Social Influence Flashcards

Question

Asch’s research A01

Answer 1

- further investigations were done with different variations - he did three different variations - group size; Three c were added - conformity was 32% - 2 confers-13% 1 confed-3% Showing group size was important but only to a certain mount - unanimity: - when 1 confederate who gave a correct answer conformity dropped it 5 % - if confederates gave all different answers - dropped to 9% Difficulty: - made differences n line smaller - level of conformity increased -showing when a situation is ambiguous we are more likely to conform to ISI

Answer 2

- lacks temporal validity - classed as a child of its time - could be unique, took place in a period of us history when conformity was hight - additionally repeated by perin and Spencer - who found only 1 coforming in 139 trials - suggesting a cultural change has taken place - therefore it lacks temporal and historical validity - as not consistent across time

Answer 3

- could be androcentric as they used an all male sample - other research suggests that women may be more likely to confirm as they care more about social roles -Additionally it could be culture bias as they were also all all from the US -And research has been done in China suggesting that conformity is higher as social groups are more important -This suggests that it’s not necessarily generalisable to the wider population as it only applies to American males

Answer 4

-could be subject to demand characteristics -Participants may have guessed the study and be behaved unnaturally -For example trying to please ask by behaving in a way that they thought he would like for example by conforming -Therefore this is a negative as it lowest the internal validity of Ashes study

Answer 5

-Was a lab study -Therefore it was easy to control extreme variables for example the lines in the study -Therefore it’s a strength as it measures what it is intended to so it has high internal validity -However it does like mundane realism as they asked participants to measure the line length and it may not reflect conforming every day life -Therefore also being a weakness as it lacks ecological validity as we cannot generalise it to real life situations due to the artificial stimuli

Answer 6

- on essay template

Answer 7

-different factors can enhance the effectiveness of a minority -Including commitment, flexibility, and consistency -Consistency refers to the ways in which my influence is more likely to occur when the member share the same belief and retain it over time -commitment: the minority has to show full commitment to their message and not be put off by Naysayers and critics -Stay committed take a lot of effort -And strong commitment may lead the majority to think that the minority possibly have a point as they are willing to be mocked publicly or ridiculed and face hardship to change peoples lives -somebody who is committed to animal rights may involve setting lab animals free or starting a petition to close an animal testing lab -Minority has to be consistent in their view: -It must not change or fluctuate over time -Showing the majority that the minority are firm, resolute and strong in the face of possible criticism or hostility -There is synchronic consist: Where the minority represents a united front and shares the same message -And then Chronic consistency: Where the minority have been promoting their message for some time -An example, maybe climate change activists and their messages always the same the future is at risk -Flexibility is that the minority should be able to adapt their message as what they have to say may not be welcomed by many sectors of society -They must be open to accepting reasonable and valid counter arguments -being inflexible may put off the majority

Answer 8

Moscovici conducted a study to see if a consistent minority could influence a majority to give an incorrect answer in a colour perception task -His sample consisted of 172 female ps who were placed in groups of six and shown 36 slides of all varying shades of blue -Two of the six participants were confederate -In the consistent condition the two confederate said that all 36 slides were green -In the inconsistent condition the Confederate said that 24 of the slides were green and 12 were blue -M found that in the consistent condition the participants agreed on 8.2% of the trials were in the inconsistent condition the ps only agreed on 1.25% of the trials

Answer 9

-One weakness of his research is he used a bias sample of 172 female participants from America -Therefore it’s very hard to generalise the results of all the populations -For example, males -As males may respond differently to the minority influence -Additionally different cultures may also respond differently -His research could be classed as gyno centric -As his research takes an exclusive focus on the conforming behaviour of female participants to a minority influence -Furthermore research often suggests that females are more likely than males to conform and therefore further research is required to determine the effect of minor influence on male participants to improve the low population validity of this experiment

