Social influence mini-topics good for revision

Question 1

Procedure on Asch conformity study

Answer 1

Confederates deliberately gave wrong answers to see if participant would conform, on a judging the length of lines test.

Question 2

Findings Asch conformity study

Answer 2

Naive participants conformed on 36.8% of trials

25% Never conformed

Question 3

Variations of Asch conformity study

Answer 3

Group Size-Conformity increased up to 4 confederates
Unanimity-Dissenter presence reduced conformity
Task difficulty-Conformity increased when harder

Question 4

Downsides of Asch conformity study

5 Points

Answer 4

A Child of its time- Perrin and Spencer found less conformity in 1980’s than in 50’s.

Artificial situation and task- Demand characteristics meant that participants just played along with trivial task.

Limited application of findings-Asch’s research only conducted on American men.

Findings only apply to certain situations.

Ethical issues-deceived naive participants

Question 5

What was the Stanford Prison Experiment on?

Answer 5

Conformity to Social roles by Zimbardo

Question 6

Procedure of Stanford Prison Experiment

Answer 6

Mock prison with students randomly assigned as guards or prisoners

Question 7

Findings of Stanford Prison Experiment

Answer 7

Guards became increasingly brutal, prisoners increasingly withdrawn and depressed.

Question 8

Conclusions of Stanford Prison Experiment

Answer 8

Participants conformed to their roles as guards or prisoners.

Question 9

Strengths of Stanford Prison Experiment

Answer 9

Strong control, such as random assignment to roles this increases the internal validity of findings.

Question 10

Weaknesses of Stanford Prison Experiment

Answer 10

Lack of Realism-participants were play-acting their roles according to media-derived stereotypes.

Dispositional influences- Only one third of guards were brutal so conclusions of study were exaggerated.

Lack of research support

Ethical issues with study, psychological harm.

Question 11

Types of conformity

Answer 11

Internalisation

Identification

Compliance

Question 12

Internalisation

Answer 12

Private and public acceptance of group norms.

Question 13

Identification

Answer 13

Change behaviour to be part of a group we identify with

Question 14

Compliance

Answer 14

Go along with group publicity but no private change.

Question 15

Conformity

Answer 15

Conformity is yielding to group pressures

Question 16

Explanations for conformity

Answer 16

Informational social influence

Normative social influence

Question 17

Informational social influence

Answer 17

Conforming to be right, we assume others know better than us.

Question 18

Normative social influence

Answer 18

Conforming to be liked or accepted by group.

Question 19

Evidence supporting informational social influence

Answer 19

Research support, study showed more conformity to incorrect maths answers when they were difficult, as predicted by ISI.

Question 20

Obedience

Answer 20

Obedience is due to pressures in the situation

Question 21

Situational variables affecting Obedience Milgram study

Answer 21

Proximity

Location

Uniform

Question 22

Proximity affect on Obedience

Answer 22

Obedience decreased to 40% when teacher could hear learner, and to 30% in touch proximity condition.

Question 23

Location affect on Obedience

Answer 23

Obedience dropped to 47.5% when study was moved to run-down office block.

Question 24

Uniform affect on Obedience

Answer 24

Obedience decreased to 20% when ‘member of the public’ was the experimenter

Question 25

Researching supporting Uniform affect on Obedience

Answer 25

Bickman showed power of uniform in field of experiment, Milkman and Traffic Warden asked to pick up litter more obeyed when it was Traffic Warden.

Question 26

Evidence against Situational variables affecting obedience study

Answer 26

Lack of internal validity, some of Milgram’s procedures contrived, so not genuine obedience.

Although cross-cultural findings may support Milgram, almost in similar cultures to USA so not very generalisable.

Question 27

Milgram’s original obedience study procedure

Answer 27

Participants gave fake electric shocks to a ‘learner’ in obedience to instructions from the ‘experimenter’.

Question 28

Milgram’s original obedience study findings

Answer 28

65% gave highest shock of 450v

100% gave shocks up to 300v

Many showed signs of anxiety

Question 29

Evidence supporting Milgram’s original obedience study

Answer 29

Good external validity, findings generalise to other situations such as hospital ward study where 21/22 nurses followed doctors orders even though it was above recommended dosage.

Supporting Replication, Game of Death found 80% gave maximum shock plus similar behaviour to Milgram’s participants.

Question 30

Evidence against Milgram’s obedience study

Answer 30

Low internal validity, participants realised shocks were false as said by assistant to Milgram after study.

Question 31

What are social-psychological factors?

Answer 31

Obedience due to influence of other people.

Question 32

Social-Psychological factors affecting Obedience?

Answer 32

Agentic state

Legitimacy of authority

Question 33

Agentic state

Answer 33

Seeing ourselves as an agent carrying out another person’s wishes/commands, therefore, moral responsibility is passed onto to the authority figure and we lessen our own moral responsibility for out acts.

Question 34

Autonomous state

Answer 34

We see ourselves as acting according to our own decision-making and are, therefore, morally responsible for our actions.

Question 35

Evidence supporting Agentic state as reason for obedience?

Answer 35

Blass and Schmid found that people do blame the legitimate authority for participant’s behaviour.

Nazi’s blamed authority saying they were just doing as told.

Question 36

Evidence against Agentic state as a reason for obedience?

Answer 36

It is a limited explanation, cannot explain why some of Milgram’s participants disobeyed or the lack of moral strain in Hoflin et al’s nurses.

Question 37

Legitimacy of authority explanation for obedience

Answer 37

Legitimacy of authority is an explanation of obedience offered by Milgram. Milgram suggested that we are more likely to obey a person who has a higher position or status in a social hierarchy.

