Social influence AO3 Flashcards
1
Q
What can we say about the situation and task in Asch?
Conformity
A
- They were artificial
- P’s knew they were in a research study and may have gone along with what was expected
- decreases validity/ ext validity
- Fiske said that the groups were not ‘groupy’ (did not resemble groups you would find irl)
- cannot generalise well
2
Q
What can we say about the generalisability of Asch?
Conformity
A
- P’s were american men
- Research suggests that women are more conformist due to being concerned with social relationships (neto)
- America is individualist, studies in collectivist cultures found that conformity is higher
- findings tell us little about conformity in other cultures
- limited
3
Q
How does research support Asch?
Conformity
A
- Lucas asked p’s to solve easy and hard maths problems
- p’s were given answers from three other confederate students
- the p’s conformed more when the problems were harder
- asch was correct in suggesting that task difficulty is a variable that affects Conformity
4
Q
What is a limitation of supporting research (lucas)?
Conformity
A
- conformity is more complex than asch suggested
- p’s with high confidence in their abilities conformed less on hard tasks
- individual level factor can influence conformity by interacting with situational variables
- Asch did not research the roles of individual factors
5
Q
What is research support for NSI?
Conformity types and ex
A
- When asch interviewed P’s some said they conformed due to feeling self conscious and they were afraid of being wrong
- When p’s wrote answers conformity fell to 12.5%
- no normative group pressure this way
6
Q
What is research support for ISI?
Conformity types and ex
A
- Lucas found that p’s conformed more often to incorrect answers they were given when difficulty increased
- this is because when they were easy the p’s knew their own mind
- when they became ambiguous they went with majority as they are likely to be correct
7
Q
What is a counterpoint of Lucas supporting ISI?
Conformity types and ex
A
- It is unclear whether NSI or ISI is at work in research studies.
- Asch found that conformity is reduced when there is a dissenter present as they may reduce NSI (provide social support) or ISI (provide alternate source of info)
- Hard to separate the two, may even work together in real life
8
Q
What is a limitation of NSI?
Conformity types and ex
A
- Does not predict conformity in every case
- Some people are concerned with being liked= nAffiliators
- Mcghee and teevan found that students who were NA were more likely to conform
- NSi underlies conformity for some people more than others
- There are individual differences in conformity that cannot be explained by one
9
Q
What is a strength of the SPE?
Conformity to social roles
A
- Control over variables
- Selection of participants
- Emotionally stable p’s chosen and randomly assigned
- this helped rule out individual personality differences as an explanation of the findings
- If guards and prisoners behaved differently but were in such roles by chance then the behaviour must have been due to the role itself
- Increased IV
10
Q
What is a limitation of the SPE?
Conformity to social roles
A
- Lacks realism
- Movahedi argued that p’s were merely play acting than conforming to a role
- p’s performances were based on their stereotypes of how prisoners and guards are supposed to behave
- e.g a guard said he based his role on a brutal character from a film ‘cool hand luke’
- explains why prisoners rioted as they were behaving how real prisoners did
11
Q
Who counters Movahedi’s argument?
Conformity to social roles
A
- McDermott
- Argues that p’s did behave as if the prison was real to them
- 90% of their convos were about prison life
- amongst themselves they discussed how it was impossible to leave before their sentences were over
- Prisoner 416= explained how he believed prison was real and run by psychologists rather than the gov
- did replicate social roles
12
Q
What is another limitation of the SPE?
Conformity to social roles
A
- Zimbardo may have exaggerated the power of social roles to influence behaviour
- 1/3 of guards actually behaved in a brutal manner
- 1/3 tried to apply rules fairly
- Rest tried to actively tried to help and support the prisoners
- They sympathised and reinstated privileges
- most guards resisted situational pressures to conform to a brutal role
13
Q
How is there supporting research for Milgram’s findings?
Conformity to social roles
A
- Findings were replicated in a french documentary
- Focused on a game show mode
- The p’s in the ‘game’ believed they were contestants in a pilot episode for a new show
- They were paid to give fake electric shocks to other p’s in front of a studio audience
- 80% delivered max shock of 460v
- almost identical to Milgram, similar behaviour
14
Q
What is a limitation of Milgram?
Conformity to social roles
A
- May not have been testing what he intended to test
- Milgram reported that 75% of his p’s said they believed shocks were genuine
- Orne and Holland argued that p’s behaved as they did due to not believing in the set up so they were play acting
- perry listened to tapes of the participants, reported that only half believed shocks were real
- may have been responding to demand chars
15
Q
Who countered Perry’s argument that effects were due to demand chars?
Conformity to social roles
A
- Sheridan and King
- Shocks to a puppy in response to orders from experimenter
- 54% of men and 100% of women gave what they thought was a fatal shock
- suggests that the effects in Milg study were real
16
Q
How might SLT provide a better interpretation of findings?
Conformity to social roles
A
- Haslam showed that p’s obeyed when the experimenter delivered the first three verbal prods
- However every p who was given 4th disobeyed
- according to SLT p’s obeyed when they identified with the scientific aims of research (the experiment requires that you continue)
- When they were ordered to blindly obey an AF they refused
17
Q
How do situational variables have research support?
Situational variables: obedience
A
- Field experiment in NYC
- Bickman had 3 confeds dress in different outfits: a jacket and tie, milkman’s outfit and security guard uniform
- Confeds individually stood in the street and asked passers by to perform tasks like picking up litter
- Twice as likely to obey the security guard than the one in jacket in tie
18
Q
How does situational variables have cross cultural replications?
Situational variables: obedience
A
- Meeus and Raaijmakers studied obedience in Dutch p’s
- p’s were ordered to say stressful things in an interview (a confed) to someone desperate for a job
- 90% obeyed
- Researchers also replicated proximity
- when person giving orders was not present, obedience decreased dramatically
19
Q
Were the replications of Milgram really cross cultural?
Counterpoint
Situational variables: obedience
A
- Not very
- Smith and Bond identified just 2 replications between 1968-85 that took place in India and Jordan
- Two countries very different from the US
- Whereas other countries involved are similar to the US (like spain and australia)
- May not be extremely generalisable
20
Q
What can we say about internal validity for situational variables?
Situational variables: obedience
A
- P’s may have been aware the procedure was faked
- Orne and Holland said that it is even more likely in variations due to extra manipulation of variables
- E.g when the experimenter was replaced by a member of the public
- Even milgram recognised that it was contrived so p’s may well have worked out the truth
- unsure whether findings are genuinely due to operation of obedience.
