Social influence- JK Flashcards
What is social influence?
The process by which an individual’s attitudes, beliefs or behaviours are modified by the actions imagined or implied presence of others
What is conformity & 2 examples of it?
The tendency to change our behaviour and/or beliefs/attitudes in response to the influence of others e.g. queueing, clothing
What is compliance?
Conforming publicly with the views/ behaviours of others but privately disagreeing
What is identification?
Adopting the views of a group publicly & privately as they identify with the group & feel a sense of group membership- temporary & not maintained when leaving the group
What is internalisation?
Conversion- true changes of private views to match those of the group, new attitudes/behaviours become independent of the group- long term/ permanent type of conformity
What is normative social influence?
Desire to be liked, for approval of others & to be accepted occurring in non-ambiguous situations- results in compliance only
What is information social influence?
Desire to be right, look to others for info on how to behave/act, occurring in ambiguous situations resulting in identification or internalisation
What is obedience?
Where an individual complies with a direct order from a figure with perceived authority- acting in a way they wouldn’t have without the order
What was the aim of Asch’s study (1950’s)?
To see if individuals would conform to a majority when presented with an non-ambiguous task
What was Asch’s (1950’s) sample?
123 male students, asked to participate in a visual perception task
What was Asch’s (1950’s) procedure?
1 naïve participant placed in group of 7-9 confederates, shown a standard line and asked to say aloud the matching line- obvious answer. Confederates gave incorrect answer unanimously on 12 of 18 “critical trials”- 6 short line, 6 long line. Naïve participant asked last or 2nd last- repeated 123 times for each participant
What were Asch’s (1950’s) findings?
26% of participants never conformed- 100% correct answer
74% of participants conformed at least once
Of those that conformed, they conformed for 37% of the critical trials
Error rate of 0.7% with no group
5% conformed on every trial
What did Asch (1950’s) find in his debriefing interviews?
Most knew they were wrong but didn’t want to be a minority
Some didn’t want to upset the experimenter
Some doubted themselves & their perceptions, believing the group to be right & didn’t think they’d given the wrong answers
What can be concluded from Asch’s (1950’s) study?
Even when the response is obvious, strong group pressure creates conformity especially when unanimous. Individuals conform for different reasons ( normative- avoid rejection, informational- doubt own judgement)
What does social influence involve?
Conformity, obedience & minority influence
What are 5 criticisms of Asch’s (1950’s) study?
1) Low external validity- Generalisation
2) Low temporal validity- Still valid now?
3) Low ecological validity- Real world application
4) Low population validity- Only male, all students
5) Low internal validity- measuring intended thing?
What is an ethical issue about Asch (1950’s) study?
Deceived participants- didn’t tell them the true aim of the investigation (lied)
Why can Asch’s (1950’s) research be defended in terms of ethics?
Study wouldn’t have worked without deception & participants were debriefed after the experiment
What are 3 strengths of Asch’s (1950’s) study?
1) Lab experiment- control over confounding and extraneous variables
2) Establish cause and effect-shows group pressure
3) Other participants were strangers so disapproval may have had an impact
What 4 variables can affect conformity?
1) Group size
2) Unanimity
3) Task difficulty
4) Public or private answer
What did Asch find about group size affecting conformity?
Conformity increased when confederates increased between 1-3, then didn’t make much difference afterwards- too large groups (e.g. 15) led to lower conformity levels due to increased suspicion
What other research support the findings that group size affects conformity?
Bond (2005) meta-analysis & Latane & Wolf (1981) found increasing group size increases conformity in decreasing amounts
How can Bond (2005) explain public or private answers as affecting conformity?
Found that when private answers were given, there was a small negative relationship between conformity and group size
How does unanimity affect conformity?
Conformity is most likely to occur when the confederates are unanimous in their answers
What did Asch (1950s) find about a dissenter affecting conformity?
When a confederate disagrees with the majority judgement, conformity decreased from 37% to 5.5%
What did Asch (1950’s) conclude about a dissenter affecting conformity?
