social influence

Question 1

what is conformity

Answer 1

a change in a persons behavior or opinions as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or group

Question 2

what are the three different types of conformity (Kelman 1958)

Answer 2

1. compliance
2. internalisation
   3.identification

Question 3

what is compliance

Answer 3

weakest level of conformity- person may publicly show themselves go along with the behaviour of the group to gain their approval or to avoid disapproval- only happens when in the presence of the group

Question 4

what is internalisation

Answer 4

deepest form of conformity- the change is genuine and usually permanent and so continues in the absence of group pressure- may occur when exposed to the beliefs of others and then having to decide themselves on their own viewpoint

Question 5

what is identification

Answer 5

deeper than compliance but weaker than internalisation- change your behaviour to fit in with the group- individual identifies with a group which leads to conformity- temporary as opinion changes publicly but private opinion may not change

Question 6

what are the explanations of conformity

Answer 6

1.normative social influence
2.informational social influence

Question 7

what is normative social influence and what can it lead to

Answer 7

an explanation of conformity that says we agree with the opinion of the majority because we want to be accepted, gain social approval and want to be liked. this may lead to compliance.

Question 8

what is informational social influence and what can it lead to

Answer 8

an explanation of conformity that says we agree with the opinion of the majority because we believe it is correct. we accept it because we want to be correct as well. this may lead to internalisation

Question 9

what is the support for compliance/ NSI

Answer 9

Linkenbach:
-found that teens who were given the message that their peers didn’t smoke, were less likely to take up smoking
-supports the idea that when we show compliance its because we want to fit in

Question 10

what is the support for internalisation/ ISI

Answer 10

Jenness- pps we’re asked to guess the number of beans in a jar, after being given the opportunity to discuss their estimates with others, it was found their estimates converged to the group norm, showing that people look to others to gain an idea about a reasonable answer

Question 11

evaluation on explanations of conformity

Answer 11

+ NSI has support from asch- pp’s reported private disagreement with the groups answers, saying they went along with the group because they didn’t want to look stupid. showing pp’s simply went along with the ,majority because of compliance
+ ISI has support from jenness- pp’s to asked to guess number of beans in a jar, pp’s then discussed their estimates with others. found that the estimate given was a converged to the norm of the group. supports view of we go along with others because we believe them to be correct
X all these explanations are based on research that has ethical problems. e.g. asch has broken key BPS guidelines as they deceived their pp’s, also did not obtain full informed consent before this experiment and allowed pp’s to become distressed. explanations questioned as to whether people conform this way in real life
X explanations based on lab research which is low on ecological validity. because pp’s were in an artificial setting, doing tasks that had no relation to real life e.g. judging length of lines. suggest that perhaps pp’s did not behave as they would in the real world, so explanations of majority influence and the results of research on which these are busily cannot be applied to real life settings

Question 12

what was the procedure in asch’s study

Answer 12

123 male students in the USA, participated in a vision test, using a line judgment task.
- 7 participants and 1 naive pp
- 7 confederates had already agreed their answers

Question 13

what were the results and conclusion of asch’s study

Answer 13

• over the 12 critical trials about 75% conformed at least once
• in control group with no pressure to conform, less than 1% of pp gave the wrong answer
• they stated that they had gone along with the group for fear of being ridiculed

Question 14

what were the variations in aschs study

Answer 14

-increasing group size
- breaking unanimity
- increasing task difficulty

Question 15

what did increasing the group size cause (asch)

Answer 15

research has found that as the majority group size increases so does influence but only up to a certain point
-asch found that with only one confederate, conformity was 3%, two confederates rose it to 13% and 3 confederates rose it to 33%
-up to 15 confederates led to no further increase on conformity, with conformity highest when there is a 3-5 person majority

Question 16

what did breaking unanimity cause (asch)

Answer 16

when all confederates gave the same incorrect response conformity was as high as 33%
-asch placed a confederate 2nd to last before the real pp was able to give their answer. confederate gave the correct answer whilst the other confederates gave an incorrect response. results found conformity dropped to 5.5%
-if the confederate went against both the pp and the other confederates, conformity still dropped to 9%
-concluded that breaking unanimity simply through having a different POV was enough to reduce conformity, whether the answer given by the single confederate was right or wrong

