majority for different reasons
  • majority doesn’t have the same impact on everyone
53
Q

What were ASCH’s findings? (interviews)

A
  • showed 3 levels of conformity
  • inaccurate perception
  • did not want to be minority in case of exclusion
  • thought they gave correct answer, not influenced
54
Q

What is a strength of ASCH’s research?

A
  • research support by CRUTCHFIELD (1953)
  • eliminated face to face contact by placing ppts in booths
  • conformity increased when task difficulty increased
55
Q

What are two weaknesses for ASCH’s research?

A

ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY

  • mori and arai (2010)
  • argued ASCH’s study may not tell us about real life situations
  • artificial and lacks mundane realism

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

  • meta analysis by smith and bond (1998)
  • found conformity levels were higher in collectivist cultures (interdependence highly valued)
  • than individualistic cultures (independence)
56
Q

Which researches provided evidence for NORMATIVE SOCIAL INFLUENCE?

A
  • GARANDEAU and CILLESSEN (2006)

- LINKENBACH and PERKINS (2003)

57
Q

What was GARENDEAU and CILLESSEN’s study?

A

GARANDEAU and CILLESSEN (2006)

  • children with higher needs for social expectance more likely to conform to bully behaviour
  • by conforming they believed they would be accepted, and maintain the friendship regardless of how they privately felt about bullying
58
Q

What was LINKENBACH and PERKINS study? (2003)

A
  • adolescents exposed to message that majority of peers did not smoke
  • meant they were less likely to smoke
59
Q

Which researchers provided evidence for INFORMATIONAL SOCIAL INFLUENCE?

A
  • JENNESS (1932)

- ALLEN (1980)

60
Q

What was the aim of JENNESS’s study? (1932)

A

-investigate whether individual judgments of number of jelly beans was influenced by discussion in groups

61
Q

What was the procedure of JENNESS’s study? (1932)

A
  • 811 white beans
  • ppt made individual estimates
  • discussed with others and made a group estimate
  • ppt made second individual estimate
62
Q

What were the findings of JENNESS’s study? (1932)

A
  • nearly all ppt changed their answer
  • on average males changed their answer by 256 beans
  • females 382 beans
63
Q

What was the conclusion of JENNESS’s study?

A
  • showed power of conformity in ambiguous situation
  • likely to be result of INFORMATIONAL SOCIAL INFLUENCE
  • ppt changed answers as they thought group estimate was more accurate
64
Q

What did ALLEN (1980) find?

A
  • intelligent and self-confident people less likely to conform
  • as they have more knowledge and confidence so don’t need to look to others
65
Q

What was ZIMBARDO ET AL (1973) aim?

A
  • investigate brutality in American prisons

- if it was due to guards sadistic personalities or influence of prison environment

66
Q

What was ZIMBARDOS (1973) procedure?

A
  • basement of psych department in standford uni
  • 21 male chosen from 75 ppts
  • paid to take part
  • randomly assigned to guard or prisoner
  • Zimbardo played prison superintendent
  • ppt arrested without warning
  • guards wore uniforms, mirrored sunglasses, handcuffs, keys, truncheons
  • prisoners wore smocks, nylon caps, addressed by their number
  • stopped after 6 days due to brutality
67
Q

What were ZIMBARDOS findings? (1973)

A
  • prisoners and guards settled quickly into their roles
  • guards become more sadistic and cruel
  • prisoners became more submissive and unquestioning of guards behaviour
  • prisoners showed de-individuation by calling eachother by their numbers
68
Q

What is a strength of ZIMBARDOS (1973) study?

A

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

  • Zimbardo argued his findings of conformity were shown in Iraq prison
  • believed the abuse was due to situational factors
  • lack of training, boredom, no accountability
69
Q

What are two weaknesses of ZIMBARDOS (1973) study?

A

CONFORMING TO SOCIAL ROLES NOT AUTOMATIC

  • guards behaviour varied from being sadistic to good guards
  • haslam and Reicher (2012) argued the guards chose how to behave

ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY

  • ppt conforming to social roles due to demand characteristics
  • cannot generalise and doesn’t tell us about conformity in real prisons
70
Q

What was MILGRAM’s (1963) aim?

A
  • level of obedience when obeying orders

- in situation where it broke moral code and hurt innocent people

71
Q

What was MILGRAM’s (1963) procedure?

A
  • laboratory in Yale university
  • 40 American men from advert
  • told it was a memory experiment
  • ppt always teacher
  • confederate always learner
  • give shocks up to 450v when wrong or no answer
  • ppt unaware they were fake
  • 300v confederate went silent
  • experimenter gave verbal prods
72
Q

What was MILGRAMS (1963) findings?

A
  • every ppt gave at least 300v
  • 62.5% gave full 450v
  • most ppt became highly stressed
  • 3 had uncontrollable seizures
  • some showed no signs of discomfort
73
Q

What was MILGRAMS (1963) conclusion?

A
  • people have strong tendency to obey morals even if they go against moral code
  • would kill someone under authority
  • most people show distress when breaking their moral codes
74
Q

What is one strength of MILGRAM’s study?

A

PRACTICAL VALUE

  • useful in helping us understand events like holocaust
  • easily replicated and produced similar results
  • high reliability
75
Q

What is an ethical weakness of MILGRAMS study?

A

NO PROTECTION FROM HARM

  • exposed ppt to extreme stress, severe physical reactions
  • only 2% ppt regretted study
  • most said they learnt something new about themselves
  • not taking sufficient steps to protect ppt
  • all ppt received psychiatric assessments
  • non showing long term damage
76
Q

What is another weakness of MILGRAMS (1963) study?

