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social influence Flashcards

1
Q

define conformity

A

yielding to group pressure, usually influenced by a larger group of people

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2
Q

define compliance

A

individuals adjust their behaviour and opinions to those of the group to be accepted or avoid disapproval

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3
Q

compliance features

A
  • desire to fit in
  • public but not private acceptance and does not result in any change in the persons underlying attitude
  • weak and temporary form
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4
Q

define identification

A

individuals adjust their behaviour and opinions to those of a group, because membership of that group is desirable

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5
Q

features of identification

A
  • stronger type of conformity but still temporary
  • both public and private acceptance
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6
Q

define internalisation or true conformity

A

individuals genuinely adjust their behaviour and opinions to those of a group

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7
Q

features of internalisation

A
  • exposed to the belief systems of others and having to decide what they truly believe in
  • if they believe it is correct, it will lead to public and private acceptance and will not depend on presence of the group
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8
Q

define normative social influence

A

when someone confirms to be apart of the group and be accepted and not rejected which leads to more compliance

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9
Q

define informative social influence

A

when someone conforms to feel confident that their beliefs and ideas are correct, especially when we are uncertain in unfamiliar and ambiguous situations and leads to internalisation. helps us to survive in situations

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10
Q

evaluation for types and explanations of conformity strengths

A
  • research supports important role of normative beliefs shaping behaviours, as seen in a. study where when adolescents were exposed to the fact other their age don’t smoke they were less likely to smoke too
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11
Q

evaluation for types and explanation of conformity weaknesses

A
  • individual differences are not considered as everyone’s personality to different and are not all driven to want to fit in
  • relationship between compliance and internalisation is complicated as it is difficult to determine when each one is taking place
  • features of the task affect the level of conformity, as when asked about Bristol, the subjective question of whether bristol is the most fun city in south-west england, we look to other people for similar answers
  • not always aware that the behaviour of others affected ours, so we are not directly aware we have been affected under nsi- people less likely to say behaviour of neighbours affected their own energy conservation
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12
Q

sherif study on informative social influence

A
  • participants were asked to estimate how far a point of light has moved, first as individuals, in groups of 3, and then by themselves again
  • group estimate condition changed their personal estimate and a group norm emerged
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13
Q

asch (1951) experiment procedure on normative conformity

A
  • investigated degree to which individuals would conform to a majority, but they were told they would be taking part in a visual discrimination task
  • 123 american male student volunteers who were in groups with 6-8 other confederates
  • seated around a table and asked to match the standard line to one of the 3 comparison lines in 18 different trials
  • real participant was either second to last or last
  • 12 of the 18 were critical trials where confederates gave identical wrong answers
  • first 6 trials, correct answers were given
  • control group of 36 participants who were tested individually to see how accurate individual judgements were
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14
Q

asch (1951) findings and conclusion

A
  • 37% conformity to incorrect trials
  • 5% conformed to all 12 critical trials
  • 25% never conformed
  • 75% conformed at least one
  • in the control, only 0.04% were incorrect which can eliminate extraneous variables like eyesight
  • post event interview showed participants conformed due to distortion of perception (believed the majority estimates were correct), distortion of judgement (aware of their mistake but did not trust their own judgement) or distortion of action (knew they were right but conformed so they didn’t stand out)
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15
Q

factors affecting conformity

A
  • group size
  • unanimity
  • task difficulty
  • mood- people are more likely to conform when they are in a good mood
  • gender- women are more likely to conform
  • culture- meta analysis found that conformity is higher in “collectivist” cultures
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16
Q

how does group size affect conformity

A
  • smaller group size leads to less conforming
  • with 2 confederates, participants only conformed 14% of the time
  • with 3 confederates, participants only conformed 32% of the time
    -there was little change to conformity rate above 32% with bigger group size
  • asch only did experiments up to 9 people
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17
Q

how does unanimity affect conformity

A
  • as one confederate agreed with the participant, this made the participants less likely to conform and fell to 5.5%
  • if a different, wrong answer was given, conformity fell to 9%
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18
Q

how does task difficulty affect conformity

A
  • more likely to conform if the task is more difficult- ISI
  • rely on other people
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19
Q

evaluation of factors affecting conformity strengths

A

+ mori and arai (2010) showed that confederates acted convincingly as a separate study, where partisans wore glasses with polarising filters, so they saw the lines differently and distorted but they gave the same results
+ high internal validity as there was strict control over extraneous variables

