Unit 1 - Social Influence Flashcards
What are the 3 types of conformity?
compliance, internalisation and identification
What is compliance?
where a person might publicly agree but privately disagrees with a groups views or behaviour.
For example a person may laugh at a joke because their group of friends find it funny but deep down the person does not find the joke funny.
What is the name of the study which shows compliance?
Asch’s line study
What did Asch want to investigate?
whether people would conform to the majority in situations where the answer was obvious
What is the procedure for Asch’s study?
5-7 participants in a group. Each group were presented with a standard line and three comparison lines. Participants had to say aloud which one matched the standard line.In each group there was one real participant and the rest were actors. Which were told to give 12 out of 18 wrong answers
Strengths of Asch’s study?
supports normative influence
internally valid design
Weaknesses of Asch’s study?
ecological validity - lines doesn’t reflect complexity of real life conformity
ethical issues - deception, participant were told it was about perception of lines, so they could not get informed consent. Could cause psychological harm because they might feel embarrassed when nature of the study revealed. However, there was a debrief.
gender bias sampling issues - only on men, results can’t be applied to females. Lacks population validity
What is normative influence?
the desire to be right
- we conform to the behaviours of the group because we don’t want to be embarrassed or left out.
What are the 4 things Asch changed in his other experiments?
- group size
- group unanimity
- difficulty of task
- answer in private
What were the results for different group sizes?
the more confederates more people conformed
What were the results for group unanimity?
people are more likely to agree with the answer when everyone is in agreement
What were the results for increased difficulty of task?
when the lines were made more similar to each other it was harder to judge the correct answer so conformity increased
What is internalisation conformity?
Publicly changing behavior to fit in with the group while also agreeing with them privately.
An example of internalisation is if someone lived with a vegetarian at university and then decides to also become one too because they agree with their friends viewpoint
What is indentification conformity?
when someone conforms to the demands of a given social role in society.
e.g policeman, teacher
What is a good example of identification conformity?
Stanford prison experiment
What did Zimbardo want to investigate?
how readily people would conform to social roles of guard and prisoner in a role-play exercise.
What was the procedure for Stanford prison experiment?
Zimbardo made a prison setting, advertised for people to be guards and prisoners for a fortnight. Participants were randomly assigned. Both groups issued with uniforms and no physical violence was permitted. Zimbardo observed the behaviour of both groups.
What were the findings of Stanford prison experiment?
in short times the prisoner and guards adapt to their roles, within a few hours some guards started harassing the prisoners. Guards started wanting more obedience
What are the strengths of the Stanford prison experiment?
led to ethical guidelines - studies now have to gain ethical approval before conducted
What are the weaknesses of the Stanford prison experiment?
demand characteristics - guards were acting, their behaviour would not be affected by the same things in real life. Means studies cannot be generalized to real life. Low ecological validity
lack population validity - gender bias cannot be applied to females or those from other countries
ethical issues - lack of informed consent by participants as Zimbardo didn’t know what was happened
participants weren’t protected from harm - one participant left because of stress. Zimbardo debriefed them
What is normative influence?
the desire to be liked, people conform to fit in when privately disagreeing with the majority.
What is informational influence?
the desire to be right
- we conform because are unsure of the situation
What is obedience?
type of social influence where a person follows an order from another person who is usually an authority figure
What is the study which explains obedience?
Milgram’s shock study
What was Milgram’s hypothesis?
wanted to know why Germans were willing to kill Jews during the Holocaust. He thought that it might have been because German’s were just evil.
What was the procedure for Milgram’s study?
2 participants drew who would be the ‘learner’ and the ‘teacher’. The draw was fixed so that the participant was always the teacher and the learner was someone pretending to be a real participant.One room had an electric chair and the learner was attached to electrodes, and another room for the teacher and researcher, with the electric shock generator.Learner had to learn a list of words, each time they got it wrong the voltage would go up 15 v. When teacher refused they were told to continue.
What did Milgram want to investigate?
whether people would obey an authority figure when given instructions to harm another human being.
What were the findings of Milgram’s study?
65% continued to 450 volts
and all participants made it over 300 volts
What was the strengths of Milgram’s study?
gave an insight into why Nazi’s were killing jews - because they were following instructions
agentic theory
situational factors - what situational factors affected obedience e.g uniform, status of location
easily replicable
What does the agentic theory suggest?
that people will obey an authority when they believe the authority will take responsibility for consequences of their actions.
