Chapter 1: Social Influece Flashcards
(78 cards)
1
Q
What is conformity?
A
A type of social influence involving a change in belief or behaviour in order to fit in with a group.
2
Q
List the 3 types of conformity.
A
Compliance
Identification
Internalisation
3
Q
Define Compliance
A
Lowest level of conformity.
A person changes their public behaviour but not their private beliefs.
4
Q
Define ‘Identification’
A
Middle level of conformity.
A person changes their public behaviour and their private beliefs but only in the presence of the group they are identifying with.
5
Q
Define ‘Internalisation’
A
Deepest level of conformity.
A person changes both their public behaviour and their private beliefs.
A long term change, often the result of informational social influence (ISI).
6
Q
Name the theory behind the explanation for conformity. (Incl. date)
A
Deutch’s and Gerard’s Two Process Theory (1955)
7
Q
List the two explanations for conformity given from the theory.
A
Informational Social Influence (ISI)
Normative Social Influence (NSI)
8
Q
Define Informational Social Influence (ISI).
A
Where a person conforms to gain knowledge or because they believe that someone else is ‘right’.
9
Q
Define Normative Social Influence (NSI)
A
Where a person conforms in order to be accepted and belong to a group.
10
Q
Why does ISI occur? (3 reasons)
A
When the situation is ambiguous.
When they are in a crisis.
If experts are present.
11
Q
Why does NSI occur? (2 reasons)
A
To avoid social rejection.
If a person would like to fit in with the ‘norm’.
12
Q
What are the three variables Asch investigated?
A
Group size
Unanimity
Task difficulty
13
Q
What was the procedure that Asch used in the baseline study?
A
- Asch showed participants two large white cards at a time, one card was a ‘standard line’ while the other card had 3 ‘comparison lines.’
- One of the 3 lines were the same length as the ‘standard line’ and the other two were substantially different (clearly wrong).
- The participants were asked which of the three lines matched the standard.
- The participants were 123 American undergraduates and a naïve participant was tested with 6-8 confederates, where the naïve didn’t know they were confederates.
- On the first few trials, the confederates gave the right answers but then started making errors and were instructed to give the same wrong answer to see if the naïve participant would conform.
14
Q
What were Asch’s findings in the baseline study? (3 findings)
A
- Naïve participants gave the wrong answer 36.8% of the time.
- Overall 25% of the participants did not conform on any trials which means 75% conformed at least once.
- When participants were interviewed afterwards most said they conformed to avoid rejection (NSI).
15
Q
How did Asch test group size and what effect did it have on conformity?
A
Test: Asch wanted to know whether the size of the group would be more important than the agreement of the group.
Therefore, he tested a group with only 3 confederates and found that the wrong answer rose to 31.8%.
When Asch added additional confederates the conformity percentage rarely increased.
Effect: A small majority is not sufficient for an influence to be exerted but, at other extremes, there is no need for a majority of more than 3.
16
Q
How did Asch test unanimity of the majority and what effect did it have in conformity?
A
Test: Asch wanted to know if the presence of another, non-conforming, person would affect the naïve participants conformity. Therefore he added a confederate whom would disagree with the rest of the group with the right answer but also agree with them on the wrong answer.
Effect: Conformity was reduced by a quarter from the level it was when majority was unanimous. The presence of a dissenter enabled the naïve participant to behave more independently.
17
Q
How did the Asch test difficulty of the task and what effect did it have on conformity?
A
Test: Asch made the line-judging task more difficult by making the ‘standard line’ and ‘comparison lines’ more similar in length.
Effect: Asch found out ISI plays a greater role when a task becomes harder. He also found out that conformity increased under these conditions.
18
Q
What are social roles?
A
Social roles are the part people play as members of a social group. With each social role you adopt, your behaviour changes to fit the expectations both you and others have of that role.
19
Q
List a few examples of social roles, just to get an idea of what it is.
A
Daughter
Boss
Coach
Sister
Mum
20
Q
What does it mean to have a social role?
A
It means you have an expected behaviour that people know of.
Like if you are a mother, then you look after your kids and you act that way around your kids.
You have an expected behaviour to abide by which is the norm for you.
21
Q
What was the aim of the Zimbardo Stanford Prison Experiment 1971?
A
The aim of the experiment was to see whether prison guards were originally sadistic and got the prison guard job to fuel their sadistic tendencies or because their job as prison guard in a prison environment had conformed them to be sadisitic.
22
Q
Who created the Zimbardo Prison Experiment (1971)?
A
Robert Zimbardo with the help of other psychologists and an ex-convict.
23
Q
Who were the participants in the experiment and how were they recruited?
A
The participants were 24 men who were judged to be the most physically and mentally stable, the most mature and the least involved in anti social behaviour.
