Social Influence - Conformity and Obedience

Question 2

What are the 3 types of conformity?

Answer 2

Compliance

Internalisation

Identification

Question 3

Define compliant comformity

Answer 3

When someone publicly conforms but retains their original belief

Question 4

Define internalised conformity

Answer 4

When someone publicly conforms because of pre-existing beliefs that match the social pressure

Question 5

Define indentification conformity

Answer 5

When someone has no original belief, conforms anyway, and then is convinced and genuinely believes in it

Question 6

What are the 2 reasons for conformity?

Answer 6

Normative Social Influence

Informative Social Influence

Question 7

What is normative social influence?

Answer 7

When someone conforms because they want to seem normal and fit in

Question 8

What is informative social influence?

Answer 8

When someone conforms to seem correct

Question 9

What was the aim of Asch’s study?

Answer 9

to show that people don’t make their own decisions

Question 10

What did Zimbardo want to show with the SPE?

Answer 10

society has mutually-agreed roles that people just follow without thinking

Question 11

Describe the method used for the Stanford Prison Experiment

Answer 11

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

Question 12

What role did Zimbardo play in the SPE?

Answer 12

He was the superintendent of the prison, becoming invested into the experiment, showing investigator effects

Question 13

What role did Zimbardo play in the SPE?

Answer 13

He was the superintendent of the prison, becoming invested into the experiment, showing investigator effects

Question 14

What were the findings of the Stanford Prison Experiment?

Answer 14

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.

Question 15

What are the replications of the SPE?

Answer 15

1. 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.
2. 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.

Question 16

What are 2 criticisms of the SPE?

Answer 16

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

Question 17

What were Milgrim’s motivations for his study into situational explanations of obedience?

Answer 17

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

Question 18

Define autonomous state

Answer 18

when your actions are under your own control

Question 19

Define agentic state

Answer 19

when you’ve deferred responsibility to someone else

Question 20

Define agentic shift

Answer 20

The point at which you lose sense of responsibility

Question 21

Define Legitimacy of Authority

Answer 21

the qualities / features of the person giving orders that makes us obey them

Question 22

Describe Milgram’s original experiment

Answer 22

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)

Question 23

What was the dependent variable in Milgram’s experiment?

Answer 23

The voltage that the ppts went up to before they either refused to continue, or delivered the max voltage

Question 24

What are the 4 variations of Milgram’s study?

Answer 24

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%

Question 25

What were the findings of Milgram’s original experiment?

Answer 25

65% complied and delivered the maximum voltage

Question 26

What are the ethical issues with Milgram’s experiment?

Answer 26

ppts weren’t protected from harm - one had a heart attack after and others reported chronic anxiety

Question 27

What are the 3 RWA personality clusters, according to Altemeyer?

Answer 27

Conventionalism

Authoritarian Aggression

Authoritarian Submission

Question 28

Define conventionalism

Answer 28

someone who resists change

Question 29

Define authoritarian aggression

Answer 29

when someone punishes differences, eg using scapegoats

Question 30

Define authoritarian submission

Answer 30

the belief in authority to do the right thing

Question 31

Describe Altemeyer’s experiment (1981)

Answer 31

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

Question 32

What were the findings of Altemeyer’s experiment?

Answer 32

More than 80% obeyed, regardless of whether they were high RWA or not

Question 33

Describe the Elms and Milgram (E+M) experiment

Answer 33

Same as original, but the independent variable was whether they were high RWA or not

Question 34

What were the findings of E+M?

Answer 34

RWA people are more obedient, even when controlling for extraneous factors (eg education) by using the matched pairs design

Question 35

What research criticises research into RWA and obedience?

Answer 35

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

Question 36

Why can Milgram’s original experiment be argued to be ethical?

Answer 36

the findings helped stop the prosecution of Germans, so it balances out the suffering of the participants

Question 37

What is the F-Scale?

Answer 37

A test used to determine how right wing someone is