Social Influence Flashcards

Question

What were the results of Asch's study (quantative) | What was said during interview after

Answer 1

Asch interviewed his participants after the experiment to find out why they conformed. Most of the participants said that they knew their answers were incorrect, but they went along with the group in order to fit in, or because they thought they would be ridiculed. This confirms that participants conformed due to normative social influence and the desire to fit in. However, private answers saw less conformity

Answer 2

Asch used a biased sample of 50 male students from Swarthmore College in America. Therefore, we cannot generalise the results to other populations, for example female students, and we are unable to conclude if female students would have conformed in a similar way to male students. As a result Asch’s sample lacks population validity and further research is required to determine whether males and females conform differently Furthermore, it could be argued that Asch’s experiment has low levels of ecological validity. Asch’s test of conformity, a line judgement task, is an artificial task, which does not reflect conformity in everyday life. Consequently, we are unable to generalise the results of Asch to other real life situations, such as why people may start smoking or drinking around friends, and therefore these results are limited in their application to everyday life.

Answer 3

Reliable - Asch used a standardised procedure which is easily replicable Validity - Becuase the answers were obvious, Asch's study shows the impact of the majority, rather than knowledge (cause and effect established)

Answer 4

123 males American undergraduates

Answer 5

DV - Who would conform to the confederates answers IV - Variations of Experiment

Answer 6

A small group is less likely to influence a participants answer and cause them to conform

Answer 7

Varied from 1 confederate to 15 confederates When there was one confederate, the real participants conformed on just 3% of the critical trials. When the number of confederates increased by 1 each time, the conformity rate doubled in percentage

Answer 8

Conformity decreased by 25% when a participant had a friend Naïve participant was allowed to behave more independentlys

Answer 9

When the real participant had a ‘friend’ they were more likely to go against majority Internalisation present - More likely to identify strongly with someone who originally had same opinion as him

Answer 10

People are more likely to conform So the they could be **correct**

Answer 11

Asch tested the experimental group by giving them a harder task (Much similar lines) With more difficult tasks, conformity levels increased This shows the informational social influence

Answer 12

Participants did not know the answer so would conform to be **correct**

Answer 13

A behaviour role that is expected of an individual of a given social position of status

Answer 14

The extent to which tasks are followed given by an Authority Figure

Answer 15

Mock prison was set up in the basement of Stanford University Advertised for volunteers and selected those who were deemed ‘emotionally stable’ Students were randomly assigned role of guard or prisoner Prisoners were arrested and strip searched and given uniform and number Guards also had their own uniform and were told they had complete power over the prisoners Results of the conformity were acknowledged with a debrief at the end

Answer 16

Guards became fully invested in their social role Dehumanized prisoners by making them dao many cruel things (pushups, sing, clean toilets etc.) Within days the prisoners rebelled, but this was quickly crushed by the guards, who then grew increasingly abusive towards the prisoners, causing psychological harm Study was withdrawn on Day 6

Answer 17

The guards dehumanised the prisoners, waking them during the night and forcing them to clean toilets with their bare hands; the prisoners became increasingly submissive, identifying further with their subordinate role. Therefore causing severe psychological harm

Answer 18

Zimbardo concluded that people quickly conform to social roles, even when the role goes against their moral principles

Answer 19

Lacks ecological validity - The study suffered from demand characteristics. For example, the participants knew that they wereparticipating in a study and therefore may have changed their behaviour, either to please the experimenter or in response to being observed -. The participants also knew that the study was not real so they claimed that they simply acted according to the expectations associated with their role rather genuinely adopting it. This was seen particularly with qualitative data gathered from an interview with one guard, who said that he based his performance from the stereotypical guard role portrayed in a film Zimbardo’s experiment has been heavily criticised for breaking many ethical guidelines, in particular, protection from harm and no right to withdraw. Five of the prisoners left the experiment early because of their adverse reactions to the physical and mental torment. Furthermore, some of the guards reported feelings of anxiety and guilt, as a result of their actions during the Stanford Prison Experiment.