These men were recruited through an ad in the newspaper and had to complete diagnostic interviews, personality tests etc. The men would also be getting paid $15 a day.
24
Q
Why did Zimbardo have all 75 applicants complete diagnostic interviews and psychological tests?
A
This was to eliminate any candidates with psychological problems, medical disabilities or a history of crime or drug abuse.
This was to take away the idea that another factor may have been involved in the results of the experiment.
25
How long was the experiment meant to last for?
And how long did it take and why?
The experiment was meant to last for 2 weeks.
However, instead it lasted for 6 days due to an undergraduate in the study who had watched over the clips from the experiment and realised that what was happening to the men was horrible.
26
Why couldn’t Zimbardo see that the experience the was affecting the men in the study mentally?
Zimbardo took part in experiment as a superintendent and got too invested in his role and therefore wasn’t able to see the effect the experiment had on the men.
27
What were the criticisms of Zimbardo’s SPE?
Lack of fully informed consent by participants
Deception
28
How does Abu Ghraib add applicability to Zimbardo’s SPE?
The guards conformed to their social role like Zimbardo’s SPE but in this case they weren’t given instructions on what not to do but were given this power which they heavily abused.
The guards can argue that as prison guards, they have the capability to be able to use their superiority as a prison guard would.
They can conform to that social role.
29
What is obedience?
A form of social influence in which an individual follows a direct order.
The person issuing the order is usually a figure of authority, who has the power to punish when obedient behaviour is not forthcoming.
30
What was the aim of Milgram’s Study?
To see how willing people were to obey authority. Milgram sought an answer to the question of why the German population had followed the orders of Hitler and slaughtered over 10 million Jews.
Eichmann whom was a Nazi under Hitler’s command had used, as his defence, that because Hitler was a high authoritive figure, he had no choice to obey him.
31
What was the procedure in Milgram’s Study?
Milgram recruited 40 male participants through newspaper adverts. The ad stated that he was looking for participants for a study about memory.
The age range was between 20-50 while their job range was unskilled to professional.
A confederate, ‘Mr Wallace’, always ended up as the ‘learner’ while the true participant was the ‘teacher’.
Learner was strapped in a chair in another room with an electric shock attached to them.
The teacher was required to give the learner an increasingly sever shock each time the learner made a mistake on the learning task.
However, the teacher did not know that the shocks were not real.
32
What were Milgram’s findings?
- No participants stopped below 300 volts.
- 12.5% (5 participants) stopped at 300 volts.
- 65% continued to the highest level of 450 volts.
- The findings were not expected by Milgram.
- Some participants showed signs of extreme tension where they would sweat, stutter and seize giving the shocks.
33
What are situational factors?
Different factors or events that may change the results of an experiment/study, entirely.
34
What were there three situational variables which Milgram studied?
Proximity
Location
Uniformity
35
Explain how Milgram tested proximity as a situational variable.
Both teacher and learner were in the same room. This change caused the teacher to see what occurred every time the learner got something wrong and see how the increase in electric shocks affected the learner.
The proximity between the two caused the teacher to show less obedience to the experimenter because they were able to see the pain that they caused towards the learner.
From this participants gave weaker shocks, and also pretended to give them shocks.
Obedience reduced by 20.5%.
36
Explain how Milgram tested location as a situational variable.
Milgram conducted this variation of the study in a run down building office compared to the prestigious university he was at before. The change in setting caused the experimenter to hold less authority because of the environment he was in.
Obedience fell to 47.5%.
37
Explain how Milgram tested uniform as a situational variable.
In the original baseline experiment, the experimenter had appeared as a person of importance by wearing a lab coat and holding a clipboard in his hand. For this variable, the experimenter was replaced by an ‘ordinary member of the public,’ whom was a confederate, in everyday, casual clothes.
The change in appearance and uniform caused the experimenter to not appear as an authorative figure. He was now seen with less importance and as a result obedience dropped to 20%, the lowest of the variations.
38
What is the agentic state?
A mental state where we feel no responsibility for our behaviour because we believe ourselves to be acting for an authority figure.
This frees us from the demands of our consciences and allows us to obey even destructive authority figures.
39
What is the autonomous state?
Where a person is free to behave according to their own principles and therefore feels a sense of responsibility for their own actions.
The opposite of agentic state.
40
What is agentic shift?
The shift from autonomy to agency, where we perceive someone else as a figure of authority. The other person has a greater power because of their position in the social hierarchy.
41
What was the reason why Milgram came up with agentic state, autonomous state and agentic shift? What did he propose?
Milgram was interested in the War Crime Trial of Adolf Eichmann whom had a pivotal role in the death camps the Nazi’s provided. His defence for his involvement in the death camps was that the important decisions were taken by others in the hierarchy above him and that he was ‘only obeying orders’.
