social influence a03

Question 1

a03 for zimbardo’s study into conformity to social roles

Answer 1

1. gender bias = used a male-only, adrenocentric sample, cannot generalise to women. e.g. females may be less violent guards/more obedient prisoners, reduces ext val…. however when the study was conducted the US had mainly male security guards, so could be representative.
2. major ethical issues as prisoner ppts did not give informed consent to be arrested, searched and deloused. and prisoners were not protected from harm as they showed clear signs of disress e.g. being withdrawn. and prisoners were decieved as they were told they were taking part in an experiment investigating prison life… however zim conducted de-breifing sessions after the study and found that no ppts had long last effects
3. demand charecteristics as zim was superintendent so could have influenced ppts meaning they may have changed their behvaiours by conforming totheir role as this is what they thought he wanted. and ppts were paid so they may have felt obliged to act a certain way. lowering int val

Question 2

a03 for asch variables affecting conformity

Answer 2

1. RTS = Lucas et al (task difficuty)
2. gender bias, Neto
3. culture bias

Question 3

a03 for types of conformity

Answer 3

1. RTS NSI = asch
2. RTS ISI = jenness
3. asch research = gender bias
4. jenness research = lacks eco val

Question 4

a03 for milgram, situational variables affecting obedience

Answer 4

1. RTS = Bickman
2. gender bias, Sheridan and King
3. alt explanations
4. criticised by Mandel
5. ethical issues

Question 5

a03 for authoritarian personality

Answer 5

1. social desireability bias
2. RTS = Milgram and Elms, however many of Milgram’s ppts didn’t have characteristics typical of someone with the AP e.g. strict parenting
3. alt explanations

Question 6

ao3 for locus of control

Answer 6

1. RTS milgram and elms
2. RTC twenge

Question 7

ao3 for social support

Answer 7

1. RTS Milgram and Elms = when ppts were paired with 2 confederates who refused to go on and withdrew, only 10% went to 450V
2. RTS Albrecht = the pregnant adolesents who had a buddy were less likely to resist peer pressures to smoke than those without, the buddy was an ally. helps to show how we can resist pressures in the real world.
3. In Asch’s study, when the dissenter had bad eyesight resistence levels dropped significantly, so it could be due to credibility of the ally, meaning other factors affect the liklihood of resisting social influence

Question 8

ao3 for minority influence

Answer 8

1. RTS consistency = Moscovici put a minority of 2 confederates with 6 ppts and found when they consistently called blue slides green ppts gave the same wrong answer 8%, vs inconsistently it was only 1%
2. RTS consistency = Wendy Wood did a meta-analysis and found that almost 100 similar studies found that minorities who were being consistent were the most influential
3. RTS flexibility = Nemeth and Brilmayer, mock jury for compensation after a ski-lift accident. a confederate who refused to change his view had no impact on the others, but one who comprimised/wqas flexible in his opinion did have an impact.
4. lacks mundane realism

Question 9

ao3 for social change

Answer 9

1. Real life example = suffragettes. minority group showed consistency (equal rights) over a long period of time, commitment and dedication (starvation), flexible as legal voting age was 30 for women and 21 for men. the majority of society internalised these beliefs and now attitudes, laws and behaviours have changed
2. limitation of social change through minority influence as the suffragettes may have been seen as deviant. people may have remembered the deviant behaviour and forgotten the message, which may be why the sufragette movement took so long.
3. alt explanations = NSI