Social Influence AO1

Question 1

Conformity

Answer 1

A change in a persons behaviour or opinions because of a real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people.

Question 2

3 types of conformity

Answer 2

• Compliance (conforms publicly but privately disagrees, shallowest form. E.g. joke)
• Identification (conforms publicly and privately temporarily. E.g. football team)
• Internalisation (conforms publicly and privately permanently. E.g. vegetarian)

Question 3

Normative social influence (NSI)

Answer 3

• Wish to be liked
• Following the crowd to fit in and avoid social rejection and foolishness
• Want social approval
• Emotional rather than cognitive process
• Stressful situations (need social support)
• Compliance

Question 4

Informative social influence (ISI)

Answer 4

• Ambiguity
• Dont know what’s correct
• Believe the majority is right
• E.g. class question
• Cognitive process
• Internalisation
• New situations

Question 5

3 variations of Asch

Answer 5

• Group size, 1 confederate conformity 3%, 3 confederates conformity 32%.
• Unanimity, 1 confederate conformity dropped 5%, 1 confederate different incorrect answer conformity 9%
• Task difficulty, more difficult conformity increased (ISI)

Question 6

Asch experiment

Answer 6

• Line judgement task
• confederate (123 american males)
• Aims to observe social pressure
• 25% never conformed

Group size - 1 confederate = 3%, 3 = 31.8%
Unanimity - dissenter = fell to 5%
Task difficulty - ISI

Question 7

Social change

Answer 7

• Drawing attention - civil right marches provided social proof
• Consistency
• Augmentation principle - ‘freedom riders’ challenged a separate seating
• Social cryptoamnesia
• Snowball effect - gradual change
• NSI - follow otherss

Question 8

Milgram

Answer 8

• 40 american males - remember word pair
• prompts = ‘please continue’, ‘essential you continue’
• 65% continued to 450v, 12.5% to 300v
• 3 ppts had seizures
• 84% glad did it (said in debrief)

Question 9

Obedience - situational variables

Answer 9

• Touch proximity - force hand on plate = 30%
• Remote instruction over phone = 20.5%
• Run down building - obedience = 47.5%
• Someone in normal clothes - obedience = 20%

(Proximity, Location, Uniform)

Question 10

Zimbardo

Answer 10

• 21 males - psychologically tested, randomly allocated
• Prisoner given number = deindividualisation
• rebelled within 2 days
• 3 released early
• Stopped after 6 days instead of 14

Question 11

Agentic state

Answer 11

Agentic state - behalf of someone else
Autonomous state - own principles
Agentic shift - perceive someone else as authority

Question 12

Legitimacy of authority

Answer 12

Obey those further up social hierarchy
Legitimacy through social agreement

Question 13

Authoritarian personality

Answer 13

• Submissive to authority, contempt to inferiors formed through harsh parenting
• 2000 middle class white americans
• Used F scale
• Score high on F scale = Adorno says identified with strong people and had distinctive stereotypes about people

Question 14

Social support

Answer 14

• Asch showed dissenter acts as model
• Milgram = obedient behaviour fell to 10% in disobedient peer conditions

Question 14

Locus of control

Answer 14

Internals = control with themself, greater resistance to social influence

Externals = controls outside themselves