Social Influence ALL Lessons

Question 1

What is Social Psychology?

Answer 1

Social Psychology looks at the relationships between people and how people affect each other’s behaviour, attitudes and views.

Question 2

What is Conformity?

Answer 2

Conformity is a form of social influence where an individual changes their behaviour, attitudes and beliefs so that they are in line with the majority. This occurs due to the influence of either real or imagined pressure from the majority group.

Question 3

Give an example of Conformity:

Answer 3

When a person might purposely laugh at a joke that they don’t understand when a large group of people is around so that they fit in.

Question 4

What are the 3 types of Conformity?

Answer 4

Compliance
Internalisation
Identification

Question 5

Who researched the 3 types of conformity? And when?

Answer 5

Kelman (1958)

Question 6

What is Compliance?

Answer 6

Compliance is a type of conformity where individuals change their behaviour, attitudes and beliefs in public, so that they are in line with the majority. However, there is no change to their private behaviour, attitudes and beliefs where the conformity only lasts while the group is present. This type of conformity is superficial and temporary.

Question 7

What is Internalisation?

Answer 7

Internalisation is a type of conformity where individuals change their behaviour, attitudes and beliefs publicly and privately, so that they are in line with the majority. The individual examines their own behaviour, attitudes and beliefs based on those of the majority, and ultimately decide that the majority is correct. This type of conformity is deeper than compliance and more permanent.

Question 8

What is Identification?

Answer 8

Identification is a type of conformity where individuals adopt the behaviours, attitudes and beliefs of a particular social group that they admire due to wanting to be associated and identified with them. The individual may agree with the group publicly but disagree privately.

Question 9

Who developed the two-process theory for why we conform? And when?

Answer 9

Deutsch and Gerald (1955)

Question 10

What are the 2 explanations for conformity?

Answer 10

Informational Social Influence (ISI)

Normative Social Influence (NSI)

Question 11

What is Informational Social Influence?

Answer 11

Desire to be correct.

If a person is unsure of the correct answer in a situation, they will immediately look to others for the correct answer. In this case, if the others are correct, they will be correct too, or if others are wrong, at least they will avoid standing out.

Question 12

What is Normative Social Influence?

Answer 12

Desire to be accepted.

People have a fundamental need for social approval and acceptance which is why we avoid any behaviour which could make others ridicule or reject us. This leads us to copy the behaviour of others (conform) in order to ‘fit in’.

Question 13

When does Informational Social Influence tend to occur a lot? (3)

Answer 13

ISI is likely to occur in an ambiguous situation
ISI is likely to occur in a difficult situation
ISI is likely to occur if we believe others are ‘experts’

Question 14

When does Normative Social Influence tend to occur a lot? (2)

Answer 14

NSI is likely to occur when people are concerned about being rejected or ridiculed.
NSI is likely to occur in stressful situations where people have a greater need for social support.

Question 15

What does Informational Social Influence tend to lead to? And why?

Answer 15

ISI leads to internalisation where people want to be correct both publicly and privately by accepting the views of someone else who might have more of an expert opinion than themselves.

Question 16

What does Normative Social Influence tend to lead to? And why?

Answer 16

NSI leads to compliance where people will agree with a group publicly to avoid being ridiculed and rejected - however, they still have their own behaviours, attitudes and beliefs (don’t agree privately).

Question 17

What is a strength of explanations for conformity? (NSI and ISI)

Answer 17

There is research to support both NSI and ISI

Question 18

What research is there to support ISI?

Answer 18

• Lucas et al (2006) asked students to answer mathematical problems that were easy or more difficult.
• Lucas discovered that conformity occurred more when the questions were more difficult and participants were unsure of the correct answer.
• This supports the ISI explanation of conformity as the research suggests that conformity is more likely to occur in a difficult or ambiguous situation.

Question 19

What research is there to support NSI?

Answer 19

• Asch asked participants to identify which of three ‘test lines’ was the same as the ‘standard line’. The participants were in a group with confederates who purposely gave the wrong answer to a seemingly obvious question. Asch discovered how in 33% of cases, participants conformed by giving the wrong answer to fit in with the majority, even when, after the study, they admitted that they did know the correct answer.
• This supports the NSI explanation for conformity as the research shows that conformity is more likely to occur when an individual wants to fit in with the majority around them even if they do not agree with them privately.
• Can also use the study by Jenness to support ISI
• Can also use the study Sherif to support ISI

Question 20

What are the weaknesses of explanations for conformity? (3)

Answer 20

A weakness of explanations for conformity is that there are individual differences. For example, Kurosawa (1993) found that people with higher self esteem were more resistant to conformity than those with lower self esteems. Therefore, a weakness of explanations for conformity is that they lack population validity as it cannot explain why all people may conform.

ISI and NSI may work together in explaining conformity instead of separately. This can be demonstrated in Asch’s study, where it is unclear whether participants changed their behaviour due to their desire to fit in with the majority (NSI) or their desire to be correct(ISI), or both together.

A weakness of explanations for conformity is that research studies which support it are lab studies which lack ecological validity. For example, Asch made people compare line lengths, which is a very artificial task which does not reflect the real world and therefore cannot be generalised to the wider population.