Answer 10

-additionally he’s been criticised for breaching ethical guidelines during his study -He deceived his participants as they were told they were taking part in a colour perception test - When in fact they were taking part in a minority influence experiment -This also means that he did not gain fully informed consent -Although it is seen as unethical to deceive participants, his experiment required deception in order to achieve valid results -As if the participants were aware of the true aim they may have displayed demanded characteristics and acted differently -Thus a cost benefit analysis with dean at the insight Dane from such research was worth the short-term cost to the participants which could be dealt with with a means of a debrief following the study

Answer 11

However, a strength of his research is the usefulness of his findings -He shows that minority groups can adopt this information to build a stronger campaign and hopefully lead to conversion and the snowball effect -For example, gay rights activist can improve the effectiveness of their campaign -This is because they can use the idea of consistency as well as the other factors commitment and flexibility in order to promote their beliefs and increase the amount of individuals from the majority who also internalises their beliefs Strenght for flexibility - There’s also strong supporting evidence by Nemeth who investigated the extent to which a flexible minority could influence others -Participants where one was a confederate were put into four groups -They were presented with a scenario in which someone had been injured with a ski with accident -They had to decide as a group how much compensation the victim will perceive -There was two condition -In flexible condition, the minority argued for a low rate of compensation and refuse to change his position -And the flexible condition that minority argued for a low rate of compensation, but then compromised offering a slightly higher rate -In the inflexible condition, minority little or no effect - In flexible condition, majority is much more likely to change their view and go along with my minority

Answer 12

-however there are methodological issues with the research -Judging a colour of a slide is an artificial task and therefore like Monday realism since it’s not something that occurs every day -Research conditions are criticised as being too far removed from cases of real world minority influence such as political campaigning -The implications of real word cases are also grossly disproportionate to those seen in lab settings as they can for some people literally be cases of life or death and such Muscovy research lacks external validity

Answer 13

-Zimbardo conducted a study on conformity to social roles called the Stanford prison experiment -The aim of his study was to examine the people would conform to social roles when placed in a mock prison environment -His sample consisted of male university students who are randomly assigned to one of two social roles -Prisoner or guard -The prisoners were arrested by local police given a numbered smock to wear and chains were placed around their ankles -The guards were given uniforms, sunglasses, handcuffs and baton -They were instructed to run the prison without using physical violence -The experiment was set on for two weeks, although it was terminated after only six days

Answer 14

Zimbardo found that both the prisoners and guards quickly identified with their social roles -Within days the prisoners rebelled which was quickly crushed by the guards - Who then grew increasingly abusive towards them -The gods dehumanise the prisoners waking him during the night and forcing them to clean toilets with their bare hands -The president became increasingly submissive identifying further with their subordinate role

Answer 15

Zimbardo’s experiment has been heavily criticised for breaking many ethical guidelines, especially protection from harm -Five of the prisoners left the experiment early because of their adverse reactions to the physical and mental torment -Furthermore some of the gods reported feelings of anxiety and guilt as a result of their actions during the Stanford prison experiment -Although he follow the ethical guidelines of Stanford university -and debrief his participants afterwards he acknowledged that the study should’ve been stopped earlier -It’s been suggested that he was responding more in the role of the superintendent of the prison rather than as the researcher with the responsibility for his participants -furthermore, he only used male participants in his sample showing beta bias as his research may have ignored or minimise the differences between men and women in relation to conformity to social roles and therefore we are unable to conclude whether the females conform to the social roles in a similar way

Answer 16

- furthermore replication of the standard prison experiment was conducted by riecher and Haslam - Which contradicts the findings of Zimbardo -In this replication the participants did not conform to their social roles automatically -For example the gods did not identify with their status and refuse to impose their authority -The prisoners identified as a group to challenge the gods authority which resulted in a shift of power and a collapse of the prison system -These results clearly contradict the findings of Zimbardo and suggest that conformity to social roles may not be automatic as Zimbardo originally implied

