Social Infleunce

Question 1

What is internalisation

Answer 1

When a person genuinely accepts the group norms. Private as well as public change in behaviour

Question 2

Why is internalisation more likely to be permanent

Answer 2

The attitudes have been internalised - become part of the way the person thinks

Question 3

What is identification

Answer 3

Identifying with a group that we value means er want to become part of it, we publically change our opinions to achieve this even if we don’t privately agree

Question 4

What is compliance

Answer 4

Going along with others in public but privately not changing personal opinions

Question 5

What does compliance result in

Answer 5

Superficial change and the behaviour to stop with the group pressure stopping

Question 6

What is Informational Social Infleunce

Answer 6

When we are uncertain about what behaviours are right or wrong we look to others. It is a bout information and a desire to be right. We assume the majority are right and so we follow this.

Question 7

Example of ISI

Answer 7

Not knowing the answer in class but if most of the class agree on one answer you go along with that because you feel it is likely right

Question 8

What kind of process is ISI

Answer 8

Cognitive process (how we think)

Question 9

4 situations ISI is likely to happen

Answer 9

• those new to a person so you don’t know what’s right
• ambiguity in a situation
• decisions need to be made quickly
• when someone is regarded as an expert

Question 10

What is Normative Social Influence

Answer 10

It’s about norms - what is typical behaviour for a social group. It’s a desire to behave like others and not look foolish to gain social approval

Question 11

Why do we pay attention to norms

Answer 11

The regulate the behaviour of groups and individuals

Question 12

Example of NSI

Answer 12

Going to a foreign country and feeling your behaviour is different from everyone else

Question 13

What kind of process is NSI

Answer 13

Emotional process

Question 14

3 situations NSI is likely to occur

Answer 14

• unfamiliar situations where you don’t know the norms and look to others about how to behave
• with people you know because you want social approval of their friends
• in stressful situations where you need social support

Question 15

Strength of ISI

Answer 15

Research support. Lucas et al asked students to give answers to math problems. Greater conformity to incorrect answers when they were difficult rather than when they were easier problems. Confirm in situations where they don’t know the answer.

Question 16

Strength of NSI

Answer 16

Research support. Asch asked participants to explain why they went along with the wrong answer. Said they felt self-conscious giving the wrong answer and were afraid of disapproval. Shen participants wrote their answers conformity’s fell to 12.5%. Supports participants own reports that they were confirming bc of NSI.

Question 17

Limitation of ISI and NSI

Answer 17

‘Two process’ approach May be oversimplification. Says it’s due to one or the other however often both processes are involved. In Asch’s study conformity reduced when there’s a dissenting participant which may reduce the power of NSI (social support) or reduce ISI (alternative source of info). Shows it’s not always possible to be sure whether it’s NSI or ISI at work.

Question 18

Limitation of NSI

Answer 18

People who are less concerned with being liked are less affected by NSI. People who care are called affiliators. McGhee and Teevan found students high in need of affiliation were more likely to conform. One general theory does not cover the fact that there are differences

Question 19

Key study for conformity research

Answer 19

Asch’s line study

Question 20

Procedure of the Asch study

Answer 20

• showed participants a line and then three comparison lines. One line was the same the other two completely different.
• 123 male American participants asked which line matched.
• naive participants tested in a group with 6 confederates and went last or second to last.
• 18 trails, 12 ‘critical trails’. First few the confederates gave the correct answer and then started getting it wrong in he critical trails.

Question 21

Findings in the Asch study

Answer 21

High conformity. Wrong answer 36.8%. Called Asch effect (extent to which participants conform even when situation is unambiguous).

25% never conformed. Shows significant independence and individual differences.

Question 22

Conclusions in the Asch study

Answer 22

Participants interviewed after said they confirmed in order to avoid rejection and continued to privately trust their own opinion (compliance)

Question 23

What is the key study for variables affecting conformity

Answer 23

Asch

Question 24

What were the three variables asch tested

Answer 24

Group size
Unamity
Task difficulty

Question 25

Procedure and findings in Asch group size variable

Answer 25

He varied the number of confederates in the group. between 1 and 15.