Question 21

What are three studies that looked into conformity? And when?

Answer 21

Jenness (1932)
Sherif (1935-1936)
Solomon Asch (1951)

Question 22

Describe Jenness’ study and how it supports the ISI explanation for conformity:

Answer 22

Jenness put participants in an ambiguous situation by asking them to estimate how many jellybeans were in a glass bottle. At first, he asked them individually, then as a group estimate, and then individually again. Jenness found that ISI had occurred where participants changed their estimate to be closer to the group estimate when they were asked to estimate again individually. This supports ISI as it proves that when put in an ambiguous situation, a person will look to others for guidance due to them wanting to be right.

Question 23

Describe Sherif’s study and how it supports the ISI explanation for conformity:

Answer 23

Sherif utilised the autokinetic effect experiment to study conformity.
This is where a small spot of light is projected onto a wall in a dark room and it appears to move even though it is a visual illusion and doesn’t actually move.
Sherif asked participants individually how far they think the spot of light moved and the answer greatly varied between participants. Sherif then put participants into groups of three and manipulated their composition by including 2 people with similar results with 1 person with very different results, and asked them again individually, but in front of reach other.
Sherif discovered that the person with a greatly different estimate actually conformed to the majority and gave an answer more similar to the other 2 participants.
This supports the ISI explanation for conformity as it shows that when put in an ambiguous situation, a person will look to others for guidance due to them wanting to be right.

Question 24

Describe Asch’s study into NSI:

Answer 24

Asch used a lab experiment to study conformity where 123 male students from America participated in a ‘vision test’ using a line judgement task.

Asch placed a naive participant in a group with several confederates. The group was asked to identify which of three ‘test lines’ was the same as the ‘standard line’. The confederates were instructed to purposely give the wrong answer on 12/18 of trials, these were called the critical trials, even though the question was obvious. The naive participant gave their response last. Asch also had a control group comprised of 36 participants that had 20 trials that he could use to compare his results to.

Asch discovered how in 33% of cases, participants conformed by giving the wrong answer to fit in with the majority, even when, after the study, they admitted that they did know the correct answer, but conformed to avoid disapproval. 75% of participants conformed at least once. 25% did not conform at all. 5% conformed every time. In the control group less than 1% of participants gave the wrong answer.

The majority of participants who conformed did so publicly but not privately (compliance) as they did not really believe the answers that they gave when they conformed. They had only conformed to the majority due to the fear of being ridiculed and desire to fit in (NSI).

Question 25

What are 5 weaknesses of Asch’s study?

Answer 25

• A weakness of Asch’s study is that it lacks temporal validity as it was conducted in 1951. This is supported by Perrin and Spencer who repeated Asch’s study on engineering students in 1980 and found that only 1 student conformed in a total of 396 trials. However some may argue that due to the participants being engineering students, they were more confident with measuring lines and didn’t feel the need to look to others for guidance.
• Another weakness of Asch’s study is that it lacks ecological validity as the task of measuring lines is artificial and does not properly reflect real life - as you would typically never witness someone doing this in the real world, Asch’s study cannot be generalised to the real world.
• Another weakness of Asch’s study is that is violates many ethical guidelines. For example, there was deception involved where participants thought they were taking part in a perception test when really it was about conformity. Furthermore, Asch’s study involved psychological harm where participants were put in a stressful and embarrassing scenario. Therefore some people may perceive Asch’s study as unethical and his findings not legitimate.
• Another weakness of Asch’s study is that due to it being lab study, there were potentially demand characteristics involved which is where participants guess the aim of the study and change their behaviour accordingly. Therefore, perhaps participants conformed to the majority because they figured out the aim of the research study.
• Another weakness of Asch’s study is that it lacks population validity / beta bias. As the participant sample is only made up of white, American males, it is unrepresentative of the whole target population and should not be generalised to women and other cultures.

Question 26

What three variables did Asch investigate that affect conformity?

Answer 26

Group size
Unanimity of the majority
Task difficulty

Question 27

Why is group size a variable affecting conformity?

Answer 27

Asch changed group size. When there were one or two confederates in the majority, there was very little conformity. However, if there was three confederates, the rate of conformity significantly increased to 30% due to there being more pressure. There was little change to conformity once groups reached four confederates showing that group size as a variable affecting conformity is important up to a point.

Question 28

Why is unanimity of the majority a variable affecting conformity?

Answer 28

Asch changed unanimity of the majority which refers to when every single confederate gave the same wrong answer to the ‘vision test’. Asch discovered that when just 1 confederate gave the correct answer to the line judgement task, conformity levels dropped significantly from 33% to 5.5%. Furthermore if 1 confederate gave a different WRONG answer to the line judgement task, conformity levels dropped from 33% to 9%.

Question 29

Why is task difficulty a variable affecting conformity?

Answer 29

Asch increased task difficulty by making the test lines more similar in length which caused conformity to increase. In this case, the task became less obvious meaning that ISI potentially began to occur because when we are uncertain of an answer, we look to other for the right one because we want to be correct.

Question 30

What are social roles?

Answer 30

Social roles are the parts people play as members of various social groups which are accompanied by expectations we and others around us have of what appropriate behaviour is for each role.

