Social influence Flashcards

1
Q

social influence

A
  • the scientific study of the ways in which people’s thoughts, feelings and behavoiurs are affected by other people
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2
Q

conformity

A
  • the tendency to change what we do, think or say in response due to the influence of real or imagined pressure from others
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3
Q

types of conformity

A
  • compliance
  • identification
  • internalisation
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4
Q

compliance

A
  • conforming publicly but continuing privately to disagree
  • shallowest form of conformity
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5
Q

identification

A
  • we act the same as the group because we share their values and want to be accepted
  • the change of belief or behaviour is often temporary
  • moderate form of conformity
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6
Q

internalisation

A
  • person conforms publicly and privately because they have internalised and accepted the views of the group
  • deepest form of conformity
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7
Q

explanations of conformity

A
  • normative social influence
  • informational social influence
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8
Q

normative social influence

A
  • occurs when we wished to be liked by the majority group even though we may not agree with them
  • following the crowd to fit in with the norm and be liked by the group
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9
Q

informative social influence

A
  • occurs when we look to the majority group for information as we are unsure how to behave or act
  • conforms because they look to the majority for the right answer
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10
Q

Asch’s study
aim + participants

A
  • male american undergraduates, in groups of 6
  • 1 real participant and 5 confederates
  • aim - to investigate conformity and majority influence
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11
Q

Asch’s study
procedure

A
  • presented with 4 lines - 3 comparison and 1 standard line
  • asked to state which line was the same as the standard
  • real participant always answered last
  • confederates gave the wrong answer 12 / 18 times
  • asch observed how often the participant would give the same wrong answer as the confederates
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12
Q

Asch’s study
results

A
  • 36.8% conformed
  • 25% never conformed
  • 75% conformed at least once
  • in a control trial, only 1% of answers were incorrect from the real participants
  • eliminates eyesight as an extraneous variable
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13
Q

variables affecting conformity

A
  • group size
  • unamity
  • task difficulty
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14
Q

Asch’s study
strengths

A
  • high internal validty
  • lab experiment
  • supports NSI
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15
Q

Asch’s study
limitations

A
  • lacks ecological + population validity
  • ethical issues
  • lacked validity
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16
Q

Zimbardo’s study
aim + participants

A
  • 24 american undergraduate students
  • aim - to investigate how people would conform to social roles in a simulated environment
  • why good people do bad things
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17
Q

Zimbardo’s study
procedure

A
  • basement of Stanford University was converted into a simluated prison
  • american students volunteered and were paid to take part
  • randomly assigned guard or prisoner and both roles wore an uniform
  • prisoners were referred to by their assigned number and guards were given mirrored glasses and handcuffs
  • no one was allowed to leave
  • behaviour of participants was observed
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18
Q

Zimbardo’s study
findings

A
  • identification occured very fast from both roles
  • guards began harrasing and tormenting prisoners in very aggressive ways and enjoyed it
  • prisoners would only talk about prison topics
  • guards became more demanding of obedience and assertiveness towards the prisoners
  • prisoners became more submissive
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19
Q

Zimbardo’s study
strengths

A
  • real life applications
  • debriefing
  • led to the formal recognition of ethical guidlines
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20
Q

Zimbardo’s study
limitations

A
  • lacks ecological validity
  • lacks population validity
  • loads of ethical issues
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21
Q

explanations for obedience

A
  • agentic state
  • legitimacy of authority
  • situational factors
22
Q

agentic state

A
  • when a person believes that someone else will take responsibility for their actions
23
Q

autonomous state

A
  • when a person believes that they will take full responsibility for their actions
24
Q

agentic shift

A
  • when someone shifts from an autonomous state to the agentic state
25
Q

legitimacy of authority

A
  • how credible the figure of authority is
  • people are more likely to obey them if they are seen as morally good or right and legitimate
  • teachers, government, parents
26
Q

situational factors

A
  • an external influence which can impact the results of the experiment
  • include appearance of authority figure, location / surroundings and proximity
27
Q

Milgram’s study
aim + participants

A
  • randomly selected participants - 40 male volunteers
  • aim - to observe whether people would obey a figure of authority when told to harm another person
28
Q