Two confederates meant conformity to wring anderr was 13.6%.
Three confederates the conformity rose to 31.8%.
Further confederates made little difference, small majority is not sufficient but there is no need for a majority of more than 3.

Question 26

Procedure and finding in the Asch unamity variable study

Answer 26

Introduced one truthful confederate or one who was dissenting but inaccurate.

Dissenting confederate led to reduced conformity. Their presence enabled the naive participant to behave independently. Suggests influence of majority depends on the group being unanimous.

Question 27

Procedure and findings of task difficulty variable in Asch study

Answer 27

Made the line judging task more difficult by making stimulus line and comparison line more similar.

Increase conformity due to ISI - task was more difficult and ambiguous so likely to assume others are right.

Question 28

Limitation of Asch’s study (artificiality)

Answer 28

Participants knew they were in an experiment and may have gone along with the demand of the situation (demand charscteristics). Although the participants were part of a group it didn’t resemble groups that err part of everyday life. Can not be generalised to everyday situations especially when consequences of conformity might be more important.

Question 29

Limitation of Asch’s study (child of its time)

Answer 29

Perrin and Spencer repeated study with engineering students in the Uk. Only one student in 396 trials confirmed. May be intelligence level or time period. 1950s were especially conformist in America and people may be less conformist today. The Asch effect is not consistent across time so lacks temporal validity.

Question 30

Limitation of Asch Study (gender)

Answer 30

Only men tested. Neto suggests that woman might be more conformist because they are more concerned with social relationships than men. Or that America is individualist culture and studies in collectivist cultures (Bond et al) have found higher conformity rates.

Question 31

Key study for social zones

Answer 31

Zimbardo

Question 32

Aims of zimbardos experiment

Answer 32

To set up a mock prison in the basement of Stanford University, wanted to test whether brutality was the result of sadistic personalities or whether the behaviour was created by the situation - looking at whether disposition or situation was the key explanation for behaviour

Question 33

Procedure of zimbardos experiment

Answer 33

• advertised for students and selected those deemed ‘emotionally stable’ after psychologyicsl testing
• randomly assigned roles of guards or prisoners
• realistic: prisoners arrested in home and delivered to prison, blindfolded, strip searched, deloused and issued a uniform and number (number created de-individuation)
• prisoners routine heavily regulated. 16 rules enforced by guards who worked in shifts.
• guards had uniform with club, handcuffs, keys and mirror shades (glasses created de-indivduation)
• guards had complete control over prisoners

Question 34

Findings of the zimbardo’s prison study

Answer 34

In two days the prisoners rebelled against their treatment by the guards.
Shouted and swore and guards who retaliated. Guards harassed prisoners by conducting frequent head counts, sometimes in the middle of the night, making them call out their number. Guards highlighted difference in social roles by creating opportunities to enforce the rules of punishing slight misdemeanours.

Study stopped after six days instead of 14 due to health of prisoners at the hands of the guards.

Question 35

Why was the zimbardo study stopped after 6 days

Answer 35

The guards role became a threat to the prisoners pschokogical and psychical health. E.g

• prisoners became subdued, anxious and depressed
• one prisoner released on first day bc he showed signs of psychological disturbance
• one prisoner went on hunger strike and the guards punished him by force feeding and putting him in the ‘hole’

Question 36

Conclusions of the zimbardo prison study

Answer 36

Revealed the power of he situation to influence people behaviours. Guards, prisoners and researchers all confirmed to their roles. The more the guards identified with their roles the more brutal their behaviour became

Question 37

Strength of zimbardos study

Answer 37

zimbardo and his colleagues had some control over the variables. They chose emotionally stable participants and randomly assigned their roles. Ruled out individual differences as an explanation because if they behaved differently then their behaviour must have been due to the pressures of the sitstuion. Increase internal validity of the study so we can be more confiding in drawing conclusions

Question 38

Limitation of the zimbardo study

Answer 38

Lack of realism. The participants could have been play acting rather than genuinely confirming to the role. Based on stereotypes of how prisoners and guards are supposed to act. One guard claimed he based his role in a brutal character from the film ‘cool hand luke’.