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20
Q

evaluation factors affecting conformity weaknesses

A
  • ethical issues like deception and psychological harm
  • lacks ecological validity
  • gender issues as only males were sampled but studies show women are more conformist
  • cultural bias as only americans were used but collectivist cultures show higher rates of conformity
  • took place during McCarthyism where people were scared to go against the majority so it lacks temporal validity
  • asch only used a sample size of maximum 9ish you cannot apply to all findings and lacks internal validity for larger groups
  • only 1/3 conformed where 2/3 stuck to their original judgement, which perhaps showed a study of people thinking independently instead of
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21
Q

define conformity to social roles

A

how people are expected to behave and think depending on the different social situations. involves identification

22
Q

procedure of zimbardos (1973) prison stanford experiment

A
  • mock prison set up in the basement of psychology department in stanford university
  • male paid, student volunteers were psychologically and physically screened and the 24 most stable were randomly assigned to be prisoner or guard
  • prisoners were “arrested” and taken to “prison” blindfolded and were made to wear uniform and a number
  • guards also wore uniform and mirror sunglasses so there could be no eye contact
  • planned to last 2 weeks
  • zimbardo became prison superintendent
23
Q

results of zimbardos stanford prison experiment

A
  • first few days the guards became more tyrannical and abusive towards prisoners, like waking them up in their sleep and force them to clean toilets with their bare hands
  • some guards were so enthusiastic they volunteered to do extra hours without pay
  • 5 prisoners had to be released early due to extreme reactions like crying and anxiety
  • study was terminated after 6 days when Christina Maslach reminded the researcher they were only participants in a study
  • in interviews afterwards, participants were shocked about how out of character they were
24
Q

conclusion of zimbardos stanford prison experiment

A
  • both guards and prisoners conformed to their roles as guards became more cruel and sadistic and prisoners became more obedient and passive
  • social role and environment can affect behaviours as seemingly well balanced men turned aggressive
25
Q

evaluation of zimbardo study strengths

A
  • good control over variables like only emotionally stable partisans were chosen so it has high internal validity
  • practical application as it can be used to explain events in Abu Ghraib, where Iraqi prisoners were tortured by US soldiers, where situational factors made abuse more likely due to factors like lack of training and boredom, or even help to understand how to to improve places like prisons
26
Q

evaluation of zimbardos study weaknesses

A
  • individual differences and personality can determine the extent to which a person conforms
  • behaviour was more of a consequence if demand characteristics and social desirability bias
  • Reicher and Hallam BBC experiment does not support as participants did not conform to their social roles automatically because guards failed to identity with their status and impose authority so the prisoners challenged this
  • unethical like deception and physical harm
  • lacks population validity as it was only white male american volunteers
27
Q

define obedience

A

type of social influence where you comply with the demands an authority figure, which is generally perceived positively to maintain order in society

28
Q

difference between obedience and conformity

A

direct order vs implicit pressure
authority figure vs people of equal status
different behaviour to authority figure vs same behaviour of social group
embrace behaviour vs deny influece

29
Q

milgram aim and description of study

A
  • to find out why people obey authority, especially to explain the behaviour of germans under Hitler
  • 40 american males aged 20-50 years volunteered and were paid $4.50
  • believe they were taking part in a study of memory and learning
30
Q

milgram study procedure

A
  • participants give the role of the “teacher” and confederates being the experimenter and learner, in a rigged “random” allocation
  • participant was given a 45v shock himself to “check” and helped him believe it was real
  • participant had to ask the learner a series of word pair tasks and when they got the answer wrong they had to administer an electric shock
  • electric shocks were incremented by 15v at a time, ranging from 300v to 450v and 330v was marked as lethal
  • shocks were not real and learner was acting
  • learner have a predetermine set of responses, based on 3 wrong answer to one correct answer
  • at 315v, the learner screamed in pain and kicked the wall
  • at 330v the learner went silent
  • experimenter had a series of standardised prods when participant refused to administer a shock
31
Q

milgram prods

A

“ please continue” or “please go on”
“ the experiment requires that you continue”
“ it is absolutely essential that you continue”
“ you have no other choice, you must go on”

32
Q

milgram predicted results

A
  • 14 psychologists at yale were provided a detailed description of experiment and asked how they would expect them to behave
  • all predicted insignificant majority would go to the end of the shock series and very few would go beyond very strong shock designation
33
Q

milgram actual results

A
  • 2/3 obeyed order to continue giving shocks to 450v max
  • only 9 participants stopped at 315v
  • no participants broke off before 300v
  • most participants displayed physical symptoms of discomfort lie, sweating, twitching and nervous laughing
  • 3 suffered seizures
34
Q

milgram conclusions

A
  • people will obey authority figure
  • shows how germans may have been following. orders instead of deliberately inflicting harm
35
Q

milgram study evaluation strengths

A

+ supported by naturalistic obedience studies, like Hofling et al which found that 21 out of 22 nurses administered an unfamiliar drug beyond its dosage because “Dr Smith” told them to
+ more recent, similar studies have shown similar results so it still has temporal validity
+ debriefed afterwards and 84% said they were glad they had taken part

