Social Influence Flashcards
(78 cards)
1
Q
What is conformity?
A
Change in behaviour or beliefs as a result of group pressure
2
Q
What are the 3 types of conformity?
A
- compliance
- identification
- internalisation
3
Q
What is compliance?
A
- shallowest level of conformity
- changing views publicly but not privately
- not permanent
- usually due to normative social influence
4
Q
What is identification?
A
- agreeing publicly and privately while with the group only
5
Q
What is internalisation?
A
- deepest level of conformity
- changing views publicly and privately
- permanently
- usually due to informational social influence
6
Q
What are the 2 explanations for conformity?
A
- normative social influence
- informational social influence
7
Q
What is normative social influence?
A
- conforming to avoid rejections and to be accepted by the majority
- usually leads to compliance
8
Q
What is informational social influence?
A
- conforming due to a lack of knowledge and wanting to be right
- usually leads to internalisation
9
Q
What are the positives of types of and explanations of conformity?
A
- research support for NSI from Linkenbach et al who were told the majority of peers didn’t smoke so they were less likely to smoke
- research support for ISI from Henley et al who exposed people to negativity about African Americans which they were told was the majority view and found that they too showed negativity
10
Q
What are negatives of types of and explanations for conformity?
A
- individual differences between people which affects the map t of NSI as some people care more abut being rejected than others
- ISI is easily influenced as ambiguous tasks will lead to more conformity
- hard to distinguish between compliance and internalisation as the group view can dissipate over time due to learning and forgetting.
11
Q
What was Asch’s procedure?
A
- groups of 8-10 male college students (all bar one were confederates)
- shown a standard line and 3 comparison lines
- had to publicly say which matched the standard line
12
Q
What were Asch’s findings?
A
- 75% conformed atleast once
- 5% conformed every time
- overall conformity rate of 32%
13
Q
What did Asch conclude?
A
People do conform due to NSI for social approval
14
Q
What are 3 factors affecting conformity?
A
- group size
- unanimity
- task difficulty
15
Q
How does group size affect conformity?
A
- Asch varied number of confederates from 1-16
- 1 confederate had 3% conformity
- 3 confederates had 33% conformity
- conformity rates stayed steady
- suggests presence of a small group has a strong social pressure
16
Q
How does unanimity affect conformity?
A
- when a confederate broke unanimity, rates dropped to 5.5%
- suggests presence of dissenter provides social support
17
Q
How does task difficulty affect conformity?
A
- when the task was more difficult more people conformed
- suggests people are more susceptible to ISI when the task is difficult
18
Q
What are the positives of factors affecting conformity?
A
- lab experiment so has high internal validity due to controlled variables and standardised procedures
19
Q
What are the negatives of factors affecting conformity?
A
- ethical issues as he deceived his participants and didn’t gain fully informed consent
- lack temporal validity as America was in a period of Mccarthyism where people were punished for not conforming
- may be culturally biased to individualistic cultures and therefore not generalisable
20
Q
What are social roles?
A
Socially defined patterns of behaviour that is expected of someone in a certain position e.g. a teacher
21
Q
What was Zimbardo’s procedure?
A
- observation of 24 male student volunteers
- all passed psychological assessments to ensure they were stable and healthy
- randomly assigned role of prisoner or guard
- prisoners were arrested, stripped, defo used, given uniforms and ID numbers by which they were referred to
- guards were given uniforms and told to manage the prison without harming others
- Zimbardo oversaw as chief superintendent
22
Q
What was Zimbardo’s findings?
A
- prisoners friend to resist but failed causing stress, anxiety, passivity and helplessness
- they became very dependent on the guards
- some were released early due to emotional breakdowns
- guards became aggressive and dominant
- study was meant to last 14 days but was stopped after 6 days
23
Q
What were Zimbardo’s conclusions?
A
- suggests situational factors can drive behaviour rather than dispositional factors
- participants did conform to social roles
24
Q
What are the positives of Zimbardo’s study?
A
- useful real life applications to reforming prisons ad how prisoners were treated
25
What are negatives of Zimbardo’s study?
- contradicting evidence from the BBC prison study that showed participants did resist conformity to social rules
- ethical issues as there was psychological harm
- there were demand characteristics that may lead people to behave in a certain way due to experimenter bias as Zimbardo was the superintendent
26
What is obedience?
