Social Influence Flashcards
What are the three types conformity?
conformity, internalisation and identification
What are 5 features of Compliance?
- It was identified by Kelman in 1958
- characterised by the individual copying the behavior, despite disagreeing with the basis of said behavior
- often seen in cases of peer pressure/totalitarian or dictatorship countries
- there is no change in the individual’s internal/private attitude or personality, they just imitate the behavior
- compliance is only really expressed in public, or while in a group
Name 5 features of Identification conformity
- discovered by Kelman in 1958
- the individual does not originally agree with the behavior, but is later convinced/cajoled into agreeing with the basis of the behavior by another person/informant
- the person therefore completes their behavior from their own will, but only after being convinced to change their mindset
- often the cause if conformity is that the person conforms to feel part of a group, derived by a desire to fit in
- An example could be a kid starting smoking to fit in with the smokers, or someone becoming a jehovah’s witness after being door-to-door visited.
What are 5 features of internalisation?
- discovered by Kelman in 1958
- it involves copying a behavior as it fits your internalised, subconscious or conscientious viewpoint
- relies on having matching views as others who express this through certain behaviours, so therefore completing similar behaviours as you have similar views
- you usually agree with the behavior (I.e., the behavior does not seem immoral or unjust to you)
- an example would be political campaigns, such as the climate strike
What is conformity?
Conformity is a type of social influence where beliefs and/or behaviours of an individual change to fit with a group. This is usually down to pressure from the group, though group pressure can be real or imagined.
What are the two types of social influence?
Normative social influence and informational social influence.
What is normative social influence?
An influence that causes you to conform ad you wish to be more normal/fit in or be correct. It is often driven by a need for social companionship and a fear of rejection. In order for this to occur, the individual must feel like they are being watched or closely surveyed by the group (expressed public behavior). Compliance is usually caused by Normative Social Influence.
What is informational social influence?
Causes a person to conform to carrying out a behavior, but only after they have been given informational evidence that this behavior is best. It is often driven by a desire to be validated and have your beliefs be correct. Internalisation is an example of informational social influence, as -even though your beliefs and views are never opposed to the behavior- you have to be convinced to complete the behavior with relevant information.
How did Sherif study conformity? (Give method)
- (in a small sample) Sherif told the participants he was testing on that he was studying auto kinetic effect the idea that if you stare at something for long enough, it will appear to be moving
- participants were told a light would travel and that they should guess how far it travelled
- They were then placed in a dark room and observed the said light
- they then stated their estimates in groups of 3. Sherif found that the third participant always estimated the distance between the first and third participants.
What was the purpose of Asch’s experiment?
Designed to show that people do not make their own decisions (debunking the idea of free will).
Give a basic outline of the method in Asch’s experiment.
- (of a sample) participants all sit together in one room
- each participant reports, in turn, out of three different length lines, which is closest in length to another line given, that they call the standard line.
- only one of the men was a real participant, the rest were confederates
- the confederates all deliberately gave wrong/verifying answers.
- Asch then recorded how many participants changed their answer in order to conform.
Give a basic outline of the results in Asch’s experiment.
After all his fellow “participants” gave their false answers, 75% of participants gave the wrong answer to conform at least once, and a third of people gave the wrong answer/copied the confederates’ answers for the entire experiment. Asch believed that this was an example of if compliance due to normative social influence.
How big was the sample used in Asch’s experiment?
The sample consisted of 123 Male US undergraduates, which were split into smaller groups for testing.
What is autonomous state in relation to Situational expectations of obedience?
The state you are in when your actions are under your own control, you are in this state in normal everyday freedom.
What is agentic state in relation to Situational expectations of obedience?
The state you are in when you have deferred responsibility to someone else (i.e. following orders)
What is agentic shift in relation to Situational expectations of obedience?
The point at which you lose sense of responsibility (i.e. the point at which you submit to following orders).
What is legitimacy of Authority in relation to Situational expectations of obedience?
Whether or not a person giving orders has features associated with authority that make us obey them.
What was the hypothesis of Milgram’s experiment?