Milgram proposed that obedience to destructive authority occurs because a person becomes an ‘agent’, someone who acts for or in place of another.
42
What are binding factors?
Aspects of a situation that allows the person to ignore or minimise that damaging effect of their behaviour and thus reduce the ‘moral strain’ they are feeling.
43
What were the binding factors that the teachers used in Milgram’s study?
They shifted responsibility done by stating, ‘they signed up for it’ or ‘they volunteered to be in the experiment.’
They also denied the damage that had been done.
44
What is the explanation of ‘legitimacy of authority’?
Most societies are structured hierarchically. People in certain positions hold authority over the rest of us.
The authority they wield is legitimate in the sense that it is agreed by society.
Most of us accept that authority figures should exercise social power over others because this allows society to function smoothly.
45
What is a consequence of legitimate authority?
Some people are granted the power to punish others. We give up some of our independence to people we trust so they can exercise authority appropriately.
We learned to accept authority during childhood from parents and teachers.
46
What is destructive authority?
The abuse of legitimacy of authority. History has shown many leaders use their legitimacy of authority destructively— ordering people to behave in callous, cruel and dangerous ways.
47
What are dispositional explanations?
Any explanation or behaviour that highlights the importance of the individuals personality. This contrasts with situational explanations.
48
What is authoritarian personality?
A type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible (open) to obeying people in authority. Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of a higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
49
What was the aim of Adorno’s research?
He wanted to understand the anti-semitism of the Holocaust.
50
What conclusion did Adorno come up with?
A high level of obedience was basically a psychological disorder. The causes of it was in the personality of an individual.
51
What was the procedure in Adorno’s research?
Adorno et al conducted a study of more than 2000 middle class white Americans and their unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups.
They developed several scales to investigate the causes of the obedient personality, including the potential f-scale (fascism scale).
52
What were the findings from Adorno’s research?
People with authoritarian leanings identified with ‘strong’ people and were generally contemptuous (scornful) of the ‘weak’.
They were very conscious of their own and others’ status, showing excessive respect, deference and servility (willingness to serve or please others) to those of higher status.
Strong positive correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice.
53
What are the characteristics of authoritarian personality?
• Tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
• Extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
• Show contempt for people they perceive as having an inferior social status.
• Have a highly conventional attitude towards race, sex and gender.
• Believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as love of country, religion and family.
• Uncomfortable with uncertainty; everything is either right or wrong.
54
What is the origin of authoritarian personality?
• Stems from childhood, as a result of harsh parenting.
• Parenting, identified by Adorno, are features of extremely strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of perceived failings.
• These experiences create resentment and hostility in the child. The child, however, cannot express their feelings to their parents with the fear of punishment.
• Instead, these fears are displaced onto others who are perceived to be weaker.
• This explains a central trait of obedience to higher authority, which is a dislike for people considered to be socially inferior or who belong to other social groups.
55
Define ‘resistance to social influence’.
Refers to the ability of people to withstand the social pressure to conform to the majority or to obey authority. This ability to withstand social pressure is influenced by situational and dispositional factors.
56
Define ‘social support’.
The presence of people who resist pressures to conform or obey can help others to do the same. These people act as models to show others that resistance to social influence is possible.
57
Define ‘locus of control’.
Refers to a person’s perception of personal control over their own behaviour.
• Internals believe they are mostly responsible for what happens to them. - Internal Locus of Control
• Externals believe it is mainly a matter of luck or other outside forces. - External Locus of Control.
58
Explain social support in regards to conformity.
• Having an ally allows a ‘conforming’ person to gain confidence and be able to choose their own beliefs rather than conforming to the majority.
- this is shown in Asch’s study; he sets a variable of unanimity where a confederate chooses the correct answer, therefore the naive participant gained the confidence to also pick the correct answer as someone had chosen it as well.
• Because someone had done it before them, they had social support to also choose that answer.
• If the ‘non-conforming’ person starts conforming again, the participant changes their answer and conforms to the majority.
- they have no ally and therefore no social support.
59
Explain social support in regards to obedience.
• Having an ally whom also disobeys helps people to resist obedience.
• Milgram tested a variation where there were 2 confederates whom at different moments said they didn’t want to continue the experiment. Later on, the participant said the same thing and also didn’t want to continue.
• Where there was a disobedient confederate, the participant was more likely to conform. The disobedience allowed the participant to use his own conscience.
60
Why is there a continuum in regards to Locus of Control?
• There is a continuum as it can help people show where they stand on external and internal locus of control.
• People differ in the way they explain their successes.
• They can be low external or just external and low internal or just internal.
