Social influence psych assessment Flashcards
what are the three types of conformity (Kelman)
internalisation, identification, and compliance
describe the 3 types of conformity (Kelman)
internalisation - a person takes on the majority view because they accept it as true (permanent change even when they’re not with the group), identification - a person will publicly act as if they believe the majority view because they want to be apart of the group (privately may not believe but go along anyways), and compliance - involves ‘going along with the group’ in public, but privately not changing personal opinion.
outline normative and informative social influence as explantations of conformity
Conformity is when a person changes their beliefs/behaviours because of social pressure, which may be real or just perceived. NSI stems from the need for an individual to be social and to associate with others.
Normative social influence (NSI) can be described as a desire to be accepted and/or liked by a group, which can lead a person to conform as this may be deemed as necessary to fit in with the group so that they can avoid rejection.
Informative social influence (ISI) explains conformity as agreeing with the opinion
who created the two-process theory
Deutsch and Gerard
evaluation for explanations of conformity
P - + - research support NSI - Asch
E - interviewed ppts some said conformed because self-conscious of giving correct answer + afraid of disapproval. However when ppts wrote their answers down conformity fell to 12.5%
T - desire to not be rejected
P - + research support ISI - Lucas et al
E - found ppts conformed more often to incorrect answers they were given to maths problems they found difficult
T - shows that ISI is a valid explanation of conformity
explain Asch’s baseline study
explain Zimbardo’s research into conformity
in Zimbardo’s study he set up a mock prison, at Stanford University in America, and selected 21 men who tested ‘emotionally stable’. They were assigned roles randomly to play either a prison guard of prisoner - they were encouraged to conform to their social roles through uniforms.
findings relating to social roles - guards took up their roles with enthusiasm and treated the prisoners harshly using techniques like ‘divide and rule’ - the prisoners rebelled after 2 days.
They harassed the prisoners to remind the prisoners that they were powerless.
The guards’ behaviour became increasingly brutal and aggressive. Zimbardo decided to end the experiment at 6 days rather than the original 14 days planned.
Conclusion - social roles appeared to have a strong influence on individuals’ behaviour.
evaluate Zimbardo’s research
P - + - Zimbardo had et al had control over key variables.
E - the selection of ppts, chosen as ‘emotionally stable’ and randomly placed into the roles, ruled out individual personality differences as an explanation of findings.
T - increases the internal validity of the study.
P - L - it did not have the realism of a true prison.
E - Banuazizi and Movahedi argued ppts were merely play-acting not conforming to a role, based on stereotypes. one of the guards said he based his role of a character from a film.
T - tells us little about conformity to social roles in actual prisons.
why did Milgram want to study obedience
He sought for an answer to the question of why such a high population of Germany obeyed Hitler’s commands to murder over 6 million Jews.
explain Milgram’s baseline procedure
40 American men volunteered to take part on a study supposedly on memory. Each volunteer was introduced to another ppt (confederate of Milgram’s). they drew to see who would be the ‘Teacher’ or the ‘Learner’, this was fixed so the real ppt was the Teacher. There was also an Experimenter involved (another confederate in a grey lab coat).
The study included the Experimenter ordering the Teacher to give an increasingly strong shock (spanning from 15 to 450 volts) to a learner located in a different room, the shocks were fake but this wasnt known to the Teacher.
Milgram’s baseline findings
every ppt delivered all the shocks up to 300 volts, 12.5% stopped at 300 volts but 60% carried on to the highest level on shock
Milgram also collected qualitative data including observations such as ppts showed signs of extreme tension: many were seen to ‘sweat, tremble, stutter etc’. 3 had ‘full-blown uncontrollable seizures’
evaluate Milgram’s research
P - + - research support - Beauvois.
E - documentary - ppts believed they were contestants on a game show. They were paid to give (fake) shocks to other ppts in front of a studio audience.
80% of ppts delivered the maximum shock of 460 volts to a seen unconscious man (not). Their behaviour matched Milgram’s ppts almost identically.
T- supports the original study abt obedience to authority.
P - L - Milgram’s procedure may have not tested what was intended for
E - Milgram reported that 75% of ppts said they beileved the shocks were genuine.
However, Orne and Holland believed that they behaved how they did bc they didn’t really believe in the set-up, so play-acted.
Perry’s research confirms this, listened to tapes of Milgram’s ppts and reported that only 1/2 of them believed the shocks were real.
T - this suggests that ppts may be responding to demand characteristics.
what was Hoffling’s research about
Hoffling arranged for a doctor to telephone 22 nurses and ask each of them to administer an overdose of a drug that was not on their ward list (Astroten). A startling 95% of nurses (21 out of 22) started to administer the drug without question.
what did Bickman’s research consist of
it was a field experiment in New York
3 confederates dress in different outfits - jacket and tie, a milkman’s outfit, and a security guard’s outfit.
They all stood in the street and asked passers-by to perform tasks such as picking up litter.
People were twice as likely to listen to the confederate dressed as a security guard than the jacket and tie.
This shows that the situational variable, like uniform, does have a powerful effect on obedience.