Good natured, everyday civilians are just as likely as anyone else to perform harmful acts, as long as they are told to by a position of authority (when they are in an Agentic State)
What was the operationalised hypothesis of Milgram’s experiment?
Whether or not people will deliver harmful or even lethal electric shocks to another person, if they are told to do so by a person in a position of authority
How many participants were there in Milgram’s first experiment?
40 participants
How many confederates were there in each participant’s individual test in the Milgram experiment?
There were 2 confederates in every condition- an “experimenter” ( a person in a white coat who ordered the participant to administer the electric shocks) and the “participant” who was assigned the role of learner, so therefore answered questions and pretended to receive painful shocks over loudspeaker through vocal acting.
In Milgram’s experiment, what was the ACTUAL participant asked to do?
The participant was asked to ask a fellow participant (who was actually a confederate) a series of questioned over a telephone line, and to shock them if they got the answer wrong. The number of volts increased as the participant continued to ask questions, until the participant was being asked to deliver a lethal dose (and by 300 volts, the confederate would usually verbally object and request for the participant to cease the shocks.)
What were Milgram’s findings?
65% of the 40 participants (26) continued to deliver shocks to the “learner” until they reached the maximum voltage, 450 volts. Only 5 participants stopped at 300 volts, when the confederate would have pretended to object and request the participant to stop the shocks.
What 3 situational factors did Milgram find to affect obedience?
Proximity, Location and The power of uniform
How did Milgram modify his original study to observe the effects of proximity on the results?
The study was repeated with a similar manner, but the learner and the teacher were in the same room. Obedience levels were 30% less than the study before (now only 35% obeyed)
How did Milgram FURTHER modify his original study to observe the effects of proximity on the results, to this time involve direct contact?
The study was repeated, but this time the participant had to hold the confederate’s hand to a “shock plate”, and obedience therefore dropped to only 30% of people obeying.
How did Milgram EVEN FURTHER modify his original study to observe the effects of proximity on the results, to this time involve authority absence?
The study was repeated, but the experimenter confederate giving the order to shock the learner over the phone. This study resulted in the majority defying obedience, with only 21% of participants delivering the maximum shock.
How did Milgram reshape his study to target the limiting factor of location?
The study was originally located in Yale University, which apparently gave participants the idea that the shocks couldn’t be real and/or harmful, or that the study must have been legitimate, which would have increased levels of obedience. Milgram therefore repeated the experiment in a less trusted/prestiegeous location (a ran down office far away from the university). Though obedience levels dropped slightly, 48% of participants still administered the maximum 450 v shock.
How does uniform affect obedience to orders? Briefly outline one study that proves this
Uniforms have been shown to associated with power and authority, so a person wearing a uniform may see to have more legitimacy of authority, so a uniform could increase the chances of obedience. An example of this would be Bushman’s study in 1988, when a confederate dressed in many different uniforms stopped random stranger on the street and asked them for change. When the confederate was in uniform, 72% obeyed, when dressed as a beggar 52% obeyed, and when dressed as a business executive, 48% obeyed.
What historical event inspired Mirams study into situational explanations of Obedience?
Milgram was inspired by the media’s televising of the trials of some German Leaders involved in WW2, specifically a man named Eichman, who was partly responsible for the idea/use of death camps for jews in Auschwitz and Birkenau. Eichman, claimed that the soldiers were “Just following orders” and “didn’t understand what they were doing”. Many of the British public believed that Germans were evil, but Milgram believed they were just subject to unfortunate circumstance and situational pressure, hence the study.
What did Adorno’s study into Authoritarian personality entail?
In 1950, adorno created a questionnaire known as the F scale, which he used to measure whether you likely have an authoritarian personality. Adorno believed authoritarian personality was a result of learned behavior and imitating strict parents, so many of the questions focused on this.
What did Altemeyer’s study into Authoritarian personality entail?
In 1981, Altmeyer reduced personality traits to 3 “clusters” : Conventionalism, Authoritarian Aggression and Authoritarian Submission. He also repeated Milgram’s experiment, but asked the participant to shock themselves at the end of the experiment, and found that 80% obeyed.
