Topic 3-Social Influence

Question 1

What is conformity?

Answer 1

Conformity is the process of yielding to majority influence. Can be defined as “a change in behaviour or belief as a result of real or imagined group pressure”

Question 2

Different types of conformity?

Answer 2

Compliance- NSI
Internalisation-ISI
Identification

Question 3

What is normative social influence?

Answer 3

The need to be accepted by other people-want others to like and respect us and being rejected is painful.
Therefore people have the power to either reward(approve) or punish(disapprove) us, oneway of ensuring their approval is by agreeing with them.

Question 4

What is informational social influence?

Answer 4

A basic need to feel confident that our ideas and beliefs are correct. If we are unsure about something we tend to seek other people’s opinions. Tends to happen in situations we aren’t familiar with or in ambiguous situations

Question 5

Outline sherif

Answer 5

Investigated the emergence of group norms using the auto-kinetic effect
Each p was given a series of trials and asked to judge how far the light moved, they were then placed in groups of three and asked to announce their estimates aloud.
Findings- tested individually =very similar estimates each time they were asked. There was a considerable variation between all ps singular answers.
Groups of three= estimates converged until a group norm emerged

Showing that when faced with an ambiguous situation ps looked to others in the group for guidance

Question 6

Evaluate sherif

Answer 6

+well controlled lab experiment which can be replicated

- the experiment lacks external validity BC artificial situation

Question 7

Outline asch

Answer 7

Investigated whether individuals would yield to majority influence

Participant was seated with a group of 6-8 confeds. Group is shown display of 3 vertical lines of different lengths A B and C and then another display of another line - asked which one it matched with.
Participant would always be either last or second from last to call out their answer.
12/18 trials confeds asked to give wrong answer( critical trials )
ALL PARTICIPANTS WERE WHITE AND MALE

Findings
Control trial error rate- 0.7%
Critical trial error rate - 32%

74% conformed at least once

Question 8

Variables affecting conformity

Answer 8

Group size
Unanimity
Task difficulty

Question 9

Research into group size

Answer 9

One confederate-unaffected
Two confederates- less than 14%
Three confederates-rose to 32%

To produce conformity must be 3 - no difference between 3 and 15

Question 10

Research into unanimity

Answer 10

Conformity goes down when group is unanimous

One confed disagreed with rest of group, making conformity drop from 32% to 5%
Didn’t matter if it was correct or incorrect

Question 11

Research into task difficulty

Answer 11

Line judging task made more difficult - conformity increased when the task became more difficult (ISI)

Question 12

Evaluation of Asch

Answer 12

Lacks ecological validity
Experiment and variations lack population validity
May be product of time and might not be applicable to western society today
Unethical
Lacks experimental validity

Question 13

What is obedience

Answer 13

The result of social influence where somebody acts in response to a direct order from an authority figure

Question 14

How does conformity differ to obedience

Answer 14

Others of equal status <> an authority figure who has higher status
Because of real or implied group pressure <> because of an explicit order to do so

Question 15

Outline milgram

Answer 15

40 male volunteers who were paid $4.50 were told that the study concerned the role of punishment in learning. The genuine p had the teachers role to administer the electric shocks to the confederate (learner)
Every mistake the learning would receive a “shock” which started from 15volts and went up to 450volts
To begin with the learner gave the correct answers but then began to make mistakes. If the participant hesitated they would be told by a man in a white coat “the experiment requires that you continue”
Findings - all participants went to 300 volts, 65% of participants went to the end of the shock generator

Question 16

Outline zimbardo

Answer 16

To investigate how readily people conform to the expectations they have about social roles
Used well-adjusted, healthy male volunteers, who were paid $15 a day to take part in a two-week simulation study of prison life. Randomly allocated to either prisoners or guards.
People will readily conform to the social roles they are expected to play and such roles shape a person’s attitudes and behaviour.

