Social Influence Flashcards

Question

How did Asch (1956) use unanimity to test social influence

Answer 1

- when group had been unanimous (all confederates agreed), conformity increased - when one confederate gave different answer to other, group was no longer unanimous and conformity dropped

Answer 2

- when confederate gave the right answer, conformity dropped to 5% from 33% - when confederate gave a different wrong answer (still going against the group), conformity dropped to 9%

Answer 3

- temporal validity - ecological validity - sample representation - volunteer sample - ethical issues

Answer 4

- negative, does not have temporal validity - study was 80 years ago, people may have been more conformist - post war attitudes showing people should work together rather than dissent which may have affected results

Answer 5

- negative, lacks ecological validity and mundane realism - task is artificial and unlikely to occur in real life - conformity takes place in a social context, with people we know and not strangers

Answer 6

- negative - gender bias as only contains males - does not represent female behaviour - culture bias as only white Americans that do not reflect behaviour of all cultures - positive - however, study has been repeated with different samples and cultures - still proven to be reliable

Answer 7

- negative - used volunteer sample who may not represent behaviour of wider population - lacks population validity and cannot be generalised

Answer 8

- negative - deception - lack of informed consent - psychological harm - necessary to deceive participants to prevent demand characteristics

Answer 9

- behaviours expected of an individual who has a certain social position or status - people conform to social roles assigned to them

Answer 10

- whether conformity to social roles altered a person’s behaviour or not

Answer 11

- stimulated prison in basement of Stanford University psychology department created - 24 emotionally available and psychologically stable young men recruited and randomly assigned role of prisoner or guard - prisoners arrested at home, taken to local police to be booked, photographed, and fingerprinted - blindfolded and driven down to simulated prison, stripped naked, deloused, given ID numbers - guards had control over prisoners who were confined to cells - guards told to maintain order (barring physical violence) - guards worked in threes for 8 hour shifts - prisoners were 3 to a cell

Answer 12

- on second day, prisoners tried rebelling by ripping off prison numbers and barricading themselves in cells - guards sprayed them with CO2, stripped them naked, took beds and forced ringleaders into solitary confinement - guards become increasingly cruel and aggressive - prisoners became passive and depressed - guards became so aggressive that study had to be ended after only 6 days (planned for 2 weeks) due to psychological health concerns

Answer 13

- ethical issues - role of Zimbardo - sample representation - demand characteristics - individual differences

Answer 14

- prisoners subjected to psychological harm - five prionsers released early due to extreme reaction - however Zimbardo did not expect guards to behave in such a way so harm could not have been anticipated - negative

Answer 15

- took on the role of prison warden - became too involved in experiment and lost objectivity - had to be told by a colleague to end experiment due to concerns over distress of prisoners - validity of findings can be questioned - negative

Answer 16

- culture bias, all participants white bar one - gender bias, all participants male - age bias, all participants young - status bias, all participants middle class - negative, unrepresentative

Answer 17

- guards may have behaved the way they did due to demand characteristics - some participants reported afterwards they thought the experimenters wanted them to be aggressive - validity can be questioned - negative

Answer 18

- some guards did not conform to role given whereas some were abusive - suggests individual differences are important in determining extent of conforming to social roles - shows there must be other dispositional factors contributing to conformity => LoC? - negative

Answer 19

- behaving as instructed to by an authority figure - authority figures have status/power over others

Answer 20

- placed advert in newspaper asking for males to take part in study on effect of punishment on learning - 40 participants invited to psychology department of Yale University and met by experimenter (confederate) - introduced to Mr Wallace (confederate), old man with weak heart

Answer 21

- participant and Mr Wallace asked to pick paper from hat to determine role - both pieces of paper had teacher written to ensure naive participant was teacher and Mr Wallace was learner - teacher had to punish learner if they made a mistake on a memory test through an electric shock - electric shock increased in voltage each time mistake was made

