Social influence

Question 1

what are the three types of conformity?

Answer 1

compliance
internalisation
identification

Question 2

What is compliance

Answer 2

simply ‘just going on with others’ in public but privately not changing your opinion/behaviour. Therefore, this is a superficial change that stops as soon as group pressure stops

Question 3

what is internalisation

Answer 3

occurs when a person genuinely accepts the group norms. This results in private as well as public opinion change

Question 4

what is identification

Answer 4

to conform to a group because there is something associated with the group that you value and therefore identify with, wanting to be a part of it

Question 5

normative social influence

Answer 5

the desire to be liked

Question 6

informational social influence

Answer 6

the desire to be right

Question 7

evaluation

Answer 7

this model does not account for individual differences

sometimes conformity can be a combination of both wanting to be right and liked

Question 8

Asch’s study into conformity provides supporting evidence for normative social influence…

Answer 8

He found that despite participants disagreeing with the confederates answers they went along with the wrong answer. Supporting evidence adds credibility to the theory behind why people conform and allows us to gain valuable insight into the reasons why people conform.

Question 9

Asch’s findings lacks temporary validity…

Answer 9

The social context of the 1950’s, a anti communist period, also known as the Mccarthyism Era was a time where people were scared to be different and non conformists. It is likely that Asch’s findings are outdated and is only applicable to the 1950’s,and cannot be generalized to another period of time. This limits our understanding of conformity when applying Asch’s study to modern day society and further research is needed to explain much recent trends.

Question 10

Asch’s experiment has high internal validity…

Answer 10

The use of a lab experiment allowed him to investigate conformity in a highly controlled setting and have some control over extraneous variables. The procedure, apparatus and instructions were likely to be standardised. This is considered a strength as standardisation makes a investigation replicable and therefore, reliable and so Asch could establish the cause and effect between the task and the levels of conformity. This adds credibility to his findings and furthers our understanding into conformity.

Question 11

However, there were methodological issues with Asch’s study…

Answer 11

The use of an artificial setting (lab) would lower the ecological validity of the findings as participants knew they were being investigated and may have demonstrated demand characteristics. This would make it difficult to generalise findings outside of the investigation to real life as it does not reflect in everyday life. For this reason it may be necessary to conduct further investigation into conformity using a more natural investigation.

Question 12

Variations on Asch (3)

Answer 12

Group size
unanimity
task difficulty

Question 13

Outline Asch’s study

Answer 13

d

Question 14

Outline Asch’s study

Answer 14

Asch

Question 15

Outline Zimbardo’s study

Answer 15

Zimbardo

Question 16

Zimbardo’s use of a lab experiment raised methodological issues including demand characteristics and low ecological validity…

Answer 16

As most of the guards later claimed that they were simply acting and that they knew the investigation wasn’t real. In an interview with one guard the guard said that he biased his performance as a prison guard on a stereotypical prison guard role portrayed in a film. Therefore, it is likely that Zimbardo may have been recording demand characteristics rather than the IV this confounding variable may have lowered the validity of Zimbardo’s finding’s.

Question 17

Another methodological issue of the SPE is that it has low population validity…

Answer 17

Zimbardo used 24 white american participants (students) It is likely that the study findings cannot be generalised to female Ps from other countries as research has been found that conformity levels are affected by both gender and culture. For example in collectivist cultures such as china and japan Ps may be more conformists as their cultures emphasizes the needs of the group rather than the individual. This means Zimbardo’s findings are culturally bound. Whilst Zimbardo’s investigation was insightful into conformity in social roles, these methodological issues reduce our confidence into the external validity of his findings.

Question 18

A limitation to zimbardo’s investigation is that it displayed some ethical issues…

Answer 18

In the consent form Zimbardo limits Ps rights of withdrawal. This is shown in the consent form where Ps where told to have to stay the full duration of the study and that they could only leave for reasons of health where approved by Zimbardo himself. This made them more vulnerable to psychological harm.

Question 19

Nevertheless, the unethical nature of the SPE, the harmful treatment of Ps led to…

Answer 19

the formal recognition of ethical guidelines by the America psychological association. Therefore, now established, It is a requirement for studies to undergo intensive review by an institutional review board (US) or ethics committee (UK) before they are implemented to determine whether the breach of ethical issues are justificable.

Question 20

The findings from the SPE were influential and support the situational explanation of conformist behaviour…

Answer 20

According to Zimbardo and his colleagues the SPE revealed how people will readily conform to social roles as strongly stereotyped as guards. The guards acted in ways they would usually not in their normal lives. For this reason it can be argued that the SPE furthered our understanding into their levels of conformity.

Question 21

Outline milgram’s study into obedience

Answer 21

d

Question 22

what is obedience?

Answer 22

a form of social influence when someone acts in response to a direct order from an authoritative figure.

Question 23

One limitation of Milgram’s investigation is that it has methodological issues such as low population validity..

Answer 23

milgram did his investigation in the USA. Hofstede’s power index implies that if the investigation had taken place elsewhere the findings would be different. Hofstede’s suggested that obedience levels would be higher in the USA compared to individualist countries such as Australia. Supporting evidence from Kilham and Mann illustrates lower levels of obedience in Australia than in the USA - 40% for males and 16% for females compared to the 60% of obedience found in the USA for both males and females. This supports the fact that Australia has a higher PDI than the USA reflected in both experiments. Thus, this lowers the external validity of Milgram’s experiment limiting his findings to the USA only and further research is required with a more representative sample to be able to conclude his findings as a universal trait of social behaviour.

Question 24

variations of Milgram.

Answer 24

j

Question 25

There is supporting evidence for deutch and Gerard’s dual process specifically informational social influence…

Answer 25

Lucas et al (2006) found that there was greater conformity when mathematical problems were harder compared to when they were easier as Ps wanted to be right.​

This study adds credibility to Deutch and Gerards process of conformity and our understanding of why people conform.

Question 26

Asch’s study into conformity provides supporting evidence for normative social influence

Answer 26

He found that despite the Ps disagreeing with the confederates answers they desired to be liked and so went along with the wrong answer.​

Supporting psychological evidence adds credibility to the theory behind why people conform​

And allows us to gain an insight into the reasons behind social influence.​