Question 39

Strength of zimbardo combating the lack of realism

Answer 39

Zimbardo pointed to evidence that the situation was very real to the participants. Dats showed that 90% of prisoners conversations were about prison life, the simulation did seem real to participants which gives the study a high degree of internal validity

Question 40

Ethical issues with zimbardos study

Answer 40

Zimbardos dusk role in the study as superintendent of the prison and lead researcher. One prisoner wished to leave and he reacted as the superintendent worried about running his prison not as a researcher worried about his participants. Limited his ability to protect his participants from harm because his roles conflicted.

Question 41

Key study in obedience

Answer 41

Milgram

Question 42

Aims of Milgrams study

Answer 42

Sought an answer to the question of why the German population had followed the orders of Hitler and slaughtered over 10 milkion Jews.

Question 43

Procedures of milgrams study

Answer 43

• 40 male participants aged between 20 and 50 years, jobs ranged from unskilled to professional and they were paid.
• told it was a study on memory, and drew lots for their roles. A confederate was always the learner and participant was the teacher. Also a confederate playing the experimenter dressed in a lab coat.
• participant told they could leave at any time.
• learner strapped into chair and wired with electrodes, teacher required to give the learner an increasingly severe electric shock each time the learner made a mistake.
• shock level started at 15 and rose to 450 volts.
• when the shock got to 300 and 315 the learner pounded on the wall and gave no response to the next question. No further response form learner after these.

Question 44

What were the four prods the ‘experimenter’ gave the participant if they wished to stop in milgrams study

Answer 44

Please continue
The experiment requires you to continue
It is essential you continue
You have no choice, you must go on

Question 45

Findings of milgrams study

Answer 45

12.5% stopped at 300 volts, 65% continues to 450 volts. Participants showed signs of extreme tension; many of them were seen to ‘swear, tremble, stutter etc’ some even had ‘full blown uncontrollable seizures’.

Prior to the study Milgram asked students to predict the behaviour, students estimated that 3% would continue to 450 volts. Shows the findings were not not expected.

All participants debriefed and assured their behaviour was normal.

Follow up questionnaire: 84% reported glad to have participated and 74% felt they had learned something of personal importance.

Question 46

Limitation of Milgrams study (validity)

Answer 46

Lacked internal validity. Orne and Holland guessed that participants acted the way they did because they didn’t believe the set up and thought the shocks were fake. In which case Milgram was not testing what he intended to test.

Question 47

Strength of Milgrams study (internal validity)

Answer 47

King et al conducted a similar study where REAL shocks were given to a puppy. Despite the real shocks 54% of the male students and 100% of females delivered what they thought was a fatal shock. Suggests that the observed effects in Milgrams study were genuine because people believed the same way with real shocks (70% in Milgrams study believed the shocks were genuine)

Question 48

Strength of Milgrams study (external validity)

Answer 48

Central feature of this situation was the relationship between the authority figure and the participant. Milgram argues the lab environment accurately reflected wider authority relationships in real life.

Other research supports this. Hofling et al studied nurses on a hospital ward and found levels of obedience to unjustified demands by doctors were very high (21 out of 22 nurses obeyed)

Question 49

What are the three situational variables that cause differences in obedience

Answer 49

Proximity
Location
Uniform

Question 50

What happened in the proximity variation of Milgrams study

Answer 50

Original study: teacher and learner in different rooms

Proximity variation: same room and obedience rates dropped from 60% to 40%

Touch proximity: teacher had to force learners hand onto electroshock plate and obedience dropped to 30%

Telephone instructions: experimenter gave instructions by phone and obedience dropped to 20.5%. Participants frequently pretended to give shocks or gave weaker ones.

