social influence

Question 1

What is conformity?

Answer 1

A type of social influence, it is defined as yielding to group pressures.

Question 2

What THREE types of conformity did Kelman propose?

Answer 2

Internalisation
Identification
Compliance

Question 3

What is internalisation?

Answer 3

Making the beliefs, values, attitudes and behaviour of a group, your own.

Question 4

What is identification?

Answer 4

Temporary or short-term change of behaviour in the presence of a group.

Question 5

What is compliance?

Answer 5

This means to follow other people’s ideas, even if you don’t agree.

Question 6

WHAT IS THE TERM?
When someone conforms because they want to be right so they look to others by copying or obeying them

Answer 6

Informational Social Influence

Question 7

What is the evidence for informational social influence?

Answer 7

Fein et al (2007)

Question 8

What is Fein et al (2007) study?

Answer 8

Participants were asked to vote for a US president after they saw others voting for another candidate. Most of the P’s changed their mind, wanting to seem correct, which implies the impact of informational social influence as a mechanism for conformity.

Question 9

What is normative social influence?

Answer 9

When someone conforms because they want to be liked and be part of a group.

Question 10

ASCH’S LINE STUDY:

How many participants were in the study?
What gender were they?
What was their nationality?
LImitations of this?

Answer 10

123 participants
Male
American
Lack of population validity, these results cannot be generalised to other nationalities or gender.

Question 11

ASCH’S LINE STUDY:

What was the aim of the study?

Answer 11

To investigate conformity and majority influence.

Question 12

ASCH’S LINE STUDY:

What was the procedure?

Answer 12

Participants and confederates were presented with 4 lines; 3 comparison lines and 1 standard line
• They asked to state which of three lines was the same length as a stimulus line
• The real participant always answered last or second to last
• Confederates would give the same incorrect answer for 12 out of 18 trials
• Asch observed how often the participant would give the same incorrect answer as the confederates versus the correct answer

Question 13

ASCH’S LINE STUDY:

What did the study find?

Answer 13

36.8% conformed
25% never conformed
75% conformed atleast ONCE

Question 14

TRUE OR FALSE?

The factors that affect the level of conformity are group size, task difficulty and unamity.

Answer 14

TRUE

Question 15

ASCH’S LINE STUDY:

What were the strengths of the study?

Answer 15

High internal validity
Extraneous variables : LAB EXPERIMENT
Supports normative social influence

Question 16

ASCH’S LINE STUDY:

What were the weaknessess of the study?

Answer 16

Lacks ecological validity
Lacks population validity
Lack of consent

Question 17

Conformity to Social Rules: ZIMBARDO

Who were the participants?

Answer 17

24 American male undergraduate students

Question 18

Conformity to Social Rules: ZIMBARDO

What was the aim of the experiment?

Answer 18

To investigate how readily people would conform to social roles in a simulated enviroment.

Question 19

Conformity to Social Rules: ZIMBARDO

What was the procedure of the experiment?

Answer 19

The basement of the Stanford University psychology building was converted into a simulated prison. American student volunteers were paid to take part in the study.
They were randomly issued one of two roles; guard or prisoner.
Both prisoners and guards had to wear uniforms.
Prisoners were only referred to by their assigned number.
Guards were given props like handcuffs and sunglasses.
No one was allowed to leave the simulated prison.
The guards were allowed to control behaviour, in order to emphasise their complete power over the prisoners.
No physical violence was permitted, in line with ethical guidelines and to prevent complete overruling. The behaviour of the participants was observed.

Question 20

Conformity to Social Rules: ZIMBARDO

What were the findings of the experiment?

Answer 20

Identification occurred very fast, as both the prisoners and guards adopted their new roles and played their part in a short amount of time.
Guards began to harass and torment prisoners in harsh and aggressive ways – they later reported to have enjoyed doing so and relished in their new-found power and control.
Prisoners would only talk about prison issues forgetting about their previous real life.
This is significant evidence to suggest that the prisoners believed that the prison was real, and were not acting simply due to demand characteristics.
They would even defend the guards when other prisoners broke the rules, reinforcing their social roles as prisoner and guard, despite it not being real.
The guards became more demanding of obedience and assertiveness towards the prisoners while the prisoners become more submissive.
This suggests that the respective social roles became increasingly internalised.

Question 21

Conformity to Social Rules: ZIMBARDO

What were the strengths of the experiment?

Answer 21

Real life applications
Help was offered prior to the study.

Question 22

Conformity to Social Rules: ZIMBARDO

What were the weaknessess of the experiment?