61
Which type of locus of control is most likely to resist social pressures and why?
• Internal LoC.
• Those with high internal LoC tend to be more self confident, more achievement oriented and have higher intelligence.
• These personality traits lead to greater resistance to social influence.
62
Define minority influence.
• A form of social influence in which a minority of people (sometimes just one person) persuade others to adopt their beliefs, attitudes or behaviours.
• Leads to internalisation or conversion.
63
What are the three variables which allow minority influence to show an effect on the majority?
• Consistency
• Commitment
• Flexibility
64
Explain consistency as a variable for minority influence.
• Minority influence is much more effective if the minority keeps the same beliefs, both over time and between all the individuals that form the minority. It’s effective because it draws attention to the minority view.
• There are two types of consistency; synchronic consistency and diachronic consistency.
• Synchronic- is where the group of minority influence are all saying the same thing
• Diachronic- is where the group of minority influence have been saying the same thing for a long period of time.
• This consistency makes other people start to rethink their own views.
65
Explain commitment as a variable for minority influence.
• Sometimes minorities engage in quite extreme activities to draw attention to their views. It is important that those activities pose risks to the minorities as it demonstrates commitment to the cause.
• Majority group members then pay more attention to the cause. This is called the Augmentation Principle.
66
Explain flexibility as a variable for minority influence.
• Being extremely consistent and repeating the same arguments and behaviours again and again can be seen as rigid, unbending and inflexible. This is off-putting to the majority and unlikely to result in any conversions to the minority position.
• Instead, members of the minority need to be prepared to adapt their point of view and accept reasonable and valid counter-arguments.
• The key is to strike between consistency and flexibility.
67
Define social change.
This occurs when societies rather than just individuals, adopt new attitudes, beliefs and ways of doing things (behaviours).
68
Name the 6 parts, in order, which allow social change through minority influence.
Drawing attention to an issue.
Consistency of position.
Cognitive conflict.
The augmentation principle.
The snowball effect.
Social cryptomnesia.
69
Explain ‘drawing attention to an issue’ within social change.
Minorities can bring about social change by drawing the majority’s attention to an issue. If their views are different to those held by the majority, this creates a conflict that they are motivated to reduce.
70
Explain ‘consistency of position’ within social change.
• Research on minority influence has established that minorities tend to be more influential in bringing about social change when they express their arguments consistently.
71
Explain ‘cognitive conflict’ within social change.
• The minority create conflict between what the majority currently believe in and the position advocated by the minority.
• This start in conflict doesn’t necessarily result in a move towards the minority position, but it does mean that the majority group members think more deeply about the issues being challenged.
72
Explain ‘the augmentation principle’ within social change.
If a minority appears willing to suffer for their views, they are seen as more committed and so taken more seriously by others.
73
Explain ‘the snowball effect’ within social change.
• Minority influence initially has a relatively small effect but this then spreads more widely as more and more people consider the issues being promoted.
• This is until it reaches a ‘tipping point,’ at which it leads to wide-scale social change.
74
Explain ‘social cryptomnesia’ within social change.
• This is where people have a memory that change has occurred but don’t remember how it happened.
75
How does social change impact majority influence (conformity) in obedience research?
• Milgrams research clearly demonstrates that ‘because one person did something, another person followed. • This is shown through one of his variations where there are 2 disobedient confederates. Because they were disobedient, this allowed the naive participant to also disobey the request from the experimenter. It led to social change.
• Zimbardo suggested that gradual commitment can be used to create social change.
• Once a small instruction is obeyed, it becomes much more difficult to resist a bigger one. People essentially ‘drift’ into a new kind of behaviour.
76
How does social change impact majority influence (conformity) in conformity research?
• Dissent has the potential to ultimately lead to social change.
• Environmental and health campaigns increasingly exploit conformity processes by appealing to normative social influence. They do this by providing information about what other people are doing.
• This has the potential to encourage others do the same work just because others are doing it.
77
What is the social norms approach?
• This holds the idea that if people perceive something to be the norm, they tend to alter their behaviour to fit that norm.
• Behaviour is based on what people think others believe and do (the ‘perceived norm’) than on their real beliefs and actions (‘the actual norm’).
• The gap between the perceived and actual norm is referred to as a ‘misperception’, and correcting this misperception is the basis for an approach to social change known as social norm interventions.
78
What is the social norm intervention?
• The social norm intervention typically starts by identifying a widespread misperception relating to a specified risky behaviour within a target population.
• Perception correction strategies can then be used in media campaigns, promotional material and through other routes.
• The aim of the strategies is to communicate to the target population of the actual norm concerning that particular behaviour.
• By advertising these actual norms, researchers hope that recipients will moderate their own behaviour to bring it more in line with the behaviour of their peers.