Question 31

Describe the Stanford Prison Experiment by Phillip Zimbardo:

Answer 31

Zimbardo wanted to investigate whether it was personality (dispositional) or conformity to social roles (situational) which altered a person’s behaviour.

To research conformity to social roles, he converted the basement of the Stanford University Psychology department into a mock, simulated prison. Using a volunteer sample, Zimbardo randomly assigned 24 young men, based on their strong emotional and psychological stability, to the social role of either a guard or a prisoner.

The experiment involved prisoners being arrested in their own homes, stripped naked and, once in the mock prison, only referred to as their ID numbers making them lose their sense of identity. The guards were given complete control over the prisoners who had to maintain order by any means necessary, except for violence.

Zimbardo discovered that even perfectly normal, stable people conform to new social roles - it was the situation, their social role, which altered their behaviour. Guards immediately adopted brutal, sadistic behaviour and taunted prisoners with insults and gave them petty orders. The prisoners also adopted prison-like behaviours where they became submissive to the guards to avoid being tormented. The experiment, which was meant to last for two weeks, was called off after six days due to participants suffering from high psychological harm including nervous breakdowns, nervous rashes and hunger strikes.

Question 32

What are 3 advantages of the SPE?

Answer 32

+ A strength of the Stanford Prison Experiment is that it has real life applications as it can be generalised to the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad. In this prison, guards abused prisoners through physical assault and humiliation - SPE can be used to help explain how situational factors, the guards conformity to their social role, caused abusive mannerisms, not their personalities.

+ Another strength of the SPE is that there was very high control over variables. For instance, randomly assigning participants to either a guard or prisoner eliminated experimenter bias. This ultimately provides the SPE with internal validity.

+ Another strength of the SPE is that due to it accurately reflecting real life prisons (being arrested in your own home, being stripped naked, referring to prisoners as ID numbers), it can be said to have high ecological validity and can therefore be generalised to real life prisons.

+ hofflings study supports this too (nurses conformed to the social role).

Question 33

What are 3/4 disadvantages of the SPE?

Answer 33

• A weakness of the SPE is that is violated many ethical guidelines. Participants suffered from intense psychological harm including nervous breakdowns, nervous rashes and hunger strikes.

Furthermore, due to Zimbardo becoming very involved in the experiment by taking on dual roles, psychologist and superintendent, the study didn’t only lose objectivity (and therefore validity) , but also violated another ethical guideline where participants did not really have the right to withdraw. For example, when a participant asked to leave the study, Zimbardo was in his social role of superintendent and therefore denied him this request. It was not until Christina Maslach, a fellow colleague, questioned the studies morality and viewed the psychological harm imposed onto the participants, that the study was terminated.

• The sample is very unrepresentative of the target population where every participant, with the exception of one, was a white, middle-class male student from Stanford University. Therefore, the study cannot be generalised to women (gender bias) or other cultures (cultural bias).
• Another weakness of the SPE is demand characteristics. This is where participants guess the aim of the study and change their behaviour accordingly. After the experiment, participants who played the guards reported that they only behaved in an abusive, sadistic manner because that is what they thought experimenters wanted from them. Therefore, perhaps social roles were not what altered the participants behaviour, making the study invalid.

Question 34

What is obedience?

Answer 34

Obedience is a form of social influence in which an individual follows a direct order, usually from an authority figure, who has a high status and power over others.

Question 35

Who studied obedience and when?

Answer 35

Milgram (1963)

Question 36

What did Milgram want to identify/what was the aim of his study?

Answer 36

Milgram (1963) investigated obedience levels on 40 participants at Yale University in response to an authority figure instructing them to administer electric shocks onto another person. The participants were met by a confederate, posing as another participant, and an experimenter who got the ‘participants’ to pick notes out of a hat to see who would be the ‘teacher’ and who would be the ‘learner’ - however, this was a set up so that the real participant was always the teacher.

The learner was hooked up to an electric shock machine, and the teacher was placed into an adjoining room. The experiment involved the ‘teacher’ punishing the ‘learner’ by administering an electric shock unto them every time they made a mistake on a memory test.

The electric shocks began at 15V and increased in increments of 15V up to 450V. The confederate was told to scream out in pain at 180V, to demand to be released from the experiment at 300V and at 315V to be silent. If the participant ever questioned the experiment or no longer wanted to take part, the experimenter had a list of four prods which they would use in the same order to ensure that the participant kept going - for example, ‘you have no choice, you must continue’.

Milgram predicted that only 2% of participants would go up to 450V but his hypothesis was very wrong. 100% of the participants went to 300V and 65% went all the way up to 450V proving that ordinary people will obey authority, regardless of the consequences which may arise. However, nearly all of the participants displayed signs of distress such as frantic breathing and sweating.

Question 37

What are 2 strengths of Milgram’s research?

Answer 37

+ A strength of Milgram’s study is that despite the many ethical issues, many psychologists feel that after conducting a cost-benefit analysis, the study was worthwhile as it could lead people in the real world to take more responsibility and not blindly follow orders (real life applications). Furthermore, 84% of the participants said that they were happy to have taken part in the society as they learnt something valuable from the experience.

