social infleunce Flashcards
(80 cards)
what are the types of conformity
kelman (1958) proposed three types of conformity (type of social influence defined as change in belief/ behaviour in response to real or imagined social pressure.
- compliance
- internalisation
- identification
define compliance AO1
when people go along with the group in order to gain approval or avoid rejection. when exposed to views or actions of majority, people may engage in a process of social comparison, concentrating on what others say or do so that they can adjust their own actions. fitting in is seen as desirable - this motivates conformity
conmpliance doesnt result in a change in a persons underlying attitude,
define internalisation A01
when individuals go along with the group because of an acceptence of their views. when exposed to the views of other members of a group individuals are encourages to engage in a validation process, examinaing their own beliefs to see if they or the others are right.
= leads to an internal (private) + external ( public) change in behaviour.
deepest level of conformity .
usually happens when they believe that the majority group is correct
identification A01
individual accepts influence because they want to be associated with another person or group. by adopting same attitudes and behaviours they feel more part of the group, identification has elements of both compliance and internalisation
state and explain the explanations of conformtiy
1)NSI
- when a person conforms to fit in with a group as they want to fit in and avoid social rejection. humans are social species- have fundimental need for social companionship and fear of censure.
this type of conformtiy is usually referred to as compliance. eg smoking
an important condition for NSI to occur is the individual must believe they are under surveillence of the group. when this is the case people tend to conform to the majority position in public but not internalise this view ( Nail 1986 )
- ISI
- when a person conforms because they have a desire to be correct and to look to others who they believe have more information. accept info from others as evidence of reality
usually happens when situation is ambigious. eg of internalisation
what is an A03 evaluation on US research support for NI.
US research has suported the significant role of peoples normative beliefs in altering behaviours eg smoking and energy conservation.
- Linkenbach and Perkins (2003) found that adolescents exposed to the simple message that majority of their age peers did not smoke were subsequenctly less likely to take up smoking. likewise Schultz et al (2008) found that hotel guests exposed to the normative message that 75% reused their towels each day ( energy conservation) reduced their own towel use by 25%
These studies support the notion that individuals behaviour is shaped by their desire to fit in with their reference group, suggesting power of NI
what is an A03 support for ISI
reseach shows that exposure to others beliefs and opinions can shape many areas of social behaviour. Wittenbrink and Henley ( 1996) found that P’s exposed to negative information about african americans ( led to believe was the view of the majority ) later reported more negative attitude towards black ppl
- research has also shown how ISI can shape political opinion , Fein et al (2007) P’s saw what was supposedly the reaction of their fellow P’s on screen during a presidential debate.
this info produced large shifts in ppls judgement shows signficance of ISI
explain the aim of Aschs line study (1956)
Asch wanted to investigate whether people would conform to the majority when the answer was obvious.
explain the procedure of Aschs line study
PROCEDURE-
in total 123 male american undergrad were tested. there were 5-7 P’s per group, each group= standard line and 3 comparison lines. P’s had to state which comparison line matched the standard line. In each group there was only 1 real P’s the rest were confederates. the confederates were asked to give the incorrect answer on 12/18 trials
explain the findings of Aschs study
on the 12 critical trials, the average conformity rate was 33% ( 1/3).
75% of the sample conformed at least once
1/4 (25%) didnt conform at all
half conformed on 6 or more of the critical trials
1 in 20 of p’s conformed on all 12 of trials
additionally there was a control condition- p’s made mistakes 1% of the time.
in a later interview it was found that the P’s showed compliance.
what is a limitation of Aschs research
a child of its time.
took place in a period of US history where conformity was important
1956 the US was in the grip of McCarthyism, strong anti-communist period where ppl were scared of going against majority.
Perrin and Spencer (1980) repeated Aschs study using engineering students. only 1 conformoring response out of 396
however in a subsequent study, they used youths on probation as p’s and probation officers as confed and found similar results to ASchs
what are the variables effecting conformity
group size, unanimity of majority and difficulty of the task
explain group size unanimity , and difficulty
GROUP SIZE ;asch found less conformtiy when group was of 1,2 condederates. but under pressure of majority of 3 confederates; 30%. further increase in size didnt increase level of conformtiy
Fairey 1989 suggested group size may have a diff effect depending on the type of judgement being made.
UNANIMITY; when real p’s given support of another person conformtiy levels dropped, reducing percentage of wrong answers from 33% to just 5.5%
DIFFICULTY; in 1 condition Asch made difference between line lengths much smaller ( more difficult) .conformity increased
Locus et al said that infleunce of task difficulty is moderated by self efficacy.
when exposed to maths problems in asch-type study high efficacy p’s remained more independent
what is evaluation point for cultural differences in conformtiy
smith et al 2006 analysed results of aschs type study across a number of diff cultures . average conformity rate for individualist cultures eg europe USA was 25%. for collectivist = africa asia south america = 37%
markus and kitayama 1991 suggested ts because higher level of conformtiy in collectivist cultures is more favourable
what are other evaluation points for asch
low ecological validity - lab exp low mundane realism ( strength as clear cause and effect )
issues with ethics; p’s were told ts was a vision test, + they reported feeling stressed ( p’s were debriefed so cost benefit analysis )
low generalisability ; male american undergrad, cant generalise to other ppl low population validitiy
what kind of influenced zimbardos prison experiment
it was set in the aftermath of the Attica prison riots in new york where 9 hostages and 28 prisoners died following a protest regarding the inhumane conditions in the prison. to examine whether people would conform to the social roles of a prison guard or prisoner, when placed in a mock prison environment.
how many volunteers in SPE and how were they assigned their roles.
-mock prison was set up in the basement of psych department at stanford uni california
-74 volunteed but after psychological and physical analysis only 24 went thru.
-randomly assigned
briefly outline the procedure
unexpectedly arrested at their homes, put through a delousing process, given prison uniform, fingerprints taken and given prisoner ID number, allowed some rights eg 3 meals, 3 supervised toilet visits and 2 visits per week
the ‘guards’ were given uniforms clubs, whistles and reflective sunglasses ( to prevent eye contact )
zimbardo was the warden
explain briefly what happened SPE
first days - guards were tyrannical and abuse
degrading activities eg push ups with their legs on their backs
some guards even volunteered to do extra hours without pay
p’s seemed to forget ts wasnt real eg one prisoner aske for parole in order to leave the study
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how many prisoners had to leave early
5 due to extreme reactions eg crying screaming. sympoms started to appear after just 2 days
when and how was the study terminated
terminated at 6 days , following intervention of postgrad student christina maslach ( later becomes zimbardos wife )
the study demonstrated that both conformed to their roles, guards became increasingly cruel and sadists, p’s hopeless and passive
explain the BBC PRISON STUDY ( reicher and haslam)2006
randomly assigned p’s to guard, prisoner .+ specially created prison
15 male p’s divided into 5 groups of 3 ( matched via common personality variables
ran for 8 days
-p’s didnt conform immediately to their assigned roles
prisoners came together as a group and challenged the guards, guards also failed to identify w their role
what is the evaluation point that haslam and reicher 2012 made about SPE
they challanged zimbardos belief that guards drifted into an automatic sadistic behaviour eg some guards were good and did not degrade or harass the prisoners and even did small favours 4dem
what is another advantage of SPE hint; abu gharib
conformity of this study can be used to explain events in abu gharib ( military prison in iraq notorious for the torture and abuse of iraqi prisoners by US soldiers in 2003 and 2004.
zimbardo beleievd they were victims of situational factors that made abuse more likely
