Terms used in social influence research - 5

Question 1

Obedience (term)

Answer 1

1. complying with the orders or requests of an authority figure
2. Humans are generally quite obedient and obedience is generally mundane and relates to everyday experience
3. Servicemen and women of the armed forces might have to do something they are not willing to do because they have to follow an order from a higher ranking officer
4. Most of the time obedience can be seen as an important social process that helps maintain social order, but sometimes obedience can be undesirable as it can lead to doing something wrong or harming each other
5. In Psychology, research into obedience began after the Second World War. Psychologists were interested in why german soldiers were willing to harm jews and other prisoners of war at the orders of their commanding officers. Research found that German soldiers were just like anyone else given an instruction to follow by an authority figure.

Question 2

Conformity (term)

Answer 2

1. matching the behaviour and beliefs of others in order to fit in or because we do not know how to behave in an unusual situation
2. Conformity is the behaviour of following that the majority of people are doing
3. Conformity helps us to fit in to a social group

Question 3

Authority figure

Answer 3

someone with more power and control than another

Question 4

Types of conformity

Answer 4

1. compliance
2. Internalisation
3. Identification

Question 5

Compliance (term)

Answer 5

1. compliance involves going along with the majority although privately we may not agree with them
2. e.g. when all your friends are buying a certain brand of trainers and although you do not like the bran, you buy it anyway
3. This type of conformity can be explained by normative social influence, where we follow the group norm because we want to be accepted and not rejected

Question 6

Internalisation (term)

Answer 6

1. internalisation occurs when you are placed in a situation where you do not know how to behave
2. Going along with the majority because we do not know how to behave in the situation so we adopt the beliefs of the group
3. This can be explained by informational social influences
4. You look to the majority for this information and follow their lead, as you believe this must be the correct way to behave.
5. This is known as internalisation because you are not superficially going alone with the crows, instead you attitude becomes consistent with the majority

Question 7

Normative social influence

Answer 7

1. compliance because of the need to fit into a group

Question 8

Informational social influences

Answer 8

1. conformity because we do not know how to behave
2. Others provide this information so we simply adopt their beliefs and behaviours
3. You look to others, observe their behaviour and copy them because you are uncertain of how to behave yourself

Question 9

Identification ( term)

Answer 9

1. Identification is similar to compliance
2. A person will change their behaviour and beliefs while in the company of a group, but this only lasts as long as the group is present
3. Identification is likely to be a temporary change in behaviour and beliefs because of a group membership.
4. This occurs because we like to be defined as a group so we adopt their beliefs and values to fit in
5. In this way, it can be be seen as short-term normative social influence
6. e.g. wearing different clothes and acting similarly to the group but when you are at home you revert to wearing and doing what you want

Question 10

Deindividuation (term)

Answer 10

1. Deindividuation is the process of losing our own personal identity when we are part of a crowd or group
2. When we lose our individual identity, we blend into a group and become anonymous - we do not stand out in the crowd
3. As a result, we tend to act differently and feel less responsible for our own actions
4. e.g. in a riot, the members may cause damage to property or even harm another person as a result of their loss of self-awareness. This behaviour would not occur if they were acting along.

Question 11

Bystander effect

Answer 11

1. sometimes called bystander apathy
2. when we fail to help another in need
3. Bystander effect is the reluctance to help because they believe that others will help instead
4. We also look to others to see how to behave, so if no one is helping, we will not help either