Social Influence - Paper 2 Flashcards
what was the aim of asch’s study of conformity
to investigate how people respond to group pressure.
what was the method of asch’s study of conformity
123 male american students who believed they were taking part in a different experiment. sat in a room with 6-8 confederates. the group were shown two cards one was a standard line the others were compasrison lines. on each trial the men were asked to say whether line A B or C matched the standard line. the confederates were told to give the wrong answer which was unambiguous.
what were the result of asch’s study of conformity
the participents gave a wrong answer 36% of the time, 75% of participents conformed at least once
what was the conclusion for asch’s study of conformity
people are influenced by group pressure even when the task involves a wrong answer
what is one evaluative weakness of asch’s study of conformity
the research only used male american participents so the results cannot be generalised to the wider population making the results less valid
what is a second evaluative weakness of asch’s study of conformity
perrin & spencer found only one act of conformity among 396 trials. this is a weakness because their research shows that people don’t conform as much suggesting that he is wrong in his theory
what are the 3 social factors that affect conformity
group size
anonymity
task difficulty
what are the 2 dispositional factors that affect conformity
expertise
personality
how does group size affect conformity?
The more people there are in a group, the greater
the pressure to conform to their opinion.
how does anonymity affect conformity?
When Asch give his participants anonymity (i.e.
write down your answer instead of saying out
loud), conformity rates decreased because you
don’t feel the pressure to conform from the
group.
how does task difficulty affect conformity?
As the task difficulty increases, the answer
becomes less obvious and people feel less
confident about their answer so they look to
others for the right answer.
how does expertise conformity?
Your intelligence increases your confidence in
your opinions and knowledge so people with
greater expertise are less likely to conform to
group pressure. One researcher found that if
someone felt good at maths, they would be less
likely to agree with incorrect answers.
how does personality affect conformity?
people with external
LOCs were more likely to agree with the group
pressure whereas internal LOCs are more likely
to resist the group pressure and stick to their
own answer.
what is an internal and external locus of control
Someone with an external locus of control
believes that they do not influence the things
that happen to them. Someone with an internal
locus of control believes that they do influence
the things that happen to them.
what was the aim of milgram’s study of obedience
To see whether a normal person would give another
A person a lethal electric shock if told to do so
what was the method of milgram’s study of obedience
40 male volunteers (20-50yrs) were told they were taking part in memory research.
They were paid for their time. The teacher (the participant) was told by the experimenter (actor) to give the learner (actor) shocks every time the learner got the answer wrong.The fake electric shocks started at 15v and went up to 450v (lethal).
what were the results of milgram’s study of obedience
100% of people went to 300v
65% of people went to 450v Three participants had seizures (fits) caused by stress.
what was the conclusion of milgram’s study of obedience
People will listen to an authority figure if they believe they aren’t responsible for the consequences. People obeyed because of the location, the pressure and the situation was new to them.
what did milgram’s agency theory say
We obey because we are acting as an
agent for an authority figure.
“People will listen to an authority figure if
they believe they aren’t responsible for
the consequences.”
what is autonomous state
Autonomous state is when
people behave according to
their own principles and
feels responsible for their actions.
what is agentic state
Agentic state is where people act on behalf of someone else and therefore follow their
orders. They don’t feel responsible for their actions.
what is proximity
When the learner sat in the same room as the teacher, obedience rates dropped from 65% to 40%, suggesting that proximity increases the ‘moral strain’, i.e. we feel sorry for them and
responsible for our actions.
what is a positive evaluative point of milgrams agency theory
The agency theory explains why atrocities such as the Holocaust happened. This is a strength because the theory has real life application, it helps us explain society.
what is a negative evaluative point of milgrams agency theory
The agency theory can give people who follow
destructive orders an excuse for their behaviour. This is a weakness because it allows people to think they aren’t responsible for their actions.
How do people with an authoritarian personality think?
They think in ‘black and white’ – something is either good or bad. They don’t see that people can be different. They believe in rigid stereotypes that all men are bullies and all women are emotional.
What is meant by displacement or scapegoating?
They need to displace their anger onto something else to relieve anxiety and hostility.
