Social Influence - Conformity and Obedience Flashcards
What are the 3 types of conformity?
Compliance
Internalisation
Identification
Define compliant comformity
When someone publicly conforms but retains their original belief
Define internalised conformity
When someone publicly conforms because of pre-existing beliefs that match the social pressure
Define indentification conformity
When someone has no original belief, conforms anyway, and then is convinced and genuinely believes in it
What are the 2 reasons for conformity?
Normative Social Influence
Informative Social Influence
What is normative social influence?
When someone conforms because they want to seem normal and fit in
What is informative social influence?
When someone conforms to seem correct
What was the aim of Asch’s study?
to show that people don’t make their own decisions
What did Zimbardo want to show with the SPE?
society has mutually-agreed roles that people just follow without thinking
Describe the method used for the Stanford Prison Experiment
A mock prison was set up in the basement of Stanford University. 24 male volunteers were assigned randomly to be either a prisoner or a guard.
The prisoners were arrested at home without warning and given a number instead of a name. Each prisoner had to wear a prison uniform and went through a delousing process.
The guards wore a khaki uniform and were told to keep order without harming the prisoners
What role did Zimbardo play in the SPE?
He was the superintendent of the prison, becoming invested into the experiment, showing investigator effects
What role did Zimbardo play in the SPE?
He was the superintendent of the prison, becoming invested into the experiment, showing investigator effects
What were the findings of the Stanford Prison Experiment?
The guards became very abusive and sadistic towards the prisoners very quickly into the experiment, while the prisoners became very passive and submissive.
However, some prisoners tried to rebel, one went on a hunger strike but was punished by the guards, and then by the other prisoners as the guards took away their rights until the strike ended.
After the first 36 hours, a prisoner began to experience a full mental breakdown every day until the experiment was ended early after 6 days.
What are the replications of the SPE?
- In 2006, the SPE was replicated in a more ethical and valid manner. Although the behaviour of the ppts was different, the findings were the same -> conformed to the social roles.
- Abu Ghraib Scandal - a prison infamous for torture was captured, and the new prisoners were treated with the same social roles as the old ones, showing the conformity.
What are 2 criticisms of the SPE?
Poor ethics -> ppts not protected from harm, Zimbardo admitted it should’ve ended sooner
Lack of mundane realism -> wooden props, clearly fake signs (just printed A4 paper) lead to demand characteristics
What were Milgrim’s motivations for his study into situational explanations of obedience?
He was interested in the ‘German question’ -> why German soldiers were obedient to the Nazi’s orders
He fled Germany with his family as they were Jews. The racism against Germans upset him so he wanted to investigate on their behalf
Define autonomous state
when your actions are under your own control
Define agentic state
when you’ve deferred responsibility to someone else
Define agentic shift
The point at which you lose sense of responsibility
Define Legitimacy of Authority
the qualities / features of the person giving orders that makes us obey them
Describe Milgram’s original experiment
The participant took the role of the ‘teacher’.
They tested the ‘learner’ on word puzzles over a radio - they were in seperate rooms
Each time the ‘learner’ answered a question incorrectly, the ppt gave them an electric shock, with the voltage increasing with each shock until they reached max voltage (450 volts - lethal)
What was the dependent variable in Milgram’s experiment?
The voltage that the ppts went up to before they either refused to continue, or delivered the max voltage
What are the 4 variations of Milgram’s study?
teacher and learner in the same room - 40% complied
when required to force the learner to touch the plate - 30%
when experimenter leaves the room - 21%
old office block, not university setting - 40%
What were the findings of Milgram’s original experiment?
65% complied and delivered the maximum voltage
What are the ethical issues with Milgram’s experiment?
ppts weren’t protected from harm - one had a heart attack after and others reported chronic anxiety
What are the 3 RWA personality clusters, according to Altemeyer?
Conventionalism
Authoritarian Aggression
Authoritarian Submission
Define conventionalism
someone who resists change
Define authoritarian aggression
when someone punishes differences, eg using scapegoats
Define authoritarian submission
the belief in authority to do the right thing
Describe Altemeyer’s experiment (1981)
The complete Milgram Experiment
Then, ppts were told they had not tried hard enough, and had to press a big red button to receive a big shock
What were the findings of Altemeyer’s experiment?
More than 80% obeyed, regardless of whether they were high RWA or not
Describe the Elms and Milgram (E+M) experiment
Same as original, but the independent variable was whether they were high RWA or not
What were the findings of E+M?
RWA people are more obedient, even when controlling for extraneous factors (eg education) by using the matched pairs design
What research criticises research into RWA and obedience?
consistent findings that extreme left wing people are also correlated with obedience
education is a strong extraneous variable, if someone is more educated they are more likely to disobey
Milgram concluded in 1974 that situational factors are more important than RWA
Why can Milgram’s original experiment be argued to be ethical?
the findings helped stop the prosecution of Germans, so it balances out the suffering of the participants
What is the F-Scale?
A test used to determine how right wing someone is