+ A strength of Milgram’s study is that it is supported by research. Hofling et al (1966) carried out an experiment where 21/22 nurses were obedient to a doctor, an authority figure, named Dr Smith who instructed them to exceed the maximum dosage of an unknown drug even when they didn’t know if Dr Smith was a genuine doctor or not! This supports Milgram’s conclusions drawn from his study which suggest that ordinary people are obedient to authority figures regardless of the consequences they may have.

Question 38

What are 3 disadvantages of Milgram’s study?

Answer 38

• Orne and Holland have criticised Milgram’s study who argued that participants guessed that the electric shocks were not real and therefore just display demand characteristics - this is where participants know that they are being studied and figure out the study’s aim and change their behaviour accordingly. Therefore, Milgram’s study is not properly measuring what it intended to measure and lacks internal validity.
• Another weakness of Milgram’s study on obedience to authority figures is that it violated several ethical guidelines. During the experiment, many participants became extremely distressed and endured severe psychological harm as they thought that they had severely injured or, if they had proceeded over 315V, had killed he confederate.
  Furthermore, the participants did not really have their right to withdraw where when many of them questioned the study or wanted to leave, the experimenter simply said to continue.
  Furthermore, deception occurred towards about the true nature of the study where participants were told that the study was to do with memory, when in fact it was obedience.
  Therefore, many psychologists perceive his work as not being a legitimate or valid way to explain obedience to authority.
• A weakness of Milgram’s study on obedience is that the sample which he used is unrepresentative of the whole population as it was comprised solely of white American males. Therefore, Milgram’s conclusions about obedience to authority figures cannot be generalised to women (gender bias) or other cultures (cultural bias).

Question 39

Describe three ethical issues with Milgram’s study and his defences to those issues:

Answer 39

1 Issue: Participants were not fully informed about the nature of the study (unable to get their written fully informed consent)
Defence: deception was necessary so that they weren’t aware of the true nature of the study (so that behaviour shown was accurate/no demand characteristics) and there was a debrief after the experiment had finished.

2 Issue: The participants could not withdraw from the experiment very easily (when they said they wanted to stop they were actively told to continue (prods))
Defence: withdrawal was not IMPOSSIBLE and 35% of the participants did actually withdraw before the study finished.

3 Issue: there was a risk of long-term psychological harm as the participants were put in an extremely stressful situation which led them to believe that they had either seriously injured or maybe even killed another person
Defence: through thorough debrief and the participants were made aware that they had not actually harmed another individual. They were also told that their behaviour was very normal so that they would not be upset with their own responses to the study.

Question 40

Questionnaires were sent out after Milgram’s experiment? What were the results of this?

Answer 40

84% glad to have taken part
1.3% sorry to have taken part
74% learnt something of vital importance from the study

Question 41

What are the 3 situational variables that may affect levels of obedience?

Answer 41

Proximity
Location
Uniform

Question 42

Why is Proximity a situational variable affecting obedience levels?

Answer 42

Proximity refers to closeness and distance. In Milgram’s proximity variation, the teacher and the learner were sat in the same room as each other, different to the original study where they were in an adjoining room and could hear, but not see each other. Obedience rates dropped to 40% as this variation allowed the participant to experience the confederates anguish directly.

In a more extreme variation called the touch proximity variation, teachers had to actually force the learners hand onto an electroshock plate. Obedience rates dropped to 30%

In the absent experimenter variation, the experimenter left the room and communicated with the participant over the phone. Obedience levels dropped to 20.5%

This shows how as proximity increases, obedience levels decrease.

Question 43

Why is Location a situational variable?

Answer 43

Location refers to where the study takes place. In his alternative setting variation, Milgram’s changed the location from the prestigious Yale University, to a run-down building. Obedience rates dropped to 47.5%. This is because participants admitted that Yale University gave them the confidence in the integrity of the research with prompted them to continue.

This shows how the more prestigious a location, the higher obedience rates will be.

Question 44

Why is Uniform a situational variable?

Answer 44

In the baseline study, the figure of authority wore a uniform, a grey lab coat, which symbolised their authority. In his variation, Milgram made the experimenter wear everyday clothes instead which caused obedience rates to drop to 20%. This shows that as a uniform symbolises power and authority, when it is removed, obedience levels drop.

Question 45

What are 3 advantages of Milgram’s situational variables affecting obedience/variations? (for the variations, you can use the same eval for milgrams study overall as they used the same methodology, ethical issues etc)

Answer 45

+ An advantage of Milgram’s situational variable affecting obedience is that is is supported by research by Bickman (1974) who researched the power of uniforms. Three male researchers, one dressed in a suit, one dressed as a milkman, and one dressed as a guard i uniform, all gave orders to 153 randomly selected pedestrians in New York. Bickman found that the pedestrians obeyed the guard the most (80% obedience rate) compared to the milkman or civilian (40% obedience rate) which supports Milgram’s view that due to uniform’s conveying high authority, obedience levels will increase.

+ Another strength of Milgram’s variations is that he had high control over his variables. When investigating proximity and location, only one variable was altered as all the rest were kept constant. Therefore, his research into situational variables is high in validity, as the situational variable would be the only thing affecting obedience.

+ Milgram replicated his variations on 1000 participants and gained the same results, making his research high in reliability.

