Social Influence Flashcards
What is CONFORMITY?
- yielding to group pressure
- majority influence
- the influence of a group to change a persons attitudes/beliefs
What is COMPLIANCE?
- weakest form
- public change of behaviour/not private
What is IDENTIFICATION?
- intermediate level
- change publicly and privately
- only while member of that group
What is INTERNALISATION?
- strongest level
- true change of public and private beliefs
- truly believe majority is right
What is NORMATIVE SOCIAL INFLUENCE?
- humans have a need to be accepted and approved
- conform to majority behaviour to be accepted and approved
- change behaviour to fit into group
What is INFORMATIONAL SOCIAL INFLUENCE?
- humans have a desire to be right
- conform to majority behaviour to behave in correct way
What are the 3 variables affecting conformity?
- group size
- unanimity
- task difficulty
What is GROUP SIZE?
- conformity increases as majority size increases
- reaches a point where majority size doesn’t effect conformity
What is the research connected to GROUP SIZE?
- ASCH (1956)
- 13% conformity with 2 confederates
- 32% conformity with 3 confederates
- adding extra confederates had no effect on conformity levels
What is UNANIMITY?
- conformity reduces when majority is not unanimous
- if one member of group express’s different view, person less likely to conform to majority view
What is the research connected to UNANIMITY?
- 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%
What is TASK DIFFICULTY?
- conformity increases as task difficulty increases
- individuals look to others for guidance
- informational social influence
What is the research linked to TASK DIFFICULTY?
- ASCH (1956)
- when lines were more similar to each-other, ppt more likely to conform
What are SOCIAL ROLES?
- roles of individuals in a social group
- their roles meet expectations of the situation
What is OBEDIENCE?
-complying with the demands of an authority figure
What is AGENTIC STATE? (AGENCY THEORY)
- milgram suggested people operate in two social states
- autonomous individuals: choose actions and aware of consequences
- agentic state: not responsible for their actions
What is a reason for the AGENTIC STATE?
- 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
What is LEGITIMATE AUTHORITY?
-we are more likely to obey if we believe the authority is legitimate
What are SITUATION VARIABLES?
- external explanations of obedience
- features of environment that affect obedience levels
What are 3 examples of SITUATIONAL VARIABLES?
- proximity
- location
- uniforms
What is PROXIMITY?
- how aware individuals are of the consequences of their actions
- when obeying authority figures
What is LOCATION?
- location can increase/decrease perceived legitimacy of authority figure
- higher perceived legitimacy=higher obedience rates
What are UNIFORMS?
-authority figures perceived more legitimate when wearing uniforms
What are DISPOSITIONAL EXPLANATIONS for obedience?
- obedience caused be personality characteristics
- authoritarian personality proposed to explain obedience to authority
What does UNANIMOUS mean?
-not all in agreement
What does AMBIGUOUS mean?
-uncertainty
What is AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY?
- absolute obedience
- submission to authority
- developed in childhood by authoritarian parenting
- fearful of social change
- measured using the f-scale
What is the F-SCALE?
- ADORNO (1950)
- measures an individuals degree of authoritarian personality
What is RESISTANCE TO SOCIAL INFLUENCE?
- when individuals resist social influence
- disobedience
- non-conformity
What are explanations of RESISTANCE TO SOCIAL INFLUENCE?
- social support
- locus of control
What is SOCIAL SUPPORT?
- perception that an individual has assistance from other people
- ASCH and MILGRAM found social support decreases conformity and obedience
What is LOCUS OF CONTROL?
- perception of a persons control over their own life and behaviour
- measured between HIGH INTERNAL LoC and HIGH EXTERNAL LoC
What are characteristics of individuals with HIGH INTERNAL LoC
- believe they are in control of their life
- believe they can affect the outcomes of situations
- don’t rely on external opinions
What are the characteristics o individuals with HIGH EXTERNAL LoC?
- believe they’re at the mercy of external factors
- believe what happens to them is out of their control
- rely on external opinions
What is MINORITY INFLUENCE?
- type of social influence
- motivates individuals to reject established majority group norms
What type of social influence is MAJORITY INFLUENCE and what speed does it have effect?
- normative or informational influence
- fast
What type of social influence is MINORITY INFLUENCE and what speed does it have effect?
- informational influence
- slow
What behaviours make a MINORITY GROUP more effective?
- consistent
- committed
- flexible
What is CONSISTENCY?
-minority keep consistent beliefs and attitudes to influence majority
What is the difference between INTRA-INDIVIDUAL consistency and INTER-INDIVIDUAL consistency?
INTRA=individuals in minority keep consistent view over time
INTER=agreement of views among individuals in minority
What is COMMITMENT and why is it important?
- suggests certainty, confidence and courage
- commitment and sacrifices
- makes majority take them more seriously
What is FLEXIBILITY and what did MUGNY (1982) suggest?
