Topic Seven

Question 1

Topic One - Norms and Conformity:

Define norms

Two types of norms

Garfinkel - Way to detect background norms

How do we form norms?

Answer 1

Norms are shared beliefs about what is the appropriate conduct for a group member: they are both descriptive (‘is’ statements) and prescriptive (‘ought’ statements).

• Norms are resistant to change
• They vary in their latitude of acceptable behaviour

Two types:
1. Norms can take the form of explicit rules that are enforced by legislation and sanctions

2. or they can be implicit, unobserved, taken for granted to everyday life. - sometimes so implicit they are labelled instinctive

Ways to detect norms:
Ethnomethodology:
- deliberately violate norms to attract people’s attention

Formation of norms:
people use the behaviour of others to establish the range of possible behaviour - the frame of reference, which we use to make social comparisons in that context.
- Sherif showed that a norm was an emergent property of interaction between group members, but once created it acquired a life of its own.

Question 2

Topic One continued:
Conformity - Ash’s experiment

What group or individual factors affect conformity?

Culture and conformity:

Context and conformity - two factors regarding inclination

Answer 2

ASCH:

• same or different line length test
• tell us that one reason why people conform, even when the correct choice is clear cut, may be to avoid censure, ridicule and social disapproval

Who conforms:
- low self esteem
- high need for social support
- Low IQ
- High anxiety
- Insecurity 
etc. 
however, evidence suggests that people who conform in one situation do not necessarily conform in another

Culture and conformity:

• Conformity was lower among participants from individualist cultures in North America and north-western Europe
• collectivist peoples conformed more to their group than did those from individualistic peoples.

Context and conformity: Two factors:

1. Group size - provided a majority remained unanimous, conformity began to level off when the size of the majority reaches about 3 or 4.
2. Group unanimity - any sort of lack of unanimity among the majority seems to be effective.

Question 3

Topic One continued:
Define information influence

Define normative influence

Define Referent information influence

Differentiate between the three

Answer 3

Information influence = an influence to accept information from another as evidence about reality/ our tendency to accept the views of others as evidence.
- Can create cognitive change

Normative influence = tendency to conform to the positive expectations of others, to gain social approval or to avoid disapproval.
- creates surface compliance, not true cognitive change

Referent information influence = pressure to conform to a group norm that defines oneself as a group member.

Referent differs from the others because:

• People conform because of their group, not to validate or avoid disapproval
• People do not conform to each other, but to a norm.

Question 4

Topic Two - Compliance

Define compliance

How does it differ from conformity?

Strategies used to maximise the chances of compliance to a request - 3

What are multiple request tactics?

Three classic techniques for inducing compliance

Answer 4

Compliance = superficial, public and transitory change in behaviour and expressed attitudes in response to requests, coercion or group pressure

Difference:
- compliance to refer to a behavioural response to a request by another individual, whereas conformity refers to the influence of a group upon an individual.

Strategies:

1. Ingratiation = attempt to get someone to like you in order to obtain compliance with a request
   - If ingratiation is transparent it will backfire, leading to ‘ingratiator’s dilemma’
2. The reciprocity norm = - If we do others a favour, they feel obliged to reciprocate.
   - guilt arousal produces more compliance
3. Multiple request tactics - first request functioning as a set­up or softener for the second, real request.

3 classic techniques:
1. Foot in the door - Agrees to small, they will comply with larger request later

2. Door in the face - ask large favour first, then small request second
3. Low-ball - Influencer changes the rules half way and gets away with it.

Question 5

Topic Three - obedience:
Milgrams experiment

What is an agentic state

Factors influencing obedience (4)

Three questions concerning ethics of subjecting participants to stress:

Answer 5

Milgrams experiment:

• Shock experiment

Agentic state = frame of mind thought to characterise unquestioning obedience, people transfer responsibility to the person giving orders

Factors:
1. Immediacy of the victim = increases = obedience decreases

2. Immediacy of the authority figure:
   - Obedience reduced when they left the room, but even if they were there and not talking, some still persisted
3. Group pressure
   - presence of disobedient peers reduced obedience
4. Legitimacy of the authority figure:
   - uniform, neat attire etc.
   - the more legit = the higher obedience is

Three questions:

1. is the research important?
2. Is the participants free to terminate at any time?
3. Does the participant freely consent to being in the experiment?

Question 6

Topic Four: Minority influence:

What is minority influence?

Alternative explanation for Ashs conforming experiment?

3 ways that define how people respond to social conflict?

Most important behavioural style used by minorities to influence a majority?

What is conversion effect?

What is the main argument of social impact theory?

Answer 6

Minority influence is a social influence whereby numerical or power minorities change the attitudes of the majority.

Alternative explanation:

• Its argued that researchers fell prey to conformity bias - social influence is an adaptive requirement of human life.
• it may have been minority influence if you consider the larger majority outside of the experiment that would agree with the lone participant.

3 ways to define responses to social conflict:

1. conforming - the majority persuades the minority to adopt the majority view
2. normalising - a mutual comprise leading to convergence
3. Innovating - a minority creates and accentuates conflict, trying to persuade the majority to adopt the minority viewpoint

Most important behavioural style:

• Consistency:- people do not like social conflict, so an active minority goes out of its way to accentuate this.
• consistency in the minority argument also, as it conveys they are unshakable, committed, etc.

Conversion-effect:
- when minority influence brings about a sudden and dramatic internal and private change in the attitudes of a majority

Main argument of social impact theory:

• as a source of influence increases in size (number), it has more influence.
• as the cumulative source of influence gets larger, the impact of each additional source is reduced -