Question 51

What happened in the location variable in Milgrams study

Answer 51

Original: conducted in Yale University

Variation: changes the location to a run-down building. Reduced obedience to 47.5%. Indicates the experimenter less authority in this setting

Question 52

What happened in the uniform variation of Milgrams study

Answer 52

Original: experimenter had a lab coat

Variation: experimenter with lab coat was called away and his role was replaced with a member of the ‘ordinary public’ in everyday clothes. Obedience dropped to 20%.

Suggests that uniform does act as a strong visual authority symbol and a cue to behave in an obedient manner

Question 53

Strength of Milgrams research and his variations

Answer 53

Replicated in other cultures. Miranda found obedience rates of over 90% amongst Spanish students, suggesting results aren’t limited to American males.

Question 54

Limitation of replicability in Milgrams original study and variations

Answer 54

Smith and Bond make the crucial point that replicas have taken place in western developed societies. Not culturally different to the USA. Would be premature to conclude that Milgrams findings about the variables apply to everywhere

Question 55

Why has Milgrams study been criticised

Answer 55

Provides an excuse for obedience. The proximity, location and uniform are all factors which influence obedience. Mandel argues it offers an excuse for evil behaviour. It is offensive to survivors of the holocaust to suggest nazis were simply obeying orders and were victims theirselves. Dangerous because it ignores the roles that discrimination, racism and prejudice played in the holocaust

Question 56

What does Milgram propose that obedience to destructive authority occurs because of

Answer 56

A person does not take personal responsibility, instead the person believes they are acting for someone else I.e they are an agent.

Question 57

What is an agent

Answer 57

Someone who acts for or in place of another

Question 58

When does an agentic state occur

Answer 58

When acting for another person, with no sense of personal responsibility

Question 59

What is the opposite to being in an agentic state

Answer 59

Autonomous state

Question 60

What is an autonomous state

Answer 60

Free to behave according to their own principle and therefore feels a sense of responsibility for their own actions

Question 61

When does an agentic shift occurs

Answer 61

When a person perceived someone else as a figure of authority this other person has greater power because of their position in a social hierarchy.

Question 62

What are binding factors

Answer 62

Aspects of a situation that allow the person to ignore or minimise the damaging effect of their behaviour and thus reduce the moral strain they are feeling

Question 63

What does “most societies are structured in a hierarchal way” mean

Answer 63

People in certain positions hold authority over the rest of us. Parents, teachers bouncers etc

Question 64

What are the two social-psychological factors explanations for obedience

Answer 64

Agentic state

Legitimacy of authority

Question 65

How are authorities given legitimacy

Answer 65

Through societies agreement. Most of us accept that authority figures have to be allowed to exercise social power over others because this allows society to function smoothly

Question 66

What is a consequence of legitimacy of authority

Answer 66

Some people are granted the powers to punish others. We are willing to give up some of our independence and hand control of our behaviours over to people we trust exercise authority appropriately.

Question 67

What has history shown about legitimacy of authority

Answer 67

That powerful leaders such as hitler can use their powers for destructive purposes

Question 68

Strength of agentic state

Answer 68

Research support. Blass and Schmitt showed a film to students of Milgrams experiment and asked them to identify who was responsible. Students blamed experimenter. Also recognised the researcher had the responsibility due to legitimate authority. Recognised legimste authority as the cause of obedience supporting the explanstion.

Question 69

Limitation of agentic shift

Answer 69

Doesn’t explain why some people don’t obey. In Hoflings study the nurses handed responsibility to the doctor and should have shown anxiety but they didn’t. Suggests agentic state can only account for some situations of obedience.

Question 70

Strength of legitimacy of authority (cultural)

Answer 70

Useful account of cultural differences in obedience. Studies show that countries differ in the degree to which people are traditionally obedient to authority. Mann replicated Milgrams procedure in Australia and found only 16% of participants went on the way to 450 volts. Support from cross-cultural research increases the validity of the explanation.

