social influence A01 Flashcards
key terms
what is conformity
Conformity is a type of social influence . It is also described as a change in a person’s behavior or opinion as a result of a real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people’,
What was the three types of conformity that was proposed by Herbert and Kelman (1958)
These are internalisation , identification and compliance
Define internalization
this is when an individual accepts the social norms of a group both privately and publicly .This is permanent because it has been internalised and this behaviour happens even when the person is not around.
Define identification
we conform when we value something about a group. We publicly change our opinions to be accepted even if we do not privately agree with our opinions.
Define compliance
Going along with others in public because of normative social pressures and not changing privately . This is a superficial change . As soon as the social pressures stop, so does the individuals need to comply.
What was Morton Deutsch and Harold Gerdad theory?
In 1955 developed a two process theory which is that there are two reasons why an individual will conform . This is by normative social influence and informative social influence.
What is NSI
Deustch & Gerard (1955) suggested that humans conform because they want to be socially accepted by others. Humans have a need to seek approval from friends, families, colleagues etc.People do not want to appear foolish or as if they are going against social norms because they could be rejected by others. NSI is an emotional process.
What is ISI
According to Deustch & Gerard (1955) humans conform because they want to know the correct information. Sometimes humans are unsure what is wrong and what is right so they might conform with the majority if they appear to know the answer.Informational Social Influence is part of our cognitive processes because it involves our thoughts.
What is a naive participant
An individual who has no previous experience of the procedure and is unaware of the research purpose.
What is a confederate
An individual in an experiment who is not a real participant and has been instructed to behave a certain way by the researcher.
What was the two of Aschs expirments
Baseline study in 1951
Variables investigated by Asch 1955
What was the aim of Aschs research
To investigate conformity and majority influence
What was the procedure like in Aschs experiment
Participants were shown a card with a standard line and a card with three comparison lines. One of the three lines was the same length as the standard line. The other two were clearly (unambiguous) wrong. The participant was asked which line matches the standard line. There were 18 trials altogether. During the first 6 trials confederates gave the right answer. After this they all gave the same wrong answer for 12 trials. The group was up to 6 - 8 people and the naive participants always sat last or second last and they had to give the answer out loud.
What was the participants in Asch’s research
The 123 white American undergraduates (university) men.
What was the finding of Aschs research
Naive participants gave a wrong answer 36.8% of the time. 75% of participants conformed at least once.25% did not conform at all! Participants revealed they conformed to avoid rejection.
Why did Asch experiment with variables and what were they
To see what would lead to a decrease and increase in the rates of conformity.These were unanimity , group size and task difficulty.
what did Asch find out when measuring group size
ASCH FOUND THAT WITH THREE CONFEDERATES CONFORMITY ROSE TO 31.8%. THE ADDITION OF MORE CONFEDERATES MADE LITTLE DIFFERENCES. SUGGESTING THERE IS NO NEED FOR A MAJORITY OF MORE THAN THREE TO INFLUENCE OTHERS TO CONFORM.
what did Asch find when researching unanimity
ASCH FOUND THE PRESENCE OF A NON-CONFORMER REDUCED CONFORMITY RATES BY 25%. THIS ENABLED THE NAIVE PARTICIPANT TO BEHAVE MORE INDEPENDENTLY
what did Asch find when researching task difficulty
ASCH INCREASED THE DIFFICULTY OF THE TASK BY MAKING THE STIMULUS LINE AND COMPARISON LINES SIMILAR IN LENGTH. CONFORMITY LEVELS INCREASED UNDER THESE CONDITIONS.
What is a social role
this is the part that someone would play in a social group . they come with expectations with appropriate behaviours that are expected from them.