Answer 22

- learner taken to room and hooked to electric shock machine - teacher saw this then taken to adjoining room with electric shock controls and experimenter - electric shock machine were fake but convincing - teacher pressed switches on machine to administer shocks

Answer 23

- each switch labelled with voltage rating - switches started at 15 volts and rose in increments of 15 to 450 volts - each group of four switches was labelled with text (slight shock, moderate shock, danger: severe shock)

Answer 24

- as shocks became more severe, Mr Wallace demanded to be released from experiment - Mr Wallace was screaming, kicking the wall, complaining about his weak heart and refusing to answer questions - finally Mr Wallace went silent

Answer 25

- experimenter ensured teacher continued with experiment - when teacher showed reluctance, experimenter prompted them to continue using one of four statements - please continue - the experiment requires that you continue - it is absolutely essential that you continue - you have no choice, you must continue

Answer 26

- 100% of participants gave shocks up to 300 volts (when Mr Wallace banged on wall and stopped answering) - 65% of participants gave shocks until 450 volts - participants felt high levels of stress and showed symptoms including sweating, trembling, and anxious and hysterical laughter - most were obedient and willing to inflict lethal shocks to a man with a weak heart

Answer 27

- deception - psychological harm - right to withdraw - sample representation - cost-benefit analysis

Answer 28

- negative - participants deceived about true nature of experiment - means no informed consent to take part - necessary to prevent demand characteristics to prevent a decrease in validity of findings

Answer 29

- negative - participants became extremely distressed - some thought they had killed Mr Wallace - Milgram did not expect his participants to obey so this psychological harm could not have been anticipated

Answer 30

- negative - several participants asked to leave experiment but were told they are not allowed - violates right to withdraw from experiment

Answer 31

- negative - all participants were white American males - gender and culture bias - however study has been replicated with women and obedience rates were not significantly different

Answer 32

- positive - weighing harm against knowledge provided means study was worthwhile - participants did not suffer from long-term emotional disturbances - 84% of participants said they were happy to have taken part and learnt something

Answer 33

- Milgram (1974) conducted several variations of his original study in 1963 - wanted to test which situational variables lead to high levels of obedience and which reduced obedience

Answer 34

- proximity - location - uniform

Answer 35

- three different types of proximity variations - proximity variation - touch proximity variation - absent experimenter variation

Answer 36

- both teacher and learner were in the same room - obedience levels fell to 40% - teacher was able to experience Mr Wallace’s anguish directly

Answer 37

- teacher had to actually force learner’s arm down onto metal plate to administer shocks - obedience dropped to 30%

Answer 38

- experimenter left room after giving instructions and gave orders by telephone - majority of participants missed out shocks or gave lower voltages than meant to - obedience dropped to 20%

Answer 39

- alternative setting variation - experiment carried out in rundown office by experimenter wearing casual clothes - other variations carried out at Yale University - obedience rate was 48% - participants reported location of Yale as having confidence in integrity of experimenter - lower status of office changed participant’s perception of legitimacy of authority of experimenter

Answer 40

- uniforms are visible symbol of authority and can show power/status or lack of - Bickman (1974) asked confederates to order passerbys to pick litter off street or move from bus stop - confederates dressed as either guard, milkman or in smart clothes - 80% obeyed guard but 40% obeyed milkman

Answer 41

- agentic state - legitimate authority

Answer 42

- Milgram (1974) argued people obey horrific orders due to the situation they are in and not their own personalities - people go from an autonomous state into an agentic state (agentic shift) - once in state, people carry out orders and perceive themselves as merely the instruments of authority - believe authority figure is responsible for actions (diffusion of responsibility) so do not feel guilty for their own actions

Answer 43

- those in authority are trustworthy - orders first seem reasonable and then becomes aggressive (gradual commitment) - people psychologically protected from consequences of their actions (buffers) - maintain a positive self-image (not responsible for their own actions) - once in state, they stay to not break commitment to authority seeming arrogant and rude

