Social Influence (paper 1)

Question 1

Herbert Kelman - what are the 3 ways if conformity?

Answer 1

1-Compliance: go along with others behaviour
2-Identification: conforms as they value something in the group
3-Internalisation: genuinely believes in group norms

Question 2

What is compliance?

Answer 2

Public acceptance but not private Its done to be accepted but behaviour is not continued away from group.
(Eg laughing at unfunny joke)

Question 3

What is identification?

Answer 3

If you identify with a group, behaviour changes publicly and privately they may hold beliefs but its only temporary and not maintained outside of the group.
(Eg uniforms)

Question 4

What is internalisation?

Answer 4

Public and private acceptance of behaviour, view becoming part if the way they think, even away from the group.
(Eg religion)

Question 5

What are some causes if conformity?

Answer 5

-peer pressure
-feeling awkward if not
-fomo/missing out
-genuine agreement

Question 6

What was the aim of Asch’s original study?

Answer 6

Examine how social pressure from a majority could effects behaviour of a person

Question 7

How did Asch study conformity?

Answer 7

123 males partook in what they believed was a ‘visual perception’ task. He used a line judgment test with 1 real participant in a room with 7 confederates. The actors answered with a wrong pre-agreed answer (in 12/18 line trails-called critical trials) but the correct answer was obvious. The real participant always sat near the end with each person answering out loud.

•in exam refer to confederates

Question 8

What were Asch’s findings from his research?

•NOT the conclusions

Answer 8

-The participants conformed 36.8% of the critical trials.
-75% of participants conformed on at least one trial
-Asch interviewed the participants afterward, most said they knew the answers were wrong but conformed in order to fit in or to avoid ridicule.

•memorise statistics

Question 9

How did Asch keep his study valid?

Answer 9

He used a control group beforehand in which a real participant was alone when they completed the line judgment test. He found less than 1% of the participants gave an incorrect answer.

Question 10

What were Asch’s conclusions?

Answer 10

Individuals judgments are affected by majority influence. Participants conformed due to normative social influence and the desire to fit in and avoid rejection.

Question 11

What were Asch’s variations?

Answer 11

1-Group size: more actors means increased conformity to an extent (curvilinear relation), levels stay similar at 31.8% between 3-15 actors
2-Unanimity: if 1 actor says a different answer to other actors (wrong/right) participant conformity decreased
3-Task difficulty: if the real answer is less obvious conformity increases as confidence lessens/doubt themselves)

Question 12

What was the evaluation of Asch’s study?

Answer 12

X-Artificial task/situation:It was a trivial task with low stakes and no repercussions for/not conforming. The group was not reflective of real world experiences (knew was study)
X-Limitation: only male American students so research does not apply to women, elderly, other cultures etc
_/-Research support: Tod Lucas et al, used math problems and people conformed with wrong answers especially hard one (but people with confidence in skills less likely to)

Question 13

Evaluate Asch’s study with GRAVE?

Answer 13

-not generalised: only studied male American students
-not reliable: not up to date (1951)
-not applicable: too simplistic for complex real world situations
-not viable: no consequences or pressure like in real life
-not ethical: participants were not aware of true study

Question 14

Who is Lucas et al?

Answer 14

-in 2006 Lucas recreated Asch’s conformity study but with math problems
-showed same outcome
-also proved theory that the harder questions were the increase of conformity rate
-however this was not true for those with confidence in there skills

Question 15

What is the two process theory?

Answer 15

-the explanations for conformity are informative social influence (ISI) and normative social influence (NSI)

Question 16

What is informative social influences (ISI)?

Answer 16

-conformiting out of desire to be right
-cognitive process
-internalisation type conformity
-occurs in ambiguous, new or crisis situations and when someone consider more ‘expert’ is present
-eg copying others answers in class when unsure

Question 17

What is normative social influence (NSI)?