Answer 17

-however a strength was that he managed to maintain some degree of control and ecological validity -For example he tightly controlled the rules and he arrested prisoners from their homes so it had a real atmosphere -He also used many different data collection methods: like interviews , Covert/over observation and questionnaires -Which are all qualitative and in-depth- -also there was evidence that the participants did react situation as though it was real, as 90% of prisoners private conversations were about prison conditions -there for showing they were not acting and were not showing demand characteristics -Leading to more accurate results

Answer 18

-furthermore individual differences and personality also determine the extent which a person confirms to social roles -In Zimbardo’s original experiment the behaviour of the gods very dramatically from extremely sadistic behaviour displayed by around one third of the participants in that role -To a few guards who actually helped the prisoners by offering support and sympathy giving cigarettes and reinstating lost privileges -this suggests that situational factors are not the only cause of conformity to social roles and dispositional factors such as personality also play a role in plain that Zimbardo‘s conclusions may have been overstated

Answer 19

- social change refers to how overtime beliefs, attitudes and behaviours of a society are replaced with new norms and expectations -moscovci put forward the conversion theory to explain how social change occurs - three clear factors - consistency, flexibility, commitment - the minority must be consistent in their opisition to the majority - firstly the minority must be consistent in their opposition to the major majority -History has proven many real life examples were consistent people have changed and questions and values and norms of society -Like Martin Luther King Nelson Mandela and the suffragettes who all led movements who were consistent in their views against the majority for many years which helps bring about social change -furthermore, the results of Moscovich’s research how about the importance of consistency in minority influence -He found that a consistent minority What 8.4% more likely to convince a majority of the colour of a slide was green when it was in fact blue in comparison to an inconsistent minority of 1.3%

Answer 20

also the minority must show they are committed to their cause -Because when the minority have so much passion and confidence in their point of view, it suggests to the majority that their view must somehow be valid and it encourages them to explore why offering more opportunity to be influenced — research is also shown that conformity complete a role in social change -This is because many of the attitudes and behaviours of individuals in society are shaped by what they perceive to be social norms -NSI suggests that we will often change our behaviour out of a desire to be liked and accepted by the majority to gain social approval -Therefore, if individuals in society Allowed to believe that the majority are behaving differently to the way they behave -Like recycling, more or drinking less -They may change their behaviour to avoid being seen as socially deviant

Answer 21

-then there is the augmentation principle -When the majority paid attention to the selfless and risky actions being taken by the minority group it’s much more likely integrate the group opinion into their own personal viewpoints due to the personal sacrifice made by the minority -Once the minority viewpoint has gotten the attention of some of the majority group members more and more people begin paying attention and the minority viewpoint gathers momentum which is called the snowball effect -an example would be the suffragettes who are consistent in their views and persistently used educational and political arguments to draw attention to female rights -Their main consistent for many years despite opposition continued protesting until they convince society that women were entitled to vote -Many of the suffragettes made sacrifices for their cause -Many wrist imprisonment and others wrist death -Making their influence even more powerful -Overtime their influence spread with people considering the issue that led to social change and all adults gaining the right to vote

Answer 22

What issue is reports of social change with in a society can involve concepts that have not been or cannot be tested empirically -This means they lack scientific credibility -Furthermore many examples of social change rest on isolated case studies for example Martin Luther King -And therefore an idiographic approach is often taken -Consequently there is a large amount of subjective interpretation involved in explain the occurrences of social norms and such evidence should be treated with caution -However, there is a large quantity of research that supports the process is involved in social change -Such as Ash Milgrim and moscovici - Which take a nomothetic Approach as they have each credited universal law to explain human behaviour under certain social circumstances -Taking together these isolated case studies and relatively large scale studies provide credibility to the underlying processes involved in social change

Answer 23

-A weakness is minority influence can often act a barrier to social change - bashir et al we’re interested in investigating why so many people resist to social change even when they believe it to be needed -It was found that some minority groups such as environmental activists or feminist often live up to the stereotypes associated with those groups Which can be often seen as offputting for outsiders -this means that the majority often does not want to be associated with the minority for fear of being stereotypically labelled

