social psychology

Question 1

define conformity

Answer 1

a reaction to group pressures (real or imagined) to adopt the attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of the majority

Question 2

what are the three types of conformity

Answer 2

-compliance
-identification
-internalisation

Question 3

describe compliance

Answer 3

publicly conforming but privately maintaining ones own views
-this is a temporary change and only lasts whilst the group pressure is present
(changing behaviour not views)

Question 4

describe identification

Answer 4

when individuals adjust there behaviour as they identify with a group they want to be part of
-the group is desirable and members are viewed as role models
-involves public and private acceptance
-generally temporary and not maintained when the individual is no longer a part of the group

Question 5

describe internalisation

Answer 5

a conversion of private views
-behaviour or views of the majority is accepted by the individual
-most permanent and lasts even when majority is no longer present

Question 6

what was the aim of Aschs study

Answer 6

to investigate the degree to which individuals would conform to a majority who gave them the wrong answer

Question 7

how many participants were apart of Aschs study

Answer 7

123 male US undergraduates

Question 8

outline Asches prodedure

Answer 8

-told ps investigation was on visual perception
-7-9 ps sat together and had to say out loud which line A B or C was the same as the stimulus line
-the correct answer was always unambiguous (obvious)
-all ps but one were confederates who were giving the wrong answer on 12/18 critical trials

Question 9

how many ps conformed to the wrong answers in 12 critical trials in aches original study

Answer 9

37%

Question 10

how many ps conformed to atleast one wrong answer in Aschs original study

Answer 10

75%

Question 11

what did Asch conclude from his original study

Answer 11

-demonstrated how ps were motivated by NSI as they conformed to avoid rejection but privately trusted there own judgement

Question 12

what were the 3 variations of Aschs study

Answer 12

-task difficulty
-group size
-unanimity

Question 13

how did Asch alter task difficulty

Answer 13

made the stimulus line and comparison lines more similar so that the correct answer was less obvious

Question 14

what did Asch conclude from increasing task difficulty

Answer 14

participants were more likely to conform to the wrong answers
-ISI plays a bigger role when the task is more difficult
-ps are more likely to look for guidance as confidence in our own judgement decreases

Question 15

how did asch alter group size

Answer 15

-increased group size from one confederate to 15 confederates

Question 16

what were the results from increasing group size in aschs study

Answer 16

-one p and one confederate (conformity was 3%)
-1 p 2 confeds (conformity was 13%)
-1 p 3 confeds (conformity was 32%)
adding more confederates after this made no difference to conformity

Question 17

what did Asch conclude from increasing group size

Answer 17

majority size of 3 is sufficient for maximum influence on conformity

Question 18

what is meant by unanimity

Answer 18

when the majority doesn’t agree with each other, by having the presence a dissenter (another non-conforming confederate) who always disagreed with the majority

Question 19

what did Asch find from unanimity variation

Answer 19

-when the dissenter gave the right answers conformity dropped and the percentage of wing answers was 5%
-when the dissenter gave the wrong answer different from the majority and the true answer, conformity dropped to 9%
-

Question 20

what did Asch conclude about unanimity

Answer 20

-breaking unanimity played a major role in reducing conformity
-gave participants social support and enabled them to disagree with majority

Question 21

evaluate social support as an explanation for resisting social influence

Asch, Milgram, other factors

Answer 21

supporting evidence: Asch
-when dissenters were present conformity dropped to 5%
-demonstrates how its easier to resist conformity
supporting evidence: Milgram
-when real participant paired with two confederates who refused to go on, real ps that went to 450 volts dropped from 65% to 10%
-demonstrates more likely to go against an authority when in the presence of disobedient role model
Limit: other factors such as confidence
-Asch study repeated and found conformity was only 1/396 trials with engineering students
-may have felt more confident in there correctness

Question 22

Evaluate strengths of locus of control as an explanation for resisting social influence

supporting evidence : ww2 survivors, conformity

Answer 22

obediance research (Oliner)
-interviewed ww2 surviors, found those that disobeyed and helped jews were more likely to have an internal locus of control then those who folllowed orders
Conformity research (spector)
-from 157 students found those with internal loc were less likely to conform
-only the case in NSI situations and there wasno difference between groups in ISI situations
-NSI is less influential than ISI on internals

Question 23

evaluate the limitations of locucs of control as an explanation for resisting social influence

other factors, methodology

Answer 23

social responsibilty may also contribute
-in follow up interviews from milgrams study, disobediant ps scored a high internal loc and high ona social responsibity scale
-other factors should be considered
Flawed methodolgy when mesuring LOC
-rotter scale: 23 forced answer questions when ps must choose between two statements
-may not agree with either (forced responce)
-social desireabilty bias (answering what they believe will please theresearcher)
-effects validity of LOC.

Question 24

outline moscovicis study as suppprting evidence for consistency in minority influence

Answer 24

-2 conferates to 4 participants
-shown 36 BLUE slides
-cond 1: consistent
confederates always says GREEN
8.5% of ps say green
-cond 2 : inconsistent
confed says GREEN 24 times and BLUE 12 times
1.25% of ps say green

consistent minority opinion had greater effect on majority

Question 25

outline Nemeths research into flexibilty as supporting evidence for minority influence

Answer 25

-created groups of 3 ps 1 confed who were deciding how much to pay a ski accident victim
unflexible: confed argued low priceand refused to change position (had no effect on majority)
flexible: compromised a little and suggested slightly higher amount (majority agreed to go for the lower price)

needs to be a balance between consistency and flexability in order to be persuasive

Question 26

evaluate minority influence

other factors, real life apps

Answer 26

identification should be considered
-the minority will be more influnetial and persuasive if the majority identifies with them
-for example if the minority is solely males they will be more influential in changing a majority of males

real life applications
-influential, positive rolemodels that the majority indetify with will be more successful