Social Influence Flashcards
(45 cards)
What is conformity? (💡pressure)
The act of yielding to group pressure
Define internalization? (💡Private+Public)
- Publicly and privately changing your opinions and views according to a group norms
- Permanent+persist in absence of group members
- Actions = Internalized
Define Identification (💡Public ≠ Private)
- when we value a group= change opinions publicly
- upon leaving= return to private opinions/behaviors
Define Compliance?
(💡Temp agreement)
- involves: superficial change in attitude
- changes stop =group pressure ceases
What is ISI as an explanation for conformity?
- Desire to be right
- Most likely in ambiguous situations
- Most likely when decisions have to be made quickly
- cognitive process leads to internalization
What is NSI as a definition of conformity?
- Desire to not look foolish
- Most likely in situations where norms are unknown
- Most likely concerned about social approval
- emotional rather than cognitive process leads to compliance
Give a research support for NSI (💡Asch)
- Asch found: participants conformed because of fear of stupidity/ disapproval
- when participants wrote down answers instead: conformity fell to 12.5%
- Shows= at least some conformity is from a desire to not be rejected by group
Give a research support for ISI (💡Lucas et al)
- Lucas: found that participants conformed when maths questions were harder
- harder questions = more ambiguous so rely on answers given
- Shows = individual conform as a result of desire to be right
Give a counterpoint to NSI+ISI
💡real word opp
💡Dissenter operation
- Dissenter may= reduce power of NSI (Social support)
- Dissenter may= reduce power of ISI (Alternative source)
- therefore; hard to separate and operate together in real life
Luca: found that distinction between both is unnecessary
- it is difficult to work out which is in operation.
Give a limitation to NSI+ ISI
(💡 Luca)
- individual difference: some people are concerned about being liked by others
- Luca: found that distinction between both is unnecessary
- it is difficult to work out which is in operation.
What was Ach’s procedure
💡sample
- Task
- Trials
- 123 America make participants
-individual asked to compared standard line to others - there were 18 trials were, 12 critical trials confederates clearly gave wrong answer
What were the main findings of Asch’s study?
💡 Percentages!
-75% conformed at least once
-36.8% conformed in total
- 25% Never conformed
How did Group size affect the findings in Asch’s study?
💡Data + Explanation
- 2 confederates = 13.6% increase
- 3 confederates = 32.8% increase
- Above 3 confed= no significant increase
Explanation: just one person is enough to say opinions because people are very sensitive to this
How did unanimity affect the findings in Asch’s Study?
💡 Data + Explanation
- conformity reduced to less than a quarter then when majority was unanimous
- conformity reduced if dissenter gave wring or right answers
Explanation: having a dissenter enabled the naive participants to behave more independently
How did Task difficulty affect the findings of Asch’s line study
💡Data & Task
-Explanation
-NSI/ISI?
- Task: standard line and comparison line more similar in length
- Conformity increased
Explanation: more ambiguous= more likely to seek to seek guidance - This NSI
Give a limitation of Asch’s study
💡Artifical task + Fiske
💡Explanation
- Paticipants knew here were in research = dealing charcteristucs
-Fiske (2014) argues that groups≠not like real life groups
-This means- hard to generalize especially when consequences of conformity is important
What is a limitation of Asch’s study
💡Limited application
💡Neto + Bond and smith
💡Explanation
- Only American mean tested
- Neto suggest that women maybe more conformist
- Bond and Smith= Also, individualist+collectivist culture found to have higher conformity
- This means that the findings tell us little about conformity in women+ people from some cultures = limited application
Give one research support that support Asch’s study
💡Luca et al + Outline
💡Explanation + task difficulty
- Lucas eat al asked participants to solve easy and hard maths questions and give false answers from other paricipants
- Participants conformed more often and agreed when questions were harder
- This shows: Asch was correct that task difficulty is interested variable affecting conformity.
How does Asch’s study raise ethical questions?
💡Deception + Consent
While study provide insight into why people conform
- participants were decided and unable ton give informed consent
- this means that the research is questionable but findings can be justified as a result of application
Describe the baseline procedure of Zimbardo’s SPE
💡 Location
💡sample + role allocation
💡Social role encouragement (2)
- Mock prison in the basement of psychology department at Stanford prison experiment
-21 male student volunteers and randomly allocated role of prisoner or guard - social roles were encouraged by two routes:
1. Uniform: this encourage deindividuation as participants were strip searched, give a uniform and adressed by allocated number.
2. Instructions about behaviors: prisoners would have to ask for a parole to leave and Guards were told they had complete power over prisoners
What did Zimabardo find during the SPE?
💡Settement into roles
💡Duration of study + three prisoners
💡Explanation: effective of social roles
- Guards payed their roles enthusiastically and treated prisoners harshly
- Three prisoners were released early because of signs of psychological disturbance
- The study was stopped after six days instead of the panes 14 days
- Explantion: social roles are powerful influences on behavior - most conformed strongly to their roles
Guards became brutal+ prisoners became submissive
Other volunteers also easily conformed to their riles in the prison (i.e Chaplain)
Give one strength of ZImbardo’s SPE
💡 Control + Internal validity
💡selection of participants + impact on roles
💡Expalantion: confidence in drawing conclusions
- emotionally stable participants selected and randomly recruited and allocated roles
- roles off guards therefore not as a result of personality
- this means that control increased the internal validity. So we have more confidence in drawing conclusions about the effects of social roles on conformity;
Explain one limitation of Zimbardo study
💡Banuaziz +stereotypes
- Banuazizi suggest that participants acted according to stereotypes of how guards and prisoners are supposed to behave
-this suggest that the SPE tells us little about conformity to social roles in actual prison
Give a limitation of Zimabardo’s SPE
💡Exaggeration of Social roles + Data
💡Explanation + dispositional influences
- The power of social roles to influence behavior may have been exaggerated
- Onlya third of the guards behaved brutally
- this means that the SPE overstates the view that the guard were conforming to a brutal role and minimized dispositional influences (i.e personality)