Social Psychology Flashcards
Social psychology is…
The study of how people’s behaviours and attitudes are influenced by the presence - actual or imagined - of other people.
A social group is..
Two or more people who interact together, share things in common, and share a common identity.
What is meant by conformity?
Conformity is when a person’s public or private attitudes are influenced by the majority.
when a person conforms to imitate a social role or role model that they admire they have..
identified
Identification
when you conform to imitate a social role or role model that you admire
you conform privately and publicly because you think that any attitude associated with the role model is great
people stop having the attitudes if they decide they don’t like the role model any more
Internalisation
you conform privately and publicly because you are persuaded that the attitudes of the majority are correct
because they believe they are correct people will keep their attitudes and behaviours even if the majority changes their mind
Compliance
Compliance is when a person conforms publicly, but not privately, to be accepted by a group and avoid social rejection.
the effect of the majority influence is short, people only comply when the group is around
How strong are the types of conformity?
Compliance is a weak form of conformity
Identification is a medium form of conformity
Internalisation is a strong form of conformity
What was the aim of Zimbardo’s experiment?
To investigate if prison brutality happens because of the personality of guards and prisoners or because they are conforming to social roles
What conclusion was supported by Zimbardo’s experiment?
Prison violence is caused by people conforming to social roles of prisoners and guards, because violence is seen when normal people are put in prisons.
What are the 4 main criticisms of Zimbardo’s prison experiment?
UNETHICAL
😩 Zimbardo put his participants through stress, so it could be criticised for being unethical.
LACK OF AWARENESS
🛑 But he didn’t know the study would go so badly and he did stop the study once it got out of control.
LACK OF GENERALISABILITY
👨🏻🦳 Zimbardo only recruited people from one group in society so it could be criticised for lacking generalisability.
EXPLAIN REAL WORLD EXAMPLE
👮♂️ But his study does explain real-life conformity to social roles.
LACK OF ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY
🎭People might not have taken the experiment seriously, so the study might have lacked realism.
BEHAVIOUR SUGGESTS THEY TOOK IT SERIOUSLY
🗯 But 90% or 90 percent of participant’s conversations in the study were about life in prison suggesting they did take it seriously.
INVESTIGATOR EFFECTS
👨⚖️ Zimbardo played the role of warden in his experiment so the study might have suffered from experimenter bias.
NO RESPONSE
What is an individual variable?
Individual variables, also called dispositional variables, are variables that describe personal characteristics of a person
Resistance to social influence?
When a person withstands pressure to obey or conform
Locus of control
Locus of control means the amount of control someone believes they have over their own life.
People who think they have a lot of control have an internal locus of control
People who think they don’t have much control have an external locus of control
Locus of control can be measured through
a personality questionnaire developed by Rotter.
Describe Shute’s study on locus of control and conformity.
Shute used Rotter’s questionnaire to study conformity in undergraduates. All of the students filled in Rotter’s
locus of control questionnaire.
Students then interacted with other students who had strong attitudes either for or against drugs.
The results found that people with high internal locus control conformed less to the attitudes of others. But, this was only in a situation that produced
normative social influence and not informational social influence.
How do a minority change the perspective of the majority?
The minority change the views of the majority through conversion.
What factors can strengthen the influence of a minority?
Consistency which is when everyone in the minority repeatedly holds the same attitude.
Commitment which is where the minority demonstrate how important the cause is to them
Flexibility which is where the minority compromises with the majority.
the snowball effect
The snowball effect describes how as more people convert to the minority, the influence of the minority gets bigger and bigger, causing more and more people to convert at a faster rate, until the minority becomes the majority.
At first, minorities convert people to their position slowly. As more people convert, the influence of the minority gets bigger, causing more and more people to convert at a faster rate. This effect is called the snowball effect.
What was the aim of Moscovici’s study?
To investigate whether a minority could influence the attitudes of the majority in an unambiguous task.
What is meant by flexibility in minority influence?
Minorities can show flexibility by listening to and understanding other people’s points of view, and being willing to compromise.