Answer 20

High variable control - participants were screened for emotional stability and mental health issues (with consent), meaning that any behaviours during the experiment were as a result of social roles rather than extraneous variables

Answer 21

Popular view at the time of the study was criminals were bad by nature (innate) or disposition and therefore needed correction. Zimbardo argued that bad situations (situational) are what what create bad behaviours

Answer 22

Explanation of individual behaviour caused by internal characteristics that reside within the individual's personality

Answer 23

Explanations that focus on the influences from the environment the individual is in

Answer 24

The state in which a person does not take responsibility for their actions - They believe they are not in control - More likely to obey an authoritative figure

Answer 25

The idea that people are more likely to obey when they are in the agentic state as they do not believe they will suffer the consequences of those actions

Answer 26

The state in which a person believes they will take responsibility for their own actions - Shows free will

Answer 27

The switch from the autonomous to agentic state in which we perceive someone to be a legitimate source of authority and allow them to control our behaviour

Answer 28

When people believe that they are not in control of their actions and cannot be blamed for the consequence, they have more freedom in doing things for an authoritative figure

Answer 29

This explanation suggests that people will obey someone they perceive to be ‘above’ them in the social hierarchy, and therefore think they have the right to give orders

Answer 30

Students are more likely to listen to their parents or teachers than other unknown adults because they are deemed to be knowledgable and responsible

Answer 31

To observe whether people would obey a figure of authority when told to harm another person i.e. evaluating the influence of a destructive authority figure

Answer 32

Experiment took place in a basement of Yale University Advertised as a memory test (deception) - £4.50 to participate Paid money at beginning of experiment and lied saying roles of teacher and learner were randomly assigned Confederate was learner, participant was always teacher (shocker) Learner strapped with wires in chair Everytime answer was wrong, participant gives 'shock' to learner, increasing in voltage (by 15) after every wrong answer Participants were assessed on how many volts they were willing to shock the confederate with

Answer 33

Participant - Teacher (shocker) Confederate - Learner (getting shocked) Actor - Experimenter (authoritive figure)

Answer 34

Every participant went to 300 volts None stopped before 300 volts. 12.5% stopped at 300 volts, and 65% continued to the highest voltage (450 volts), showing that the vast majority of participants were prepared to give lethal electric shocks to a confederate. Participants showed signs of extreme tension – sweating, trembling, biting their lips etc

Answer 35

Proximity Location Uniform

Answer 36

Milgram conducted his original research in a laboratory of Yale University - Yale being a prestige university. In order to test the power of the location, Milgram conducted a variation in a run down building in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The experiment was no longer associated with Yale University and was carried out by the Research Association of Bridgeport. In this variation the percentage of participants who administered the full 450 volts dropped from 65% to 47.5%. This highlights the impact of location on obedience, with less credible locations resulting in a reduction in the level of obedience.

Answer 37

Participants obeyed more when the experimenter was in the same room i.e. 62.5%. This was reduced to 40% when the experimenter and participant were in separate rooms, and reduced to a further 30% in the touch proximity condition i.e. where the experimenter forcibly placed the participant’s hand on the electric plate

Answer 38

In this variation, the man in ordinary clothes replaced the 'professor' came up with the idea of increasing the voltage every time the leaner made a mistake. The percentage of participants who administered the full 450 volts when being instructed by an ordinary man, dropped from 65% to 20%, demonstrating the dramatic power of uniform.

Answer 39

Bickman used three male actors: one dressed as a milkman; one dressed as a security guard; and one dressed in ordinary clothes. The actors asked members of the public to following one of three instructions: pick up a bag; give someone money for a parking metre; and stand on the other side of a bus stop sign which said ‘no standing’. On average the guard was obeyed on 76% of occasions, the milkman on 47% and the pedestrian on 30%. These results all suggest that people are more likely to obey, when instructed by someone wearing a uniform. This is because the uniform infers a sense of legitimate authority and power.

