Social Influence Flashcards
(36 cards)
Define social group
A social group is two or more people that share things in common, interact together and share a common identity
Define social norm
Unwritten rules that explain how members of a social group are expected to behave
Define social role
The specific behaviours and beliefs expected of person with a particular position in a social group
What is conformity?
Conformity is when a person’s public and/ or private beliefs is influenced by the majority
What is compliance?
Compliance is a weak form of conformity when a person conforms publicly, but not privately, to avoid social rejection
What is identification?
Identification is a medium form of conformity when a person conforms to be like a social role or role model they admire, their attitudes change along with the role models and they only conform to them as long as they identify with the role
What is internalisation?
Internalisation is a strong form of conformity when a person conforms publicly and privately, because they are persuaded the attitudes of the majority are correct
Describe Zimbardo’s study
Zimbardo used an overt controlled observation to study conformity to social roles, he created a mock prison to which he randomly assigned 21 male participants the role of prisoner or guard. It was made to feel real, guards worked in shifts and were given uniforms while prisoners were arrested, strip searched and given numbers. The experiment ended after 6 days as the prisoners were subject to extreme violence and abuse from the guards, with one prisoner leaving early after showing signs of psychological disturbance
Evaluate Zimbardo’s study
- Unethical, participants were not protected from psychological harm and arguably couldn’t give informed consent as they didn’t understand what they were getting into
- Lacks generalisability, participants were only white men this doesn’t explain conformity in other people HOWEVER his study does explain real world examples of prison brutality
- There could have been interviewer effects as Zimbardo inserted himself into the study as prison warden
- It was artificial, participant may not have fully believed it was real so their behaviour doesn’t reflect how they would act in real life, it lacks ecological validity HOWEVER 90% of conversations in the study we’re about torsion life and participants gave very real emotional reactions
What is Informational Social Influence (ISI)?
An explanation of conformity that says we conform with the majority because we believe they are correct and agree, wanting to also be right
Evaluate ISI as an explanation for conformity
- There is research support, Lucas et al. asked students to answer mathematical problems and found greater conformity for incorrect answers when the questions were difficult
What is Normative Social Influence (NSI)?
An explanation of conformity that says we conform with the majority to avoid social rejection, because we want to be liked and accepted
Evaluate NSI as an explanation for conformity
- Ignores individual variables such as personality, so NSI doesn’t effect everyone in the same way
- There is research support, Asch found 36.8%. of his participant conformed every time even when the answer was obvious to avoid social rejection
What is the main research support for conformity?
Asch studied conformity by having participants identify 1 line out of 3 which matched a standard line, they did so in a room with confederates who gave the wrong answers. Asch found that 75% conformed at least once (36.8% gave the wrong answer every time) and when questioned they said they did it to avoid rejection (evidence for NSI)
What were Asch’s Variations?
Variations which effect conformity:
- Group Size, at least 3 confederates (no less or more) are needed to increase conformity rates
- Unanimity, the presence of a non-conforming confederate dropped conformity rates by giving the naive participant the confidence to also disagree with the majority
- Task Difficulty, conformity increased when the task became harder (ISI plays a greater role)
Evaluate Ash’s study
- Perrin and Spencer repeated Asch’s study with engineering students and found only 1 person conform in over 300 trials, this suggests Asch’s study lacks temporal validity as the results are inconsistent over time HOWEVER it could be argued that engineering students are just more confident with measuring lines
- Ash used a lab study so it could lack ecological validity due to being an artificial situation
- The study may have suffered from demand characteristics HOWEVER interviews suggest they did believe it was a real experiment
Outline Milgram’s obedience experiment
Milgram had 40 male participants believe they were participating in a memory experiment, they were all placed in a rigged draw assigning them the role of ‘teacher’ while a confederate played the ‘learner’ and another confederate played the ‘experiment’. Each participant was told to shock the student every time they gave an incorrect answer, they pressed buttons on a machine which went up to 450V which was labelled from light shock to extreme danger, if hesitation was shown the experimenter had 4 prods which were repeated, ranging from “please continue” to “you have no other choice”
What did Milgram’s experiment find?
65% of participants continued up to the max 450V and no-one stopped before 300V, qualitative data collected showed participants would tremble, bit their nails, sweat and some event had seizures
Evaluate Milgram’s experiment
- Low in internal validity, many expressed doubt in recordings that the shocks they gave were real HOWEVER, Milgram reported 70% of participants did believe the shocks were real
- Ethical issues, not only were participants not protected from harm they were also deceived about the aims possible harming the image of psychologists HOWEVER 84% reported being glad to have participated
- Good external validity/ replicability, other studies have found similar results Holfing et al. found 21/22 nurses obeyed a doctor’s unjustified demands so his results do generalise
What were Milgram’s situational variables, and what was the conformity rate?
Proximity:
- Learner and Teacher in the same room = 40%
- Teacher pushes learner hand onto electroshock plate = 30%
- Experimenter gave instructions by telephone = 20.5%
Location:
- Experiment in a run down building = 47.5%
Uniform:
- Experimenter replaced by ordinary person = 20%
Evaluation of Milgram’s variations
- Lack of internal validity, many participants especially in the uniform variation probably figured out the experiment wasn’t real
- Milgram’s experimental variations all had very high levels of control and standardisation, internal validity
What are the two social-psychological factors which can explain obedience?
- Agentic State
- Legitimacy of Authority
Explain the agentic state explanation
Milgram explains that people obey because they do not see themselves as responsible for their actions, rather they are an ‘agent’ acting in place of someone else. People, until they perceive someone else as the authority figure, are in the autonomous state, where they see themselves as responsible for their actions and after the agentic shift, they experience binding factors which minimises the effect of their behaviour
Evaluate the agentic state explanation
- The Agentic State does not explain why some people in Milgram’s study did not obey
- Hofling et al.’s study found that the 21/22 nurses who obeyed in an experiment did not experience the same anxiety as Milgram’s participants, which the agentic state explanation predicts