Behaviour in compliance with direct commands, often issued by a person of authority
27
What was Milgram’s procedure?
- put out an advert in a newspaper for a memory test
- 40 male volunteers
- participants played the role of teacher who was instructed by an ‘investigator’ to shock the ‘learner’ when they got a question wrong
- shocks started at 15V to 450V increasing by 15V for every wrong answer
28
What were Milgram’s findings?
- 100% shocked up to 300V
- 65% shocked up to 450V
29
What was Milgram’s conclusion?
Suggests he majority will follow orders of an authority figure even if the order leads to harm
30
What were the variations Milgram’s study?
- in a run down location the shock rate was 48%
- teacher and learner in the same room the shock rate was 40%
- teacher forcing learners hand onto a shock plate the rate was 30%
- teacher and experimenter in separate rooms the rate was 20%
- two allies that resist the rate was 10%
31
What are positives of Milgram’s study?
- supporting research by Hofling et al who showed 21/22 nurses administered a lethal dose of an unknown drug when told to by an unknown doctor
- scientific as he used experimental methods that controlled extraneous variables and a standardised procedure
32
What are negatives of Milgram’s study?
- research was conducted in a lab so it was an artificial situation and lacks ecological validity
- lots of ethical issues e.g. deception, lack of informed consent, lack of protection from harm and lack of right to withdraw
33
What are the situational factors that affect obedience?
- location
- proximity
- uniform
34
How does location impact obedience?
The more official the location the more obedience
35
How does proximity impact obedience?
The closer to the authority the more obedience
36
How does uniform impact obedience?
The more official the authorities uniform the more obedience
37
What is the agentic state?
- mental state where the individual thinks they are acting on behalf of the authority so they don’t have responsibility, the authority does
38
What is the opposite the the agentic state?
- autonomous state
- where individuals feel they are responsible for their actions
39
What is the agentic shift?
The movement from an autonomous state to an agentic state normally in the presence of authority
40
What is legitimacy of authority?
- following the orders of someone who is perceived to be a legitimate authority figure
- this allows people to enter the agentic state
- through socialisation i has been learnt that most situations will have a person of authority and we should follow their orders
41
What are the positives of the agentic state and legitimacy of authority?
- there is supporting research for legitimacy of authority as Tarnow found in plane accidents the passengers rely on the crew and obey the pilot
42
What are the negatives of the agentic state and legitimacy of authority?
- hard to distinguish between agentic state and plan cruelty shown by Zimbardo’s study the guards became increasingly aggressive without being told to
-accepting someone as legitimate can be dangerous as they no longer follow their own moral code and could potentially do anything
- agentic shift isn’t confined to obedience as the individual loses control and are more susceptible to external sources
43
What is an authoritarian personality?
- rigid thinkers that see the world in black and white and enforce strict adherence to rules and hierarchies
44
Who developed the authoritarian personality?
Adorno
45
What scale has been developed to measure authoritarian personality?
F-scale
46
How is an authoritarian personality developed?
Through strict authoritarian parenting in childhood
47
What is right wing authoritarianism?
- suggested by Altemeyer
- when people get angry and aggressive when people don’t obey to rules
48
What was Elms and Milgram’s procedure?
- obedient and 20 defiant participants from the shock study took the MMPI and F-Scale
- also asked open questions about relationships with parents and attitudes towards the confederates in the experiment
49
What were Elms and Milgram’s findings?
- found higher levels of authoritarianism in obedient participants and were also more likely to be distant and speak negatively of parents
50
What are the positives of authoritarian personality?
- situational factors cannot explain why 35% in Milgram’s study didn’t obey but AP can so it is a more complete explanation
- Elms and Milgram found the obedient participants in Milgram’s study scored higher on the F-Scale than those who were defiant
- a link was found between AP and poor education
51
What are the negatives of authoritarian personality?
- the development of an AP is only correlated to obedience
- doesn’t explain why whole societies obey
52
What is resistance to social influence?
The ability of individuals to oppose pressure to conform to a majority or obey an authority figure
53
What percentage of participants resisted social influence in Asch and Milgram’s studies?
