Social Influence Flashcards
What is social support?
An external factor where there are others who are resisting.
Social support in conformity…
… pressure to conform can be reduced when there are others who aren’t conforming.
Enables one to follow own conscience
Social support in obedience…
…pressure to obey can be reduced when someone else is disobeying.
Evaluation of social support.
+ research support:
(asch one dissenter reduced conformity to 5.5%)
(Milgram one disobeyed reduced obedience to 10%)
+gamson’s study had high ecological validity so no demand characteristics.
-grp size less than 10 one dissenter has influence but not irl where grps are bigger.
What is locus of control?
- Julian Rotter (1966)
- refers to ones perception of degree of personal control they have over their behaviour.
What is high external locus of control?
Future p/actions are largely from factors outside their control like luck or fate.
What is internal LOC?
- stronger sense of control
- more likely to resist pressure (show resistance to social influence)
- more self confident smarter less need for social approval.
Evaluation of LOC (strengths):
+Oliner & Oliner (1988) interviewed 2 groups and found that 406 who protected and rescued Jews has higher LOC than the 106 who didn’t.
+Holland (1967) repeated Milgram baseline study 37% internals didn’t shock to highest and 23% externals didn’t which increases validity of LOC explanation and our confidence that it can explain resistance.
Evaluation of LOC (weaknesses):
- Twenge (2004) analysed data for over 40 years from American obedience studies and found people have become more resistant to obedience but more external (results changing due to society where many things are outta personal control)
- it’s exaggerated, and comes to play in new unfamiliar situations, even if one has high external LOC, if they conformed or obeyed in a situation they’d likely do it again.
What is conformity?
A change in a persons behaviour/views due to real/imagined pressure from a person or group
What is compliance?
Adjusting behaviours and views that are shown in public.
No change to privately held views.
A superficial and temporary form of conformity.
What is internalisation?
Adjusting behaviours and views to fit with majority.
But they share the same views and act the same way privately.
A deeper and more permanent form of conformity
What is identification?
When you conform to the opinion of a group, due to there being something about the group that you value.
Identify with the group so views change to be a part of it (may disagree privately).
Normally done when you admire the group.
Like temporary internalisation.
What is ISI?
Informational social influence,
The need to be right.
When does ISI happen?
- situation is ambiguous
- situation is difficult
- situation needs rapid response
- we believe others to be expert
What does ISI lead to?
Internalisation
What is NSI?
Normative social influence,
Need to be liked.
-want to be accepted and not ridiculed.
When does NSI happen?
- when there’s a concern for rejection from strangers
- need for social support from others when in stressful situations
What does NSI lead to?
Compliance
What are demand characteristics?
The changing of behaviour by guessing the aim of the study so acting accordingly.
Strengths of explanations for social influence.
There’s research support:
- Lucas et al (2006)-asked students to do easy/hard maths problems, found there was more conformity to wrong answers when the questions were harder (esp. for those with poorer maths skills). Supports ISI as students conformed when questions were hard.
- Asch (1951)- line test-found many went with blatantly wrong answer as they feared rejection
Weaknesses of explanations for conformity.
-individual differences-in NSI they found nAffiliators wanted more affiliation (to be in a relationship with people-more long term).
In ISI Asch found not all students conformed in ambiguous situations.
-can merge when explaining conformity- if one person disagrees NSI decreases as there’s more social support, it can reduce ISI when there’s another source of information.
-studies that support may be lab studies-likely to show demand characteristics. Lack ecological validity.
Describe Jenness’ study.
- ambiguous situation where glass bottle is filled with beans.
- asked individuals to estimate.
- Then group estimate.
- Then alone again to see ISI.
What were the findings of Jenness’ study?
Almost all changed individual guesses to be closer to majority, showed internalisation.
Describe Sherif’s study.
1935-aimed to show people conform to group norms in ambiguous situations.
- using auto kinetic effect (small spot of light projected onto screen in a dark room it’ll appear to move)
- they were tested individually.
- then in groups of 3
- they then had to say results out loud.
What were sherif’s results?
The person who was different conformed.
People always tend to conform instead of making individual judgements (to come to a group agreement)
Describe Solomon Asch’s study.
Aim: to see to what extent people conformed under social pressure from a majority group.
- 123 male US undergrads
- vision test (line judgement task).
- one participant in a room with up to 8 confederates.
- 18 trials, 12 of which were critical trials (confederated instructed to give wrong answers)
- control condition where there were no confederates.
What were Asch’s results?
- 32-36% conformed
- 75% conformed at least once
What conclusions did Asch come to?
- come conformed in fear of being ridiculed or thought peculiar (NSI)
- some genuinely believed they were mistaken or seeing incorrectly (ISI)
What variables affecting conformity did Asch research?
- group size
- unanimity of the majority
- task difficulty
What did Asch find out about group size?
- Little conformity if there’s 1/2 confederates.
- conformity rate increased to 30% when there was 3 confederates.
- a further increase didn’t affect conformity rates
What conclusions were made about group size?
It’s important up to a certain point.
What did Asch find out about unanimity of the majority?
- if one confederate gave right answer then conformity rates dropped 33%—> 5.5%
- if one confederate gave a different wrong answer it dropped to 9%.
What conclusion was made about unanimity of the majority?
You only need one break in unanimous decision for conformity rates to drop.
What did Asch find out about task difficulty?
-conformity increased when line lengths were made smaller
What conclusion did he come to about task difficulty?
Influence of task difficulty is moderated by ones self-efficacy
(nAffiliators vs those with high self efficacy)
Evaluation of Asch’s studies and variables.
-lacked temporal validity- Perrin & Spencer (1980) redid the study and only one student conformed in 396 trials.
1950s could be conformist decade and society’s changed.
-lacked ecological validity- demand characteristics, silly task that’s unlikely to happen, groups weren’t accurate representation of society.
-limited application of findings (lacks population validity)- women may be more conformist as they may be more concerned about social relations. Individualistic culture (USA) vs collectivist culture (China-may have higher conformity as they are more orientated to group needs)
-ethical issues-deception, potential psychological harm as they’re confused as to why the clear wrong answer was given (stressed)
What did zimbardo want to find out in the SPE?
Whether brutality reported among guards in an American prison were dispositional or situational.
What does dispositional mean in SPE?
Due to the sadistic personalities of the guards.
Personalities make conflict inevitable