Question 46

What are 2 disadvantages of Milgram’s situational variables affecting obedience/variations?

Answer 46

• Orne and Holland have criticised Milgram’s variations who argued that participants guessed the aim of the study and demonstrated demand characteristics - this is where participants know that they are being studied and figure out the study’s aim and change their behaviour accordingly. Therefore, Milgram’s study is not properly measuring what it intended to measure and lacks internal validity.
• A weakness of Milgram’s situational variables is the obedience alibi. David Mandel (1998) criticised Milgram’s use of situational variables as he believed that it gave participants an excuse or ‘alibi’ for their immoral and bad behaviour.

Question 47

What is a situational explanation?

Answer 47

A situational explanation is one which claims that it is because of a situation in which an individual is in which determines their behaviour.

Question 48

What are two situational explanations of obedience?

Answer 48

The Agentic State

Legitimacy of Authority

Question 49

What is the Agentic State?

Answer 49

Milgram (1974) proposed that individuals are obedient to destructive authority because they have moved from an autonomous state, to an Agentic state - this is called the agentic shift.

The Agentic State, as a situational explanation for obedience, is the idea that individuals are not responsible for their own actions as they are merely ‘agents’ who are acting for an authority figure. In this case, individuals do not follow their own conscience or feel guilt for their actions either.

Question 50

How does the Agentic State occur, and how does it remain?

Answer 50

The Agentic State OCCURS when a person of authority is presented to an individual who seems trustworthy at first, but eventually becomes aggressive (gradual commitment).
People REMAIN in the Agentic State for the sake of maintaining a positive self-image where they do not want to break this commitment to the authority figures to not seem rude and arrogant.

Question 51

What is an advantage of the Agentic State as an explanation of obedience?

Answer 51

+ An advantage of the Agentic State as an explanation of obedience is that it is supported by research. Blass and Schmitt showed participants Milgram’s study of obedience where the majority of participants stated how the experimenter was responsible for the harm done to the learner as they were a figure of authority - the participants were merely an agent following orders. This supports Milgram’s situational explanation of the Agentic State for obedience.

Question 52

What are 2 disadvantage of the Agentic State as an explanation of obedience?

Answer 52

• A weakness of the Agentic State is that it cannot be used to explain the Nazi’s behaviour. For example, Mandel (1998) reported that in one incident involving the German Reserve Police Battalion 101, many men, who were not ordered or under any authority to shoot a mass number of Jews, did so willingly. This shows how the Agentic State as an explanation of obedience by Milgram cannot explain all situations - the Nazi’s were not ‘agents’ in that situation or under any authority.
• It cannot explain other main research studies where not all participants obeyed to a figure of authority:
  Hofling - 1/22 nurses did not obey Dr Smith’s (a figure of authority) wish to exceed the maximum dosage of an unknown drug called Astrofen and give it to a patient
  Milgram - not all participants went up to 450 despite the experiment, figure of authority, telling them to.
  Therefore, the Agentic State as an explanation of obedience is undermined by counter-research.

Question 53

What is Legitimate Authority as an explanation of obedience?

Answer 53

Legitimate Authority as an explanation of obedience suggests that people are more likely to be obedient to someone in a position of social control in a hierarchal society.
From a young age, we learn to obey legitimate authority figures though socialisation where we are taught to trust but also fear them if we fail to obey.
Legitimate authority can be shown through symbols of power for example, uniform. Legitimate authority can often require an institution/location to go with it in order to cause obedience, especially if the commands from the figure are particularly destructive. An example of a legitimate authority figure is a policeman, teacher or parent.

Question 54

What are 2 advantages of the Legitimate Authority as an explanation of obedience?

Answer 54

+ An advantage of Legitimate authority figures is that they ensure a well-functioning, ordered society. For example, the police are a legitimate authority figure who instil fear into individuals who fear punishment if they do not obey them.
+ Another advantage of Legitimate Authority is that Bickman (1974) supported the idea that uniform indicated a Legitimate Authority figure. He asked three confederates to ask people to pick up litter dressed as either a milkman, a man in a suit, or a guard. Obedience levels were highest towards the guard in a uniform - it indicated that he was a Legitimate Authority figure.

Question 55

What is a disadvantage of the Legitimate Authority as an explanation of obedience?

Answer 55

• Not all Legitimate Authority figures should be obeyed simply because they are in a position of high social control, especially if they order an individual to do something immoral or dangerous. This is a weakness of this explanation as it serves as a scapegoat to Legitimate Authority figures who abuse their power. Perhaps a balance should be struck between teaching children to obey authority figures and questioning what the authority figure is asking of them, in terms of morality.

Question 56

What is a dispositional explanation?

Answer 56

A dispositional explanation is one which claims that it is an individuals personality which determines behaviour, unlike situational influences in the environment.

Question 57

What is a dispositional explanation for obedience?

Answer 57

Authoritarian personality

Question 58

Who researched the authoritarian personality?

Answer 58

Adorno (1950)

Question 59

What is an authoritarian personality?

Answer 59

An authoritarian personality refers to a collection of traits which makes an individual more likely to obey an authority figure.

Question 60

What are 4 traits of an authoritarian personality?