Question 17

Evaluate zimbardo

Answer 17

+ performance based on stereotypes and 90% of conversation was about prison life suggesting high internal validity
- exaggeration of the power of the situation to influence behaviour- only a third of the guards acted like the stereotype

Ethical issues-humiliation and distress to prisoners
Zimbardo played the “chief superintendent” so lost sight of harm being done

Question 18

What are the explanations for obedience

Answer 18

Legitimacy of authority
Being in an agentic state 
Situational variables- proximity 
Location
Uniform

Question 19

What does the legitimacy of authority mean

Answer 19

In society, police officers, teachers and doctors have legitimate authority- we respect their position and assume they know what they are doing.
Less likely to obey if we don’t feel they’re legitimate
E.g. Moving experiment to a run down office compared to a prestigious university

Question 20

What does being in an agentic state mean

Answer 20

Feeling as if you aren’t responsible for your actions because you’re just acting as an agent for the authority figure.
Move from autonomous state to agentic state- agentic shift
E.g. Ps were told the experimenter was responsible for anything that happened to the learner and 92.5% carried on till 450volts

Question 21

What does proximity mean

Answer 21

Refers to how close a person is to another person
E.g. Both teacher and learner put in same room and obedience rate fell to 40%
Another variation teacher forces hand onto shock - 30%
Another variation experimenter gave teacher instructions and prods via telephone - 20.5%

Question 22

What does location mean

Answer 22

Milgram moved study to run down office - obedience fell to 48%

Question 23

What does uniform mean

Answer 23

Experimenter in lab coat got called away and replaced by ordinary member of public( confed) obedience fell to 20%

Question 24

What is a dispositional explanation

Answer 24

An explanation that highlights the importance of the individuals personality

Question 25

What is the authoritarian personality

Answer 25

Adorno claimed the reason people obey is because they have a specific personality type which makes them very obedient towards people in authority.
Extreme respect for those in authority
Extremely hostile to those who they’d consider inferior
Highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender
Everything is either right or wrong and very uncomfortable with uncertainty

Believed that this started in childhood as a result of harsh parenting - this creates resentment and hostility in the child and they can’t express these directly towards their parent so they are displaced on those who are perceived to be weaker.

Question 26

Outline adorno

Answer 26

Investigated the causes of the obedient personality using 2000 middle-class, white Americans, assessed their attitudes towards racial groups, using the F-scale questionnaire
Findings those who scored highly in the fscale tended to have authoritarian personality characteristics

Question 27

Evaluation of the authoritarian personality

Answer 27

Evidence to support the link between the personality and high obedience - milgram found the most obedient ps scored highly on the fscale

Difficult to explain why so many people can be prejudiced and obedient at the same time. If personality was the cause of obedience then that would mean that all the German soldiers in ww2 had the same personality and harsh upbringing which is highly unlikely

Question 28

What does resistance to social influence refer to?

Answer 28

The ability of people to remain independent despite pressures to conform or obey. This may be because of situational or dispositional factors

Question 29

What is social support?

Answer 29

The presence of people who resist pressures to conform or obey can help others to do the same these people act as models to show others that resistance to social influence is possible

Question 30

Social support when resisting conformity

Answer 30

The pressure to conform can be reduced if there are other people present who are not conforming. This makes the individual feel more confident in their own decision and more confident in rejecting the majority position. Demonstrated in variation of Asch’s study- when the participant was in a group with a confed who gave the correct response, conformity levels dropped from 32%-5%

Question 31

Social support when resisting obedience

Answer 31

The pressure to obey can be reduced if another person disobeys. The person may not copy the disobedient person’s behaviour but they act as a model for the p to copy that frees him to act from his own conscience. One of the variations of Milgram- 2 confeds joined the “participant”. When the two confeds refused to continue, obedience to continue to 450 volts fell to 10%

Question 32

What is the locus of control

Answer 32

Individual difference in people’s beliefs and expectations about what controls events in their lives (where they locate the control).

Question 33

Who proposed the locus of control?

Answer 33

Ritter

Question 34

What is an internal locus of control

Answer 34

People with an internal LOC believe that what happens to them is a consequence of their own behaviour and it is controlled by themselves. They are more self - confident and have less need for social approval. A strong internal LOC is associated with the belief that one can control much of one’s life and succeed in difficult or stressful situations. Someone with an internal LOC accepts responsibility for their actions and they are more likely to base their decisions on their own beliefs thus are less likely to conform and obey.

Question 35

What is an external locus of control?

