Social Influence Flashcards

Question

How long did the Stanford prison experiment last

Answer 1

6 days was meant to last 2 weeks

Answer 2

Social roles appeared to have a strong influence on individuals' behaviour in this study Power may corrupt those who wield it i.e. the guards over the prisoners Institutions may brutalise people and result in deindividuation (for both guards and prisoners) A prison exerts psychological damage upon those who work and are incarcerated there It felt “real” to them Didn’t know that side of them, behaving brutally/submissibely

Answer 3

- Prisoners and guards randomly assigned to their roles, increasing the control over internal validity (whether the study actually measured what it intended to) of the study - Study meant that practices were changed in US prisons to protect the vulnerable and make prisons safer, and a lot of this was due to the study e.g young are not kept with adult prisoners to prevent bad behaviour perpetuating - Debriefed fully

Answer 4

~Individual differences and personality determines the extent person conforms to social roles, the guards' behaviour differed: Not all guards were so harsh or cruel ~Pps acting in a stereotypical way e.g. 1 guard said he based his behaviour on a brutal character he’d seen in a film ~lack of realism and many argued that it did not have the realism of a real prison ~ gender bias ~lacks population validity, not generalisable ETHICAL ~psychological harm, could have been long-lasting, ~right to withdraw was made difficult, Zimbardo himself was playing the role of superintendent ~lack of consent due to deception(avoided demand characteristics)

Answer 5

Complying with demands/following orders of someone you see as an authority figure who has power

Answer 6

1. agentic state 2. legitimacy of authority 3. situational factors

Answer 7

autonomous individuals behaving voluntarily, aware of the consequences of their actions. Shift to agentic level, seeing themselves at the agents of others and not responsible for their actions. When a person perceives someone else as a figure of authority, they defer responsibility to that person as they believe they are acting as an agent for that authority figure. shift form autonomous ->agentic state. responsibility shifts from yourself to authority figure

Answer 8

Aspects of the situation that reduce moral strain, minimise the damaging effects of their behaviour and keeps someone being obedient

Answer 9

ppl are more likely to obey when in agentic state, they don't believe they'll suffer the consequences of those actions. This is because they believe that they are acting on behalf of their agent.

Answer 10

showed video of Milgram's study to students + asked them who they felt was responsible for harm to the learner. students blamed the "experimenter"

Answer 11

- Kilmam + Mann(1947) replicated Milgrams study + found in Australia, there’s a tradition of challenging authority, obedience and deference to authority are less valued, only 16% of pps went to 450 V on shock generator On other hand - Mantell (1971) found 85% when doing same study in Germany value legitimate authority figures more

Answer 12

features of immediate physical+ social environment which may influence persons behaviour (proximity, uniform, location)

Answer 13

exp of behaviour that highlights importance of individuals personalty caused by internal characteristics

Answer 14

why such a high proportion of the German population obeyed Hitler's commands to murder during the Second World War

Answer 15

40 American men volunteers, recruited via newspaper article for a "memory" test at Yale university

Answer 16

introduced to another "pps" (who was a confederate) The two pps drew to see who would be the 'Teacher' + 'Learner' (draw was fixed, so genuine pps was always the teacher + confederate the learner. An Experimenter (confederate) dressed in a grey lab coat. Pps had to ask the L a series of questions, if answer is wrong, the pps had to give him an electric shock, even when no answer was given. electric shocks incremented by 15 volts at a time, (330V was marked as ‘lethal’.) Pps thought shocks were real but no real shocks administered + confederate was acting. shocks were falsely demonstrated to be real prior to the start of the study When the teacher displayed a reluctance to injure the learner, they were encouraged to continue the procedure

Answer 17

All pps went up to 300V +65% went up to 450V. No pps stopped below 300V, only 12.5% stopped at 300V vast majority of pps prepared to give lethal electric shocks to a confederate.