Answer 60

• servile towards people of a higher status
• hostile towards people of a lower status
• preoccupation with power
• conformist (rule following)

Question 61

How do authoritarian personalities develop? (1) What does this lead to? (2)

Answer 61

Authoritarian personalities develop due to receiving extremely strict parenting, usually involving verbal and physical punishment.

This can lead to an individual developing feelings of hostility which is displaced onto weaker others who cannot fight back.

This can also lead to feelings of anger towards their parents, but, as they cannot fight back as a result of fearing them, this anger is repressed where the individual becomes submissive to them, which extends to all authority figures.

Question 62

How is the authoritarian personality measured?

Answer 62

Adorno developed a questionnaire to measure the authoritarian personality called the F (Fascism) Scale. Participants are asked to rate to what extent they agree to statements such as ‘obedience to authority are important virtues which children should learn’.

Question 63

What are 2 advantages of the Authoritarian personality?

Answer 63

+ A strength of the authoritarian personality is that there is research support. Miller (1975) found that people who scored high on the F Scale, and therefore have an authoritarian personality, were more likely to obey an order to hold onto electric wiring while working on an arithmetic problem compared to people who scored low on the F Scale.

+ A strength of the authoritarian personality is that there is research support. Altemeyer (1981) ordered participants to give them increasing levels of electric shocks. There was a strong correlation between those who obeyed and those with high scores on the F Scale (having an authoritarian personality). This supports this explanation as it shows how having an authoritarian personality makes people more likely to obey an authority figure.

Question 64

What are 2 weaknesses of the Authoritarian personality?

Answer 64

• A weakness of this explanation is that there are many methodological problems with the F (Fascism) Scale. For example, due to many questions being worded in the same direction (leading questions) many people were lead to answer in a particular way, causing many to be classed as having an authoritarian personality, even if they potentially did not. This means that results collected from using the F Scale were potentially inaccurate in measuring the authoritarian personality.
• Another weakness of this explanation is that due to authoritarian personsalities being very uncommon, it cannot explain why the majority of the population are obedient. For example, in Milgram’s study, 65% of participants were obedient all the way up to 450V, however, not all the participants had an authoritarian personality. Therefore, this explanation cannot explain obedience on its own.

Question 65

What is a situational explanation of resistance to social influence?

Answer 65

Social Support

Question 66

What is resistance to social influence?

Answer 66

The pressure to conform and/or obey can have powerful influences over an individuals behaviour. However, some people manage to resist this pressure and display non-conformity and non-obedience while retaining their own independence.

Question 67

What is social support as an explanation for resistance to social influence?

Answer 67

Social support is a situational explanation of resistance to social influence which argues that if one person, a dissenter, refuses to conform/obey, it is far more likely that other people will also resist social influence.

Question 68

How does social support work for conformity?

Answer 68

People are more likely to resist conformity if they have an ally who breaks the unanimity of the majority. When group decisions are unanimous, they are very influential, meaning that when it is broken by an ally, people are provided with more confidence to not conform and stand up to the majority.

Question 69

How does social support work for obedience?

Answer 69

People are more likely to resist obedience if they have a disobedient role model who goes against the Legitimate Authority figure, thus reducing the authority and power of the figure, making it easier for others to be disobedient (provides more confidence to not obey).

Question 70

What are two advantages of Social Support as an explanation of resistance to social influence?

Answer 70

+ There is research support for this explanation. Milgram (1974) asked participants to deliver electric shocks to a confederate Mr Wallace when they got a question on a memory test wrong. 65% were obedient all the way up to giving fatal 450V shocks. However, when there was a disobedient confederate, obedience rates of the participant reduced to 10%. This proves how social support is a powerful explanation of resistance to obedience.

+ There is research support for this explanation. Asch (1951) asked participants to say which of three test lines was the same as the standard line. The confederates in the room all gave the same wrong answer to the obvious question. When all the confederates gave the same wrong answer, there was unanimity of the majority, conformity rates from the participant was 33%. However, when one confederate acted as an ally by giving the correct answer, this unanimity was broken, the conformity rates from participants dropped to just 5%. This proves how social support is a powerful explanation of resistance to conformity.

Question 71

What are three disadvantages of Social Support as an explanation of resistance to social influence?

Answer 71

• In Asch and Milgram’s original studies where there was no social support (no confederates serving as an ally breaking the unanimity of the majority), some participants still resisted social influence. Therefore, social support cannot be the only explanation of resistance to social influence - perhaps there are other factors such as personality traits or the conscience.
• Asch and Milgram’s studies both include artificial tasks and settings (lab setting, measuring lines etc;) meaning that they lack ecological validity as they do not reflect the real world. Therefore, perhaps the studies supporting social support cannot be generalised to explain resistance to social influence in the real world.
• Another weakness is that Asch and Milgram’s studies do not represent group sizes in the real world as their studies only had group sizes of under 10 people. However, in the real world, group sizes are much larger for example, 100, where one dissenter would not have any influence over the majority where resistance to social influence would not be any more likely. Therefore, their studies cannot be used to explain resistance to social influence in the real world.

Question 72

What is a dispositional explanation of resistance to social influence?

Answer 72

Locus of control

Question 73

Who researched Locus of Control?