Answer 17

-conforming out of desire to be liked
-emotional process
-compliance type conformity
-occurs when seek approval for strangers or stressful situation and need social support
-eg wearing clothing trends you dislike

Question 18

What is real life applications of the two process theory?

Answer 18

-Schultz et al 2008
-found they could control guest’s behaviour by leaving messages to them to save energy or signs about amount of towel usage
-NSI makes guests believe in norm of energy/towel usage that they don’t want to surpass as they’ll stand out

Question 19

What was the aim of Zimbardo’s prison experiment?

Answer 19

-to investigate how readily people would conform to social roles of guard and prisoner
-to examine wether the behaviour displayed in prisons was due to internal dispositional factors (the people) or external dispositional factors (the environment and conditions)

Question 20

What was Zimbardo’s procedure?

Answer 20

-convert a basement of the Stanford university of psychology into a mock prison
-advertised for 21 male students to play role of prisoner or guard (randomly allocated) for 2 weeks
-prisoners were blindfolded, strip searched, issued a uniform and only referred to by their number
-guards were issued dark glasses, whistles, handcuffs, uniform
-no physical violence was permitted
-zimbardo observed the behaviour, and acted as prison warden

Question 21

What were the findings of Zimbardo’s experiment?

Answer 21

-after a rebellion of prisoners (where they ripped their uniforms and swore/shouted at guards) they fell into roles
-guards began to harass prisoners, behaved in brutal/sadistic ways
-prisoners began to only speak of prison issues. They began to take the rule’s seriously and taking guards side
-prisoners became more submissive, the guards became aggressive and assertive, demanding greater obedience. prisoners were dependant on guards so they tried to please them like telling tales on each other
-guard behaviour became a threat to the prisoner’s psychological and physical health so study ended after only 6 days

Question 22

What was Zimbardo’s conclusions?

Answer 22

-people quickly conform to social roles, even when the rile goes against their moral principles
-situational factors were largely responsible for behaviours found as no participants demonstrated these behaviours before experiment

Question 23

Evaluate Zimbardo’s experiment using GRAVE

Answer 23

-not generalisable as guards were told to push prisoners
-not repeatable as Reicher and Haslam (2006) partially replicated the experiment and found the prisoners took over the mock prison and harassed the guards instead
-somewhat applicable as it closely represents the torture of the Iraq prisoners by American military (2003) however the artificial situation led some to believe it was acting and not real social role conformity/reactions.
-somewhat valid as he chose men with no previous behaviour so the environment was what caused it, however there was a lack of realism to the study as its suggested the guards were play acting and not conforming to there social roles
-not ethical as he ignored their right to leave and they were harmed bot psychologically and physically

Question 24

What was the aim of Milgram’s obedience study?

Answer 24

-wanted to know if the Germans were different/more obedient to authority than other countries
-if ordinary Americans would obey an unjust order from an authority figure and inflict pain on another just because they were told to

Question 25

What was Milgram’s procedure for his original study?

Answer 25

-40 male participants from range of occupations and backgrounds, all volunteers, for punishment+learning
-meet with experimenter and learner (both confederates)
-told they were randomly assigned role of teacher or learner
-watched learner be strapped to electric visor and was given sample electric shock then learner is hidden
-learner gave premeditated answers
-teacher told to give a shock when learner answers wrong and each time to increase voltage
-learners prerecorded screams become louder and more dramatic then silent
-if teacher tried to stop experiment the experiment would respond with prods to continue

Question 26

What did Milgram’s study find?

Answer 26

-all real participants went to at 300 volts and 65% went to full 450 volts
-participant showed signs of extreme stress
-the findings were different than expected (before the study he asked students to predict behaviour who said no mire then 3% would go to 450)

Question 27

What were the conclusions of Migram’s study?

Answer 27

-Under the right circumstances ordinary people will obey unjust orders
-The Germans are not different to other people from different countries.

Question 28

Evaluate Milgrams study (GRAVE)?

