Social Influence Key Terms Flashcards
What is conformity?
It is a change in a persons behaviour or opinions as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or groups of people.
What is internalisation?
It is a deep type of conformity where we take on the majority view because we accept it as correct.
It leads to far reaching and permanent change in behaviour, even when the group is absent.
What is identification?
It is a moderate type of conformity where we act in the same way with the group because we value it and want to be part of it.
We don’t necessarily agree with everything the majority believes.
What is compliance?
It is a superficial and temporary type of conformity where we outwardly go along with he majority view but privately disagree with it.
The change in our behaviour only lasts as long as the group is monitoring us.
What is informational social influence?
It is an explanation of conformity that says we agree with he opinion of the majority because we believe it is correct.
We accept it because we want to be correct as well.
Can lead to internalisation.
What is normative social influence?
It is an explanation of conformity that says we agree with the opinion of the majority because we want to be accepted, gain social approval and be liked.
Can lead to compliance.
What is the effect of group size in Asch’s study?
Asch increased the size of the group by adding More confederates, which increases the size of the majority too.
Conformity increases with group size but only up to a point, levelling off when the majority was greater than three people.
What is the effect of unanimity in Asch’s study?
It is the extent which all members of a group agree.
In Asch’s studies the majority was unanimous when all the confederates selected the same comparison line.
This produced the greatest degree of conformity in the naive participants.
What is the effect of task difficulty in Asch’s study?
Asch’s line judging task becomes more difficult when it is harder to work out the correct answer.
Conformity increases because naive participants assume that the majority is more likely to be right.
What are social roles?
They are the parts that people play as members of various social groups.
They are accompanied by expectations we and others have of what is appropriate behaviour in each role.
What is obedience?
It is a form of social influence in which an individual follows a direct order.
The person issuing the order is usually a figure of authority, who has power to punish when people are not obedient.
What are situational variables?
They are several factors that influence the level of obedience shown by participants.
Related to the external circumstances rather than the personalities of the people involved.
Includes:
- Proximity.
- Location.
- Uniform.
What is proximity?
It the distance of an authority figure to the person they are giving an order to.
It also refers to the distance between the teacher and learner in Milgram’s studies.
What is location?
It is the place where the order is issued.
The relevant factor that influences obedience is the status associated with the location.
What is uniform?
It is where people in positions of authority have a specific outfit that is symbolic of their authority.
