Social Influence: L9-13

Question 1

Adorno (1950)

Answer 1

Proposed a dispositional explanation of obedience. Dispositional explanations of behaviour claim that individuals personality characteristics determine their behaviour, not situational variables in the environment

Question 2

Traits of an authoritarian personality according to Adorno

Answer 2

Service towards people of perceived higher status
Hostile towards people of lower status

Question 3

Resistance to social influence: social support

Answer 3

The pressure to conform can be reduced when there is at least one dissenter - the dissenter does not have to be correct, but they should not conform to the majority

• Aschs study: conformity rales dropped to 5.5% when there was one correct dissenter and 9% when the dissenter is incorrect

Question 4

Allen and Levine (1971)

Answer 4

Found there was a decrease in conformity when there was one dissenter

Question 5

Social support: Milgram

Answer 5

In one of milgrams variations the obedience dropped from 65% to 10% when joined by a disobedient confederate

Question 6

Gamson, Fireman and Rytina (1982)

Answer 6

Volunteers were put into groups of 9 and met with a (fake) company called MHRC, who were asked to discuss the firing of a petrol manager. Halfway through the cameraman asked the pps to argue in favour of MHRC. Finally the pps were asked to sign a consent form allowing the film to be shown in a court case.

32/33 groups rebelled in some way during the group discussion. The pps established a strong group identity in which the members agreed that the demands of the authority were unreasonable.

Question 7

Strengths of social support

Answer 7

There is strong research support eg Asch, Milgram and Gamson

Gamsons study has high ecological validity, however lab studies (eg asch) have low ecological validity

Question 8

Weakness of social support

Answer 8

Strong when explaining disobedience in a group size of under 10, however a population of 100s is unlikely to be influenced by one dissenter - therefore, the small groups do not represent the real world population

Question 9

Locus of control

Answer 9

A persons perception of the degree of personal control they have over their behaviour

Question 10

External locus of control

Answer 10

See the future and their actions as resulting largely from factors outside their control

Question 11

Internal locus of Control

Answer 11

Feel a stronger sense of control over their lives. They also actively seek information and are more likely to resist influence

Question 12

Support for locus of Control

Answer 12

Oliner and Oliner (1988) interviewed two groups non-jewish people who lived through the holocaust. They found that the people who rescued the Jews from the Nazis were more likely to have an internal locus of control

Question 13

Weakness of locus of Control

Answer 13

Twinge (2004) analysed obedience studies over 40 years and found that over time people have become more resistant to obedience but also show more external locus of Control. Therefore, Rotters locus of control May lack temporal validity

Question 14

Minority influence

Answer 14

Type of social influence that motivates individuals to reject established group norms

Achieved through conversion

Question 15

Behavioural characteristics of the minority: Consistency

Answer 15

Minority influence will be persuasive if the minority is consistent with its opinor/ behaviour, show confidence in its belief and appear unbiased

If the minority approach is consistent then others may begin to reassess their beliefs

Question 16

Moscovici (1969)

Answer 16

To see if a consistent minority would affect the majority

172 female participants were put in groups of six and were shown shades of blue. Two of the six participants were confederates and in one condition (consistent) the confederates said all 36 slides were green; in the second condition (inconsistent) the confederates said 24 of the slides were green

Consistent condition: 8.2% of real participants agreed
Inconsistent: 1.25% agreed with the confederates

Question 17

Two weaknesses of moscovicis study

Answer 17

Low population validity
Low ecological validity

Question 18

Behavioural characteristics of the minority: commitment

Answer 18

The greater the commitment the others may be influenced by the minority, and they may then join the minority

Augmentation principle: shows how the minority can change the majority because if the minority is doing something quite risky but shows commitment, then the majority will show more interest

Question 19

Xie et al (2011)

Answer 19

Xie et al. (2011) discovered a ‘tipping point’ where the number of people holding a minority position is sufficient to change majority opinion. In fact Xie found that you need about 10% of the minority population to influence the majority.

Question 20

Behavioural characteristics of the minority: Flexibility

Answer 20

Mugny (1982) suggests that flexibility is more effective at changing majority opinion than rigidity of arguments. Because minorities are generally powerless compared to majorities, the minority must therefore negotiate rather than enforce their position upon the majority. However, a minority that is too flexible or too rigid risks being seen as either weak and inconsistent or dogmatic.

Question 21

Nemeth (1986)

Answer 21

Nemeth (1986) believed that consistency was not the most important factor in minority influence, suggesting that it can often be misinterpreted as a negative trait. She set about investigating the idea of flexibility as a key characteristic of successful minorities who exert pressure.

Question 22

Strengths of minority influence: Research support

Answer 22

Martin et al. (2003) gave participants a message supporting a particular viewpoint and measured their support. One group then heard a minority group agree with the initial view whilst one group heard the majority agree. Pps were finally exposed to a conflicting view and attitudes were measured again. It was found that pps were less willing to change their opinions if they had listened to the minority group rather than the majority – this study shows the power of minority influence in terms of views being more deeply processed and had a more enduring effect.