Question 17

what did increasing task difficulty cause (asch)

Answer 17

in asch’s og study the line judgement task was very easy but in the variation study he made it harder to differentiate between the lengths of the lines causing conformity to increase

Question 18

positive evaluations of asch study

Answer 18

+ lab experiment means that it has good control over extraneous variables
increasing reliability which makes the experiment easier to be repeated
+ support from jenness who asked pp’s to guess the number of beans in a jar. after being given the chance to discuss their estimates with other individuals, it was found that their estimates converged to the group norm. suggests that there is wider academic support for the idea that people look to others to gain an idea about a responsible answer

Question 19

negative evaluations of asch’s study

Answer 19

X ethical issues- pp’s were deceived
X low population validity- all pp’s were male undergraduates
X low mundane realism- was an artificial task
X lacks ecological value- not done in a natural setting

Question 20

what was the aim of zimbardos experiment

Answer 20

to investigate how readily people would conform to the roles of guard and prisoner in the mock prison environment.
- wanted to investigate whether the brutality reported amongst guards was due to sadistic personalities (dispositional) or had more to do with the prison environment (situational)

Question 21

outline research into conformity to social roles

Answer 21

zimbardo wanted to see whether the hostiloty found in many real prisons would also be found in his mock prison. if hostility was found in spite of not using sadistic guards this would suggest it is the power structure that creates hostility
-pps were allocated the role of guard or prisoner in a mock prison. violence + rebellion broke out within 2 days. prisoners ripped of their clothing and shouted at the guards
-in return guards violently put down this rebellion by using fire extinguishers to the point that one prisoner had to be released after one day due to extreme emotional disturbance
-extremely high levels of conformity to social roles was shown in both prisoner + guards. guards conformed to sadistic role by not just wearing the uniform but also by readily issuing punishments for prison misbehaviour
-prisoners conformed to their social roles as after 5 days of initial rebellion, they becam passive and obedient. some comformed to their social role by pretending to be ‘sick’ and 5 had to be released early due to extreme emotional disturbance
-study stopped on 6th day even though it was supposed to run for 2 weeks as a result of extreme pathological behaviour

Question 22

what are social norms

Answer 22

this is how an individual is expected to behave in a social situation

Question 23

what are dispositional factors in terms of zimbardos study

Answer 23

these are within us- they were born with a personality that meant they behaved badly

Question 24

what are situational variables in terms of zimbardos study

Answer 24

these are external- because of the prison environment

Question 25

what is deindividation in terms of zimbardos study

Answer 25

zimbardo felt that deindividation happened due to the complete loss of ‘individualisation’ - they seemed to be unable to focus on who they were, so fell into the role of being prisoner/ guard/ researcher - this was manipulated by the humiliation of the arrest - labelling of the prisoners as numbers also helped this deindividation process

Question 26

what were the findings from zimbardo's study

Answer 26

guards took up their roles with enthusiasm, this behavior became a threat to the prisoners and the prisoners began to retaliate by ripping the guards uniforms and shouting and swearing at them. after their defiance, the prisoners then became subdued, depressed and anxious. the guards became more brutal and aggressive, with some of them enjoying the power that they had over the prisoners. study had to be stopped after 6 days due to the prisoners mental and physical health deteriorating.

Question 27

what was the conclusion of zimbardos study

Answer 27

people will readily conform to the social roles they are expected to play, especially if the roles are strongly stereotyped. - the study supports the situational explanation of behaviour rather than the dispositional one, since none of the guards showed statistic tendencies before the study

Question 28

negative evaluations of zimbardos study

Answer 28

X pp’s suffered psychological harm and deception- they didn’t know the study was taking place and being taken to the mock prison put them into a state of shock X zimbardo was also conforming to the role of superintendent, so was not able to fulfill his main ethical responsibility X contracting research- reicher and hasaim attempted to recreate the SPE, but their findings were very different

Question 29

what are the positive evaluations of zimbardos study

Answer 29

+ was considered ethical because he followed the guidelines of the stanford uni ethics committee + real life applications- the guards at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, were also affected by an ‘evil situation’ which led them to behave in ways they never normally would

Question 30

what was the aim of milgrims study

Answer 30

researched how far people would go in this obeying an instruction if it involved harming another person

Question 31

what is obdedience

Answer 31

a form of social influence in which an individual follows a direct order. the person issuing the order is usually a figure of authority, who has the power to punish when behavior is not forthcoming.