Answer 44

- Milgram (1974) thought it developed during human evolution and is necessary for hierarchies to function in society - prevents chaos - living in societies where we submit ourselves to authority - obedience is essential in society

Answer 45

- Milgram (1974) - Mandel (1998)

Answer 46

- positive, supports agentic state - participants less likely to shock Mr Wallace when in same room - could see consequences of own actions (no buffers) - close proximity to Mr Wallace and seeing pain prevents participants going into agentic state

Answer 47

- negative, disproves agentic state - without buffers, people should not go into agentic state and obey order to harm someone in theory - case of Major Wilhem Trapp was reported by Mandel - Major Trapp given orders to kill a group of Jewish people in 1942 - members of battalion were given chance to say no, most accepted and massacre occurred - this happened despite being in close proximity to victims

Answer 48

- claims we recognise our own and other people’s positions in social hierarchy - we obey those in a higher position than us - we do not obey those in an equal or lower position than us

Answer 49

- increased by visible symbols of authority - dependent on setting, order, system and location, especially if commands are harmful or destructive

Answer 50

- Hofling (1966) - Bickman (1974) - Milgram (1963)

Answer 51

- positive, supports legitimate authority - nurses obey dangerous order from doctor due to hospital location - nurses receive call from unknown doctor and are asking to administer 20 milligrams of a drug (Astroten) to patients - broke hospital rules as it was twice the maximum dose written on the bottle - 95% of nurses carried out instructions

Answer 52

- positive, supports legitimate authority - asked confederates to order passerbys to pick litter off street or move from bus stop - confederates dressed as either guard, milkman or in smart clothes - 80% obeyed guard but 40% obeyed milkman

Answer 53

- negative, disproves legitimate authority - 35% of participants disobeyed experimenter even though he had legitimate authority in that situation - legitimate authority does not explain why some people are able to resist order of authority figures

Answer 54

- Adorno (1950) - those with authoritarian personalities are more likely to obey authority figures - authoritarian personalities have a collection of traits making them more obedient

Answer 55

- claims that individual’s personality characteristics determine their behaviour instead of situational influences in environment

Answer 56

- servile towards people of perceived higher status - hostile towards people of lower status - preoccupied with power - inflexible in their beliefs and values - conformist and conventional (rule following) - likely to categories people as ‘us’ or ‘them’ - dogmatic (intolerant of ambiguity)

Answer 57

- receiving extremely strict/rigid parenting, usually involving physical punishment - creates feelings of hostility which are displaced onto weaker others that cannot fight back and therefore are safe - cannot take out anger on parents due to fear - repress anger and act submissive to parents - submissive behaviour is extended to all authority

Answer 58

- Adorno (1950) developed questionnaire to measure authoritarian personalities - F (fascism) scale - participants asked to rate how much they agree with statements

Answer 59

- Miller (1975) - Altemeyer (1981) - situational factors (Milgram, 1974) - dispositional explanations (Milgram, 1963) - Middendorp and Meleon (1990), and Milgram (1974)

Answer 60

- positive, supports authoritarian personality - found people who scored high on F Scale were more likely to obey order to hold onto electric wiring while working on an arithmetic problem compared to people who scored low on F Scale

Answer 61

- positive, supports authoritarian personalities - ordered participants to give themselves increasing levels of electric shocks when mistake is made on learning task - correlation between those willing to shock themselves and high scores on F Scale

Answer 62

- negative, disproves authoritarian personality - situational variables may be more important than dispositional ones - Milgram (1974) conducted several variations with vastly different results - obedience was 100% when Mr Wallace made no noise - obedience rate was 0% when there were two authority figures disagreeing with each other

Answer 63

- dispositional explanations cannot explain obedience in entire societies as authoritarian personalities are not common - fewer than 65% of people have authoritarian personalities - cannot be the only reason for level of obedience found in original Milgram (1963) study

