1 - social influence Flashcards
what are the 3 levels of conformity?
1 - compliance
2 - identification
3 - internalisation
what is compliance?
lowest level of conformity
only temporary
what is identification?
changing beliefs temporarily to fit in with a group
what is internalisation?
changing behaviour and belief on a permanent basis
what is normative social influence?
conforming to be accepted and belong with a group despite not fitting in
public compliance
gain approval
avoid rejection
what is informational social influence?
conforming to gain knowledge, look to others to be ‘right’
when we desire to be correct
leads to internalisation
avoid standing out for being wrong
what are examples of informational social influence?
(case studies)
Sherif - autokinetic
Asch - variations
what was the aim of Sherif’s research?
conduct an experiment with the aim of demonstrating that people conform to group norms when put in an unusual situation
what were the findings of Sherif’s experiment?
9/10 people conformed when the light didn’t move
name the two explanations for conformity
normative social influence
informational social influence
what to include in a consent form?
- general purpose - outline what will happen
- ethical guidelines e.g. right to withdraw
- written in form of a consent form
- place to sign
- identify potential harm
evidence supporting normative social influence
Linkenback and Perkins (2003) - teenagers who were told that the majority of people their age didn’t smoke, were less likely to take up smoking
Schultz et al (2008) - found that hotel guest exposed to the normative message that 75% of guests reused their towels each day, reduced their own towel use by 25%
Asch (1956) - when given an unambiguous line length, test participants would chose the same incorrect answer as confederates
evidence supporting informational social influence
Sherif - when asked to identify how far a laser had moved in an ‘eye test’ the naive participants conformed and changed their answers to the confederates to avoid standing out and the thought the other participants were correct
Jenness - Participants were given a task with no clear answer: guessing the number of beans in a jar. Participants first made individual private
guesses, then they discussed their estimates in a larger group. A group estimate was calculated.
Participants then gave another private estimate.
Results showed that the second private estimates had moved closer to
the group estimate.
Evaluation of research methods for conformity
positives
- lab based and had the advantage of highly controlled variables
limitations
- Sherif - involved tasks that didn’t represent everyday situations for conformity - lack mundane realism.
- lacks ecological validity (artificial setting)
- participants were deceived so breach of guidelines
what was the aim of Asch’s experiment?
to examine the extent to which social pressure from a majority influences a person to conform
what was the procedure of Asch’s experiment?
a volunteer sample of 123 american, male college students believed they were taking part in a vision test
- lab experiment
- line judgement task used
- participant in a room with 6 confederates
- PP was lead to believe that everyone else was naive
- naive was always last or second to last
- each participant completed 18 trials and confederates gave same incorrect answer on 12 trials
what were the findings of Asch’s experiment?
on average, participants conformed to majority on 32%
74% conformed on at least 1 trial
26% didn’t conform at all
what was the conclusion of Asch’s trial?
most said they knew they were wrong but changed their answer to fit in
- conformed to normative social influence
what were the 3 variation that Asch experimented with?
group size
unanimity
task difficulty
what was found out about group size?
- conformity increased as group size did too
- 3 is considered optimal group size for conformity
- when there was a group of 15, less conformed, could be due to suspicion
what was found out about unanimity?
when a confederate who disagreed with the others was introduced, conformity reduced
it enabled real participant to behave more independently
in one variation, one confederate gave correct answers and this decreased conformity by 5%
what was found out about test difficulty?
conformity increased when the lines were harder to tell apart
5 evaluation points about Asch’s research?
Ecological validity / realism
convincing confederates
population validity
child of its time
group sizes
elaborate on ecological validity / mundane realism
low EV and MR meant that the experiment environment and task wasn’t realistic and wouldn’t normally happen in real life so isn’t accurate
elaborate on convincing confederates
people questioned whether the confederates were convincing enough as there would be a higher level of conformity if they were pressuring
- Mori and Arai repeated experiment and gave everyone polarising glasses to make it seem like it was more of a test
- results closely matched the original so it suggests in Asch’s study the confederates were convincing
elaborate on population validity
Asch
sample size was 123 American men from the same university therefore doesn’t represent other sexes or cultures very well
- conformity levels between individual and collective cultures may lead to even more lack of validity as they shouldnt be compared
elaborate on ‘child of its time’
research took place in a time of unusually high conformity due to McCarthyism, when to go against the norm was considered dangerous
- when studied in 1980’s only one conformed
- shows that when consequences of not conforming are negative, conformity levels are high
group sizes AO3
Asch
P - bond (2005) claimed the lack of research into group sizes more than 15, doesn’t provide enough detail to be sure about the effect of conformity
E - usual group size was between 2-4
E - therefore, this limits knowledge of effect of larger groups
when was the Zimbardo prison experiment?
1971
what was the sampling method for the Stanford prison experiment?
newspaper and people submitted
Aims of Zimbardo’s experiment?
examine whether people would conform to the social roles of a prison guard or prisoner, when placed in a mock prison environment
Method of Zimbardo’s experiment?
24 male university students who volunteered in response to a newspaper advert, were selected based on their physical and mental
stability. They were paid $15 a day. They were randomly allocated to the role of prisoner or guard.
The ‘prisoners’ were arrested by police, fingerprinted, stripped, given a numbered prison outfit and chains were placed around their
ankles.
The ‘guards’ were given uniforms, reflective glasses, handcuffs and a baton. They were instructed to run the prison without using
physical violence.
The experiment was scheduled to run for two weeks.
Findings of Zimbardo’s experiment?
- both prisoners and guards quickly identified with social roles
- guards dehumanised prisoners and made them perform degrading tasks
- prisoners identified with subordinate role and became more submissive
- 5 prisoners released early due to distress
- experiment ended after 6 days
Conclusion of Zimbardo’s experiment?
people quickly conform to social roles, even if it contradicts their moral principles
name 3 evaluation points for Zimbardo’s experiment
ethics
demand characteristics
real world application
talk about Zimbardo ethics (AO3)
P - often criticized for being ethically unsound, despite the fact it followed the guidelines accepted by Stanford University ethics committee
E - the participants experienced a lot of emotional and physical distress, breaching the ethical guidelines of participant protection from harm. however he did attempt to make amends by carrying out debrief sessions for several years later
E - furthermore, the participants said they were glad to have taken part
talk about Zimbardo’s research methods (AO3)
P - a further problem was that of demand characteristics
E - further research argued that the behaviour of participants was due to guessing the aims and conforming to roles
E - They presented key details to people who didn’t know anything about the experiment, and the majority guessed what the aims were, so the pp’s probably could too
L - therefore, the behaviour presented by the pp’s was due to powerful demand characteristics rather that a compelling prison environment
explain Zimbardo’s real world application (AO3)
P - one benefit of the SPE it its’s relevance to the real world and Abu Ghraib. Zimbardo argued that conformity to social roles can also be used to explain events in Abu Ghraib, a prison known for torture and abuse in 2003/4
E - Zimbardo believed these guards who committed abuse were victims of situational factors such as lack of training, boredom, and no accountability to higher authority
E - therefore these factors and an opportunity to misuse power led to prisoner abuse in both settings
what is the difference between obedience and conformity?
obedience = following laws, rules or direct commands from those in authority
conformity = involves subtle, usually non-verbal influences of the majority, social norms