Answer 18

deceived + psychological harm: Pps thought allocation of roles Teacher + Learner was random but they were not as Milgram's confederate was always the learner Pps believed electric shocks were real Milgram debriefed pps afterward to ensure they understood the real intentions of the experiment HOWEVER :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. In a follow up study conducted a year later, 84% of participants were glad they were part of the study and 74% felt as if they learned something. This suggests that the study left little or no permanent or long-term psychological harm on participants

Answer 19

1. authoritarian personality 2. dispositional obediance

Answer 20

Adorno, measure using F-scale,

Answer 21

1. Autonomous level = behaving voluntarily + aware of consequences of actions 2. Agentic level -> seeing themselves as agents of others, not responsible for actions

Answer 22

- Social hierachy is accepted in day to day life, grow up with social heirachys - learn from young age to obey people who are higher up in the social hierarchy - We obey people who’s role is defined by society as powerful or as an authority figure. - The authority they yield is legitimate as it is agreed by society, They are granted the power to punish - More likely to obey ppl who we perceive to have authority over us due to position of power that they hold within the social hierarchy

Answer 23

1. Consistency 2. Flexibility 3. Commitment

Answer 24

- remain consistent with argument - majority can’t understand minorities diff view point creating conflict, causing anxiety - reduce anxiety by examining minorities argument - more consistent = more carefully argument considered

Answer 25

- must show some leeway with argument - minorities powerless against majorities so cannot force their opinion, must negotiate by being flexible - rigid = dogmatic (narrow minded + arrogant), too flexible = majority won’t pay attention see you as weak -> so be flexible but not too much

Answer 26

- being committed to cause shows certainty, confidence, courage - greater cost to join minority then stay with majority, so minority must show more commitment than majority to have effect

Answer 27

To see if consistent minority can influence majority to give incorrect answer in colour perception task

Answer 28

* 172 female American pps told they were taking part in experiment on colour perception * 6 pps at a time were asked to estimate colour, out loud, 36 slides (all diff shades of blue) * 2/6 pps confederates

Answer 29

1. Consistent = 2 confederates called slides green on all trials 2. Inconsistent = 2 confederates called slides green 24 times + blue 12 times

Answer 30

~ pps in consistent condition = influenced by minority called slides green 8.4% of trials ~ pps in inconsistent condition = called slides green 1.3% of trials

Answer 31

To investigate whether minority could influence majority to give less compensation to victim of ski lift accident

Answer 32

* pps placed in groups of 4 + had to agree on amount of compensation they would give to a victim of ski lift acccident * 1 pps in each group was a confederate

Answer 33

1. Inflexible =Minority argues for low rate of compensation + refused change to its position 2. Flexible = minority argued for low rate of compensation, compromised by offering slightly higher

Answer 34

* inflexible condition = minority had little/ no effect on majority * flexible condition = majority much more likely to compromise + change view

Answer 35

switches from majority to minority position, publicly + privately agreeing -> results in internalisation

Answer 36

= when society adopts a new belief or way of behaving, becoming widely accepted as the norm

Answer 37

1. Drawing attention to issue which opposes majority position 2. Role of conflict, examine minority position more deeply 3. Consistency 4. Augmentation principle 5. Snowball effect

Answer 38

If there are risks associated with putting forward point of view, views taken more seriously

Answer 39

process that starts from initial stage of small significance + builds upon itself, becoming large

Answer 40

- drawing attention -> used educational, political, militant methods - role of conflict -> advocated changes to voting system creating cognitive conflict - consistency -> continued for 15 yrs - augmentation principle -> hunger strike, imprisonment, death

Answer 41

- minority influence doesn’t always lead to social change - seen as deviant by majority - influence may be latent (create potential in future)

Answer 42

~ behaviour based on what ppl think other ppl do, often different to actual norm

Answer 43

Gap between perceived norm + actual norm

Answer 44

To reduce gap by telling ppl actual facts about any given behaviour

Answer 45

Support = Nolan 2008 Against = DeJong 2009

Answer 46

Investigated whether social influence processes led to reduction in energy consumption in a community

Answer 47

Hung messages on front doors of houses every week for 1 month Message = most residents were trying to reduce energy wage Control groups message = asked them to save energy but made no reference to other ppls behaviour

Answer 48

Significant decrease in energy wages in exp group

Answer 49

Tested theory in relation to alcohol use among uni students - surveys conducted at beginning of study + 3yrs after

Answer 50

Despite receiving normative info that corrected misconceptions of drinking norms, students did NOT report lower levels of alcohol consumption as a result of campaign

