Social Influence Flashcards

Question

What was the aim of the Stanford prison experiment?

Answer 1

Aimed to understand the psychological impact of situational forces by observing how typical, healthy inidividuals would conform to assigned social roles of guards and prisoners

Answer 2

An observational study of 24 male students from the USA who volunteered to ppts in a 7-14 day study recieving 15 dollars a day they were then randomly assigned to be either a prisoner or guard Prisoners- experiences unexpected arrests at home were given uniformed and id numbers. Guards-given uniforms, clubs, glasses to establish authorit and were instructed to manage the prison without harming the prisoners Zimbardo oversaw the experiment

Answer 3

Ppts quickly lost their persona indemnities and adapted to assigned roles Prisoners- showed signs of stress and anxiety some were released early after emotional breakdowns Guards-empowered by their uniforms displayed sadistic aggression and domineering behaviour the study was stopped after 6 days due to ethical concerns

Answer 4

Suggests situational factors rather than individual personality traits (disposisitonal) can drive behaviour as people who were considered normal before the experiment engaged in abusive or submissive behaviours as a results of their assigned social roles

Answer 5

Conducted psychological. Screening to ensure patients were healthy The roles were randomly allocated Which makes it sure that the behaviours come from the social roles not individual dispositions

Answer 6

Gave insight into how social roles can influence behaviour and help incidents of cruelty and abuse in institutional settings

Answer 7

Involvement may have led to experimenter bias and demand characteristics are likely to affect the study as they what to fit his expectations

Answer 8

Ppts experienced psychological harm and Zimbardo decided to continue the experiment despite the psychological harm caused a lot of damage

Answer 9

Milgram advertised his obedience experiment as a memory study to avoid bias results ppts were greeted by individuals they assumed were a scientists in a lab coat and a ppt however these were confederates Roles of teacher and learner were assigned with the setup fixed so that the real ppt was always the teacher the learner was then strapped into a chair and connected to electrodes The real ppts was led to another room containing shock machine from 15 volts to 450 slight shock to danger severe shock the teacher was giving the learner questions and if they answered wrong they’d shock them as shocks increased they’d hear screaming If they refused they’d command then to keep going

Answer 10

100% of ppts shock went up to 300 volts 65% went up to 450 and it showed that the ppts were visibly stressed

Answer 11

The majority of people will follow orders of an authority figure even if that order will lead to harm

Answer 12

Agentic state Legitimacy of authority

Answer 13

A mental state in which the individual sees themselves as acting as the agent( on behalf ) of an authority figure During the state the individual doesn’t feel guilt or responsibility for their behaviour as they believe responsibility for their action lies with the authority figire

Answer 14

Occurs when individuals act according to their principles and feel responsible for their actions its the opposite of the agentic state An agentic shift is the movement from an autonomous state to an agentic state happens in the presence of an authority figure

Answer 15

Through socialisation people learn their position within the social hierarchy individuals understand their position relative to those peoples who are above and below them Legitimacy of authority is communicated through visible symbols such as uniforms and settings

Answer 16

Proximity, location and uniform

Answer 17

Milgram increased the distance between the ppts and the authority figure by having the instructions be given by phone instead if the same room Obedience rates dropped from 65% to 21% Milgram argues that due to the increased distance ppts were less likely to remain in an agentic state and more likely to return to an autonomous state

Answer 18

Instead of having the experiment in a uni he replicated it at a run down office block the obedience rates dropped to 47.5%

Answer 19

Milgrams original experimenter wore a grey lab coat in the next one he made the confederate wear regular clothes which reduce obedience rates to 20%

Answer 20

His variable studies prove his theory giving validity to the findings

Answer 21

Lacks mundane realism no one would be shocked in everyday life Lacks ecological validity as uni wasn’t the normal environment for ppts

Answer 22

Allow high level of control ensuring each ppt had. The same experience Enable replication

Answer 23

Ppts suffered emotional distress during the study as it was difficult for the to withdraw and they were decieved about the type of study

Answer 24

Conducted a field experiment in a hospital 22 real nurses were called by an unfamiliar voice claiming to be dr smith and he ordered them to give twice the daily dose of an unfamiliar drug to patients 21 out of 22 nurses completed this order suggesting even in a mundane realism situation people are highly obedient to those with legitimacy of authority

Answer 25

Conducted a field experiment in the ecologically valid environment of the streets of New York an experimenter approached passerby in either a guard uniform, milkman uniform or no uniform and asked them to complete a task When asked to pay for a parking meter the obedience rate was 89% when dressed in the guard uniform only 33% in no uniform Supports milgrams

