Social Influence Flashcards

Question

What are the consequences of not conforming?

Answer 1

Punished physically/socially/emotionally Unwanted attention You get deemed a troublemaker You get deemed as unruly You get stereotyped unfairly

Answer 2

A school rule Peer group likes and dislikes

Answer 3

Similar clothes as peers Use of social media apps Gender-specific behaviour

Answer 4

Converting to a different religion Adopting a new religion Radicalisation

Answer 5

Where a larger group influences a minority to change their behaviour or attitude so that it fits with the majority and their ideal

Answer 6

The Line Experiment

Answer 7

Asch (1950s)

Answer 8

+ Lab experiment - variables are strictly controlled, meaning that replication of the experiment is easy + Large sample size - 123 pp + Supports NSI - pp reported that they conformed to fit in with the group, so it supports the idea of NI, which states that people conform to fit in when privately disagreeing with the majority

Answer 9

- Controlled condition - artificial environment - Task lacks realism - Ethical Issues = deception and psychological harm - Gender bias - only used males - Lacks universality - used white American undergraduate students

Answer 10

Group size - the bigger the group size, the more confidence The unanimity of majority- higher conformity when all the confederates gave the wrong answer Task difficulty- the harder the task, the more conformity

Answer 11

- An individual is more likely to conform when in a larger group - Evidence: There was low conformity with the group size of confederates were less than 3 - any more than 3 and the conformity rose by 30% - Must be at least 3 to exert an influence, but an overwhelming majority is not needed in all instances to bring about conformity

Answer 12

- An individual is more likely to conform when the group is unanimous i.e. all give the same answer, as opposed to them all giving different answers - Evidence: When joined by another participant or disaffected confederate who gave the correct answer, conformity fell from 32% to 5.5%. If different answers are given, it falls from 32% to 9%. - Link: Unanimity is vital in establishing a consistent majority view, which is particularly important by providing normative social influence through preventing any conflicting views arising.

Answer 13

- An individual is more likely to conform when the task is difficult - Evidence: Asch altered the (comparison) lines making them more similar in length. So, since it was harder to judge the correct answer, conformity increased. - Evidence: When the task is difficult, we are more uncertain of our answer so we look to others for confirmation. - Link: This suggests that informational social influence is a major mechanism for conformity when the situation is ambiguous and the individual does not have enough of their knowledge or information to make an informed decision independently, and so has to look towards others.

Answer 14

Gender Age Social class Situation Difficulty level Size of majority Historical time era Place/culture Visual presence

Answer 15

Compliance Identification Internalisation

Answer 16

Because identifying with the majority is desirable, they change their views/actions to fit in with the reference group in public. EG school rules

Answer 17

When an individual changes their public views to match those of a group because they value the group and wish to be part of it. The change is likely to last as long as the individual is with the group. EG Similar clothes as peers

Answer 18

When an individual changes their public and private views to match those of a group. This is a long-lasting change and will continue outside of the group situation. EG Converting to a different religion

Answer 19

Prompts individuals to conform to the groups norms to fit in, gain acceptance and to feel good

Answer 20

This leads people to conform, and they believe the group possesses correct information, especially in ambiguous situations and tasks

Answer 21

NSI is evidenced by Asch and adds weight to the theory when examining conformity taking place as part of a group Both have RLA Both provide a partial explanation for conformity- explains why some will conform Research support for both- Asch

Answer 22

Don't provide a universal explanation Conformity is open to cultural differences, and situational factors - NSI and ISI can't solely be used to explain conformity Conformity is open to individual differences Ignores those who don't conform

Answer 23

- 123 male American undergraduates in groups of 6; consisting of 1 true participant and 5 confederates (actors/people in on the experiment) - White undergraduate males

Answer 24

To investigate conformity and majority influence

Answer 25

- Participants and confederates were presented with 4 lines; 3 comparison lines and 1 standard line They were asked to state which of the three lines was the same length as a stimulus line - The real participant always answered last or second to last - Confederates would give the same incorrect answer for 12 out of 18 trials - Asch observed how often the participant would give the same incorrect answer as the confederates versus the correct answer

Answer 26

- 36.8% conformed - 25% never conformed - 75% conformed at least once

Answer 27

Conformity to social roles

Answer 28

24 American male undergraduate students

Answer 29

To investigate how readily people would conform to social roles in a simulated environment, and specifically, to investigate why ‘good people do bad things’.

Answer 30

- American student volunteers were paid to take part in the study - They were randomly issued one of two roles; guard or prisoner. - Both prisoners and guards had to wear uniforms. - Prisoners were only referred to by their assigned number - Guards were given props like handcuffs and sunglasses (to make eye contact with prisoners impossible) - Guards worked eight-hour shifts - Prisoners were only allowed in the hallway which acted as their yard, and to the toilet. - The guards were allowed to control such behaviour to emphasise their complete power over the prisoners! - No physical violence was permitted, in line with ethical guidelines and to prevent complete overruling. - The behaviour of the participants was observed.

