Social Influence

Question 1

Conformity
- Types

Answer 1

1. Internalisation - genuine acception of norms, change permits in absence of members, change in private and public opinion
2. Identification - when we conform with a group that we ascribe value to such as friends - change occurs in public but not private
3. Compliance - conforming to group norms and going along with public as we fear rejection , superficial and change is only in public, can be a result of fear or threat

Question 2

Conformity
- Explanations

Answer 2

1. ISI - Need to be right - Usually occurs when there is high ambiguity or low expertise , autonomy in choice and going with majority is best strategy
2. NSI - Need to be liked - regulate group cohesion, conform with norms as there is a fear of rejection or expulsion and seeking social approval, exacerbated by stress and need for social support

Question 3

Asch
- Procedure

Answer 3

• 123 American men participated into research into conformity in groups with 6 - 8 confederates
• Two large white cards were used, one with a single line and the other with 3 comparison lines and they had to match the correct line

Question 4

Asch
- Variables

Answer 4

1. Group size
   - Varied the number of confederates from 1 to 15 and he found a curvlinear rl between group size and conformity - it rose to 31.8% with just 3 confederates
2. Unanimity - Wanted to test if the presence of a non conforming person would affect naive ppts conformity
   - Found that a dissenter made the ppt behave more independently and that conformity decreased to 1/4 of what it was when everyone was unanimous
   - Suggests that the influence of majority is based on a large extent to it being unanimous
3. Task difficulty - Made the stimulus and comparison lines much similar and found that conformity increased as people didnt know what the right answer was and that they looked at others for guidance with their answer - ISI - assume they are right and you are wrong

Question 5

Asch
- Evaluation

Answer 5

1. Artificial task and situation - limitation
   - the task was artificial and the ppts knew that they were taking part in a study and therefore may have shown demand characteristics , lacked ecological validity, unrealistic as the ppts were not groups that we would experience in every day life so we cannot generalise the findings to real life situations of conformity
2. Limited application - Limitation
   - ppts were all american men and other research suggests that women are more conformists due to their concern for social rls
   - USA is also an individualistic culture and therefore they care more about themselves whereas collectivist cultures such as China may be more conformists as social groups are more important than individuals
3. Research support - Strength
   - Todd Lucas et al supported the study and variable of task difficulty as he asked ppts to solve easy and hard maths problems and they were given fake answers
   - Conformity was higher w wrong answer and hard question but counterpoint is that there was an individual level factor so those confident with their maths ability conformed less whereas those not conformed more

Question 6

Zimbardo
- Procedure

Answer 6

• ppts were actually arrested in their homes by real guards and they picked out 21 emotionally stable men - they were then randomly assigned the role of prisoner or guard and given uniforms to help this

prisoners - loose smock, cap and a number to be identified by
guards - mirror shades, handcuffs and wooden clubs
- caused de individuation so conformity was more likely

Question 7

Zimbardo
- Findings

Answer 7

• Guards took up role with enthusiasm and prisoners rebelled after first 2 days by removing their uniform, shouting and swearing at guards, taking off their numbers and repositioning their beds
• Guards the became more aggressive and degraded and did frequent headcounts at night to prisoners
• Some prisoners began to be depressed, stressed and anxious and one was released early as he became psychologically disturbed and some others were left early
• Some went on hunger strike and they were punished for this
• Zimbardo ended study after 6 days instead of intended 14 because guards became too violent in their actions.

Question 8

Zimbardo
- Evaluation

Answer 8

1. Lack of realism - limitation
   - ppts were play acting rather than actually conforming to a social role and they were also basing their behavior on the stereotypes of how guards and prisoners act, example on guard based his behaviour off the movie cool hand luke
   - counterpoint - 90% of convos were based on prisoner life - they spoke about their sentences and one orisoner even said he thought it was real but ran by psychologists rather than gov
   - shows that it did replicate social roles and has high internal validity
2. real world application - the conformity to social roles effect seen in spe was also seen in abu ghraib and that the guards who abused were victims to situational factors such as lack of training and this combined with ability to misuse power meant prisoner abuse was seen in both instances
3. control - strength
   - control over key variables in experiment as they were randomly assigned and emotionally stable and so researchers were able to separate individual personality differences from ppts and so this increased validity of the study.