What was Zimbardo aim for his 1971 experiment
wanted to find out because there were lots of prison riots , if prisoners acted brutally because of them conforming to their social roles or is it because they have a sadistic personality. He also wanted to find out why good people do bad things
Who was the participants in Zimbardos mock prison
There were 24 participants who randomly were assigned the role of prisoner or prison guard . The 24 participants were also deemed mentally stable when they were picked. 24 American male undergraduate students
What was Zimbardos procedure
The basement of the Stanford University psychology building was converted into a simulated prison.American student volunteers were paid to take part in the study.They were randomly issued one of two roles; guard or prisoner.
Both prisoners and guards had to wear uniforms.Prisoners were only referred to by their assigned number.Guards were given props like handcuffs and sunglasses (to make eye contact with prisoners impossible and to reinforce the boundaries
between the two social roles within the established social hierarchy).
No one was allowed to leave the simulated prison.Guards worked eight hour shifts, while the others remained on call.Prisoners were only allowed in the hallway which acted as their yard,and to the toilet. The guards were allowed to control such behavior,in order to emphasis their complete power over the prisoners!No physical violence was permitted, in line with ethical guidelines and to prevent complete overruling.
The behavior of the participants was observed.
What was Zimbardos finding
Identification occurred very fast, as both the prisoners and guards adopted their new roles and played their part in a short amount of time, despite the apparent disparity between the two social roles. Guards began to harass and torment prisoners in harsh and aggressive ways – they later reported to have enjoyed doing so and relished in their new-found power and control. Prisoners would only talk about prison issues (forgetting about their
previous real life), and snitch on other prisoners to the guards to
please them. This is significant evidence to suggest that the
prisoners believed that the prison was real, and were not acting simply due to demand characteristics.They would even defend the guards when other prisoners broke the rules, reinforcing their social roles as prisoner and guard, despite it not being real.The guards became more demanding of obedience and assertiveness towards the prisoners while the prisoners become more submissive. This suggests that the respective social roles became increasingly internalized.
What is obedience
A form of social influence in which an individual follows a direct order. The person issuing the order is usually an authority figure who has the power to punish when someone is not obedient.
Who was Stanley Milgram
he is an american social psychologist who was born in New York. he was also a professor at Yale and conducted an obedience study in 1963
What was Stanley Milligrams aim
how far people would go in obeying an instruction if it involved harming another person.
Stanley Milgram was interested in how easily ordinary people could be influenced into committing atrocities, for example, Germans in WWI
What was Stanley Milgrams participants
40 male participants through newspaper adverts and flyers. He said that the experiment was about memory. They were between the ages of 20-50 and their jobs ranged from unskilled to professional. They were also paid $4.50.
What was Milgrams procedure
there was another participant who was a confederate. They drew lots to see who would have been the learner or the teacher. It was fixed so that the naive participant was always the teacher. And then the experimenter was also involved and wore a grey coat.he learner was strapped in a chair in another room wired with electrodes. The teacher was required to give a shock everytime they gave the wrong answer. The shocks were not real but the naive participant (teacher) did not know this. The first level was 15 and the last that was labelled danger was 450 volts. When I reached 300 and 315 volts the learner pounded on the wall and gave no response
What did the experimenter do if the teacher looked at them for help
If the teacher looked at the experiment for help they gave answers like “people continue or the experiment requires that you continue”.
Milgrams finding
All participants went up to 300V and 65% went up to 450V. No
participants stopped below 300V, whilst only 12.5% stopped at 300V, showing that the vast majority of participants were prepared
to give lethal electric shocks to a confederate.
Milgram and psychology students
prior to the study, 14 psychology students guessed how many participants they thought would obey.The majority said 3%.
What type of Quaniilative data did Milgram collect
collected qualitative data including observations such as what signs the participants shown like swat , stutter and lip bitting.Participants were debriefed and 84% participants mentioned in a questionnaire they were glad they took part in the study
Milgrams factors
he conclude that germany people are not different as american participants were willing to obey orders even if it might harm another perosn. He believed that there were more factors that made more obedient. These were uniform, proximity and location.