Answer 28

-Generalisable; lacks population validity, only tests male Americans
-Reliability; obedience may have changed overtime, but results has been repeated (Le Jeu de la Mort)
-Applicability; confirms theories of the Germans in WW2
-Validity; lacks ecological validity as its not a common real life scenario
-Ethical; participant was mislead in a way that could cause psychological harm but nobody was physically hurt

Question 29

What was Le Jeu de la Mort?

Answer 29

-documentary about reality TV
-participants believed that they were contestants in a pilot episode for a new game show
-They were paid to give (fake) electric shocks, when ordered to by the presenter, to other participants (who were actually confederates)
-80% of participants delivered the max shock of 460 volts
-Their behaviour was almost identical to that of Milgram’s participants.

Question 30

What is situational variables? examples?

Answer 30

-Features of an environment that impact the degree to which individuals obey

-Proximity; the physical distance of an authority figure to the person they are giving an order to (also refers to the closeness of the person carrying out an order to their “victim”)
-location; the place where an order is issued (the status of prestige of the place can impact on obedience eg lab)
-uniform; the clothes an authority figure wears that symbolise their position of authority

Question 31

How did Milgram investigate the impact of situational variables on rate of obedience?

Answer 31

-baseline (OG) study at Yale university; 65%
-change location to run down office building; 47.5%
(Prestigious environment gives experimenter authority and legitimacy so obedience was expected so lesser environment had lower perceived scientific nature)
-change proximity so student and teacher are in same room; 40%
-change proximity so teacher forces students hand on shock plate; 30%
(Rate decreases as they ate more aware that they are causing harm to others)
-change proximity so experiment gives orders over phone; 20.5%
(Rate decreases as authority figure being further lowers desire to obey)
-change uniform so experimenter played by ‘member of the public’ in casual clothes; 20%
(Uniform is widely recognised symbol of authority so someone without uniform has less right to obedience)

Question 32

What are the 4 explanations of obedience and the 3 categories they fall into?

Answer 32

1) Situational Variables (proximity, location, uniform)
2) Legitimacy of Authority
3) Agentic State
4) Authoritarian Personality

-Situational explanations: external characteristics to do with a situation explains obedience
-Social-psychological explanations: the influence that other people have on an individual explains obedience
-Dispositional explanations: internal characteristics of an individual explains obedience

Question 33

What is legitimacy of authority?

Answer 33

-people are more likely to obey people who they perceive to have authority over them.
-authority is justified by the individual’s position of power within a social hierarchy (eg teacher or police)
-we are taught to recognise the value of obedience to an authority figure from a young age as it helps to keep stability in society
-People willingly give up some of their independence and hand over control of their behaviour to people they trust to exercise authority appropriately
-However, problems arise when legitimate authority becomes destructive ie cruel or unjust

Question 34

What is the agentic state?

Answer 34

-individuals feel responsible for own actions based of own principles in the autonomous state
-agentic shift occurs when a person goes fro autonomous state to agentic state

-agentic state is a mental state where an individual feels no personal
responsibility over their actions as they believe themselves to be acting for an authority figure
-individual gives up free will, hands responsibility to authority figure. They can ignore their conscience and allows them to obey orders from figure
-when individual experiences high anxiety (moral strain), they know what they’re doing is wrong but feel powerless against figure

-Milgram argues that there are aspects of situations where agent can minimise/ignore the damaging effects if their behaviour (binding factors) such as victim blaming or denying the damage done to victims

Question 35

How did Milgram investigate the agentic state?

Answer 35

-one variation of his experiment an additional confederate administered the electric shocks on behalf of the teacher
-percentage who reached the full 450 volts rose from 65% to 92.5%.
-highlights the power of shifting responsibility (agentic shift), these participants shifted their responsibility on to person administering the shocks and continued obeying orders as they felt less responsible
-the ability to enter an agentic state increases the level of obedience, as the level of personal responsibility decreases.