Answer 51

1. Locus of control 2. Social support

Answer 52

Rutter 1966, a dispositional explanation for the resistance to social influence, measures individuals sense of control over their lives

Answer 53

Behaviour is caused by their own personal decisions + effort - take more responsibility for actions and experience - more likely to base decisions on own beliefs - more self-confident, achievement orientated, higher intelligence, and less need for social approval. - believe in free will (usually) - resist pressure from others

Answer 54

Behaviour is caused by fate/ luck (external/environmental factors) - more likely to be influenced by others + obey others -believe they don't have personal control over their life - face stressful situations w/ a passive attitude

Answer 55

- more likely to have greater self confidence , more achievement orientated + high intelligence + less social approval -> dispositional traits lead to greater resistance to social influence - high internals, more likely to be leaders than followers

Answer 56

Oliner + Oliner (1998) Holland (1967)

Answer 57

interviewed non Jewish survivors of WW2 + compared those who had resisted orders + protected Jewish ppl from Nazis, in comparison to those who had not

Answer 58

406 “rescuers”, resisted orders, more likely to have high internal locus of control in comparison to 126ppl who had simply followed orders

Answer 59

Replicated milgrams study + measured whether pps were classed as “internals” or “externals” FOUND: 37% of internals didn’t continue to 450 volts 23% externals didn’t continue to 450 volts

Answer 60

Presence of others who resist pressures to conform/obey can help others do the same -> give confidence to go along with own opinions These ppl act as “ models” to show others that resistance is possible

Answer 61

* Most important role of social support is breaking unanimity of majority * Raises possibility that there is more than 1 legitimate answer in any given situation * presence of an ally gives individual more confidence in their decision + allows them to stand up to majority

Answer 62

- Conformity dropped from 37% to 5.5% - If somebody present isn’t conforming then pressure to conform is reduced, even if ally is giving wrong/ different answer, fact they aren’t conforming leads to drop in conformity

Answer 63

- disobedient peers act as role models on which individual can model own behaviour - defiance of a peer provides opportunity for individual to also take stand against authority-> ally gives confidence to individual

Answer 64

- obedience dropped from 65% to 10% when genuine pps was joined by disobedient confederate

Answer 65

A role model/ ally, provides support, allowing individual to be free + act according to own conscience

Answer 66

The rosenstrasse protest

Answer 67

= a stark illustration of milgrams research irl - 1943, group of German woman protested in Rossentrasse Berlin, where Gestapo (Nazi secret police) were holding 2000 Jewish men (most married to non Jewish partners / male kids from “mixed marriages” - despite gestapo threatening to open fire on them, woman’s courage eventually prevailed + Jews were set on fire Milgram : found presence of disobedient peers gave pps confidence + courage to resist authorities orders. These woman defied authority of gestapo together, given courage by collective action of their peers

Answer 68

p: research to support e: Allen and Levine (1971) found that conformity decr. when dissenter present in Asch's study (even when wrong) e: shows resistance is not motivated by following what someone says - enables someone to be free from pressure of group ---> good explanation of S.S for resistance to RSI l: task was artificial, lacks mundane realism, not reflective of real life resistance to social influence ---> findings cannot be used to support S.S as an explanation for RSI

Answer 69

High levels of RWA 1. Conventionalism = an adherence to conventional norms +values 2. Authoritarian aggression = aggressive feelings towards ppl who violate these norms 3. Authoritarian submission = submission to legitimate authorities

Answer 70

- questionnaire used to determine how likely one is to obey commands of an authority figure - higher you score on F Scale more likely they are to obey authority + adhere to social norms - those who score highly tend to have parents who also scored highly, suggesting an element of environmental influence

Answer 71

- research conducted using questionnaires-> social desirability, lack internal validity

Answer 72

- situational factors are more important eg situational factors in milgrams study was uniform, experimenter wore lab coat obedience dropped from 65% to 20%. -> obedience is affected by situation you find yourself in rather than internal factors

Answer 73

- members of German Reserve Police Battalion 101 murdered civilians without being ordered to had reasons for behaving like this - no agentic shift -> did not see themselves as acting as agents of higher authority - given a choice, acted autonomously out of hatred, prejudice, racism + greed