Answer 40

Debriefing - The participants were thoroughly and carefully debriefed on the real aims of the study, in an attempt to deal with the ethical breach of the guideline of protection from deception and the possibility to give informed consent and the deception was justified by the aim of avoiding demand characteristics Highly replicable – The standardised procedure has been repeated all over the world, where consistent and similar obedience levels have been found External Validity - The lab environment reflected real-life authoritarian relationships e.g. a work setting

Answer 41

Ethical issues: - There was deception and so informed consent could not be obtained, and the right to withdraw wasn't classified - There was psychological harm inflicted upon the participants. They showed signs of psychological and physiological distress such as trembling, sweating and nervous laughter Lack of ecological validity: The tasks given to participants are not like those we would encounter in real life e.g. shooting somebody in the face is different from flicking a switch, meaning that the methodology lacks realism, producing results which are low in ecological validity Socially sensitive issue: Milgram’s findings suggest that those who are responsible for killing innocent people can be excused because it is not their personality that made them do this, but it is because of the situation that they were in and the fact that it is difficult to disobey

Answer 42

Succseptible to obeying authority Belief in completely obeying and submitting to their authority figures, and suppress their own beliefs

Answer 43

Tendency to be especially obedient to authority Extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it

Answer 44

Elms and Milgram found that the obedient participants scored higher on the F scale, in comparison to disobedient participants

Answer 45

Determines the level of authoritarian personality

Answer 46

The term ‘ Locus of control ’ refers to how much control a person feels they have in their own behavior

Answer 47

People with an internal locus of control perceive themselves as having a great deal of personal control over their behavior and are therefore more likely to take responsibility for the way they behave

Answer 48

In contrast a person with a high external locus of control perceive their behaviors as being a result of external influences or luck

Answer 49

They take more responsibility for their actions and see themselves as in control So are more likely to make decisions based on their own morals Therefore people with a high internal locus of control are more likely to be leaders, not followers

Answer 50

E.G. if you passed an exam it’s because you worked hard, and if you didn’t pass it’s because you didn’t work hard enough

Answer 51

E.G. I did well in an exam because Mr. Russell is an excellent teacher OR I did terrible in the exam because Mr. Russell doesn’t know what he’s talking about

Answer 52

People with a high internal LOC are more likely to resist pressures to conform or obey, by taking on own responsibilities People with a high external LOc are likely to conform or obey to social pressures. Do not take responsibility for their actions

Answer 53

Dependant on the type of LOC, it determines whether people o more or less likely to conform due to the inability or acceptance of one's responsibility

Answer 54

The presence of other people who similarly resist pressures to conform can allow individuals to not conform

Answer 55

Unanimity Variation - When participants had a confederate turn naive, their conformity rates dropped. This is thought to be because the presence of an ally gave the true participant social support and made them feel more confident in their own decision and more confident in rejecting the majority position

Answer 56

A form of social influence in which a minority of people persuade majority to adopt beliefs Most likely leads to internalisation (Both public and private beliefs are influenced)

Answer 57

Consistency Flexibility Commitment

Answer 58

Minority influence is most effective if the minority keeps the same beliefs Consistency allows views to change over time and between each individual in the group Gives an idea that if a person constantly says something, its likely to be believed by majority

Answer 59

Moscovici found that in the consistent condition, the real participants agreed on 8.2% of the trials, whereas in the inconsistent condition, the real participants only agreed on 1.25% of the trials

Answer 60

Relentless consistency may become ineffective if it is seen by the majority as unbending or unreasonable Minority influence is more effective if the minority show’s flexibility by accepting the possibility of a compromise

Answer 61

Nemeth (1986) investigated the idea of flexibility in which participants, in groups of four, had to agree on the amount of compensation they would give to a victim of a ski-lift accident Nemeth found that in the inflexible condition, the minority had little or no effect on the majority, however in the flexible condition, the majority was much more likely to compromise and change their view

Answer 62

Minority influence is more powerful if the minority demonstrates dedication to their position Shows the minority is not acting out of self-interests E.G. making self-sacrifices Sometimes minorities might engage in extreme activities to draw attention to their views (as shown in the suffragette movement)

Answer 63

Snowball Effect - If you hear a new piece of information from a minority, it makes you stop and think . Especially if the view is consistent and passionate. This results in deeper processing

Answer 64

Over time, increasing numbers of people will switch from the majority to the minority

Social Influence Flashcards

(88 cards)