A

VALIDITY

  • too artificial
  • little resemblance to real life situations
  • lacks ecological validity
  • doesn’t tell us about obedience in other situations
  • more realistic studies like HOFLING ET AL does support
  • nurses received phone call from unfamiliar doctor to give high dose of unfamiliar medicine
  • 21/22 nurses obeyed
77
Q

What is the evaluation for AGENTIC STATE (agency theory)

A
  • MANDEL (1998)
  • inappropriate to draw comparison between MILGRAMS study and the holocaust
  • MILGRAMS ppt=half an hour
  • nazis=several years
  • unlikely AGENTIC STATE could last that long
78
Q

What is the evaluation for LEGITIMATE AUTHORITY?

A
  • MILGRAMS original research 65% gave full 450v
  • when experiment took place in run down building in Connecticut obedience dropped to 48%
  • change in location reduced legitimacy of authority
  • ppt less likely to trust experiment
79
Q

What is an evaluation for PROXIMITY?

A
  • MILGRAM (1963)
  • teacher and learner in same room
  • 45%
  • teacher forcing learners hand onto shock plate
  • 30%
  • teacher could experience learners pain more directly
  • closer the proximity, lower the obedience
80
Q

What is an evaluation for LOCATION?

A
  • MILGRAM (1963)
  • rundown building in Connecticut
  • carried out by other researchers instead of Yale university
  • obedience dropped to 47.5%
  • highlights importance of location
  • less credible location=less obedience
81
Q

What is an evaluation for UNIFORM?

A
  • bickman (1974)
  • confederate dresses in one of three ways gave orders to civilians
  • pick up rubbish, lend money, move away from bus stop
  • security guard=76%
  • milkman=47%
  • pedestrian=30%
  • uniform implies legitimate authority
82
Q

What are 2 strengths of AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY?

A

RESEARCH SUPPORT

  • elms and milgram (1966)
  • ppt who were highly obedient were more authoritarian on the f-scale
  • supports link between authoritarian personality type and obedience

RESEARCH SUPPORT

  • altemeyer (1988)
  • ppt with high authoritarian personalities were order to give themselves shocks
  • gave higher shocks then those without authoritarian personality type
83
Q

Give a limitation or AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY (1)

A
  • link between AP and obedience is correlational
  • has been found that less educated people more authoritarian
  • possible that education level influences obedience instead of personality
  • other research shown obedient ppts show higher levels of authoritarianism
  • when educational levels are controlled
  • suggests AP is better explanation than educational level
83
Q

Give a limitation of AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY (2)

A
  • f-scale suffers from response bias
  • if ppt agree with all items they’re rated authoritarian
  • altemeyer produced less biased scale by using equal number of pro and anti statements
  • altemeyers scale suggested individuals on the right of the scale more likely to obey authority
  • individuals on the left of the scale expected to be less obedient
84
Q

What is a strength of SOCIAL SUPPORT? (1)

A
  • ASCH (1951) if another individual gives different answer they act as a model
  • conformity drops from 32% to 5.5%
  • if ppt is supported, allows ppt to follow their own conscience and resist social pressure
86
Q

What is a strength of SOCIAL SUPPORT? (2)

A
  • MILGRAM (1974)
  • ppt paired with 2 additional confederates playing role of teacher
  • confederates refused to go on and with drew from experiment
  • obedience levels dropped from 65% to 10%
  • if ppt has support for they desire to disobey
  • more likely to resist social pressure
87
Q

What is a strength for LoC?

A

RESEARCH SUPPORT

  • BREHONY and GELLER assessed LoC in 60 males and females
  • found those with external LoC more conformist in response to ASCH-style study
  • conformed to stereotypical gender roles
  • those with internal LoC likely to show independent and androgynous (both genders) behaviour
88
Q

What is a weakness for LoC?

A
  • correlation between resistance and LoC
  • doesn’t prove cause and effect
  • so we don’t know if internal LoC causes resistance to SI or other way round
89
Q

What was MOSCOVICIS aim?

A
  • whether a consistent minority could influence a majority

- to give incorrect answer in colour perception task

90
Q

What was MOSCOVICIS procedure?

A
  • 172 females told it was colour perception task
  • In groups of 6, 4 ppts 2 confederates
  • shown 36 slides in varying shades of blue
  • had to state colour out loud
  • consistent condition said all slides were green
  • inconsistent condition said 24 were green and 12 were blue
91
Q

What were MOSCOVICIS findings?

A
  • consistent condition ppt agreed on 8.2% of trials

- inconsistent condition ppt agrees on 1.25% of trials

92
Q

What are MOSCOVICIS findings?

A
  • consistent condition was 6.95% more effective

- shows consistency is an important factor in minority influence

93
Q

What is a weakness of MOSCOVICIS study? (1)

A
  • used a bias sample of 172 females from America
  • unable to generalise to other genders
  • research suggests females more likely to conform
  • more research need to determine effect of MI on men
  • lacks population validity
94
Q

What is a weakness of MOSCOVICIS study?

A
  • deceived his ppt by telling them it was a perception test
  • he did not gain fully informed consent
  • although unethical to deceive ppt it was needed to achieve valid results
  • if ppt aware of true aim they would have displayed demand characteristics and acted differently
95
Q

What is support for FLEXIBILITY?

A

NEMETH (1986)

  • ppt in groups of 4 decide how much compensation to give ski victim
  • one ppt was confederate who suggested extremely low amount of money
  • if confederate was flexible and moved money amount, ppt more likely to reduce amount
  • if confederate not flexible ppt less likely to

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