Question 71

Strength of legitimacy of authority (real life)

Answer 71

Help explains real life crimes of obedience. Hamilton argue that the My Lai Massacre can be understood in terms of the power hierarchy of the US army. Soldiers would assume orders given from the hierarchy is legal so being told to kill rape and burn buildings wouldn’t be illegal. Could he argued the legitimacy of authority explanationchas some value in being able to provide reasons why destructive examples of obedience have been committed

Question 72

What is the dispositional explanation for obedience

Answer 72

The authoritarian personality

Question 73

In relation to the dispositional explanations for obedience what is a high level of obedience like

Answer 73

A psychological personality disorder

Question 74

What are the characteristics of someone with an authoritarian personality

Answer 74

Adorno concludes:

extreme respect for authority

• submissive
• contempt for inferior social status
• highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender

Question 75

What does Adorno conclude that authoritarian personality is formed because of

Answer 75

In childhood because of strict/harsh parenting and conditional love

Question 76

What does the parenting style identified by Adorno feature

Answer 76

Extremely strict discipline
Expectation of loyalty
High standards
Severe critism of failing

Question 77

Why is hostility and fear in someone with an authoritarian personality towards parents displaced into those who are socially inferior

Answer 77

They can’t express these feelings directly against their parents in fear of reprisal so the fear is displaced into those who are seen as weaker - this is called scapegoating

Question 78

What kind of explanation is the authoritarian personalities dislike of those socially inferior

Answer 78

Psychodynamic because the ego uses the defence of displacement to deal with conflict

Question 79

What is the key study for authoritarian personality

Answer 79

Adorno et al

Question 80

What is the procedure of Adorno study

Answer 80

Investigated the causes of obedient personality in a study of more than 2000 white Americans as their unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups.
Developed the F-scale to measure this

Question 81

What are some examples from the F-scale

Answer 81

Obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues for children to learn

There is hardly anything lower than a person who does not feel great love and respect for their parents

Question 82

Findings from Adornos study

Answer 82

People with authority leanings who scored high in the f-scale identified as strong people and were contentious of the weak. Very conscious of their own status showing excess respect to those of higher status.

Steong positive correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice. Found they had a cognitive style with fixed and distributive stereotypes about other groups.

Question 83

Strength of Authoritarian personality

Answer 83

Research supports the link between AP and obedience. Milgram conducted interviews with a small sample of fully obedient participants who scored highly on F-scale. However this is a correlation not causation making it impossible to draw conclusions that authoritarian personality causes obedience. May be a third factor involved like lower levels of education

Question 84

Limitation of the authoritarian personality

Answer 84

Argued that F-scale is politically biased. Measures the tendency towards any extreme form of right-wing ideology making it politically biased. It is not a comprehensive dispositional explanation that can account for obedience to authority because it doesn’t explain obedience to left wind authoritarianism.

Question 85

Limitation of research for authoritarian personality

Answer 85

They found significant correlation between obedience of variables. Found authoritarianism had a strong correlation with measures of prejudice against minority groups. This does not mean they causes the other. Therefore he could not claim that a harsh parenting style caused the development of an authoritarian personality

Question 86

Two explanations for resistance to social influence

Answer 86

Social support

locus of control

Question 87

How does social support reduce the pressure to confirm

Answer 87

A dissenting peer not following the majority enabled a person to be free to follow their own conscious. The peer acts as a model.

Question 88

In the Asch study once the dissenting peer started confirming again so did the participant. What does this mean

Answer 88

The effect of dissent is not long lasting

Question 89

How does social support reduce the pressure to obey

Answer 89

If another person disobeys independent behaviour increases. In Milgrams study independent behaviour increased from 35% to 90% in the presence of a dissenting peer.