Question 9

Milgram
- Procedure

Answer 9

• 40 american men were used in a controlled observation
• they were given role of teacher and learner however draw was always fixed so that the ppt would always be the teacher
• aim was that it was a memory game and for every mistake the learner made they would have to be given an electric shock which got increasingly worse from 15v to 450v
• learner was strapped to chair and wired with electrodes and teacher felt how small shock would be

Question 10

Milgram
- Findings

Answer 10

• 5 ppts stopped at 300v and that 65% continued to the remaining 450v shock
• they suffered from behaviours such as nail biting, stuttering, sweating, anxiety and distress ( qualitative data - observations )
• 3 of them had fatal seizures from having to give the shocks too

Question 11

Milgram
- Evaluation

Answer 11

1. Research support - findings were replicated in a french doc - ppts were in a gameshow called game of death and were ordered to give fake electric shocks to other people in a studio audience
   - 80% gave full 460v shock and they showed similar behaviour such as nervous laughing, nail biting and sweating
   - people obey no mater what the setting is
2. low internal validity - Milgram reported that 75% of his ppts thought the shocks were genuine but orne and holland stated that they were only behaving in this way because they didnt believe the set up and were simply play acting
   - ppts responding to demand characteristics due to artificial setting
   - 2/3 disobedient
   - counterpoint is sheridan and kings study on electric shocks real to puppies - 54% men and 100% women gave real shock to puppy
3. ethical issues : ppts were decieved and told draw was radnom but was fixed and shocks were genuine but were fake and they were not protected from harm as they suffered psychological distress and didnt give fully informed consent

Question 12

Milgram
- Variables

Answer 12

1. proximity - when teacher and learner were in the same room the obedience levels fell from 65% to 40%
   - touch proximity - when teacher forced learners hand on electric shock plate it fell to further 30%
   - remote instructions - teacher received these instructions through phone call from other room and they pretended to give shocks and it fell to further 20.5% because people can psychologically distance themselves from the consequences of their actions if they cant tell
2. location - when repeated in a run down office block obedience fell to 47.5% because people view prestigious university with much more integrity and legitimacy so are more likely to obey
   - still high in office block due to scientific nature of experiment
3. uniform - when ordinary member of public wearing standard clothes took over experiment it fell to 20% because uniforms encourage obedience and reinforce authority we know that they expect obedience and uniforms are widely recognised

Question 13

Milgram
- Variables Evaluation

Answer 13

1. Research support - Bickman supported the research of situational variable of uniform- he had 3 confederates dressed up in different uniforms - milkman, jacket and tie and security guard uniforms and they then asked members of the public to do certain tasks such as picking up litter or pay for a parking metre
   - people were 2x more likely to obey this when the person was wearing security guard uniform
2. cross cultural application - findings were replicated in a study done on dutch ppts who had to ask stressful questions to a confederate who was desperate for a job - 90% of people obeyed which shows that his findings are not limited to just American men and similar findings are seen across cultures - this also occurred with proximity as when the experimenter was outside the room obedience decreased drastically
3. low internal validity - orne and holland said that ppts were play acting and responding to demand characteristics and this was even more likely in the variations due to the extra manipulation of the variables - for example the public replacement of the experimenter - hard to see if results were genuine or not

Question 14

Obedience
- Situational Explanations

Answer 14

1. agentic state - a state where we feel no personal responsibility for our actions as we are acting for an authority figure which can cause moral strain
2. autonomous state - when we are free to behave according to our own principles - usually take more responsibility for our own actions
3. agentic shift - shift from autonomy to “agent” - Milgram suggested this occurs when we perceive someone as an authority figure who has a higher position in the social hierarchy
4. binding factors - aspects of a situation which allow a person to ignore or minimize the damaging affects of their behavior and reduce moral strain e.g shift responsibility to victim.

Question 15

Obedience
SE Agentic State - Evaluation

Answer 15

1. Research support - Milgram’s agentic state was evident in his own study as many of the ppts refused to give a shock until they asked the experimenter who was responsible for harm , when they found out it wasn’t them they were much more likely to obey and acted easily as they were responsible for their own actions
2. limited explanation - does explain why the nurses in ranks and jacobsons studies of the nurses , found 16/18 nurses disobeyed a doctor telling them to give an excessive dosage to a patient although they were orders from an authority figure - acted autonomously

limited explanation 2 - mendel found that in ww2 some german soldiers shot and killed many people in a small town in Poland despite having no orders to do so they acted individually and autonomously - there was no agentic shift

