Social Influence: Evaluation

Question 1

Types of Conformity and Explanations for Conformity AO3

Answer 1

• difficulties distinguishing between complaince and internalisation
  + research support for NSI eg smoking take up (Linkerbach and Perkins)
  + research support for ISI eg attitudes about African Americans (Witternbrink and Henley)

Question 2

Variables Affecting Conformity AO3

Answer 2

• asch’s research a ‘child of its time’ (Perrin and Spencer)
• we know very little about the effects of larger majority sizes on conformity levels
• unconvincing confederates - Mori and Arai oveercame this problem. similar results to Asch
• cultural differences in conformity - Smith et al found conformity rates higher in collectivist cultures

Question 3

Conformity to Social Roles AO3

Answer 3

• conformity to roles isn’t automatic - Haslam and Reicher argue the guards chose how to behave rather than blindly conforming to their social role
• demand characteristics - Banuaziz and Movahaci agrue that participants’ behaviour in the SPE was a response to powerful demand characteristics
• ethical issues - followed ethical guidlines but participants still suffered
  + SPE and relevance to Abu Ghraib - similarities between SPE and prisoner abuses at Abu Ghraib

Question 4

Situational Variables Affecting Obedience AO3

Answer 4

• internal validity - Orne and Holland claim many ps saw through the deception
  + historical validity - Milgram’s findings still as relevant today. No relationship between year of study and obedience levels found (Blass)
  + power of uniform - research support

Question 5

Agentic State and Legitimacy of Authority AO3

Answer 5

• agentic state doesn’t explain gradual transitions found in Nazi doctors
• agentic state or cruelty? obedient behaviour may be due to a desire to inflict harm on others
  + agentic shift is a common response when a person loses self-control (Fennis and Aarts)
• legitmacy can serve as basis for justifying harm to others
  + Tarnow provides support for power of legitimate authority in aircraft cockpits

Question 6

Authoritarian Personality AO3

Answer 6

+ research evidence - correlation between RWA scores and maximum voltage shock (Danbrun and Vatine)
- social context explanations more flexible
- differences - many fully obedient ps had good relationship with parents

Question 7

Social Support AO3

Answer 7

+ social support in conformity studies more effective when from first responder in group
+ research demonstrates importance of social support in resisting pressure to drink (Rees and Wallace)
+ the rosenstrasse protest showed power of social support

Question 8

Locus of Control AO3

Answer 8

• related to NSI but not ISI (Spector)
  + research support - people in high externality more easily persuaded and more likely to conform (Avtgis)

Question 9

Minority Influence AO3

Answer 9

+ research support for flexibility (Nemeth and Brilmayer)
+ real value of minority influence is that it ‘opens the mind’ (Nemeth)
- Mackie argues that it’s the majority rather than the minority that processes information more
+ tipping point for commitment - percentage of commited opinion holders necessary to ‘tip’ the majority was 10% (Xie et al)
- minority influence in name only - difficult to convince people of the evalue of dissent

Question 10

Social Influence Processes in Social Change AO3

Answer 10

• social change through minority influence is gradual
• being perceived as ‘deviant’ limits the influence of minorities
• social norms interventions have their limitations - not all have led to social change eg DeJong et al