Answer 74

conformity increases when task is difficult, asch altered line length making them similar and harder to tell apart, ISI plays a bigger role -> uncertain of answers so look to others for answer more difficult = greater conformity THEREFORE: task difficulty + individual differences are important in determining conformity

Answer 75

- When new confed who always gave right answer, conformity DROPPED significantly, from 33% - 5.5%, - When a dissenter was present (rebel who gave different answer to the correct one) conformity rates DROPPED to 9% - act as a role model THEREFORE: breaking group’s unanimous position led to conformity reduction

Answer 76

Group Size: majority consisted of 1(3%) or 2 confederates – conformity was LOW, When there’s 3 in the majority conformity jumped to 30% (more pressure) Further increases to majority didn’t increase conformity substantially THEREFORE: size of majority is important BUT up to a point - optimum 3

Answer 77

1. experimenter had no lab coat 2. location (was Yale, now run down office block in town centre) 3. experimenter is absent (explained instructions left room, gave orders over the phone)

Answer 78

1. no lab coat = obedience dropped to 20% 2. location = obedience dropped to 48% 3. proximity = obedience dropped to 20%

Answer 79

P: there is irl support E: Hofling (1966) studied nurses and found levels of obedience to unjustified demands by doctors were very high E: this suggests the findings of Milgram's research can be generalised to other situations L: findings are valuable in telling us how obedience operates in real life.

Answer 80

P: Lack of internal validity E: The experiment may have been about trust rather than about obedience because the experiment was held at Yale University. E: Participants may have trusted that nothing serious would happen to the confederate, especially considering the immense prestige of the location. Also when the experiment was replicated in a run-down office, obedience decreased to a mere 20.5%. L: This suggests that the original study did not investigate what it aimed to investigate.

Answer 81

P: there is research support for the role of uniform E: Bickman (1974), dressed 3 confeds in different outfits - civilian, milkman + security guard. they stood in the street asking passers by to pick up litter. the results showed they are most likely to listen to the confed in the security guard uniform. 153 adults 18-63yrs, opportunity sample, Brooklyn NY field exp scenarios( bus stop, picking up a bag, dime+meter) E: shows uniform conveys authority as the security guard uniform would have been perceived as more authoritative than the other uniforms. conducted in natural setting - inc. confidence in the fact that people behaved truly. L: clear evidence that uniform is a situational factor that increases obedience levels

Answer 82

P: excuses evil behaviour E: although the findings show that the proximity of the experimenter, teacher and learner, the location of the study and the presence of the uniform or situational factors that influence obedience. Mandel (1998) argues that this argument is offensive to survivors of horrible atrocities such as the Holocaust suggesting Nazis were simply victims of situational factors beyond their control E: removes personal responsibility from the perpetrators and only doing the duties under being orders; situation would've behaved in the same way L: runs the risk of minimising the evil behaviours that occur by providing an 'alibi' for this behaviour

Answer 83

P: high control over variables E: he systematically altered one variable at a time e.g. proximity to see what effects would have on the level of obedience whilst keeping all of the other procedures are variables the same - the study was replicated over and over again with more than 1000 participants in total E: huge strength - means we can be more certain that the findings found are due to the manipulation of the single variation rather than other extraneous variables. Also means that it is possible for other researchers to replicate the study in the exact way to test reliability of finding. L: extremely important in psychology - Milgram's original research into situational variables have been repeated in different cultures and similar results have been found therefore suggesting a robust phenomenon is being studied.

Answer 84

Harsh parenting - strict discipline, expectation to be loyal, high standards, severe criticism of perceived failings etc - characterised by conditional love - created hostility and resentment in the child and cannot express directly to parents so they displace these feelings onto the weak. (scapegoating)

Answer 85

procedure: - investigated the cause of the obedient personality in a study of more than 2000 middle class white Americans and their unconscious attitudes toward other racial groups - developed several studies to investigate this including the fascism scale (F-scale) which is still used to measure authoritarian personalities.

Answer 86

findings: - people with authoritarian leanings (scored higher) identified with 'strong' people and were generally contemptuous of the 'weak' - conscious of their own and others' status, showing excessive respect and servility to those of higher status - those with this personality had a cognitive style were they could easily categorise people with fixed and distinctive stereotypes. - strong positive correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice

Social Influence Flashcards

(110 cards)