Question 23

Weaknesses of minority influence: Nemeth

Answer 23

Although minority influence research has real value, it may not apply to real life situations which can be much more complicated. For example, Nemeth (2010) claimed that it is still difficult to convince people of the value of the dissent since people may accept the minority opinion on the surface but may become irritated by this view fearing lack of harmony and as a result we attempt to belittle the dissenting view to contain it!

Question 24

Why do people develop authoritarian personalities:

Answer 24

Adorno (1950) thought that people developed these personalities due to receiving extremely harsh discipline from their parents during their upbringing, usually involving physical punishment. This creates feelings of hostility which are directed towards weaker others who cannot fight back and are therefore safe. They cannot take out their anger on their parents because they fear them, so instead they act in a submissive way towards them. They then extend this submissive behaviour to all authority figures.

Question 25

F-Scale

Answer 25

Adorno (1950) developed a questionnaire to measure authoritarian personalities called the F (Fascism) scale. Participants are asked to rate how much they agree with statements such as ‘obedience and respect for authority are important virtues children should learn’ and ‘rules are there to follow, not to be changed’.

Adorno tested more than 2000, middle-class white Americans and their unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups and found that there was a relationship between authoritarian personality and scoring high on the F- scale

Question 26

Strengths of authoritarian personalities: Elms and Milgram (1966)

Answer 26

Elms and Milgram (1966) carried out a follow up study using participants who had previously taken part in one of Milgram’s experiments. The selected 20 obedient participants who had continued to deliver electric shocks all the way up to 450 volts, and 20 disobedient participants. Each participant completed an F scale. Participants were also asked a series of open-ended question about their relationship with their parents.

There were higher levels of authoritarian traits among the obedient participant. Obedient participants were more likely to report being less close to their fathers, and to describe them in negative terms. This study shows that the authoritarian personality is a strong dispositional explanation of obedience to authority and provides good research support in that there is definitely a link between the F scale and obedience.

Question 27

Strengths of authoritarian personalities: Miller (1975)

Answer 27

Miller (1975) who found individuals who scored high on F-scale were more likely to obey an order to hold some electric wiring whilst completing a test. This study shows that you will obey authority even if harming yourself suggesting that this must be due to your personality.

Question 28

Weaknesses of authoritarian personalities: limited explanation

Answer 28

It does not explain why the majority of the population in a country such as Germany are very obedient but not all Germans can possess an authoritarian personality. An alternative to this explanation is the Social Identity Theory which explains obedience whereby the Germans people identified with the anti-Semitic Nazi state, and scapegoated the ‘outgroup’ of Jews.

Question 29

Weaknesses of authoritarian personalities: methodological problems

Answer 29

A limitation of the authoritarian personality explanation is that it is based on flawed methodology. For example, Adorno introduced the F- scale questionnaire to measure the obedient personality. There are many problems with the questionnaire itself. For example, each item on the questionnaire is worded in the same direction meaning it is fairly easy to get a high score on the authoritarian personality. Moreover, the questions are all closed meaning there is no room for explanation. Furthermore although Adorno did interview his participants about their childhood experiences, he already knew their score on the questionnaire meaning that he would have showed interviewer bias.

Question 30

Social change

Answer 30

When a whole Society changes and adopts new beliefs/ ways of behaving which then becomes the norm. It is commonly the result of minority influence

An example of this is the social change in attitudes towards homosexuality. Although it was an impressionable offence in the UK until 1967, however public attitudes have changed over time

Question 31

The stages of social change

Answer 31

1. Drawing attention to the issue - Social proof eg marches
2. Consistency of position - Has to be all the time
3. Deeper processing - others start paying attention
4. The augmentation principle - carry out ‘wow’ deeds
5. The snowball effect - pass it on
6. Social cryptoamnesia - The change has occurred and is accepted, but people forgot where the change came from

Question 32

Example of social change

Answer 32

The suffragettes

Question 33

Social change - Asch

Answer 33

When one confederate gave a different answer the conformity rates decreased even if the answer was incorrect

Can help normative social influence (NSI)

Question 34

Social change - Obedience research

Answer 34

Milgrams reserach has shown how one disobedient individual can reduce obedience rates

Zimbardo suggested that obedience can be used to create social change through the process of gradual commitment

Question 35

Social change - Moscovici

Answer 35

Moscovicis research demonstrated the need to be committed, flexible and consistent to bring about social effects

Question 36

Strengths of social influence in social change: Nolan (2008)

Answer 36

He hung messages on doors of houses in San Diego every week for a month, with a message that most residents were trying to reduce their energy usage. A control group has a message just to save energy. The group that referred to others has a decrease in energy usage

Question 37

Weaknesses of social influence in social change: Nemeth (1986)

Answer 37

The effects of minority influence are most likely indirect and delayed as the effects may not be seen for some time

Question 38

Weaknesses of social influence in social change: Bashir et al (2013)

Answer 38

Participants may not behave in certain ways due to stereotypes of the minority group. For example, environmentalists are stereotyped as ‘tree huggers’