- 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
What is the process of MINORITY to MAJORITY Influence?
- consistency, commitment, flexibility
- snowball effect
- social crypto amnesia
What is the role of CONSISTENCY, COMMITMENT and FLEXIBILITY in minor influence?
- make minority argument more persuasive
- commitment draws attention to minority view
- consistency and flexibility used to show truth and value of minority position
What is THE SNOWBALL EFFECT?
- 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
What is SOCIAL CRYPTO AMNESIA?
- society forgets the source of the message
- accepts minority views without too much disruption of social order
- minority views becomes integral part of society
What is SOCIAL CHANGE and how does it happen?
- 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
What are the roles of CONFORMITY and OBEDIENCE in causing social change?
- 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
What was the aim of ASCH’s study?
-to what extent people will conform to a majority opinion even when it appears obviously incorrect
What was the procedure of ASCH’s study?
- 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
What were the findings of ASCH’s study
- average level of conformity 32% in critical trials
- no ppt conformed on very critical trial
- 74% ppt conformed at least once
What was the conclusion of ASCH’s study?
- 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
What were ASCH’s findings? (interviews)
- showed 3 levels of conformity
- inaccurate perception
- did not want to be minority in case of exclusion
- thought they gave correct answer, not influenced
What is a strength of ASCH’s research?
- research support by CRUTCHFIELD (1953)
- eliminated face to face contact by placing ppts in booths
- conformity increased when task difficulty increased
What are two weaknesses for ASCH’s research?
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)
Which researches provided evidence for NORMATIVE SOCIAL INFLUENCE?
- GARANDEAU and CILLESSEN (2006)
- LINKENBACH and PERKINS (2003)
What was GARENDEAU and CILLESSEN’s study?
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
What was LINKENBACH and PERKINS study? (2003)
- adolescents exposed to message that majority of peers did not smoke
- meant they were less likely to smoke
Which researchers provided evidence for INFORMATIONAL SOCIAL INFLUENCE?
- JENNESS (1932)
- ALLEN (1980)
What was the aim of JENNESS’s study? (1932)
-investigate whether individual judgments of number of jelly beans was influenced by discussion in groups
What was the procedure of JENNESS’s study? (1932)
- 811 white beans
- ppt made individual estimates
- discussed with others and made a group estimate
- ppt made second individual estimate
What were the findings of JENNESS’s study? (1932)
- nearly all ppt changed their answer
- on average males changed their answer by 256 beans
- females 382 beans
What was the conclusion of JENNESS’s study?
- 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
What did ALLEN (1980) find?
- intelligent and self-confident people less likely to conform
- as they have more knowledge and confidence so don’t need to look to others
What was ZIMBARDO ET AL (1973) aim?
- investigate brutality in American prisons
- if it was due to guards sadistic personalities or influence of prison environment
What was ZIMBARDOS (1973) procedure?
- 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
What were ZIMBARDOS findings? (1973)
- 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
What is a strength of ZIMBARDOS (1973) study?
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
What are two weaknesses of ZIMBARDOS (1973) study?
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
What was MILGRAM’s (1963) aim?
- level of obedience when obeying orders
- in situation where it broke moral code and hurt innocent people
What was MILGRAM’s (1963) procedure?
- 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
What was MILGRAMS (1963) findings?
- 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
What was MILGRAMS (1963) conclusion?
- 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
What is one strength of MILGRAM’s study?
PRACTICAL VALUE
- useful in helping us understand events like holocaust
- easily replicated and produced similar results
- high reliability
What is an ethical weakness of MILGRAMS study?
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
What is another weakness of MILGRAMS (1963) study?
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
What is the evaluation for AGENTIC STATE (agency theory)
- 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
What is the evaluation for LEGITIMATE AUTHORITY?
- 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
What is an evaluation for PROXIMITY?
- 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
What is an evaluation for LOCATION?
- 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
What is an evaluation for UNIFORM?
- 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
What are 2 strengths of AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY?
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
Give a limitation or AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY (1)
- 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
Give a limitation of AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY (2)
- 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
What is a strength of SOCIAL SUPPORT? (1)
- 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
What is a strength of SOCIAL SUPPORT? (2)
- 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
What is a strength for LoC?
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
What is a weakness for LoC?
- 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
What was MOSCOVICIS aim?
- whether a consistent minority could influence a majority
- to give incorrect answer in colour perception task
What was MOSCOVICIS procedure?
- 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
What were MOSCOVICIS findings?
- consistent condition ppt agreed on 8.2% of trials
- inconsistent condition ppt agrees on 1.25% of trials
What are MOSCOVICIS findings?
- consistent condition was 6.95% more effective
- shows consistency is an important factor in minority influence
What is a weakness of MOSCOVICIS study? (1)
- 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
What is a weakness of MOSCOVICIS study?
- 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
What is support for FLEXIBILITY?
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
