Social Influence L1-4

Question 1

Conformity

Answer 1

A form of social influence where a person changes their behaviours and attitudes to be in line with the majority

Question 2

Internalisation

Answer 2

When individuals change their beliefs publicly and privately

Question 3

Compliance

Answer 3

A temporary change in beliefs usually in front of certain groups to fit in. Public but not Private change

Question 4

Normative Social Influence

Answer 4

Where individuals may be a result of wanting to fit into society and look to others on how to be accepted. Leads to compliance

Question 5

Informational Social Influence

Answer 5

A change in behaviour due to people being unsure and looking at others on how to behave. Leads to Internalisation

Question 6

Evaluation for Informational and Normative Social Influence (Explanations for Conformity)

Answer 6

• A positive for Normative. Asch’s 3 Line Experiment. 37% of people conformed and gave wrong answers. 1% chance of making an actual mistake
• A positive for Informational. Sherif used the auto kinetic effect. Placed people in groups of three where 2 had similar answers for how much the light had moved and 1 had a completely different answer. People changed their answer due to informational social influence since they didn’t know the answer
• People may conform or not conform due to other reasons. Dispositional factors where individuals who have an external locus of control are more likely to conform than those who have an internal locus of control

Question 7

Variables that Affect Conformity (Asch’s Study)

Answer 7

This is about Asch’s study. He placed a naive participant in a group of confederates where 37% of the time, the participant conformed and gave the wrong answers. 75% of the participants conformed on at least one of the trials. It was found that individuals conformed due to normative social influence.

One factor is Group size - When group size was 3, conformity was 13% but when group size was 4, conformity rose to 32%
One factor is Task Difficulty - As the task became more difficult, conformity increased due to informational social influence
One factor is Unanimity - When unanimity was broken by a confederate who gave a different answer than the rest of the confederates, conformity dropped from 37% to 5%. This was also true when the confederate gave the wrong answer aswell. Conformity dropped from 37% to 9%

Question 8

Evaluation into Asch’s Study

Answer 8

• One negative is that It lacks temporal validity because it was done around 80 years ago and therefore, it may not reflect the results that would be obtained today. People may have been more conformist (-)
• One negative is that it has gender and cultural bias. Won’t accurately represent all cultures and other genders. But however, the same experiment was conducted again and it was found that similar results were obtained and it is therefore reliable (-)
• The study was conducted in a laboratory which means demand characteristics may have been present, reducing validity (-)
• The study lacks mundane realism. You won’t be asked to do this in day to day life (-)

Question 9

Social Roles

Answer 9

The behaviours expected from an individual who occupies a social position or status. People conform into social roles

Question 10

Investigation into Social Roles

Answer 10

Zimbardo

Procudeure- Controlled observation to investigate conformity into social roles.
- Mock Stanford Prison. 24 young american men were obtained through volunteer sampling.
-Randomly assigned prison guard or prisoner. -Those who were assigned prisoner were then randomly arrested, stripped searched and blindfolded.
- They were assigned numbers.
- Guards were given night sticks, sunglasses and a uniform.
Zimbardo was the prison superintendent.

Findings
- Prisoners ripped numbers off and barricaded themselves in their cells
- Guards sprayed prisoners rooms with carbon dioxide
- Became cruel and inhumane
- Experiment ended early to 6 days where it was meant to last a week

Question 11

Evaluation of Zimbardo (Investigation into Social Roles)

Answer 11

• The study was highly unethical. Prisoners were subjected to psychological harm and 5 prisoners left early because of the guards cruelty (-)
• The study had cultural and gender bias. All participants but one were white american males. It therefore is not representative
• The study was a participant observation. Zimbardo had taken part within the experiment and was the prisons superintendent. This reduces the studies validity because Zimbardo’s behaviour affected the outcome of the research. He could have influenced the outcome of the experiment and this would invalidate his findings