For example, they might have a bad day at school and when you come home you take it out
on something/someone else (i.e. shouting at your sibling). People with an authoritarian personality displace their feelings onto those socially inferior to them.
What do authoritarian people experience in childhood?
The authoritarian personality is developed when a child experiences strict parenting and extremely high standards of achievement. They offer conditional love (the child only receives love if they behave correctly). The child internalises these values and expects everyone to behave like this and develops hostility towards their parents.
what is an authoritarian personality
A person who is easily influenced by authority.
They follow people above them but are hostile
to people below them. They may have experienced harsh parenting as a child.
what is a negative evaluative point for adorno’s theory of an authoritarian personality
The authoritarian theory can give people who
follow destructive orders an excuse for their behaviour. This is a weakness because
it allows people to think they aren’t
responsible for their actions
what is another negative evaluative point for adorno’s theory of an authoritarian personality
Adorno believed that the authoritarian
personality is caused by strict parents but
other researchers say that it is caused by
lack of education. This is a weakness because
there are researchers who disagree with
Adorno.
what is bystander behaviour
The idea that the presence of others
reduces the likelihood of help being
offered in an emergency.
what was the aim for piliavin’s study of prosocial behaviour
To see whether the appearance of a victim
impacts whether they receive help or not.
what was the method for piliavin’s study of prosocial behaviour
The victim (confederate) fell over on a subway
in NYC. The participants were the people on the
subway and they were observed to see whether
the victim was helped or not.
what were the results for piliavin’s study of prosocial behaviour
When the victim appeared disabled, he was
helped 95% of the time. When he appeared
drunk, he was helped 50% of the time.
People offered help quicker when the victim
was disabled in comparison to drunk.
what was the conclusion for piliavin’s study of prosocial behaviour
The appearance of a victim influences whether they receive help or not.
what is a positive evaluative point for piliavin’s study of prosocial behaviour
The study took place in a natural setting (on a
NYC subway). This is a strength because the
participants’ behaviour would have been as
close to real life as possible and there would
be no demand characteristics.
what is a positive evaluative point for piliavin’s study of prosocial behaviour
The study took place a considerable amount
of time ago (1969) This is a weakness because
we can’t be certain we would get similar
results if the study was replicated as society has changed.
what are the 2 social factors that affect bystander behaviour
presence of others
cost of helping
what are the 2 dispositional factors that affect bystander behaviour
similarity to victim
expertise
how does the presence of others affect bystander behaviour
the more people there are the less likely they are to help. we believe that someone else will help so we ignore the situation
how does the cost of helping affect bystander behaviour
if the cost of helping involves danger then a person is less likely to help. on the other hand not helping could make a person feel guilty making them more inclined to step in on the situation. we also think about the reward that will come if we help which influences our decision
how does the similarity to victim affect bystander behaviour
we are more likely to help people with similar characteristics to us for example gender race or religion
how does expertise affect bystander behaviour
someone with knowledge in a particular field ( for example medicine) may feel more comfortable/obliged to help as the know what they are doing have have confidence in their abilities
what was the aim of zimbardo’s study of crowd/collective behaviour
to see whether deindividuation impacts whether someone hurts someone
what was the method of zimbardo’s study of crowd/collective behaviour
zimbardo copied milgrams electric shock experiments but changed a few parts so that
- all participents were female
- group 1 - participents wore their own clothes and had large name tags on
group 2 - participents wore a large coast and a hood that hid their face
what were the results of zimbardos study of crowd/collective behaviour
participants were more likely to give the learner a shock because they didn’t feel responsible for their actions
what was the conclusion for zimbardos study of crowd/collective behaviour
anonymity and deindividuation increases the liklihood that people will act antisocially
what is a weakness of zimbardos study of crowd/collective behaviour
the participents were voulenteers. this means that he would have ended up with extroverts who were willing to take part in research, we cannot say for sure that people with different personality types would react in the same way
what is a second weakness of zimbardos study of crowd/collective behaviour
the research only used female participants meaning that the results are less reliable as they cannot be generalised to males. the study is gynocentric
what are the four factors that affect how we behave in a group
social loafing
personality
morals
culture