Answer 26

High respect for people with higher social status Hostile to people they see having low status Fixed stereotypes about groups of people Conformists with conventional beleifs and behaviours Views on morality are very clear about right and wrong

Answer 27

With a questionnaire called the fscale People who scored highly had fixed steryotypes identified with strong people disliked weak people and were inflexible with ideas of right and wrong

Answer 28

Adorno can be used to support why not everyone conformed as he acknowledged that willingness to obey an authority figure can vary from person to person

Answer 29

They gave the highest shock and were given the f scale which showed that they scored highly meaning they had authoritarian personalities

Answer 30

Written in a way that agreeing to all the questions would artificially inflate their score on the authoritarian scale leading to inaccurate measurement leading to acquiescence bias

Answer 31

The theory can lead to stereotyping where complex historical events such as the horrors of ww2 are overly simplified into personality flaws of the poepl involved

Answer 32

Milgram conducted a variation of his experiment where he gave the ppts social support in the form of 2 confederates and obedience dropped to 10%

Answer 33

Refers to a personality trait system regarding what people consider to be the cause of their experiences and the factors that influence their successes or failures

Answer 34

Believe that they have personal control over their lives and the outcomes of their actions They’re more likely to take responsibility of their actions and more proactive in seeking info

Answer 35

Believe that external factors such as fate or luck control their lives they tend to attirbute their outcomes to outside forces rather than their own actions

Answer 36

Individuals with an internal locus of control are more likely to resist conforming to group pressure because they believe in their ability to make independent judgements

Answer 37

There is only a correlation and there are other related factors that have been suggested as being involved in resistance to social influence.

Answer 38

When members of a majority group are converted to the views of a minority

Answer 39

Consistency, commitment, flexibility

Answer 40

If members of the minority repeat the same message over time(diachronic consistency) and all group members give the same message (synchronic consistency) members of the majority group are more likely to consider the minority position and reconsider their own

Answer 41

If the members of a minority are willing to suffer for their views but still hold them members of the majority will take the minority and their ideas seriously

Answer 42

Suggest that if someone performs an action despite costs and risks the underlying motive or attribute driving that action is considered particularly strong

Answer 43

They need to consider other valid arguments and show they are reasonable this flexibility encourages majority members to move closer to the minority position

Answer 44

Minorities changing majority opinions starts as a slow process as each person only converts a few members but this then speeds up and more people are converted

Answer 45

Asked 3 real ppts and one confederate to act as a mock jury decide on the level of compensation for the victim of an serious ski lift accident When the confederate was inflexible arguing for a low level of compensation and not chaining his position during negotiations they were less able to convince members of the majority to lower their offers

Answer 46

Civil rights movement showed consistency Suffragettes commitment on hunger trike

Answer 47

When a view is held by a minority group challenges the majority view and it’s eventually accepted by the majority

Answer 48

Describes how society adopts ideas from a minority group however once the mainstream accepts these ideas and they become the norm the sacrifices made by the minority group in initiating these positive social changes aren’t acknowledged but forgotten overtime

Answer 49

Helping governments understand how to change peoples behaviour

Answer 50

Social change often occurs over extended periods deals with highly sensitive topics A lab experiment cant replicate the cause and effect relationship

Answer 51

Conducted a meta analysis of studies considering locus of control and likeliness to conform it was found that those who scared highest on the external locus of control were more likely to conform therefore having an external locus of control leads to a greater rate of conformity

Answer 52

Interviewed 2 groups of people who protected the Jews and those who didn’t The rescuers were found to have an internal locus of control and scored higher on measures of social responsibility

Answer 53

Randomly selected ppts and confederates Lab experiment Groups of 2 confederates and 4 ppts Everyone was shown 36 blue slides each with a different shade of blue Asked whether slide was green or blue Confederates deliberately said they were green on 2/3 of trails When confederates were consistent 8% of ppts said green when not 1% said green When

Answer 54

Agentic state Legitimacy of authority

Answer 55

Proximity Location Uniform

Answer 56

Authoritarian personality

Answer 57

Social support Locus of control

Answer 58

-drawing attention to an issue -consistency -deeper processing -augmentation principle -snowball effect -social cryptomnesia

Answer 59

Conducted a study whihc lasted 1m in California involved hanging messages on ppls doors in San Diego to encourage reduce energy consumption by indicating most neighbours were doing the same A control group got a message referring to lowering energy consumption but not neighbours NSI The expeirment group reduced their energy level

Social Influence Flashcards

(83 cards)