Question 16

Obedience
- Situational Explanations

Answer 16

Legitimacy of authority - more likely to obey people who we perceive to have more authority over us and have a justified position in the social hierarchy such as teachers, police etc

Destructive authority - when we use legitimate authority for destructive purposes such as ordering people to do cruel or dangerous things which was evident in milgrams study

Question 17

Obedience
- SE - Legtimacy of Authority Evaluation

Answer 17

1. cultural differences
   - Wesley and Leon found that 16% of ppts did the whole 450v shock whereas 85% of germans did it which shows that in some cultures authority is more likely to be accepted as legitimate and entitled to demand obedience from individuals
   - shows how different societies are constructed
2. limited explanation - doesnt explain how the nurses in ranks and jacobsons study were disobedient even tho they worked in a rigidly hierarchical authority structure and many ppts in milgrams study were also disobedient - innate tendicies may be more crucial to behaviour rather than legitimacy of authority
3. research support - blass and schmit showed milgrams study to students and asked them who was responsible for the harm of teacher and they all decided on experimenter as he had legitimate authority.

Question 18

Obedience
- Dispositional Explanations

Answer 18

Authoritarian Personality - this is the idea that these people are more susceptible to obeying people in authority
- submissive to those of a higher status
- dismissive of those inferior to them
- inflexible outlook on life
- see everything as right or wrong
- more likely to obey
- believe that society is much weaker than what it once was so we need a strong leader to enforce traditional values

origins :
- Adorno et al said it forms during childhood as a result of harsh parenting
- due to expectation of loyalty, extremely strict discipline
- parent gives conditional love to the child based on how child behaves
- creates resentment and hostility within the child but they dont express this to parents in fear of punishment so displace onto weaker people - psychodynamic explanation

Question 19

Obedience
- DE - Adorno Research

Answer 19

• studied 2000+ middle class Americans and their unconscious attitudes towards other ethnic groups
• created the f scale - potential for fascism scale

findings :
- those with authoritarian leanings who scored higher on the scale identified with strong people and were more contemptuous of the weak
- had fixed and distinctive stereotypes about others
- conscious of their status and showed extreme respect to higher status
- found a strong positive correlation between authoritarianism and obedience .

Question 20

Obedience
- DE - Adorno Evaluation

Answer 20

1. Research support - strength
   - Milgram studied showed similarities between obedience and AP
   - Elms and Milgram interviewed original ppts from obedience studies who were fully obedient- completed f scale and scored higher than disobedient ppts which shows they do have a link

• counterpoint - obedient ppts have unusual characteristic for authoritarians
• link between authoritarianism and obedience is more complex and unlikely to be a predictor of obedience.

2. more realistic explanations - social identity theory is more realistic and suggests that groups which are functioning poorly such as nazis find a scapegoat such as jews to blame their problems on which increases self esteem
   - makes adornos ideas limited
3. political bias - the f scale only measures tendency towards extreme right wing ideology however both right and left wing have a lot in common and so adorno cannot account for obedience to authority across the whole political spectrum

Question 21

Resistance to social influence

Answer 21

social support :
- presence of people who resist the pressure to conform or obey encourages others to also do the same
1. resisting to conformity :
- enables the naive ppt to act on their own conscious and simply one person not obeying shows social support
- confederate acts as a model of independent behavior as their dissent leads to more and makes majority no longer unanimous
2. resistance to obedience - example in milgrams study - one of the variations meant obedience levels dropped from 65% to 10% when gen ppt and disobedient conf joined up
- one of their disobedience led to a model of dissent which challenges legitimacy of authority and makes it easier to then disobey

locus of control - idea of internal and external - continuum so people place themselves on a scale
- internals - believe they are in control of things and responsible for own actions
- externals - believe in luck or outside forces

high internal loc people can easily resist the pressure to conform or obey as they need less need for social approval and they have higher intelligence, more achievement orientated, more self confident in own decisions , make decisons based on themselves

Question 22

Obedience
- RESISTANCE TO SI - Social Support Evaluation

Answer 22

1. Research for dissenting peers - Gamson et al conducted a study where ppts were asked to produce evidence to help an oil company run a smear campaign - found higher levels of resistance as they could discuss within groups and 88% rebelled
   - shows peer support can lead to challenging authority figures due to disobedience
2. real word support evidence - evaluation conducted into teen fresh start usa - programme to help pregnant adolescents resist peer pressure to smoke
   - social support provided by older mentor or buddy
   - findings were those who had buddy were less likely to smoke than control group w out buddy
3. social support explanation - ss can help resist pressure to conform in groups - asch like task conducted where dissenter who had good eyesight was introduced and then 64% of gen ppt refused to conform and when there was no support 3% refused to conform