Question 32

what was the procedure in milgrim's study

Answer 32

40 male participants recruited through adverts and flyers. participants were aged between 20 and 50. offered $4.50 to take part. -a confederate was always the 'learner' -true participant was always the teacher -a confederate was always the 'experimenter' who was dressed in a lab coat -the learner was strapped into a chair in another room so that the teacher couldn't see them -teacher was told to administer a shock every time the learner got a question wrong -shocks started at 15V and went up to 450V, labelled 'danger, severe shock' -if the teacher refused to continue they would be given 4 prods: 1. please continue 2. experiment requires that you continue 3. absolutely essential you continue 4. have no other choice, you have to go on

Question 33

what were the results and conclusion of milgrims study

Answer 33

-65% of pp’s continued to the highest level of voltage (450 V) -all pp’s continued to 300v -conclusion was that people tend to obey orders from other people if they recognise their authority as morally right and/ or legally based.

Question 34

what did milgrim do post experiment

Answer 34

all participants were debriefed, and assured that their behavior was entirely normal. they were also sent a follow up questionnaire; 84% reported that they felt glad to have participated in the study

Question 35

what situational variables were used in milgrims study

Answer 35

-proximity -uniform

Question 36

how did proximity vary the results in milgrims study

Answer 36

- teacher and learner were in a different room first, when they were both in the same room obedience fell from 65% to 40% - teachers was required to force the learners hand onto an electrical shock plate. obedience rate fell to 30% - milgrim moved the experiment to a run down office, obedience fell to 48%

Question 37

how did uniform vary the results in milgrims study

Answer 37

- experimenter was replaced with a confederate dressed in normal clothes, this caused obedience fates to fall to 20%

Question 38

strengths of milgrims study (ao3)

Answer 38

+ can be easily replicated, due to being a lab study + done in lab, so has control variables

Question 39

limitations of milgrims study (ao3)

Answer 39

X situation is artificial- loss of external validity X demand characteristics may cause pp’s to behave in ways that are not normal X ethical issues, milgrim led participants to believe that the allocations of the roles of teacher and learner were random, but it was in fact fixed. participants were deceived and thought that they were actually administrating shocks to the learner, which led to them suffering from psychological harm and some of them even having seizures.

Question 40

define agentic state

Answer 40

a mental state where we feel no personal responsibility for our behavior because we believe ourselves to be acting for an authoritarian figure. this frees us from the demands of our consciences and allows us to obey even a destructive authoritarian figure

Question 41

define autonomous state

Answer 41

this is the opposite of the agentic state, and this is when a person is free to behave according to their own principles and they therefore feel a sense of responsibility for their actions

Question 42

define agentic shift, and what did milgrim suggest about this shift

Answer 42

the shift from autonomous to agentic. milgrim suggested that this occurs when a person perceives someone else as a figure of authority, therefore feeling the need to obey them

Question 43

what keeps a person in the agentic state

Answer 43

- denying impact on their actions - guilt/ anxiety about the thought of leaving - not wanting to appear rude/ arrogant

Question 44

what are binding factors

Answer 44

aspects of the situation that allow the person to ignore or minimise the damaging effect of their behavior and thus reduce the 'mental strain' they are feeling

Question 45

positives of the agentic shift

Answer 45

+ research support- milgrims study supports the agentic/ autonomous state for example when they refused to give a shock, this is back to autonomous state, however he man checked and asked who was responsible, he said he was, determining that it was back to agentic state

Question 46

limitation of agentic shift

Answer 46

X agentic shift doesn’t show evidence to explain obedience. many of milgrims pp’s remained autonomous so the agentic shift can only account for some situations of obedience

Question 47

define legitimacy of authority

Answer 47

an explanation for obedience which suggests that we are more likely to obey people who we perceive to have authority over us. this authority is justified by the individuals position of power within a social hierarchy

Question 48

example of legitimacy of authority in milgrims study

Answer 48

pp’s followed orders from the experimenter, who they have identified as an authority figure, because of his uniform. they believed this was their duty

Question 49

positive evaluation of legitimacy of authority

Answer 49

+ useful account of cultural differences- for example when milgrims study was replicated in Australia, 16% went to 450 volts. however in Germany 85% went all the way + research support- Blass and Schmitt showed a film of milgrims study to students and asked them to identify who they felt was responsible for the harm to the 'leaner'. the students blamed the experimenter rather than the participant. this is because they recognised legitimate authority as the cause of obedience.