- Asch = 25%
- Milgram’s = 35%
54
How does social support help resistance to social influence?
- presence of others who also resist social influence
- decreases conformity and obedience rates
- the more who dissent the less severe the consequences for the individual so they feel more confidence in dissenting
55
How has social support impacted conformity?
Non-conforming ally increases the chance of resisting conformity as they ally breaks unanimity
56
How has social support impacted obedience?
When there is a disobedient role models you are more likely to resist as the legitimacy of the role models you are is challenged
57
What are the positives of social support?
- has been shown to help resistance pressure to obey in a variation of Milgram’s study as rates dropped from 65% to 10%
- has been shown to help resist pressure to conform in a variation of Asch’s study as rates dropped from 32% to 5%
58
What are negatives of social support?
- incomplete as there are people that still conform/obey with social support
- it is very situational based as when all is gave correct answered before confederates it was more effective than just before the real participant
59
What is locus of control?
Personality traits/beliefs regarding what people think are the causes of their experience and factors that influence successes or failures
60
What is an internal locus of control?
They believe they have control over their lives and outcome of their actions so they are more likely to take responsibility for actions so are more likely to resist social influence
61
What is an external locus of control?
They believe that external factors (fat, luck etc) control their lives and blame that for the outcome of their actions so they are less likely to to resist social influence in
62
Wha are positives of locus of control?
- a replicated study of Milgram’s study found 37 of people with an internal locus of control disobeyed whereas 23% with an external locus of control disobeyed
- Spector’s questionnaire found a correlation between having an internal LOC and resisting pressure to conform by NSI
63
What are negatives of locus of control?
- Spector found that LOC had no effect on ISI suggesting the explanation is incomplete
- LOC is only correlated with resisting social influence
64
What is minority influence?
When members of a majority are converted to the views of a minority
65
What are the 3 factors for minority influence?
- consistent
- commitment
- flexibility
66
What is consistency?
- minority must repeat the same message
- majority are more likely to consider minority view
67
What is commitment?
- minority must be willing to suffer for their view
- majority will take minority seriously as they consider causes of behaviour
68
What is flexibility?
- minorities must appear to consider counter arguments and slightly compromise
- encourages majority to move closer to minority position
69
What are the positives of minority influence?
- research support for consistency (Moscovici et al)
- supporting research for flexibility as when discussing compensation for an injury he confederates who showed no flexibility had no influence over majority whereas when they did show flexibility they did have an influence
- lots of real life examples of minority groups using consistency, commitment and flexibility such as the suffragettes
70
What are negatives of minority influence?
- research is based off of lots of lab studies such as Moscovici et al
71
What was Moscovici et al’s procedure?
- participants (4 naive and 2 confederates)
- had to say the colour of 36 slides of different shades of blue
- consistent version - minority said green every time
- inconsistent version - minority said green 24 times
72
What were Moscovici et al’s findings?
- in the control less than 1% said green
- in the inconsistent 1.25% said green
- in the consistent 8% said green every time and 32% said green once
73
What are the positives of Moscovici et al’s study?
- supporting research for flexibility (when discussing compensation for an injury the confederate who showed no flexibility had no influence over majority over a majority whereas when they did show flexibility they did have an influence)
74
What are the negatives of Moscovici et al’s study?
- lacks ecological validity
- sample was unrepresentative as it was only American females
- ethical issues of deception and lack of informed consent
75
What is social change?
When a view held by a minority challenges majority view and is eventually accepted by majority and the whole society adopts the new attitudes, beliefs and behaviours
76
What are the 6 steps to social change?
1 - draw attention to the issue
2 - create cognitive conflict where people think about the minority view
3 - argument must be consistent
4 - augmentation principle where the minority must be willing to suffer
5 - snowball effect where the minority starts to become the majority
6 - social cryptoamnesia where the minority view is now the social norm and the old one is forgotten
77
What is a positive of social change?
- real life examples such as the suffragettes
78
What are the negatives of social change?
- social change through minority is slow due to strong tendency to conform to majority so it is unlikely to change
- minority is often perceived as deviant as members of majority don’t align themselves with the minority as they don’t want to seem deviant
- social norm interventions don’t always work as a researcher found that even when informed of the norm so they didn’t report lower alcohol consumption