Answer 31

The basement of the Stanford University psychology building was converted into a simulated prison

Answer 32

- Identification occurred very fast, as both the prisoners and guards adopted their new roles and played their part in a short amount of time - Guards began to harass and torment prisoners in harsh and aggressive ways – they later reported to have enjoyed doing so - Prisoners would only talk about prison issues (forgetting about their previous real life), and snitch on other prisoners to the guards to please them. - This is significant evidence to suggest that the prisoners believed the prison was real and were not acting simply due to demand characteristics. - The guards became more demanding of obedience towards the prisoners while the prisoners became more submissive. - This suggests that the respective social roles became increasingly internalised

Answer 33

+ Real-life applications – This research changed the way US prisons are run + Debriefing – participants were fully and completely debriefed about the aims and results of the study

Answer 34

- Lacks ecological validity = The study suffered from demand characteristics. E.g the pp knew that they were participating in a study and therefore may have changed their behaviour - Lacks population validity = The sample only consisted of American male students and so the findings cannot be generalised to other genders and cultures - Ethical issues = Lack of fully informed consent due to the deception required to avoid demand characteristics and participant reactivity

Answer 35

The change of an individual's behaviour to comply with a demand by an authority figure

Answer 36

Agentic state Legitimacy of authority Situational factors

Answer 37

- This is when a person believes that someone else will take responsibility for their actions - 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. - Automonous state -> Agentic state = Agentic shift

Answer 38

- This describes how credible the figure of authority is. - People are more likely to obey them if they are seen as being morally good/right, and legitimate

Answer 39

- These include the appearance of the authority figure, the location/ surroundings and proximity - A person is more likely to obey someone wearing a uniform as it gives them a higher status and a greater sense of legitimacy - A person is more likely to obey someone in a location linked to higher status - A person is more likely to obey when they are in closer proximity to the authority figure

Answer 40

Variables affecting Obedience including Proximity, Location and Uniform

Answer 41

Randomly selected participants - 40 male volunteers

Answer 42

To observe whether people would obey a figure of authority when told to harm another person

Answer 43

- A participant was given the role of ‘teacher’ and a confederate was given the role of ‘learner’. - This was decided through a random allocation. - Participants had to ask the confederate a series of questions - Whenever the confederate got the answer wrong, the participant had to give him an electric shock, even when no answer was given. - The electric shocks increased by 15 volts at a time, ranging from 300V to 450V, where 330V was marked as ‘lethal’. - Participants thought the shocks were real when in fact there were no real shocks were administered, and the confederate was acting. - Participants were assessed on how many volts they were willing to shock the confederate with. - The experimenter’s role was to give a series of orders/prods when the participant refused to administer a shock, which increased in terms of demandingness every time the participant refused to administer a shock. - The same 4 prods were used each time when participants refused to administer the shocks.

Answer 44

1. Please continue 2. The experiment requires you to continue 3. It is essential you continue 4. You have no other choice but to continue

Answer 45

Uniform - Participants obeyed more when the experimenter wore a lab coat Location - Participants obeyed more when the study was conducted at a prestigious university i.e. Stanford Proximity - Participants obeyed more when the experimenter was in the same room (62.5%) but this was reduced to 40% when the experimenter and participant were in separate rooms

Answer 46

- All participants went up to 300V - 65% went up to 450V. - No pp stopped below 300V, whilst only 12.5% stopped at 300V - Showed that the vast majority of pp were prepared to give lethal electric shocks to a confederate.

Answer 47

+ Debriefing - The participants were thoroughly and carefully debriefed on the real aims of the study + RLA - This research opened our eyes to the problem of obedience and so may reduce future obedience in response to destructive authority figures

Answer 48

- Ethical issues = There was deception so informed consent could not be obtained. - Lack of ecological validity = The tasks given to participants are not like those we would encounter in real-life - It raises a socially sensitive issue

Answer 49

It is an internal explanation ie. personality factors The authoritarian personality

Answer 50

When you believe that people should completely obey or submit to their authority figures, and suppress their own beliefs.

Answer 51

Requires participants to rate the extent of their own agreement to certain statements using a Likert-style scale

Answer 52

Locus of control

Answer 53

Rutter (1966)

Answer 54

The locus of control is a measurement of an individual’s sense of control over their lives, i.e to what extent they feel that events in their lives are under their control, versus under the control of other external powers like fate.

Answer 55

Internal (more control) Behaviour is caused by their own personal decisions and effort

Answer 56

External (less control) Behaviour is caused by luck or fate

Answer 57

I won the award because I worked hard for it

Answer 58

I won the award because it was meant to be – it was my destiny

Answer 59

Randomly selected participants and confederates

Answer 60

To observe how minorities can influence a majority

Answer 61

* It was a lab experiment * Pp were in a group where there were two Confederates (minority) and four participants (majority). * Everyone was shown 36 blue slides, each with a different shade of blue * They were asked whether the slide was blue or green. * Confederates deliberately said they were green on two-thirds of the trials, thus producing a consistent minority view. * The number of times the real participants reported that the slide was green was observed. * A control group was also used consisting of participants only – no confederates.

Answer 62

When the confederates were consistent in their answers about 8% of participants said the slides were green. However, when the confederates answered inconsistently about 1% of participants said the slides were green. This shows that consistency is crucial for a minority to exert maximum influence on a majority.

Answer 63

This is because it makes the opposition think that the views of the minority are real and serious enough to pay attention to (i.e. the augmentation principle), if they are so determined to stay consistent.

Answer 64

Because when the minority has so much passion and confidence in their point of view, it suggests to the majority that their view must somehow be valid, and it encourages them to explore why

Answer 65

If they appear flexible, compromising and rational, they are less likely to be seen as extremists and attention seekers. They are more likely to be seen as reasonable and considerate

Answer 66

The minority group - manages to persuade the majority to adopt their point of view by being consistent, committed and flexible but they must have an internal locus of control

Answer 67

Triggers a snowball effect as the new idea spreads and builds up over time in the majority, to eventually, be adopted as the majority opinion

Answer 68

Being racist and homophobic used to be the norm, but after influences from minority groups, it eventually became accepted as the new norm and those who continue to be racist and homophobic are pressured to hide it or change.

Social Influence Flashcards

(95 cards)