Social Influence

Question 1

What is conformity?

Answer 1

Yielding to group pressure.

Question 2

What is internalisation?

Answer 2

Making the beliefs, values, attitudes and behaviours of the group your own.

Question 3

What is identification?

Answer 3

Temporary/short term change of behaviour and belief, only in the presence of the group.

Question 4

What is compliance?

Answer 4

Publicly agree and privately disagree.

To follow other people’s ideas to gain approval or avoid disapproval.

Question 5

What’s an example of internalisation?

Answer 5

Being brought up in a religious household and becoming religious yourself.

Question 6

What is an example of identification?

Answer 6

Acting more professional when you arrive at your office to work.

Question 7

What is an example of compliance?

Answer 7

When friends pressure you into drinking alcohol when you don’t want to or wouldn’t drink outside of such social situations.

Question 8

What is informational social influence?

Answer 8

When someone conforms because they want to be right so, they look to others by copying or obeying them.

Question 9

What is an example of informational social influence?

Answer 9

A person following the direction of the crowd in an emergency, even though they don’t actually know where they are going. Assume everyone else is right.

Question 10

What is normative social influence?

Answer 10

When someone conforms because they want to be liked and part of a group. Avoidance of the embarrassment of disagreeing with everyone.

Question 11

What is an example of normative social influence?

Answer 11

A person started to smoke because they are surrounded by other people who smoke.

Question 12

What was the sample of Asch’s Line Study?

Answer 12

123 American undergraduates in groups of 6.

1 true participant and 5 confederates.

Question 13

What was the aim of Asch’s Line Study?

Answer 13

To investigate conformity and majority influence.

Question 14

What was the procedure of Asch’s Line Study?

Answer 14

• Participants and confederates presented with 4 lines. 3 comparison lines and 1 standard line.
• Asked which of the 3 were the same as the standard line.
• Real participant always answered last/second to last.
• Confederates gave incorrect answers for 12 out of 18 trials.
• Asch observed how often participants gave the same incorrect answer vs. the correct answer.

Question 15

What were the findings of Asch’s study?

Answer 15

36.8% conformed
25% never conformed
75% conformed at least once
Control Trial: 1% of responses given were incorrect

Question 16

What does the control trial eliminate in Asch’s Line Study?

Answer 16

Eyesight/perception as an extraneous variable.

Increases validity of results.

Question 17

How does the legitimacy of authority affect obedience?

Answer 17

People are more likely to obey if they see someone as credible (morally right and legitimate). This is why students are more likely to listen to parents and teachers than unknown adults.

Question 18

What are the factors affecting levels of conformity?

Answer 18

• Group size
• Unanimity of majority
• Task difficulty

Question 19

How does group size affect the level of conformity?

Answer 19

An individual is more likely to conform when in larger groups.

Question 20

Evidence of group size affecting conformity.

Answer 20

Low conformity in Asch’s study when the group size of confederates was less than 3. More than 3 meant that conformity rose by 30%.

Question 21

Why are people more likely to conform in larger groups?

Answer 21

The larger the group size, the more pressured someone may feel to give the same answer as to avoid being rejected by the group.

Question 22

How does the unanimity of the majority affect the level of conformity?

Answer 22

-

Question 23

Evidence for unanimity affecting conformity.

Answer 23

-

Question 24

Why does unanimity affect conformity?

Answer 24

-

Question 25

How does the task difficulty affect the level of conformity?

Answer 25

-

Question 26

Evidence for task difficulty affecting conformity.

Answer 26

-

Question 27

Why does task difficulty affect conformity?

Answer 27

-

Question 28

What was the sample of Zimbardo’s study?

Answer 28

24 American male undergraduate students.

Volunteer participants.

Question 29

What was the aim of Zimbardo’s study?

Answer 29

To investigate how readily people would conform to social roles in a simulated environment and, specifically, to investigate why ‘good people do bad things’.

Question 30

What was the procedure of Zimbardo’s study?

Answer 30

• Participants randomly assigned one of two roles (prisoner or guard) and forgiven corresponding uniforms.
• Prisoners only referred to by their assigned numbers, guards has props.
• People could leave if they wanted to (only 2 prisoners did).
• Guards worked 8 hour shifts
• The behaviour of the participants was observed.

Question 31

What were the findings of Zimbardo’s study?

Answer 31

• Identification occurred very fast.
• Guards began to harass and torment prisoners (and enjoyed it).
• Prisoners only talked about prison issues and snitched on other prisoners (wanted rewards).
• Guards became more demanding of obedience. Prisoners became more submissive.

Question 32

What is the agentic state?

Answer 32

When a person believes that someone else will take responsibility for their own actions.

Question 33

What is the agentic shift?

Answer 33

When people are more likely to obey when they are in the agentic state as they do not believe they will suffer the consequences of those actions.

Question 34

What does the legitimacy of authority mean?

Answer 34

Describes how credible the figure of authority is.

Question 35

What did Milgram find in his study about the legitimacy of authority?

Answer 35

People saw the experimenter as the legitimate authoritative figure as they knew he was a scientist and therefore is likely to be knowledgeable and responsible - expert authority.

Question 36

What did Milgram find out about the power of uniform in his study?