Answer 35

Those with an external loc tend to believe that “things happen to them” and are uncontrollable. Luck and fate are seen as important factors. People with an external LOC tend to face stressful situations with a more passive and fatalistic attitude. They believe that their actions have little impact and therefore they are more likely to conform and obey

Question 36

Evaluation of Locus of Control - Rotter

Answer 36

A meta analysis of studies showed those who scored higher on external loc were more easily persuaded and likely to conform than those with a low score. The average correlation between the loc and conformity was 0.37, which was statistically significant. This supports the idea that people with an external loc are less likely to resist conformity

A replication of milgrams study measured whether ps were internal or external and found that 37% of internals refused to obey to the full voltage, whereas only 23% of externals did so.

Question 37

What is minority influence

Answer 37

Situations where one person or a small group of people (ie minority) influence the beliefs and behaviours of other people.

Question 38

What are the three main factors of minority influence?

Answer 38

Consistency
Commitment
Flexibility

Question 39

What is consistency in relation to minority influence

Answer 39

When the minority kept to the same argument to try and persuade others. Being consistent makes others think that the minority know what they are talking about and so are persuaded. Consistency can involve synchronic consistency - where all of the minority say the same thing or diachronic consistency where they remain consistent over time.

Question 40

What is commitment in relation to minority influence?

Answer 40

Minorities are more powerful if they demonstrate commitment to their cause. E.g. Personal sacrifices. Effective because it shows the minority is not acting out of self interest

Question 41

What is flexibility in relation to minority influence?

Answer 41

Consistency it not the only important factor in minority influence bc it can be interpreted negatively. Being extremely consistent and repeating the same arguments and behaviour can be seen as rigid, unbending, dogmatic and inflexible. Off putting to the majority and unlikely to result in persuasion. Minority should be prepared to adapt their point of view and accept reasonable and valid counter arguments.

Question 42

What is the snow ball effect

Answer 42

Over time, increasing numbers of people switch from the majority position to the minority view. They have become “converted”. The more this happens the faster the rate of the conversion.

Question 43

evaluation of minority influence

Answer 43

There is research to support the suggestion that consistency can be used by minorities to persuade a majority. Also a meta-analysis of almost 100 similar studies found that minorities who were see as being consistent were most influential.

There is evidence to support that being flexible and compromising can cause minority influence.

Question 44

Who did research into minority influence

Answer 44

Moscovici et al

Nemeth and Brilmayer’s

Question 45

Outline Moscovici

Answer 45

Got 6 participants to look at 36 blue coloured slides that varied in intensity and to then state whether the slides were blue or green. In each group there were two confeds who consistently said the slides were green on two thirds of the trials . The ps gave the same wrong answer on 8.4% of the trials 32% gave the same wrong answer as the minority on at least one trial. A second group of participants were exposed to an inconsistent minority and agreement fell to 1.25%

Question 46

Evaluate Moscovici et al

Answer 46

Study is very artificial - lacks ecological validity

Lab experiment - controlled and replicable

Question 47

Outline Nemeth and brilmayer

Answer 47

Set up a mock jury in which groups of 3 participants and 1 confed had to decide on the amount of compensation to be given to the victim of a ski lift accident. When the minority (confed) remained consistent, refusing to change position and argued for a very low amount, he had no effect on the majority. When he compromised and moved some way towards the majority view they also compromised and changed their view

Question 48

Evaluate nemeth and brilymayers

Answer 48

Lab

Realistic

Question 49

What is social change?

Answer 49

This occurs when whole societies rather than just individuals, adopt new attitudes, beliefs and ways of doing things- behave differently

Example-“green behaviour”. a few years ago very few people re cycled their rubbish but now it is common. Another example could be buying free range eggs - leads to people changing their personal opinion. Most people now believe that recycling is good for the environment and that battery hens are unacceptable.

Question 50

What is the shift in personal opinion called

Answer 50

Conversion

Question 51

What are the stages in which social change occurs

Answer 51

Drawing attention 
Consistency
Deeper processing
The augmentation principle
The snowball effect
Social crytoamnesia

Question 52

Evaluation of role of social influence processes in social change

Answer 52

Nolan et al investigated whether social influence processes led to a reduction in energy consumption in the community. They hung messages on the front doors of houses in San Diego, California every week for one month. The key message was that most residents were trying to reduce their energy usage. As a control some residents had a different message that just asked them to save energy but made no reference to other people’s behaviour. They found significant decreases in energy usage in the first group compared to the second. This supports the idea that conformity can lead to social change through normative social influence.