Social influence descriptions Flashcards
Conformity
change in behaviour due to real or imagined pressure from other people
3 types of conformity
-Compliance= publicly conform, privately keep your own views
-Identification= temporary change in belief, public and private
-Internalisation=permanent change in belief
Dual process model of conformity
Deutsch + Gerard
-compliance explained by normative SI (desire to be liked)
-internalisation explained by informational SI (desire to be right)
Normative social influence study
(pps, procedure, results %)
Asch
-123 male US undergraduates
-pps sat in a row and had to match length of line to comparison line
-confederates gave their answers first, and pp gave last
-to start confederates gave right answer
-after trials started to give wrong answer
-74% conformed at least once
Informational social influence study
(pps, procedure, findings)
Sherif
-male pps
-used a visual illusion called autokinetic effect
-pps falsely told the light had moved
-they had to estimate how far it moved
-first tested alone, then in a group, then alone again
-when in group estimates were similar to group
-when alone again estimates more like the group than original guesses
Variables affecting conformity
-size of majority - conformity increased up until group of 3, then group size made little difference
-unanimity of majority- if one confederate gave different answer from group, you’re less likely to conform
-difficulty of task- more difficult task= more likely to conform
The stanford prison experiment
Zimbardo
-investigate how readily people conform to social roles
-article in newspaper, 24 males passed psychological tests
-flip coin, random allocation, to prisoners or guard
-prisoners arrested at their home + stripped of clothes etc.
-guards were given sunglasses and told to keep prison in order
-guards banned prisoners from using toilets at night, took their beds, gave rations, chained their legs etc.
-after 36hrs on prisoner left due to psychological distress
-study meant to last 2 weeks but stopped after 6 days
-90% of convos were about prison life
-zimbardo prison superintendent
BBC prison study
Reicher + Haslam
-examine consequences of randomly assigning 15 men role of prisoner or guard
-lasted for 8 days
-found pps didn’t automatically conform to their role like in stanford prison study
-guards were reluctant to exert authority on prisoners
Obedience
type of social influence where someone acts in response to a direct order from another person
Obedience research
(aim, pps, procedure, results %)
Milgram
-find how far people obey an authority figure
-40 male pps
-pp made to believe roles of learner + teacher randomly allocated
-pp watched confederate be connected to electrode
-pp given 45V shock
-pps did memory test on confederate
-for every wrong answer they would give them a shock starting with 15V to 450V
-60% pps went all the way to 450V
Situational factors in obedience
%
-proximity of researcher to teacher- researcher gave orders over the phone, obedience dropped 21%
-proximity of teacher to learner- both in same room obedience dropped to 40%
-location- when carried out in run down office obedience dropped to 48%
-uniform- experimenter role taken over by member of public, obedience dropped to 20%
-two teacher condition- pps gave orders to confederate to press switches, obedience increased to 92.5%
Explanations for obedience
Situational
-Agentic state- we act as agents of an authority figure and pass responsibility to them
-Legitimate authority- obedience is more likely when the individual believes the authority to be legitimate and credible
Explanations for obedience
Dispositional
(Research)
Authoritarian personality
Adorno- prejudice is a result of personality type
-more than 2000 middle class Americans studied using F scale
-pps who scored high on scale identified with strong people and showed respect to those of higher status
-people with authoritarian personality are especially obedient to authority but hostile to those of lower status
-people who grew up under authoritarian personality are more likely to become one due to displacing their anger on someone else
More research authoritarian personality
Elms + Milgram
-20 obedient pps (who went to 450V)
-20 defiant pps (refused to go to 450V)
-pps completed MMPI scale and F scale
-higher levels of authoritarianism in obedient pps than defiant
-obedient pps had less close relationships with fathers
Explanations of resistance to social influence
- Locus control- Rotter
-extent to which people believe they have control over the events that occur in their life
Internal locus of control- believe what happens is down to their behaviour, more independent, less likely to rely on others opinions, less likely to conform and obey
External locus of control- believe what happens to them is down to external factors, things are uncontrollable, luck or fate play important roles, rely on others opinions, more likely to conform and obey - Social support
-presence of someone who resists pressure to conform helps others to do the same eg. Asch’s study when one confederate went against majority, pp more likely to do the same
-social support has to be continuously present for it to be long lasting
Factors needed for minority to make an influence
-consistency- supported by Moscovici
-commitment- allows minority to be confident in their cause and have courage against majority
-flexibility- more effective than rigid arguments, but can’t compromise too much. Supported by Nemeth who found when a confederate compromised in a jury, they had a greater influence
Moscovici
-compare effect of consistent and inconsistent minority
-pps describe colour of 36 slide
-of 6 pps, 2 confederates
-slides were all blue but had different filters
-consistent condition= confederates called all 36 slides green
-inconsistent condition= confederates called 24 green, 12 blue
-in consistent condition pps called slides green 8.42% of time
-in inconsistent, only called green slide 1.25% of time
Social change
-occurs when a society adopts a new belief or way of behaving
-is a result of minority challenging majority but is eventually accepted as majority view
-it takes time for minority view to become majority and create social change
How do minority bring about social change
-drawing attention through social proof- protests draw attention to a problem by showing proof eg. gay right marches to allow gay marriage
-Consistency- gay rights movement were consistent with messages and intent
-Deeper processing of the issue- attention made people think more about gay rights
-Flexibility
-Commitment- gay people were committed despite a number of hate crimes towards them
-Snowball effect- as minority ideas take effect, member of majority move to minority. Minority turns to majority
-Social cryptomnesia- when social change has occurred but the source of minority influence is forgotten. eg. women forget about suffragettes when they vote
Barriers to social change
research
-Bashir
-investigated why people resist socal change even when its necessary
-found people don’t behave in an environmentally friendly way because they don’t want to be associated with tree huggers
-minority needs to avoid behaviours that lead to stereotypes, because its off putting for the majority