Answer 64

- possible that rather than authoritarian personality causing obedience, lack of education causes authoritarian personalities and obedience - Middendorp and Meleon (1990) found less educated people are more likely to have authoritarian personality - Milgram (1974) found participants with lower levels of education were more obedient

Answer 65

- pressure to conform/obey can exert powerful influences over behaviour (Milgram 1963 had 65% obey and Asch 1951 had 75% conform) - in both studies, people managed to resist pressure to conform or obey (35% disobeyed Milgram and 25% did not conform to Asch) - social support theory

Answer 66

- situational explanation of resistance to social influence - argues when one person refuses to conform/obey, makes it likely for others to also resist social influence

Answer 67

- ally who also resists social influence - refuses unanimity of group - groups are more influential if they are unanimous - when unanimity is broken, people think about other ways of responding - presence of ally gives them independent assessment of reality, making them more confident in decision and better able to stand up to majority

Answer 68

- people more likely to defy authority figure if they see a disobedient role model refusing to obey - when a person rejects instructions of authority, it challenges authority figure’s legitimate authority

Answer 69

- Milgram (1974) - Asch (1956) - individual differences

Answer 70

- asked participants to deliver electric shocks to confederate when he answered question wrong - shocks not real but participants believed they were and 65% shocked Mr Wallace - in another variation when another confederate acted as a disobedient role model and refused to shock Mr Wallace, only 10% obeyed to shock Mr Wallace - positive, supports social support theory

Answer 71

- asked participants to say which of three test lines was same as standard - participants in group with confederates who purposefully gave wrong answer - in 33% of trials, participants conformed - conformity dropped to 5% when one confederate acted as an ally to participant and gave right answer - positive, supports social support theory

Answer 72

- in both of the original studies (Asch 1951 and Milgram 1963), some participants were obey to resist social influence and not conform/obey even though there was no social support - means social support is not a complete explanation of resistance to social influence - other factors play a part, such as personality traits

Answer 73

- locus of control - Rotter (1966) argued person’s personality determines whether they conform/obey or resist social influence

Answer 74

- extent to which an individual believes they have control over their own behaviour - measured on a dimension from internal to external

Answer 75

- believe what occurs in their life is a result of their own behaviour and actions - can alter what happens to them - if they do bad on a test, they consider it their own fault for not revising enough

Answer 76

- believes what happens in their lives is outside their control - what occurs is determined by chance or other people - no ability to alter what happens in their life - if they do badly on a test, it’s due to bad luck or inadequate teachers

Answer 77

- more likely to be leaders rather than followers - less concerned with social approval - more self confident - believe they control their own circumstances

Answer 78

- Oliner and Oliner (1988) - Milgram (1974) - Williams and Warchal (1981)

Answer 79

- interviewed 406 German people who sheltered Jewish people from Nazis during 1930s and 1940s - these Germans had internal locus of control allowing them to disobey Nazis - positive, supports locus of control

Answer 80

- asked participants to deliver shocks to confederate when he got questions wrong - shocks not real but believed to be - 65% obeyed and shocked confederate and 35% disobeyed - provided questionnaire to participants to measure locus of control - found 35% that disobeyed were more likely to have an internal locus of control - positive, supports locus of control

Answer 81

- found conformers less assertive than non-conformers - done a Asch style conformity task - two groups did not score differently on a test to determine locus of control - suggests assertiveness more important than locus of control in determining whether or not someone will refuse to conform/obey - negative, disproves locus of control

Answer 82

- small groups or individuals change the way the majority behaves and thinks - Moscivici (1985) considered minority influence leads to conversion

Answer 83

- when individuals change their private beliefs and views because of minority influence

Answer 84

- when the minority stays committed - when the minority stays consistent - when the minority stays flexible

Answer 85

- commitment shown when members of minority demonstrates dedication to belief - also occurs if minority makes sacrifices (augmentation principle), take risks or are inconvenienced themselves in some way - shows minority is not acting out of self interest