Answer 73

Julian Rotter (1966)

Question 74

What is Locus of Control by Rotter?

Answer 74

Rotter argued that a person’s personality determines whether they will succumb to or resist social influence - Locus of Control is therefore a dispositional explanation of resistance to social influence.

Locus of Control (LOC) refers to the extent to which an individual believe’s that they have complete control over their own behaviour.

Question 75

How is LOC measured?

Answer 75

LOC is measured on a dimension from internal to external.

Question 76

What is having a high internal LOC?

Answer 76

People with an internal LOC believe that they have high control over their behaviour. They see their life as being a direct result of their own behaviour and take full responsibility for their own actions.

Question 77

What is an example of internal LOC?

Answer 77

If a person with high internal LOC does badly on a test, they will see what has happened as a direct result of their own behaviour - ‘I did not do enough revision’

Question 78

What is having a high external LOC?

Answer 78

People with an external LOC believe that what happens in their lives is outside of their own control and is a result of other factors for example, fate or luck.

Question 79

What is an example of external LOC?

Answer 79

If a person with high external LOC does badly on a test, they will blame what has happened on luck, fate, or other outside influences such a bad teaching from their teachers.

Question 80

What type of LOC makes people more likely to resist social influence and why?

Answer 80

People with an internal locus of control are more likely to resist social influence because they:

• are more likely to be leaders than followers
• have high self confidence
• are less concerned with social approval
• believe that they control their own circumstances (less likely to listen to others).

Question 81

What are two advantages of LOC as an explanation of resistance to social influence?

Answer 81

+ An advantage of this explanation is that there is research support for it. Oliner and Oliner (1988) interviewed 406 German people who had protected the Jews from the Nazi’s and discovered that they had a high internal locus of control which allowed them to disobey the Nazi’s - this proves that a high internal locus of control can cause resistance to social influence.

+ An advantage of this explanation is that there is research support for it. Milgram (1974) asked participants to administer electric shocks to a confederate. He discovered that the 35% of participants who refused to shock the confederate up to the high voltage of 450V were much more likely to have a high internal locus of control compared to the 65% who did obey up to 450V - this proves that a high internal locus of control can cause resistance to social influence.

Question 82

What is a disadvantage of LOC as an explanation of resistance to social influence?

Answer 82

• Twenge (2004) analysed data from American obedience studies over the last 40 years and found that over time, people were becoming more resistant to obedience, but also more external in their Locus Of Control. This undermines LOC as an explanation of resistance to social influence, as we would expect that with a growing resistance to obedience, there would also be a higher internal locus of control, however, Twenge’s research contradicts this. Therefore, this explanation may be inaccurate.

Question 83

What is minority influence?

Answer 83

Minority influence is a type of social influence where very persuasive small groups motivate individuals to reject majority group norms.

Question 84

What does the influence of a minority group lead to?

Answer 84

Minority influence usually leads to a process called conversion where individuals change their behaviour, attitudes and beliefs both privately and publicly (this can be seen as a type of internalisation).

Question 85

What are 3 behavioural characteristics which make minority influence more effective?

Answer 85

Commitment
Consistency
Flexibility

Question 86

What is commitment?

Answer 86

Commitment is when members of the minority group demonstrate their dedication to their belief. For example, if the minority group willingly suffer for their beliefs (the augmentation principle), the majority group will see them as committed and take them more seriously as their beliefs must be important, thus making minority influence more effective.

Question 87

What is consistency?

Answer 87

Consistency is when members of a minority group repeatedly give the same message over time. This demonstrates confidence in their beliefs which makes the majority reassess their beliefs more carefully. Therefore, consistency makes minority influence more effective / likely to occur.

Question 88

What is flexibility?

Answer 88

Flexibility is when a minority group show that they are willing to listen to other viewpoints. As minority groups are generally powerless, they should negotiate their views rather than enforce them in order for the majority group to take them seriously.

Question 89

What is the snowball effect in relation to minority influence?

Answer 89

This is where the minority influence initially has a small effect but soon spreads more widely due to more and more people considering the minority groups beliefs. Eventually, it reaches a tipping point where there is wide-scale social change where the minority becomes the majority.

Question 90

What is social crypto-amnesia in relation to minority influence?

Answer 90

Social crypto-amnesia refers to the process where people know that social change has occurred, but cannot remember where this idea originated from due to it being the new norm.

Question 91

What is an advantage of minority influence?

Answer 91

+ There is research support for consistency of a minority group making minority influence more effective. Moscovici (1969) got 172 American female participants to take part in a laboratory experiment involving a colour perception task where they had to state allowed the colour of each slide (each slide was a varying shade of blue). The participants were placed into groups of six where two of those participants were actually confederates. There were two conditions: in the consistent condition, the confederates said all 36 slides were green and in the inconsistent condition, the confederates said only 24/36 of the slides were green. In the consistent condition, 8.2% of participants were swayed by the minority group but in the inconsistent condition, only 1.25% were. This proves that consistency makes minority influence more effective.

Question 92

What are 2 disadvantages of minority influence?