36
Q

milgram study evaluation weakness

A
  • ethical issues like deception, right to withdraw and protection from harm, but can be argued to have increased external validity and contributed to valuable psychological research
  • cannot be generalised as only males were used, where a study administering shocks to a puppy showed women to be much more obedient, with all of them administering the maximum voltage
  • psychologists have argued that the participants didnt believe the shocks were actually real meaning his results could lack internal validity
  • socially sensitive issues as it may dismiss a criminals responsibility and blame the situation they were in, which provides difficulties for the judicial system
  • cultural bias as only americans were used, a research shows obedience in spanish participants is 90%, compared to 28% among australians
37
Q

situational factors affecting obedience

A

proximity- person is more likely to obey when they cannot see the consequences of their actions and are in closer proximity to the authority figure
location- person is more likely to obey when in a location linked to another status and integrity
uniform- person is more likely to obey if they are wearing uniform as it gives them a higher status

38
Q

milgram proximity variations

A

-obedience dropped to 40% when the teacher was in the same room as the teacher
- touch proximity variation was when the teacher had to force the learners hand onto an electroshock plate, and obedience dropped to 30%
- experimenter instructed teacher by telephone and obedience dropped to 23% and they frequently pretended to give shocks or gave weaker ones

39
Q

milgram location variation

A
  • variation in a run down office building dropped obedience slightly to 48%
40
Q

milgram uniform variation

A
  • obedience higher when wearing a lab coat compared to normal clothes- 20% when member of the public
41
Q

define agentic state

A

individuals see themselves as an agent of the authority figure giving the order and and the authority figure is responsible for the consequences of the individuals actions

42
Q

define agentic shift

A

process of shifting responsibility for one’s actions onto someone else

43
Q

define autonomous state

A

individual sees themselves as personally responsible for their actions

44
Q

how can people adopt and be binded to agentic state

A
  • need to maintain a positive self image, and if the action is no longer their responsibility it would no longer reflect their self image even if it is morally wrong
  • participants stay blinded into this state as they do not want to break off and appear rude
45
Q

define legitimacy of authority

A

need to believe that there is a legitimate authority figure who is perceived to be in control

46
Q

how does legitimacy of authority leading to obedience and strengthened

A
  • people accept the definitions of a situation provided by the legitimate authority so they become reassured
  • authority figures commands are perceived to be more eliminate if they occur in an institutional structure
47
Q

evaluation of agentic state and legitimacy of authority strengths

A

+ support for power of legitimate authority through aviation accident where NTSB report found “lack of monitoring” errors in 19 of 37 accidents investigated
+ other students watched milgrams study and felt that the experimenter was to blame for the harm of the learner as they were a legitimate authority

48
Q

evaluation of agentic state and legitimacy of authority weakness

A
  • may be the reasons that explain obedience that questions agentic state as Nazis obeyed to shoot civilians in Poland, despite not receiving a direct order
  • culture bias as countries differ in degree to which they are traditionally obedient- australia 16% compared to 85% of germany
49
Q

adorno’s findings in authoritarian personality

A
  • rigid thinkers, enforced strict adherence to social rules and hierarchies
  • f-scale (fascist)- measure different components that make up authoritarian personality
  • those who scored higher tended to be raised by parents who use authoritarian parenting styles like physical punishment
  • strict arresting means the child feels constrained which creates aggression, but also they will be afraid they will be disciplined so they are hostile to those inferior to them
50
Q

robert altimeter three qualities of authoritarian personality

A
  • conventionalism- adherence to rules
  • authoritarian aggression- aggression towards people defying rules
  • authoritarian submission- uncritical submission to legitimate authority
51
Q

elms and milgram (1966) study procedure

A
  • follow up study on 20 obedient participants and 20 defiant participants from milligrams original study
  • asked them to complete MMPI and f scale, which included finding out their relationship with their parents during childhood and attitude towards experimenter and learner
52
Q

elms and milgram (1966) findings

A
  • little different between obedient and defiant participants on MMPI variables
  • higher levels of authoritarianism in obedient
  • obedient participants reported being less close to fathers during childhood and would describe them negatively
  • obedient saw authority figure as admirable and the learner much less

Psychology (7 decks)

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