Milgram’s study
procedure

A
  • a participant was given the role of teacher and a confederate given the role of learner
  • particpant had to ask the confederate a series of questions
  • when the answers were wrong, the participant was told to administer an electric shock, even when no answer was given
  • electric shocks went up by 15V at a time, up to 450V
  • participants were assessed om how many volts they were willing to shock the confederate with
  • experimenters role was to give a series of orders when the participant refused to administer the electric shock
29
Q

Milgram’s study
findings

A
  • all participants went up to 300V
  • 65% went up to 450V
  • no participants stopped below 300V, only 12.5% stopped at 300V
  • vast majority of participants were prepared to administer lethal electric shocks to a confederate
30
Q

Milgram’s study
strengths

A
  • debriefing at the aim of the study
  • real life applications
  • high internal validity
  • highly replicable
  • supporting studies confirmed external validity
31
Q

Milgram’s study
limitations

A
  • ethical issues
  • socially sensitive issue
  • lack of internal validity
  • lack of ecological validity
32
Q

factors affecting obedience

A
  • proximity
  • location
  • uniform
33
Q

Milgram’s study
proximity

A
  • participants obeyed more when the experimenter was in the same room - 62.5%
  • reduced to 40% when the experimenter and participant were in separate rooms
  • reduced to a further 30% in the touch proximity condition
34
Q

Milgram’s study
location

A
  • participants obeyed more when the experiment was conducted at a prestigious university
  • increases the trust in the integrity of the experiment
35
Q

Milgram’s study
uniform

A
  • participants obeyed more when the experimenter wore a lab coat
  • uniform gives them a higher status and greater sense of legitimacy
  • however, demand characteristics were particularly evident in thie condition
36
Q

dispositional explanation

A
  • internal explantion that explains why someone obeys
37
Q

authoritarian personality

A
  • when you believe that people should completely obey or submit to their authority figures, and suppress their own beliefs
38
Q

explanation of resistance
to social influence

A
  • locus of control
  • social support
39
Q

locus of control

A
  • Rotter (1966)
  • a measurement of an individual’s sense of control over their lives
40
Q

internal locus of control

A
  • they believe their behaviour is caused by their own personal decisions and effort
  • often confrom and obey less because they take more responsibilty for their own actions
41
Q

external locus of control

A
  • they believe that their behaviour is caused by luck or fate
  • more likely to act on behalf of another
42
Q

social support

A
  • everyday behaviours that communicate to an individual that they are valued or cared for
43
Q

minority influence factors

A
  • consistency
  • commitment
  • flexibility
44
Q

Moscovici’s study
aim + participants

A
  • randomly selected participants and confederates
  • aim - to observe how minorities can influence a majority
45
Q

Moscovici’s study
procedure

A
  • lab experiment
  • in groups of 6 - 2 confederates + 4 participants
  • everyone was shown 36 blue slides, each a different shade
  • confederates deliberately said they were green on 2/3 of the trails - producing a consistent minority view
  • the number of times participants reported the slide was green was observed
  • a control group was also used consisting of participants only
46
Q

Moscovici’s study
findings

A
  • when the confederates were consistent with their answers, 8% of participants said the slides were green
  • when the confederates were inconsistent, about 1% of participants said the slides were green
  • shows that consistency is crucial for a minority to exert maximum influence on a majority
47
Q

minority influence
consistency

A
  • makes the opposition think that the views of the minority are real and serious enough to pay attention
  • diachronic and synchronic consistency
48
Q

diachronic consistency

A
  • when the group remains consistent over time
  • they do not change their views over time
49
Q

synchronic consistency

A
  • when the group is consistent between all the members of the group
  • everyone in the group has the same views, and agree with and support each other
50
Q

minority influence
commitment

A
  • when the minority have so much passion and confidence, it suggests to the majority that their view must somehow be valid
  • it encourages the majority to explore why
51
Q

minority influence
flexibility

A
  • they are less likely to be seen as extremists and attention seekers
  • they are more likely to be seen as reasonable, considerate and cooperative