Question 23

Obedience
- RESISTANCE TO SI - LOC - Evaluation

Answer 23

1. research support - holland evaluated milgrams study and measured the internals and externals who didnt complete the full shock
   - found 37% of internals didnt and 23% of externals didnt
   - shows link between loc and obedience and this increases validity
2. contradictory evidence - twenge et al analysed data from american loc studies over 40 years
   - found that resistance was increasing and there were more externals
   - surprising outcome as internals should be increasing if resistance was so makes loc not a valid explanation
3. exaggeration - depends on the situation and loc isnt always the most important factor
   - also irrelevant in familiar situations as previous response is more influential than loc

Question 24

Minority influence

Answer 24

consistency - increasing amount of interest between people
- synchronic - agreement between people in minority group
- diachronic - consistency over time
- makes people rethink their views

commitment - demonstrate dedication to the cause
- engage in extremes to raise awareness / grab attention
- creates risk to show commitment to the cause

flexibility - repeating the same arguments can be seen as off putting or rigid so we should adapt to encourage the minority - augmentation principle

process of change
- these factors trigger deeper processing which is important in the rate of conversion
- increasing the number of people converting to the minority - faster conversion rate - snowball effect
- when minority has changed to majority - change has occurred

Question 25

Minority Influence - Evaluation

Answer 25

1. research support for consistency - moscovici blue green slide study - 1 condition - confederate gave same consistent answer - minority gave same answer (8.42%) - 2nd condition - confederate gave inconsistent answer - agreement fell to 1.25% - wood et al supported this with doing a meta analysis of 100 similar studies and found that theminorities who were most consistent were most influential 2. research support for deeper processing - martin et al showed an initial view to 2 groups 1 - saw minority agreeing w view 2 - saw majority agreeing w view - then shown conflicting views and attitudes and found minority were less likely to change their opinion as they had more deeply processed the view - counterpoint - in research there are clear distinctions between majority and minority but in real life this is more complex and majority usually have higher status while minority have to face hostile opposition 3. artificial task - most tasks such as asch and moscovici were artificial so they lack external validity and were limited in what they can tell us about how minority influence works in real world situations

Question 26

Social Influence and Social Change

Answer 26

lessons from minority research : 1. drawing attention through social proof 2. consistency 3. deeper processing of the issue 4. augmentation principle 5. snowball effect 6. social cryptomnesia lessons from conformity research : 1. importance of dissent - in asch’s research the confederate gave correct answer throughout the procedure, this broke power of majority, and encouraged others to do likewise, and ultimately led to chance for social change 2. NSI - provides info on what others are doing , social change can occur through drawing attention to what majority are doing lessons from obedience research : 1. disobedient role models - milgram’s study a confederate teacher refused to give elective shocks to the learner and obedience rates in gen ppts plummeted 2. zimbardo suggests that obedience can be used to create social change through gradual commitment - once a small instruction is obeyed its more difficult to resist obeying a bigger one so people eventually shift to a new kind of behaviour

Question 27

Social Influence and Social Change - Evaluation

Answer 27

1. minority influence explains social change - psychologists can explain how minority influence can cause SC - nemeth argues that social change is due to the type of thinking that minorities inspire - people engage in divergent thinking when considering minorities arguments as they actively search for info and weigh up options - leads to better decisions and creative solutions - dissenting minorities are valuable as they stimulate new ideas 2. support for NSI - nolan et al conducted a study where he hung messages on the doors of california homes every week for 1 month - 1 groups key message was that people in the area were trying to reduce their energy usage and the other control group were simply told to reduce their energy usage and had no info on other people’s behaviour - significant decrease in energy use in 1st group than 2nd - shows conformity can lead to social change through operation of NSI - more valid counterpoint : nsi may not create long term social changes - study was done using social norms approach to try and reduce student alcohol use and only a decrease in drinking quantity was found rather than drinking frequency 3. role of deeper processing - social change by minorities may not include deeper processing and majorities may actually cause more deeper processing - we like to think everyone has the same view as us so when the majority think something different we are more likely to think about their arguments and reasoning in more depth