Question 36

What procedure did Adorno et al (1950) use to investigate authoritarian personality?

Answer 36

-study of more than 2000 middle class white Americans and their unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups
-primarily done using the f scale (fascist)

Question 37

What were Adorno’s findings?

Answer 37

-high scores on the F-scale identified with ‘strong’ people
-were generally disrespectful/had a hatred for the ‘weak’
-were very conscious of their own and others’ status
-showed excessive respect and submission to those of higher status. -had distinctive stereotypes and saw things as very black and white with no grey areas.

Question 38

What are some characteristics associated with authoritarian personality?

Answer 38

-especially obedient to authority
-Extreme respect for authority
-Hatred for people they perceive as having inferior social status
-Traditional attitude (sex/race/gender)
-View society as going downhill (think we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values)
-Their outlook is inflexible (black or white) and they are very uncomfortable with uncertainty

Question 39

Where is authoritarian personality believed to originate from?

Answer 39

harsh parenting such as:
-Extremely strict discipline
-Expectation of complete loyalty
-Impossibly high standards
-Severe criticism of perceived failures
-Conditional love

These create resentment/hostility in the child. The fears and anger are displaced onto people who are weaker.
This explains the obedience to higher authority and hated for the socially inferior/different

Question 40

What causes people to resist social influence?

Answer 40

-social support (situational factor)
-locus of control (dispositional factor)

Resistance of social influence is the ability to withstand social pressure to conform or to obey orders

Question 41

What is social support (in relation soon to resistance of social influence)?

Which studies does it relate to?

Answer 41

-having an ally can build confidenceand allows individual to remain independent (act on own conscience)
-it breaks unanimity of the group so fear of ridicule decreases (avoids NSI)
-individuals who have support for their view are more likely to disobey authority figures as it provides a model of disobedience

Relates to
-variant of Asch’s study on unanimity (but if non conforming confederate starts to conform so does participant)
-variant of Milgram’s study where two confederates join participant as teachers, they refuse to go on at some point. Participants to continue to full 450 volts decreases to 10%

Question 42

What is the locus of control (Loc)?

Answer 42

The degree of control an individual feels they have in their own life

-measured in internal and external loc
-the continuum from high internal loc to high external loc, with low internal/external lying in between

Internals
-what occurs to them is largely controlled by themselves
-more likely to resist social influence
-take more responsibility for actions
-more self confident, achievement oriented, and intelligent
Externals
-believe things happen outside of their control

Question 43

What is minority influence?

Answer 43

-when one/a small group influence the beliefs, attitudes and behaviours of others
-different from conformity (thats when majority is influencing)
-minority influence leads to internalisation
-in order for their views to be influential the minority must be consistent (synchronic agreement and constant belief overtime draws attention), committed (engage in extreme activities for attention and put selves at risk for view) and flexible (be prepared to adapt and compromise)

Question 44

How does the minority influence create social change in steps?

Answer 44

1) they draw attention to an issue
2) they are influential due to the consistency of their position
3)this causes deeper processing of the issue, people start questioning their belief of the status quo
4) this leads to the augmentation principle by others as minority is willing to suffer for their views
5) this results in the snowball effect and more and more people consider the issue
6) comes to critical mass when minority view is now majority leads to social cryptomnesia when people know that there has been social change but not how it occurred

Question 45

How do different social influence processes lead to social change?

Answer 45

Conformity
-dissent leads to change as by breaking power of majority, dissenters encourage others to dissent
-environmental/health campaigns appeal to NSI by saying what others are doing to get others to so it to
-conforming to new norms via compliance as they want to fit in (NSI)

Obedience
-disobedient models lead to others disobeying as well
-process of gradual commitment, obey a small instruction and it becomes harder to resist a bigger one People drift into a new behaviour
-new social norm may have laws and rules put in place to ensure people obey new attitudes and behaviours