Social Influence Studies Flashcards
Who did research for conformity?
Asch
What was the aim of Asch’s study?
To examine how social pressure from a majority could affect someone’s behaviour
What was the procedure for Asch’s study?
-123 male students believed they were taking part in a visual perception task
-Asch used a line judgement task , where he placed real participants in a room with seven confederates, who agreed their answers in advance
-The real participant was always sat second to last or last
-Each person had to say out loud which line (a, b, or c) was like the target line in length. The correct answer was always obvious
-Each participant completed 18 trials and the confederates gave the same incorrect answer on 12 trials, called critical trials
What were the findings for Asch’s study?
-The real participant conformed to the incorrect answers on 36.8% of the critical trials
-75% of participants conformed on at least on critical trial and 25% never conformed
-Asch also used a control group, in which one real participant completed the same experiment without any confederates. He found that less than 1% of the participants gave an incorrect answer
What did Asch’s study conclude?
-Individuals’ judgements are affected by majority influence
-Participants conformed due to normative social influence out of a desire to fit in and fear of rejection
What was the purpose of the critical trials?
The purpose of these critical trials was to see if the participants would change their answer in order to conform to how the others in the group responded
What were the variables used in Asch’s study?
-Group size
-Unanimity
-Task difficulty
Explain the effects of group size in Asch’s study
-Between 1-16 confederates, there was a linear relationship with conformity only to a certain extent
-When there were 3 confederates, this lead to conformity rising to 31.8% but any more made little difference. This shows that people are sensitive to the view of other people
Explain the effects of unanimity in Asch’s study?
- In study 1, the dissenter gives the correct answer
- In study 2, the dissenter gives a different, incorrect answer
-The genuine participant conformed less often, when in the presence of a non-conforming person, even when they disagreed with them
Explain the effects of task difficulty in Asch’s study?
He made the lines more similar, increasing the rate of conformity as the answer was more ambiguous
Evaluate the limitations of Asch’s study
-The experiment was artificial
-Participants knew they were in a study, so they may have been going along with what was expected. This increases demand characteristics
-The task was trivial as it wasn’t that serious
-It doesn’t resemble a real life situation
-Limited application as there were only American men. The US is more individualistic compared to other countries
What other research was there that contested Asch’s study?
Todd Lucas et al.
Explain Todd Lucas et al’s variation of Asch’s study
Todd Lucas et al asked participants to solve easy and hard maths questions
What were the findings of Todd Lucas et al’s research?
He found that when presented with difficult maths problems to solve, participants were more likely to conform to the majority answer, showing that people will conform out of a need to be right (ISI)
What did Todd Lucas et al conclude?
-Conformity is more complicated as ability and characteristics affect conformity
Who did research for conformity to social roles?
Zimbardo
What was the aim of Zimbardo’s study?
-How readily people would conform to the
social roles of guard and prisoner in a role
playing exercise that simulated prison life
-He also wanted to examine whether the behaviour displayed was due to the people themselves (internal dispositional factors) or the environment and conditions of the prison (external situational factors)
What was the procedure of Zimbardo’s study?
-Zimbardo converted a basement of Stanford University psychology building into a mock prison
-He advertised for 21 male students to play the role of prisoners and guard for 2 weeks
-Participants were randomly assigned
-Prisoners were:
Blindfolded, strip-searched, issued a uniform, referred to by number only
-Guards were:
Issued a khaki uniform together with whistles, handcuffs, and dark glasses
-Guards worked shifts , eight hours each
-No physical violence was permitted
-Zimbardo observed behaviour as researcher and prison warden
What were the findings for Zimbardo’s study?
Guards:
-Harassed prisoners
-Behaved in a brutal and sadistic manner
and apparently enjoyed it
-As the prisoners became more submissive,
the guards became more aggressive and
assertive
Prisoners:
-Soon adopted prison-like behaviour
-They told tales on each other to please the
guards
-They started taking prison rules very seriously
What were the conclusions from Zimbardo’s research?
-People quickly conform to social roles even
when the role goes against their moral
principles
-Situational factors were largely responsible
for the behaviours found as participants
had never previously demonstrated these
behaviours
Evaluate the limitations Zimbardo’s research?
-People quickly conform to social roles even
when the role goes against their moral
principles
-Situational factors were largely responsible
for the behaviours found as participants
had never previously demonstrated these
behaviours
Evaluate the strengths of Zimbardo’s research?
-People quickly conform to social roles even
when the role goes against their moral
principles
-Situational factors were largely responsible
for the behaviours found as participants
had never previously demonstrated these
behaviours
Who did research on obedience?
Milgram
What was the aim of Milgram’s experiment?
-He wanted to know if the Germans were different and more obedient to authority figures than people in other countries
-If ordinary American citizens would obey an unjust order from an authority figure to inflict pain on another person because they were instructed to
What was the procedure of Milgram’s experiment?
-40 male participants from a range of occupations and backgrounds responded to an ad in the local paper to take part in an experiment on “punishment and learning “
-The experiment was conducted at Yale University
-The experimenter explained one person would be randomly assigned to role of teacher , the other , learner
-The real participant was always teacher, and the learner was a confederate that gave predetermined answers
-Teacher watched learner being strapped to to electric chair and were given an example shock to convince them the procedure was real
-Learner was placed in adjacent room and the teacher was given a series of words to read
-The learner’s recall was then tested
-The teacher was told to give a shock for each incorrect answer and to increase after each incorrect answer
-As shocks increased the screaming became louder. 300v =weak heart, 315=bang on wall, 330=silence
-Experimenter continued until participant refused to continue or 450v was reached
What were the findings from Milgram’s experiment?
-All real participants went to at least 300v
-65% continued until 450v
-Many participants showed signs of distress. Some trembled, stuttered, bit their lip, 3 had full blown, uncontrollable seizures
What were the conclusions from Milgram’s experiment?
-Under the right circumstances ordinary people will obey unjust orders
-The Germans are not different to other people from different countries
Evaluate the limitations of Milgram’s experiment
-Participants were allowed to leave, however may have felt uncomfortable exercising this right as they were being ordered to continue
-Participants thought shocks were real so potentially faced psychological harm
-The experiment is only targeted on white American men
- Use of deception
Evaluate the strengths of Milgram’s experiment
-The laboratory setting allowed for a controlling of many variables
-Internal validity was good
-The experiment was reliable as it can be replicated and the results are consistent.