Answer 24

-there is research to support for the role of normative social influence as a process for social change -nolan et al conducted a study which spanned one month in California and involve hanging messages on the front of doors of peoples houses in San Diego -encouraging them to reduce energy consumption by indicating that most all the residents in the neighbourhood already doing this - as a means of control somehow houses received a message about energy usage but with no reference to the behaviour of the other people in the area -it was found that the experimental group significantly lowered the energy consumption showing that conform can lead to positive social change

Answer 25

-situational variables focus on external factors that affect the likelihood that someone will obey -Including proximity location and uniform -Milgrim conducted his original study in a lab of Yale University -To test the power of the location, Milgrim conducted a variation in a rundown building in Bridgeport Connecticut -In this variation the percentage of participants who administered the full 450 V dropped from 65% to 47.5% -Highlighting the importance of location in creating a prestigious atmosphere generating respect and obedience

Answer 26

-likewise Milgrim demonstrated the power of uniform in a variation where the experimenter was called away and replaced by another ‘participant’ (confed) in normal clothes rather than a lab coat - The percentage of participants who admitted the full shock dropped to 20% -While this variation appears to suggest that uniform is an important fact to the effects authority is unclear from this variation alone. Whether uniform is the contributing factor or whether the experimenter also appears more legitimate due to his social status and role.

Answer 27

-proximity refers to how close someone or something is -In a variation of Milgrim‘s experiment where the teacher and learner were in the same room the percentage of participants who administered the full 450 V dropped from 65% to 40% because the teacher could understand the line is paying more directly -In another variation the experiments have left the room and gave the instruction over a telephone -With this variation the obedience levels fell even further to 20.5% -This shows that proximity affects obedience in two ways -One the closer person is to the authority figure the more likely they ought to obey -To the closer a person is to the consequences of their actions the less likely they are to obey

Answer 28

-while the situational variables light uniform proximity are seem to be important a weakness would be that research suggests that all the factors can also play a role for example culture -Kilman and Mann -Replicated Milgrim’s original study procedures in Australia -But they found the only 16% of the participants shocked the learner at the maximum voltage level of 450 V -Whereas Mantel on the other hand showed that it was 85% when conducted in Germany -this cross cultural comparison shows that different societies follow alternative hierarchical structures and children may be socialised differently from a young age to be more or less obedient -This suggests that while situational factors like uniform and proximity are important. All the factors may be a more significant role in obedient behaviour.

Answer 29

However, strength is there is additional research support for the role of uniform affecting obedience -Bickman conducted a field experiment in New York City -Where confederates stood on the street and as members of the public who are passing by to perform a small task so just picking up a piece of litter or providing a coin for the parking meter -The outfit that the confederate was wearing varied from a smart suit jacket and Tie -A milkman’s outfit -Or a security guard -it was found that in the final condition the members of the public were twice as likely to obey the order given by the security guard -Which supports Milgrim’s idea that a uniform added to the legitimacy of authority figure and it is a situational variable which increases obedience levels

Answer 30

However, orne and Holland have criticised Milgrim’s study -They believed that many of the participants worked out that the procedure was faked -It is even more likely that the participants in Morgan’s variations realised this because of the manipulation -A good example is that the variation where the experiment was replaced by a member of the public? -Even Milgrim recognise that this situation was so contrived that some participants would’ve worked it out -This is a limitation to Milgrim study and his variation as it is unclear whether the participant knew what was going on

Answer 31

-however some have criticised Milgrim’s findings from his variation supports -The proximity of the experimenter, teacher and learner, the location of the study and the presence of uniform at all factors within the situation that influences obedience -However this perspective has been criticised by David Mendel -Who argued their offer is an excuse or an alibi for evil behaviour -it is also disrespectful to holocaust survivors to suggest that officers were just obeying orders

Social Influence Flashcards

(55 cards)