The presence of a dissenter leads to a reduction in conformity for two reasons
What were the 2 reasons Asch suggested a dissenter decreased conformity?
1) The dissenter provides useful information about the correct response
2) The dissenter reduces the need for group social approval
What did Asch also find about a dissenter decreasing conformity?
The dissenter could give another incorrect answer, but would be just as effective in reducing conformity than an accurate confederate as they broke the unanimity & need for social approval
What does Asch think is the most important variable that affects conformity?
Unanimity
What did Asch (1950’s) find about task difficulty affecting conformity?
If a task is difficult, conformity increases
What other 2 studies were there into task difficulty affecting group size?
Lucas et al (2006) found a greater level of conformity when the maths problems were harder
Perrin & Spencer found conformity is less likely if the task is familiar (engineers didn’t conform)
What is a difficulty when assessing the effect of task difficulty on conformity?
Task difficulty depends on the skills and abilities of the participants as well as the task itself.
What research supports normative social influence & how?
Asch (1950’s) as the participants desired approval and acceptance in the non-ambiguous task
What research supports informational social influence & how?
Sherif (1935) as it was an ambiguous task & the participants looked to others as a guide to act & desired to be right
Why was it important to ensure participants of Zimbardo’s study were mentally stable?
Controlled confounding variable of the behaviour being due to a predisposition to it
How were the participants allocated roles in Zimbardo’s study?
Randomly
Why did Zimbardo arranged for the prisoners to be arrested?
Realism- mindset of a prisoner
Why did the guards wear uniform and reflector sunglasses?
No eye contact- deindividuation
What are 4 strengths of Zimbardo’s study?
1) High ecological validity
2) Low researcher bias
3) Debriefing sessions afterwards
4) Experimental realism
How does Zimbardo’s study have high ecological validity?
Findings can be generalised & were supported by an outside observer with a history of imprisonment
How does Zimbardo’s study have low researcher bias?
Random allocation of guards & prisoners
How did Zimbardo’s study have experimental realism?
Realistic- e.g.) prisoners asked for parole rather than to be let out
What are 3 limitations of Zimbardo’s study?
1) Unethical
2) Behaviour may be due to stereotyped expectations of role
3) Conformity to roles wasn’t automatic- individual differences
In what 2 ways was Zimbardo’s study unethical?
1) Didn’t acquire fully informed consent- surprise arrest
2) Harm to participants
What harm to participants was done in Zimbardo’s study?
Severe emotional disturbance, rage, anxiety & depression
When did Zimbardo’s study end, and when was it meant to end?
After 6 days, 2 weeks
What was Zimbardo’s aim?
Investigate whether the brutality reported in prisons was due to the dispositional hypothesis or the situational hypothesis
What was the dispositional hypothesis?
Brutality was due to sadistic personalities of the guards
What was the situational hypothesis?
Brutality was due to with the power structure in the prison environment
What was Zimbardo’s procedure?
24 (mentally-stable) out of 75 male volunteers randomly allocated as a prisoner or guard
Paid $15 a day
Mock prison observed by hidden cameras
Local police arrested prisoners- took to station then blindfolded to prison
Prisoners confined in cell & referred to as a number only
Guards wore military uniforms & reflector sunglasses
What were Zimbardo’s findings from the prisoners?
Rebelled initially but were shut down by fire extinguishers
Became submissive & subdued
Some released early due to extreme reactions (1 less than 36hrs) e.g. anxiety, depression & rage
What were Zimbardo’s findings of the guards?
Force, harassment & aggression increased steadily
Study stopped after 6 days due to guards’ zeal & harassment
Individual differences in the guards’ behaviour- 1/3 tyrannical, one worst & some nice
What did Zimbardo conclude from his study?
Participants conformed due to the situation not individual personalities- demonstrating conformity by identification
Some findings explained as a result of deindividuation due to experiment encouraging deindividuation