Question 90

What is the concept of locus of control

Answer 90

Concerned with internal control versus external control

Question 91

What do internals believe

Answer 91

Things that happen to them are largely controlled by themselves like if you do well in exam it’s because you worked hard

Question 92

What do externals believe

Answer 92

That things happen without their own control.if a person failed an exam they might say it was because they had a bad teacher etc

Question 93

What is the continuum of locus of control

Answer 93

High internal st one end and high external at the other end of the continuum; low internal and low external lie in between

Question 94

Who do people with internal LOC show greater resistance to conform or obey

Answer 94

1. They take person responsibility for their actions and experiences then they are more likely to base their decisions in heir own beliefs
2. They tend to be more self confident, more achievement oriented, have higher intelligence and have less need for social approval

Question 95

Strength of the social support explanation for conformity

Answer 95

Research supports the role of dissenting peers in resisting conformity. Allen found that independence was increased when there was one dissenter in an Asch type study. Even when the dissenter had bad vision. Supports the view that resistance is not motivated by following what someone else says but it enables someone to be free of the pressure from the group.

Question 96

Strength of the social support explanation for obedience

Answer 96

Research supports role of dissenting peers in resisting obedience. Gamson found huh levels of rebellion in his study than Milgram. The participants in his study were in groups and 29/33 rebelled. Shows that peer support is linked to greater resistance

Question 97

Strength of the LOC explanation to do with obedience

Answer 97

Reeeadch supports. Holland repeated Milgrams study and measured whether participants were internal or externals. Found 37% of internals did not continue to the highest shock level whereas only 23% of externals did not continue. Research support of this nature increases the validity of the LOC explanation and our confidence that it can explain resistance

Question 98

Limitation of the role of LOC in resisting social infleunce

Answer 98

May have been somewhat exaggerated. It only comes into play in novel situations and has very little infleunce over our behaviour in familiar situations where our previous experiences will always be more important. Limitation because it means that LOC is only helpful in explaining a limited range of novel situations

Question 99

What is minority influence

Answer 99

Refers to situations where one person or a small group of people influences the beliefs and behaviour of other people

Question 100

How is minority influence different from conformity

Answer 100

The minority is doing the confirming instead of the majority

Question 101

What does minority influence likely to lead to

Answer 101

Internalisation

Question 102

What are the three things needed for minority infleunce

Answer 102

Consistency
Commitment
Flexibility

Question 103

How does consistency help minority influence

Answer 103

Consistency in the minority’s view increases the amount of interest from other people. This might because of synchronic consistency, diachronic synchrony or to make people rethink their own views

Question 104

What is synchratic consistency

Answer 104

Everyone’s saying the same thing

Question 105

What is diachronic consistency

Answer 105

Saying the same thing for a while

Question 106

How does commitment help minority influence

Answer 106

Commitment helps to gain attention. Sometimes minorities engage in quite extreme activities to draw attention to their views. It is important that these extreme activities are st some risk to the minority because this demonstrates commitment to the cause. Majority groups pay even more attention now

Question 107

What is the augmentation principle

Answer 107

If a person performs an action when there are known constraints, their motive for acting must be stronger

Question 108

How is flexibility used in minority influence

Answer 108

Being extremely consistent and repeating the same arguments and behaviours again and again can be seen as rigid, unbending, dogmatic and inflexible. This is off putting. Instead they need to be prepared to adapt their point of view and accept reasonable and valid counter-arguments. Key is to have a balance between consistency and flexibility

Question 109

What is the snowball effect

Answer 109

Over time increasing numbers of people switch from the majority position to the minority position (converted). The more this happens the faster the rate of conversion.

Question 110

Key study for minority infleunce

Answer 110

Moscovici and the blue green slides

Question 111

Aims and procedures of Moscovicis study

Answer 111

Groups of six shown 36 blue-green slides that varied in intensity and state whether the slides were blue or green. Minority of confederates either consistently or inconsistently gave the wrong answer.

