Social Influences Flashcards
Definition of compliance.
Public ally but not privations going along with majority influence to gain group approval.
Define identification.
Public and privation acceptance of majority influence to gain group acceptance.
Define internalisation.
Public and private acceptance of majority influence through adoption of the groups belief system.
Define informative social influence.
A
Define normative social influence.
A
Outline + evaluate Jenness’ classic research.
Je ness in 1932 conducted a laboratory experiment with the aim of investigating the extent to which individual judgement is influenced by group influence.
The task was an ambiguous one. Participants had to estimate the number of jellybeans in a jar. They then partook in a group discussion about estimates (finding that estimates differed from their own) before making a group estimate. Finally participants were offered to alter their estimate if they wished.
Jenness found that participants second estimate converged towards the group estimate and that conformity was greater among women.
He concluded that individual decisions are affected by majority influence, especially in ambiguous situations.
The experiment took place in laboratory setting - consequently there could be demand characteristics and lack ecological validity.
However this also allowed for high control of extraneous variables leading to valid results.
The experiment broke he ethical guild line of deception - Jenness did not tell pps the real aim of the study - could lead to lack of informed consent.
It could be invalid because it ignores NSI, ISI and majority influence in non ambiguous situations.
Outline Asch’s investigation into conformity.
Asch, in 1951, conducted a laboratory experiment with the aim of investigating the extent to which individuals conform to a majority who gave clearly wrong answers.
50 students from Swathmore college took place in a repeated measures design. One participant was placed in a room with 7 confederates and asked to partake in a ‘vision test’ in which they were shown a target line and 3 separate lines. They were then asked which line was the same length as the target line. There were 18 trials, in 12 citical trials the confederates gave identical wrong answers and the participant answered last. There was also a control condition in which 36 participants were tested individually (on 20 trials) to test their accurate judgement.
Asch found that on the critical trials, there was a 32% conformity rate to wrong answers (5% conformed to all 12 wrong answers), 75% of participants confirmed at least once and that the control group had a errors rate of 0.04%.
Asch concluded that individual judgement is affected by majority influence (even when it’s is are obviously wrong) because they want to be accepted by a group or look for advice.
Evaluate Asch.
✅ - Lab - high control - cause and effect - valid - objectivity.
✅ - a paradigm.
❌ - Androcentric - all make American - low generalisability.
❌ - Ethnocentric - a product of American culture at that time - low generalisability - low historical validity.
❌ - Ethics - psychological harm through stress of being wrong + deceit.
❌ - Uneconomical and time consuming.
Describe the situational variables that affect conformity.
🔹 Group size - as the size of majority influence increases so do conformity rates.
🔹 Task difficulty - conformity increases as difficulty does because he right answer is less obvious and people look to others for correct answers.
🔹 Unanimity - a lack of unanimity decreases conformity as the majority influences strength is seen to decrease.
🔹 Individual differences are the opposites to situational variables.
Define social roles.
The parts individuals play as members of a social group which meet the expectations of a situation.
Define social norms.
The expected ways in which individuals behave in a certain situations. They vary from situation to situation.
What is conformity to social roles?
🔹 When individuals change their behaviour to fit the social norms of the situation they are in. They play a social role within that situation.
🔹 Humans learn these roles by observing and conforming.
🔹 These roles act like a script, indicating how people should behave.
🔹 Social roles are a useful way of predicting and understanding behaviour, this brings reassurance to our social interactions.
🔹 Social roles are a form of identification as the changes are not permanent but individuals are happy to temporarily accept them.
Outline the research of Zimbardo.
Zimbardo, in 1973, conducted an experiment with the aim of investigating the extent to which people conform to social roles and whether this conformity was due to dis positional or situational factors.
In his procedure, 21 American volunteers were divided into prisoners and guards and placed in the Stanford psychology department basement which Zimbardo had converted into a mock prison. To make the experiment realistic, men were given uniforms: smocks and ankle chains for the prisoner and sunglasses and khaki outfits for the guards. Also the prisoners were surprise arrested. The study was planned to run for 2 weeks.
Zimbardo found that he had to end the study after 6 days due to the psychological harm it was causing. Subsequent prisoners had to be realeased after 36 days due to fits of crying, anger and development of rashes. Zimbardo also found that participants conformed very quickly to social roles, with the guards becoming very sadistic and taunting and the prisoners becoming very dehumanised: giving in to the guards and referring to each other as their numbers.
Zimbardo concluded that people conform due to situational variables since all the men in the study were free from anti-social and criminal tendencies. He also concluded that people will conform to roles that go aegis t their moral beliefs and act in these roles in the way the media has portrayed them.
Evaluate Zimbardo’s study.
✅ - Application to real life - for example in the US juvenile offenders are now housed in foster care and not with adult offenders to be protected from harm/US navy use this to teach people how to cope I’m stressful situations.
✅ - Started the ethical guild lines in psychology.
✅ - Field experiment - Zimbardo had control over the IV so could test whether it was situation or dispositions factors.
❌ - ETHICS - protection from physical and psychological harm - and deceit - bad name for psychology.
❌ - Andro/Ethnocentric - low generalisability.
❌ - Low historical validity - a product of its time.
❌ - De,and characteristics.
Definition of conformity.
The act of matching your attitudes, beliefs and behaviours to group norms.