Answer 36

Obedience was much higher when the experimenter wore a lab coat as opposed to normal clothes.

Question 37

What did Milgram find out in his study about the effect location has on obedience?

Answer 37

A variation was carried out in a run down office. The prestigious nature of specific locations (the university) demand obedience from participants as well as potentially increasing the trust placed in the researchers.

Question 38

What did Milgram find out about proximity to the authority figure in his study?

Answer 38

A person is more likely to obey when they are in closer proximity to the authority figure. When the experimenter was in the room, obedience was 62.5%. When the experimenter was over the phone obedience dropped to 20.5%.

Question 39

Why might Milgram’s variations lack validity?

Answer 39

The use of a ‘normal citizen’ in place of the confederate with a lab coat may have been too obvious of a substitution. The decreased obedience as a result may have been due to the participant behaving accord to their expectations. Demand characteristics.

Question 40

What was the sample of Milgram (1963)?

Answer 40

40 male volunteer participants.

Randomly selected participants.

Question 41

What was the aim of Milgram’s study?

Answer 41

To observe whether people would obey a figure of authority when told to harm another person.
Ie. Evaluating the influence of a destructive authority figure.

Question 42

What was the procedure of Milgram’s study?

Answer 42

Participants given a role ‘teacher’ and ‘learner’ (confederate). The teacher had to ask the learner questions and if given a wrong answer, the learner was given an electric shock. (300V to 450V - 330V marked as lethal).
If participant refused to shock, then a series of prods were given, each growing in demand.

Question 43

What were the findings of Milgram’s study?

Answer 43

• All participants went up to 300V
• 65% went up to 450V
• No participants stopped below 300V
• 12.5% stopped at 300V
• The vast majority of participants were prepared to give lethal shocks

Question 44

What is dispositional explanation?

Answer 44

Internal explanation. ie. personality factors/individual reasons as to why someone obeys.

Question 45

What is the authoritarian personality?

Answer 45

When you believe that people should completely obey or submit to their authority figure, and suppress their own beliefs.

Question 46

Individuals with the authoritarian personality have a ‘fixed’ cognitive style. What does this mean?

Answer 46

They do not challenge stereotypes due to their tendency to adopt absolutist thinking.

Question 47

What is reaction formation?

Answer 47

Targeting displaced anger on those who seem weak and unable to defend themselves, such as minority groups.

Question 48

Why does the authoritarian personality have little ecological validity?

Answer 48

It cannot example many real-life examples of mass obedience.
E.g it’s highly unlikely that the whole population of Nazi Germany had the authoritarian personality but instead shared the fears about the future onto an ‘inferior’ group.

Question 49

What is a locus of control?

Answer 49

A measurement of an individuals sense of control over their lives.

Question 50

What does an internal locus of control mean?

Answer 50

More control.

Behaviour is caused by their own personal decisions and efforts.

Question 51

What does an external locus of control mean?

Answer 51

Less control.

Behaviour is caused by luck or fate.

Question 52

What effects do the two types of locus of control have on obedience?

Answer 52

Internal - conform and obey less. Take more responsibility for their actions. See themselves as having high control.

External - conform and obey more. Shift responsibility onto an indictable they act on behalf of.

Question 53

What is an example of a high internal locus of control thought?

Answer 53

“I won the award because I worked hard for it.”

Question 54

What is an example of a low external locus of control thought?

Answer 54

“I won the award because it was meant to be - it was my destiny.”

Question 55

What did Asch discover in his variation of his study where he gave the participant a confederate ally?

Answer 55

When the confederate did not conform, obedience levels dropped to one quarter of what they originally were. Provided the participant with social support and gave them more confidence.

Question 56

What was the sample of Moscovici’s study?

Answer 56

Randomly selected participants and confederates.

Question 57

What was the aim of Moscovici’s study?

Answer 57

To observe how minorities can influence a majority.

Question 58

What was the procedure of Moscovici’s study?

Answer 58

• Participants in two groups - 2 confederates, 4 participants.
• Everyone shown 36 blue slides with different shades of blue.
• Asked whether the slides were blue or green.
• Confederates deliberately said green for two thirds of the slides.
• The number of times the participants said green was noted.
• Control group was used (consisted purely of participants).

Question 59

What were the findings of Moscovici’s study?

Answer 59

• When confederates were consistent, 8% of participants said slides were green.
• When confederates answered inconsistently, 1% of participants said slides were green.
• Showed consistency is crucial for minority influence.

Question 60

Why is it when the minority is more consistent on their views, that the majority is more likely to conform?

Answer 60

It makes the opposition think the views of the ministry are real and serious enough to pay attention to if they are so determined to stay consistent.

Question 61

What happens if the minority remains consistent over time?

Answer 61

Forces the opposition to think about their own views repeatedly over time and consequently generates make doubt due to conflicting views, which allows opportunity to be influenced.

Question 62

What is diachronic consistency?

Answer 62

When the group remains consistent over time - they do not change their views over time.

Question 63

What is synchronic consistency?

Answer 63

When the group is consistent between all the members of the group - everyone in the group has some views, and therefore agree with and support each other.

Question 64

Why is it more important for the minority to be committed?

Answer 64

When the minority have so much compassion and confidence, it suggests to the majority that their view must be somehow valid - encouraging them to explore why.