week 7 Social Influence Flashcards
How are the terms ‘conformity’, ‘compliance’, and ‘obedience’ described, and how do these concepts differ?
Conformity;people change attitude or behaviour to follow a social norm.Tends to be enduring.Conforming dependent upon situational and personal factors. More likely to conform if low self-esteem, high need for social support, need for self control, low IQ, high anxiety, feelings of blame or insecurity in the group and an authoritarian personality. Women more likely to conform on typically “male” subjects and vice versa (ie conform if don’t know much about).
Compliance; superficial, public, transitory change in behaviour or attitude in response to request. coercion or group pressure. Often viewed as a response to a request by an individual.
Obedience; change attitude or behaviour due to a direct order by an authority figure.
Define ‘norms’ and identify how norms are relevant to the topic of social influence.
A norm is an attitude or behaviour shared by members of a group. Or a belief in what is appropriate behaviour for one’s group, or what is considered normal. They are relevant to Social Influence as norms have a huge influence on how an individual adjusts to fit in with a societal norm.
What is the difference between implicit and explicit norms?
An explicit norm is spelt out in legislations or notices eg no parking, private property, traffic fine for speeding etc
An implicit norm is unstated, but known, often involving everyday life and may be considered instinctive. Not following them, will bring confusion, anger and resentment from others.
What did Sherif (1936) argue? Now study ‘Research Classic 5.1 on page 148. Describe Sheriff’s classic experiment and explain its implications. You should also make sure that you can define ‘frame of reference’.
Sherif argued that we use how others behave as a reference on how we should behave. When there is variation, we tend to think the average or central position is the correct one. Frame of reference is all possible positions/behaviours of others that is known.
Sherifs experiment used an optical illusion of a light in darkness appearing to move. By self, participant tended to average their own responses over time, but in a group, tended to converge to group mean over time ( with repeats).
What did Asch (1952) argue and how did this differ from Sherif? Describe his classic experiment and experimental results. You should also make sure that you can define ‘conformity’.
Asch argued that conformity occurs as people try to rationalise and determine what is correct or appropriate.When confident one is correct, one has no need of conformity, especially if one can respond in private. To test, Asch’s participants looked at lines and had to say which lengths matched. There was very little error when done by controls, yet when in the presence of others, who were answering incorrectly, the average conformity rate was 33%, only 25% remained independent and steady with their answers across all trials.
Define and differentiate between ‘informational influence’, ‘normative influence’, and ‘referent informational influence’.
These are processes of social influence, resulting in conformity.
Informational influence; need to accept info from another re reality, because we ourselves are uncertain.
Causes true cognitive change.
Normative influence;occurs when we feel we need to “go along with” others to avoid censure,ridicule or punishment. Creates surface compliance, but not cognitive change.
Referent informational influence; this is where someone conforms to a group’s norms because they are a group member This may be done publicly or privately and there is no motive to avoid censure or ridicule etc.
How is compliance defined? How does compliance differ from conformity?
see above
What are the different types of strategies that people can adopt to maximise the chances of compliance with a direct request? Can you provide an example from your own experiences? Make sure that you can define the terms ‘ingratiation’ and ‘reciprocity principle’.
Ingratiation-technique to improve compliance by making someone like you.The liking might occur through touch, attractiveness, general ease of talking or paying attention.
Reciprocity-norm: technique to improve compliance. Based on (we should treat others as they treat us), ie if I do favour, it will be returned. eg clean car windows, if is done, feel obliged to pay for, even though didn’t request. (reciprocity principle= do unto others as they do unto you).
What are multiple request tactics?
a 2 or more step strategy to increase compliance. First stage or request sets up for actual request.
a) foot in the door ;get someone to agree to a small request, and then more likely to go along with a more substantive request.
b) door in the face; a large request is made and refused, then a second smaller request, which is more likely agreed to.
c) low-ball;get person to agree to a request/offer, but then inform of hidden costs or that that offer is no longer available, but have something else.. Once committed, tend to be more likely to stay committed even if becomes a bit more expensive…
Read Research Classic 5.2 on page 160. Describe Milgram’s famous obedience experiment.
had participants as “teachers” who would give another participant (an actor) increasing doses of electric shock when got questions wrong. experimenter would say they had to, or must continue etc. Expert psychologists failed to predict just how many (65%) would obey to the end.
Milgram conducted a series of studies to explore different contributing factors that influence obedience. What factors did he identify and what were their effects?
proximity of victim-as proximity increased, obedience decreased
proximity of authority figure-as this increases, obedience increases
legitimacy of authority figure-as increases, obedience increases
What ethical issues are raised by Milgram’s study?
Is it ethical in the “name of science” to have someone believe they have harmed another when they did not?
is it ethical to instruct someone to harm another?
How might we carry out research connected to Milgram’s while still conforming to ethical guidelines?
“Ethical guidelines” may actually be interpreted differently. Participants ought to be able to freely consent or decline to participate, and be free to stop at any time. They ought to be informed and they ought to be debriefed. However depending upon the research, if considered important enough some of these considerations may be arguably “loosened”
Would Milgram’s experiments yield the same results if they were repeated today? Why or why not?
It is doubtful Milgram’s experiments today would pass an ethics committee, yet it is not inconceivable that similar results could have been obtained. Obedience though is possibly increased with beliefs of “serving country” and following authority which is suspected to have loosened in the past decades although this is unsubstantiated.
What is minority influence? List two examples. What does minority influence help to explain?
Minority influence is where the attitudes of the majority have been changed in time, by a minority.This can lead to great social change. 2 examples are the Suffragette movement and the campaign to withdraw from the Vietnam War.