Question 50

negatives of legitimacy of authority

Answer 50

X research shows the behaviour of the Nazi’s cannot be explained in terms of authority and agentic shift, men shot civilians despite not having to X doesn't explain why some of the participants don't obey even with a person of legitimate authority with them. some pp’s in milgrims study disobeyed and refused to carry on past 300V so not everyone follows legitimacy of authority

Question 51

define authoritarian personality

Answer 51

a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority. such individuals are also thought to be submissive of to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.

Question 52

what did Adorno argue

Answer 52

argued that high levels of obedience was a psychological disorder linked to personality

Question 53

what scale measures the authoritarian personality and how did it come about

Answer 53

the F- scale was introduced after Adorno studied personalities with a questionnaire. the questions were designed to show unconscious feelings towards minority groups

Question 54

what did it mean if a person scored highly on the F-scale

Answer 54

showed that they had high respect for people with a higher social status, and had fixed stereotypes for other groups. they were also inflexible with strong, clear ideas of right and wrong. Adorno suggested that these people had their personality shaped in early life by strict authoritarian parenting with harsh, physical punishment

Question 55

positive evaluation of the F-scale

Answer 55

+supporting research by Elmes and Milgram- interviewed some of the participants who had taken part in the first 4 milgram studies. found that those that had shocked to the full 450V scored higher on the F-scale. this shows that milgrams research supports Ardonos ideas. +supporting research by Altemeyer- who constructed a new rating scale to measure the authoritarian personality, called the right wing authoritarian scale. this fixed many of the problems with Ardonos F-scale and showed a consistent correlation between high scores on the RWA and measures of prejudice between groups. this supports the concept of the existence of the authoritarian personality.

Question 56

limitations of the F- scale

Answer 56

X has acquiescence bias- all questions are worded in the same direction X politically biased- is very right wing, it doesn’t account for left wing authoritarianism. this is a limitation because it is not a comprehensive dispositional explanation that can account for obedience to authority across the whole political spectrum

Question 57

what is locus of control

Answer 57

describes a persons perception of their control over behaviours, successes, failures and events.

Question 58

what does it mean if a person has an internal locus of control

Answer 58

believe they are mostly responsible for what happens to them, and that they are largely in control. e.g you did well on a test because you worked hard

Question 59

what does it mean if a person has an external locus of control

Answer 59

this means they think their life is determined by fate, luck and external factors. things happen without their control. e.g. did bad on a test because the questions were hard

Question 60

how do people with an internal LOC resist social influence

Answer 60

more likely to be able to resist pressures to conform or obey, they take personal responsibility for their actions and experiences (good or bad) and they are more likely to base their decisions on their own beliefs and thus resist pressures from others

Question 61

what does is the LOC continuum based on

Answer 61

high internal LOC at one end, and high external LOC at the other end, with low internal and low external lying in between

Question 62

how does a person act if they have a high internal LOC

Answer 62

they tend to be more self-confident, more achievement-orientated, have higher intelligence and less need for social approval, therefore they are less likely to conform and obey.

Question 63

positive evaluation of locus of control

Answer 63

+ holland repeated milgrims study and found internals showed greater resistance, this increases the validity of the LOC explanation + Atgis found that those who scored higher on external LOC were more easily persuaded and likely to conform than this with a low score

Question 64

negatives of locus of control

Answer 64

X Rotter found that LOC was only important in new situations and has little effect on familiar situations, where experience is more important X Spector found LOC is related to NSI but not ISI, so is limited

Question 65

what is a dissenter

Answer 65

someone who goes against the crowd

Question 66

how is social support within conformity important

Answer 66

conformity is at its most powerful when there is a ‘unanimity’ from the group - a dissenter provides the pp’s with moral support, which allows them to follow their conscience and go against the majority