Answer 86

- occurs when minority repeatedly gives same message over time - makes a majority reassess their belief and consider the issue more carefully

Answer 87

- flexibility/being non-dogmatic is when a minority shows they are willing to listen to other viewpoints - majority will then listen to minority view/take their argument more seriously

Answer 88

- initially has a small effect - spreads as more people consider the issue being raised and are converted to the minority viewpoint - eventually it reaches a tipping point where the minority becomes the majority - snowball effect

Answer 89

- slow process and may even be unconscious - sometimes individual is not even aware of where the near idea originated from (social crypto-amnesia)

Answer 90

- Moscivici (1969) => consistency - Xie et al. (2011) => committed - Nemeth and Brilmayer (1987) => flexibility

Answer 91

- told 172 female participants they were taking part in a colour perception task - participants placed in groups of 6 (2 confederates) and shown 36 slides, showing shades of blue - participants stated out loud colour of each slide - consistent condition, confederates said green in all trials - inconsistent condition, confederates said 24 were green and 12 were blue - consistent condition, participants swayed by minority 8.2% of the time - inconsistent condition, participants swayed 1.25% - shows consistent minority is effective

Answer 92

- discovered a tipping point where the number of people holding a minority position is sufficient to change majority opinion - in fact, Xie found that you need about 10% of the minority population to influence the majority

Answer 93

- participants in groups of 4 had to agree on amount of compensation they would give to a victim of a ski lift accident - one participant was confederate - first condition, confederate stayed inflexible with low rate - second condition, confederate was flexible with low rate and compromised - found in inflexible condition, minority had little or no effect on majority - in flexible condition, majority were more likely to compromise and change view

Answer 94

- Moscivici (1969) - sample bias - ecological validity - ethical issues

Answer 95

- gender bias => only women => cannot conclude males would response to minority influence in the same way => research suggests women are more likely to conform than men - culture bias => all participants were American => cannot generalise to other populations or cultures

Answer 96

- showed a consistent minority opinion had a greater effect on changing views than minority with inconsistent views - Wood carried out meta analysis of 100 similar studies - found minorities who were consistent were more influential

Answer 97

- most studies into minority influence are based on experiments in labs - raises question of ecological validity - does not reflect real life scenarios - participants in lab experiments usually do not know each other - negative, disproves minority influence

Answer 98

- studies criticised for deceiving participants - Moscovici told participants they were taking part in a colour perception test - means no informed consent was received - seems unethical but needed to obtain valid results - if participants knew of true aim, they may have displayed demand characteristics

Answer 99

- change that occurs in a society and not at an individual level - occurs when minority view challenges majority view and is eventually accepted by the majority

Answer 100

- once majority accepts minority viewpoint, people may conform to this viewpoint due to normative social influence (compliance) or informational social influence (internalisation)

Answer 101

- through power and obedience - for example, changing law to allow gay marriage means people are more accepting of homosexual rights due to changes in law making a behaviour a social norm which others adopt

Answer 102

- obedience - leads to groups of people changing behaviour because of fear of punishment/consequences of not obeying

Answer 103

- drawing attention to the issue - consistency of position - deeper processing - augmentation principle - snowball effect - social cryptoamnesia

Answer 104

- minorities can bring about social change by drawing the majority’s attention to an issue

Answer 105

- minority groups are more influential when they express arguments consistently, over time and with each other

Answer 106

- other people not part of the minority start to pay attention to the minority by thinking about what the status quo is and perhaps the unjustness of it

Answer 107

- if a minority appears willing to suffer for their views, they are seen as more committed and are taken more seriously

Answer 108

- minority influence initially has a relatively small effect - spreads more widely as more and more people consider the issue being raised until it reaches a tipping point where the minority becomes the majority - this is when conformity occurs through either NSI or ISI

Answer 109

- majority knows a social change has occurred - but source of change and message has been disassociated through the process of social cryptoamnesia

Social Influence Flashcards

(133 cards)