Question 38

Problems that can occur from Legitimacy of authority

Answer 38

Destructive authority problems arise such as Hitler.

Question 39

Evaluate strengths of legitimacy of authority explanation for obedience

Answer 39

Bickman, milkman vs uniformed guard more people obeyed the demands of a uniformed guard than a milk suggesting people do obey more if legitimate authority.

Explains obedience in different cultures because reflects different social hierarchies

Question 40

What is the dispositional explanation for obedience?

Answer 40

Authoritarian personality

Question 41

Procedure for Adorno’s study on dispositional explanations for obedience

Answer 41

Adorno et al used F-scale to study unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups

Question 42

Findings Adorno’s study on dispositional explanations for obedience

Answer 42

Found that people with authoritarian personalities identify with the ‘strong’ and have fixed cognitive style are more likely to have higher obedience.

Question 43

What are the characteristics of the Authoritarian personality?

Answer 43

Extreme respect for authority and obedience to it.

Question 44

What causes people to have Authoritarian personality?

Answer 44

Harsh parenting creates hostility that cannot be expressed against parents so is displaced on weaker minority groups.

Question 45

Evaluate strengths of Authoritarian personality explanation for obedience?

Answer 45

There is research support in the form of some of Milgram’s obedient participants had authoritarian personality.

Question 46

Evaluate weaknesses of Authoritarian personality explanation for obedience?

Answer 46

Adorno theory cannot account for the kind of mass and sudden racism witnessed in events such as Nazi Germany.

Questionnaires used to measure personality type can be critiqued in that participants may answer socially sensitive questions with socially appropriate answers.

Question 47

Two explanations of resistance to social influence

Answer 47

Social support

Locus of control

Question 48

Social support

Answer 48

People are less likely to conform if they have an ally, someone who also disagrees with the majority.

Reduces conformity by the presence of dissenters and reduces obedience as presence of disobedient peer acts as a model to follow.

Question 49

Evaluative support for social support causing people to disobey and refuse to conform

Answer 49

Research support is present, according to Allen and Levine conformity decreases when one person dissents even if they are not credible.

Further obedience drops when disobedient role models were present in Gamson et al.

Asch’s study conformity dropped from 36.8% to 5.5^% when there was another independent participant present.

Question 50

Locus of control resistance to social influence explanation

Answer 50

Locus of control is sense of what directs events in our lives, people with high internal LOC are more able to resist pressures to conform or obey as they feel as if they are in control of life.

Question 51

What evidence is there supporting Locus of control resistance to social influence?

Answer 51

High internal locus of control individuals are less likely to fully obey in Milgram-type procedures said Holland.

Anderson ‘78 found that amongst a group of college students those who possess a high internal LOC were more likely to emerge as leaders in their groups, it can be assumed that such people give orders rather than obey.

Question 52

What evidence is there against locus of control resistance to social influence?

Answer 52

Contradictory evidence, people have become more external and more disobedient recently (Twenge et al). Which LOC can’t explain.

Question 53

Minority influence explanation to cause social change?

Answer 53

Consistency, the minority is consistent this attracts the attention of the majority.

Commitment, Augmentation principle - personal sacrifices show commitment and attract attention.

Flexibility-Minority more convincing if they accept some counter-arguments.

Snowball effect- minority view gathers momentum until it becomes majority influence.

Question 54

Minority influence

Answer 54

A change in beliefs or behaviours by a larger group to fit in with a minority or individual’s views and behaviours.

Question 55

Research supporting Minority influence causing social change?

Answer 55

Research support for consistency explanation, Moscovici’s blue-green slides and wood et al’s meta analysis both support consistency creating an impact in causing social change in behaviour.

Research support, minority views have longer effect because they are deeply processed says martin et al.

Question 56

Research against Minority influence causing social change?

Answer 56

Research supporting is often artificial tasks that are trivial so tells us little about real-life influence.

Question 57

How can Social change occur?

Answer 57

Minority influence

Conformity

Obedience

Question 58

How can Minority influence cause social change?

Answer 58

5 Steps.

Drawing attention to an issue.

Cognitive conflict

Consistency

Augmentation principle (people suffer for their views they are seen as more committed and taken more seriously by the majority)

Snowball effect.

Minorities need to be similar to majorities in terms of social class, age ethnicity and gender if they are to be successful.

Question 59

How can conformity cause social change?

Answer 59

Government can cause social change through advertising what is normative. Such campaigns have successfully reduced alcohol abuse and smoking in teenagers. In a campaign aimed at 12-17 year olds in the US only 10% of participants took up smoking after exposure to a campaign saying that most children in their age range did not smoke. Control groups who did not receive this message were significantly more likely to take up smoking.

This is a simple and effective way to create social change but may result in individuals resisting pressures to conform.

Question 60

Evidence against conformity causing social change

Answer 60

DeJong ‘09 found that across 14 different US universities, after 3 years, campaigns based on reducing alcohol intake among students which appealed to normative behaviour, had failed to have any impact on either their perception of appropriate drinking or their drinking behaviour.

Question 61

Obedience causing social change.

Answer 61

Government can pass laws which require people to be orient and punish disobedience with fines, prison etc. This is a simple and effective way to create social change but may result in individuals or groups resisting pressure to obey.

We are more likely to obey if figures command us are perceived as legitimate and trusted, for example smoking used to be a majority behaviour in the 1950’s but is now a minority one. One of the factors responsible for this is that trusted, expert authority figures have warned of its dangers.