Answer 92

• The sample used in Moscovici’s research support is unrepresentative of the target population due to every participant being both America and female. Therefore, the study cannot be generalised to men (gender bias) or other cultures (cultural bias) as we cannot conclude that men and those of other cultures will respond to minority influence in the same way.
• Most of the research support for minority influence is conducted in laboratories. This is a weakness of minority influence for two reasons.

Firstly, the artificiality of the tasks, for example stating colours of a slide, does not reflect the real world, making supporting research lack ecological validity which cannot be generalised.

Secondly, the participants selected for the research study are very unlikely to ever see each other again, meaning that they may be more likely to be influenced by the minority as they know that there will be no real consequences or judgement from others in the outside world. Therefore, the research may be invalid as it is not really measuring the effectiveness of minority influence.

Question 93

What is a disadvantage but also advantage of minority influence?

Answer 93

Many psychologists have criticised research support. For example, in Moscovici’s study, participants were deceived as they were told that they were taking part in a colour perception test, but it was really a study into consistency with minority influence. This also means that there was a lack of informed consent.

However, although the study may be seen as unethical, many psychologists suggest that if a cost-benefit analysis was carried out, Moscovici’s experiment would have required deception for the sake of validity in order to reduce demand characteristics.

Question 94

What is social change and how does it occur?

Answer 94

Social change refers to society adopting new beliefs or ways of behaving on a global scale, which then becomes the norm. Social change is usually a result of a minority’s view challenging that of the majority who eventually accept their view.

Question 95

What is an example of social change?

Answer 95

An example of social change is equality for homosexual couples where in 1967, it was an imprisonable offence, but is now accepted as a norm in modern day society.

Question 96

How do minority groups effectively bring about social change? (3)

Answer 96

By being flexible, committed and consistent (elaborate on what these mean in an essay).

Question 97

What are the 5 processes by which minority influence creates social change?

Answer 97

Drawing attention to the issue
Cognitive conflict 
Consistency of position 
The augmentation process
The snowball effect

Question 98

What is drawing attention to the issue?

Answer 98

Minority groups have to capture to attention of the majority. This can be done through things such as protesting, sit-ins, or marches.

Question 99

What is cognitive conflict?

Answer 99

The minority group creates conflict between them and the majority group regarding their beliefs which makes the majority think about their views more deeply. An example could be where Rosa Parks argued with a white woman regarding her seat on a bus.

Question 100

What is consistency of position?

Answer 100

This refers to how minority groups are more effective when they express their views repeatedly. This makes the majority reassess their views.

Question 101

What is the augmentation principle?

Answer 101

If a minority appears willing to suffer for their views, they are seen as more dedicated and committed to their cause which makes the majority pay more attention to them

Question 102

What is the snowball effect?

Answer 102

This refers to how a minority initially has a small effect but this eventually spreads more widely due to more people considering their views. This then reaches a tipping point where the minority becomes the majority.

Question 103

What can happen after the snowball effect has occurred? (2)

Answer 103

• people may conform to the new majority viewpoint as they want to fit in (nsi) or because they genuinely believe that the new majority viewpoint is correct (isi)
• social crypto-amnesia refers to the process where people know that social change has occurred, but cannot remember where this idea originated from due to it being the new norm.

Question 104

How does social change occur due to the law?

Answer 104

If governments decide to change the law, social change is likely to occur as people would perceive this law as the new norm and would adopt new behaviour.

Question 105

What is an advantage of social change?

Answer 105

+ There is research support for the consistency of position as a process by which social change occurs. Moscovici (1969) got 172 American female participants to take part in a laboratory experiment involving a colour perception task where they had to state allowed the colour of each slide (each slide was a varying shade of blue). The participants were placed into groups of six where two of those participants were actually confederates. There were two conditions: in the consistent condition, the confederates said all 36 slides were green and in the inconsistent condition, the confederates said only 24/36 of the slides were green. In the consistent condition, 8.2% of participants were swayed by the minority group but in the inconsistent condition, only 1.25% were. This proves that consistency of position makes minority influence more effective and social change more likely to occur.

Question 106

What are three disadvantages of social change?

Answer 106

• A weakness is that research support for consistency of position as a process by which social change occurs is unrepresentative of the target population. For example, in Moscovici’s study, every participant was America and female meaning that his study cannot be generalised to men (gender bias) or other cultures (cultural bias). Therefore, we cannot conclude that consistency of position and social change will occur in other cultures and for men in the same way.
• Nemeth (1986) argued that the effects of minority influence are likely to be indirect, as they only deal with the matters as hand, not the central issue itself, and delayed, as the effects of minority influence may not be seen for some time. For example, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus due to the colour of her skin. There was delay where it too over a year of protesting to see a change in the law where all skin colours could ride the bus. However, this was indirectly tackling the central issue of racial inequality which was not completely solved. Therefore, a limitation of social change is that its effects are indirect and delayed and may not always have the outcome which minority groups aimed for.
• A weakness of social change is that there may be barriers such as stereotypes to minority groups which will prevent social change from occurring. Bashir et al. (2013) found that participants were less likely to behave in an environmentally friendly way as they did not want to be associated with environmentalists (a minority group) who were stereotyped as ‘tree huggers’. Therefore, social change cannot happen unless the minority group is not associated with negative and extremist stereotypes which can be very difficult to shift.