Question 67

positive evaluations of social support

Answer 67

+ independence increased- with one dissenter in an asch type study, even though they wore thick glasses and said they had vision problems + obedience study- with dissenting peers, gamson found that 88% of people resisted when an oil company ran a smear campaign + real life application- people aged 14-19 were given a buddy to help resist peer pressure to smoke, those given a buddy were less likely to smoke

Question 68

what is minority influence

Answer 68

a form of social influence, where a minority of people persuade others to adopt their beliefs, attitudes or behaviors

Question 69

what does minority influence lead to

Answer 69

leads to internalisation or conversion, in which private attitudes are changed as well as public behaviors

Question 70

what are the three characteristics of minorities which make them influential

Answer 70

1. consistency 2. commitment 3. flexibility

Question 71

what does it mean if the minority are consistent and how is this beneficial

Answer 71

the minority keep the same beliefs, both over time and between all individuals that form the minority. this is effective because it draws attention to the minority view

Question 72

what does it mean if the minority are committed and how is this beneficial

Answer 72

when the minority demonstrate dedication to their position, for example by making personal sacrifices. this is effective because it shows the minority is not acting out of self-interest

Question 73

what does it mean if the minority are flexible and how is this beneficial

Answer 73

the minority remain reasonable and take into account the opposing views. therefore minority influence is more effective if the minority show flexibility by accepting the possibility of compromise

Question 74

positive evaluation of minority influence

Answer 74

+research support for consistency- Wood et al carried out a meta-analysis of almost 100 similar studies and found that minorities who were seen as being consistent were most influential, shows consistency is a major factor in minority influence +research support for depth of thought- Martin et al demonstrated that there is a greater degree of internalisation of a minority view compared to a majority view. in his study one group heard the opinion of a minority group and the other group heard the view from a majority of people. after both groups were exposed to an opposing opinion, the group who heard the minority view were significantly less likely to change their own views. this suggests that a minority is more powerful because it holds risk and so forces the audience to reconsider their own views

Question 75

negative evaluation of minority influence

Answer 75

X a key issue with Moscovici's study in particular is the reliance on artificial tasks and stimuli. this means that such methodology lacks mundane realism because the tasks do not reflect the scenarios within which minority groups would act in real life. this also means that the findings are likely to lack ecological validity because the extent to which the results can be generalised is limited.

Question 76

what was the procedure in Moscovici's study

Answer 76

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

Question 77

what were the findings from Moscovici's study

Answer 77

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

Question 78

define social influence

Answer 78

the process by which individuals and groups change each other's attitudes and behaviors. includes conformity, obedience and minority influence

Question 79

define social change

Answer 79

this occurs when whole societies, rather than just individuals, adopt new attitudes, beliefs and ways of doing things

Question 80

how does social change occur

Answer 80

1. drawing attention 2. consistency 3. deeper processing 4. augmentation principle 5. snowball effect 6. social cryptomnesia

Question 81

how are dissenters helpful when creating social change

Answer 81

they make social change more likely - this is learnt from Asch's study - encourages others to dissent

Question 82

how is normative social influence helpful when creating social change

Answer 82

provide information about what other people are doing, to encourage the test of the population to do the same. for example, the phrase 'bin it, others do' is used to help encourage people to stop littering

Question 83

what are the lessons from obedience research for social change

Answer 83

milgrams research demonstrates the importance of disobedient role models. in the variation of where a confederate teacher refuses to administer the shocks, the rate of obedience in the genuine participants decreased. zimbardo also suggested how obedience can be used to create social change through the process of gradual commitment. once a small instruction has been obeyed, it becomes much more difficult to resist a bigger one.

Question 84

positive evaluations of social influence and social change

Answer 84

+ research support for normative influences- Nolan et al put messages on doors saying 'most people are trying to reduce energy use'. as a control group, some people just had messages on their door telling them to save energy with no mention of other people behavior. Nolan found a significant drop in energy use from the 1st group who used NSI

Question 85

negative evaluation of social influence and social change

Answer 85

X minority influence is only indirectly effective- Charlan Nemeth argues that the effects of minority influence are likely to be most indirect and delayed. they are indirect because the majority is influenced on matters only related to this issues at hand, and not the central issue itself. X barriers to social change- researches found their participants were less likely to behave in environmentally ways because they did not want to be associated with stereotypical and minority 'environmentalists'. participants did not want to be labelled as 'tree huggers'