Social psychology- obedience: social impact theory Flashcards
What is Social impact theory?
The term, Social impact theory is the explanation for the idea that a real or imagined presence can influence an individuals behaviour. Social coming from the fact that the effect comes from other people. This theory was developed by Bibb Latane (1981) as a way f describing how ‘social forcefields’ impact peoples behaviour through our ongoing interactions. The person doing the influencing is called the ‘source’ and the people being influenced are called the ‘targets’. He created a mathematical formula as a way of determining social impact- impact on the target= strength x immediacy x number
What is strength, immediacy and number?
The formula indicates how these three key factors (strength, immediacy and number) indicate how much of an influence a source will have on the target and change their thoughts, feelings and actions.
Strength- The refers to the perceived power/ authority of the source and the messages they convey. This can be effected by economic status, age and the relationship the source has/ has not got with the target.
Immediacy- refers to the closeness of the source to the target, not just in terms of physical space but also time. This can be influenced by physical or psychological barriers.
Number- this refers to the number of sources present during the time of the interaction, which can determine social impact.
What is the multiplicative effect?
The multiplicative effect was created by Latane (1981) as a way of explaining how the increase of strength, immediacy and number can significantly increase the social impact. He used the lightbulb analogy as an explanation for brightness to depend on: how far away the lightbulb is, how powerful (volts) the lightbulbs are and how many lightbulbs there are.
What is divisional effect?
The phrase divisional effect is the idea that social impact is dependant on the amount of sauces to the number of targets. If the number of targets is larger than the number of sources, social impact is reduced. The impact Is divided by the number of targets, therefore there is less of an impact on an individual. Latane (1981) created a formula in order to represent this: impact on target= f (1/SIN) where sin refers to the target.
What is the law of diminishing returns?
Latane made a specific point about numbers, once the source group is bigger than three each additional person has less on an influencing effect. He said adding 1 more person to a group of 2 has a larger effect on impact than adding 1 more person to a group of 99 to make it 100. Economists call this the law of diminishing returns. Latane is not saying that a group of 100 people has less impact than a group of 3, however by adding 1 more person to a smaller group, that individual itself has a greater amount of impact than it would if it was a larger group. In a larger group, the impact levels change less if one person is added.
What is a strength of Social impact theory? (zoo)
A strength of social impact theory is that it is supported by research evidence. Sedikides and Jackson (1990) conducted a field experiment at a New York zoo where people were told not to swing on the railing. They experimented by using strength, immediacy and number of sources to test obedience. They used strength by using a confederate dressed as a zoo keeper (58% obedience) compared to a man in a t-shirt where targets had a 35% obedience rate. They also tested immediacy by the source being in the same room as the targets and asking them not to swing on the railing compared to being in an adjacent room. In the same room there was a 61% obedience rate compared to a 7% obedience rate in a different room. Finally, to test number of sources they used the divisional effect. They tested the obedience of a smaller group in comparison to a larger group. The smaller group had a 60% obedience rate when the larger only had 14% obedience rate. This shows how strength, immediacy and number have a significant effect on obedience and social impact.
What is a weakness of social impact theory? (zoo competing argument)
A weakness of social impact theory is that due to it being a field experiment, the experimenters were unable to control the amount of people in each group, this being a threat to internal validity. For example, people who go around in larger groups may just have a less obedient personality (confounding variable). Meaning group size alone may not determine defiance.
What is a strength of social impact theory? (application)
A strength of social impact theory is that it can be applied to political influence. This is where political leaders take into account strength, immediacy and number of sources in order to influence behaviour eg voters. Political leaders can use strength to convince people to vote for them by using powerful/ authoritative speaking when making their speeches to connect with their target voters. They can also use immediacy. An example of this is to speak to their target voters face-to-face instead of communicating through Tv or radio. They can also use number of sources to aim to talk to smaller groups instead of larger audiences so their impact on the targets is greater individually. This is so divisional effect does not decrease the impact of their messages. This supports social impact theory as it can be used in wider society to influence peoples behaviour eg who they vote for.
What is a weakness of social impact theory? (nurces)
A weakness of social impact theory is a study carried out by Charles Hoffling (1966). He used a group of 22 nurses where an unknown doctor called them and asked them to administer a drug that was not on their ward list. 95% of the nurses obeyed (they were then stopped from administering the drug). This is a weakness as although the doctor was not near them, the majority of the nurses obeyed the order despite the doctor not being in close proximity to them. The source not being close to them should have reduced the effect, but it didn’t. This creates the idea that immediacy is less important than strength. However, although it didn’t appear to create a difference that the source was not in close proximity, there is no comparison with the source being present so this can not be certain.
What is a conclusion of social impact theory?
Overall, despite Latane (1981) having critical research evidence supporting his study for example the zoo experiment by Sedikides and Jackson (1990) which demonstrates the importance of strength, immediacy and number in predicting obedience and other forms of social impact. The results of the research suggest that there is not a simple formula that can be used as an explanation of human behaviour. By saying this it is reductionist as it may not be possible to work out a universal equation.