Question 112

What were the three conditions in moscovicis study

Answer 112

• no confederates
• consistent confederates who said the slide was green
• inconsistent confederates

Question 113

Findings of Moscovicis study

Answer 113

8. 42% conformity rate in the consistent minority condition. 33% confirmed st least once.
9. 25% conformity rates in the inconsistent group.
10. 25% of the control group wrongly identified the colour

Question 114

Strength of minority influence (consistency)

Answer 114

Research supports consistency. Moscovici study showed that a consistent minority had a greater effect on other people than an inconsistent opinion. Wood et all carried out a met analysis of almost 100 studies and found consistent minorities the most influential. Suggests consistency is a major factor in minority infleunce

Question 115

Limitation of minority influence research

Answer 115

Involved artificial tasks. Moscovicis involved identifying the colour of a slide. Very different to how minoritird attempt to change the behaviour of majorities in real life like political campaigning. Lacks external validity and are limited in what they can tell us about how minority influences works in real-life situations

Question 116

Strength of minority influence involving internalisation

Answer 116

Variation of Moscovicis study, participants wrote their answers down instead of said them out loud. Private agreement with the minority was greater indicating internalisation but reluctance to admit conversion in public perhaps because they don’t want to be associated with a minority position.

Question 117

What are the stages of minority infleunce

Answer 117

Draw attention 
Cognitive conflict 
Consistency 
Augmentation principle 
Snow ball effect
Social cryptomnesia

Question 118

Example of drawing attention for social change

Answer 118

1950 Civil rights marches draw attention to continuing segregation in America by providing social proof of the problem

Question 119

Real life example of consistency in social change

Answer 119

Many marches and many people taking part for civil rights. Even though it was a minority of the American population they displayed consistency or message and intent

Question 120

How did the civil rights movement create cognitive conflict

Answer 120

The attention from the marches meant people who had simply accepted the status began to think about it more

Question 121

How did the civil rights movement show the augmentation principle

Answer 121

People risked their lives. The ‘freedom riders’ were mixed racial groups who got on buses in the South to challenge the fact that black oriole still had to sit separately on buses. Many were beaten

Question 122

How did the civil rights movement show the snowball effect

Answer 122

Civil rights activists like Martin Luther King continued to press for changes that gradually got the attention of the US government. The US Civil RIghts Act was passed representing a change from minority to majority

Question 123

What is social cryptomnesia

Answer 123

People having a memory that a change occurred but don’t remember how it happened. Some people don’t have a memory of the civil rights movement even though they lived through the changes

Question 124

What did Asch’s research highlight

Answer 124

The importance of dissent to lead to social change

Question 125

How can majority influence campaigns appeal to normative social influence

Answer 125

Highlights what other people are doing. Environmental and health campaigns have increasingly exploited conformity process by apparaling to normative social influence. The provide info about what others are doing. Reducing litter by printing ‘bin it- others do’ to draw attention to what the majority are doing

Question 126

What makes social change likely to occur from obedience

Answer 126

Disobedient role models. The rate of obedience in Milgrams study plummeted where a confederate refused to give shocks to the learner.

Question 127

What can be used to drift people into a new kind of behaviour

Answer 127

Gradual commitment. Zimbardo suggested how obedience can be used to create social change through the process of gradual commitment. Once a small instruction is obeyed it becomes more difficult to resist a bigger one.

Question 128

Strength for the role of normative social influence in social change

Answer 128

Research supports. Nolan et al investigated whether social influence led to a reduction in energy consumption. Hung messages on doors of houses about how most residents were trying to reduce their energy use. Found significant decrease in energy used in the community compared to a control group. Shows conformity can lead to good social change

Question 129

Weakness for minority influence being only indirectly effective in bringing about social change

Answer 129

The effects of minority influence are likely to be mostly indirect and delayed. It takes decades for attitudes against drink driving and smoking to shift. Social change occurs very slowly. Limitation of using minority infleunce to explain social change because it Shows that it’s effects are fragile and its role in social infleunce may be very limited.!

Question 130

Limitation for research in social influence and social chanfe

Answer 130

Methological issues in this area. Explanation for how social influence leads to social change draws heavily upon the studies of Moscovici, Asch and Milgram. They have artificial nature and the group dynamics don’t reflect real life situations. Criticism are applicable to the evaluation of explanations for the link between social influence processes and social change.