Answer 22

Lacks ecological validity
Lacks population validity
Ethical issues

Question 23

EXPLANATIONS FOR OBEDIENCE:

What is the agentic state?

Answer 23

This is when someone believes that someone else will take responsibility for their actions. People are more likely to conform in the agentic state as they do not believe there will be a consequence for their actions.

Question 24

EXPLANATIONS FOR OBEDIENCE:

What is meant by legitimacy of authority?

Answer 24

This describes how credible the figure of authority is. People are more likely to conform if they believe the figure is credible.

Question 25

EXPLANATIONS FOR OBEDIENCE: TRUE OR FALSE: A person is less likely to conform when a figure is in uniform.

Answer 25

FALSE

Question 26

VARIABLES AFFECTING OBEDIENCE, AS STUDIED BY MILGRAM: PICK THE CORRECT LETTER: A} the participants were 34 English females B} the participants were 40 male volunteers C} the participants were members of Milgram's family

Answer 26

B} They were 40 randomly selected male volunteers.

Question 27

VARIABLES AFFECTING OBEDIENCE, AS STUDIED BY MILGRAM: What was the aim of the study?

Answer 27

To observe whether people would obey a figure of authority, even if it meant hurting someone. IE evaluating the influence of a destructive authority figure.

Question 28

VARIABLES AFFECTING OBEDIENCE, AS STUDIED BY MILGRAM: What is the procedure of the study?

Answer 28

A participant given the role of ‘teacher’ and a confederate given the role of ‘learner’. This was decided through a random allocation. Participant had to ask the confederate a series of questions. Whenever the confederate got the answer wrong, the participant had to give him an electric shock, even when no answer was given. The electric shocks incremented by 15 volts at a time, ranging from 300V to 450V, where 330V was marked as ‘lethal’. Participants thought the shocks were real when in fact there were no real shocks administered, and the confederate was acting. The shocks were falsely demonstrated to be real prior to the start of the study. Participants were assessed on how many volts they were willing to shock the confederate with. The experimenter’s role was to give a series of orders / prods when the participant refused to administer a shock, which increased in terms of demandingness for every time the participant refused to administer a shock. The same 4 prods were used each time when participants refused to administer the shocks. The first 3 demanded obedience to science, whereas the final prod demanded obedience specifically to the confederate.

Question 29

VARIABLES AFFECTING OBEDIENCE, AS STUDIED BY MILGRAM: What percentage of the participants delivered: A} 300V B} 450V C} Stopped at 300V

Answer 29

A} 100% B} 65% C} 12.5%

Question 30

VARIABLES AFFECTING OBEDIENCE, AS STUDIED BY MILGRAM: What THREE factors affected the obedience rate?

Answer 30

Proximity Location Uniform

Question 31

VARIABLES AFFECTING OBEDIENCE, AS STUDIED BY MILGRAM: What two of these is the odd one out? A} The strengths of the study were : debriefing , real-life applications , high internal validity B] The strengths of the study were: real-life applications, population validity and ecological validity C] The strengths of the study were: highly replicable, ecological validity and population validity.

Answer 31

B and C

Question 32

VARIABLES AFFECTING OBEDIENCE, AS STUDIED BY MILGRAM: Fill in the blanks: The weaknessess of the study were its E ( 6 letters ) i (5 letters) , it's lack of i******* validity and it's lack of ecological validity.

Answer 32

1) E I : Ethical Issues 2) Internal

Question 33

THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY: Who found this trait?

Answer 33

Adorno

Question 34

THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY: Are people with this personality less or more likely to conform?

Answer 34

More likely

Question 35

THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY: If you have this trait, what do you believe?

Answer 35

That people should completely obey or conform to authority figures

Question 36

EXPLANATIONS OF RESISTANCE TO SOCIAL INFLUENCE: What did Rotter (1966) say regarding the locus of control?

Answer 36

The locus of control is a measurement of an individuals sense of control over their lives.

Question 37

EXPLANATIONS OF RESISTANCE TO SOCIAL INFLUENCE: If a person has an internal locus of control, what do they believe?

Answer 37

Behaviour is caused by their own efforts and personal decisions.

Question 38

EXPLANATIONS OF RESISTANCE TO SOCIAL INFLUENCE: What does it mean when someone has an external locus of control?

Answer 38

Behaviour is caused by luck or fate.

Question 39

MINORITY INFLUENCE: MOSCOVICI Were the participants randomly selected, or intentionally selected?

Answer 39

Randomly selected.

Question 40

MINORITY INFLUENCE: MOSCOVICI What was the aim of the study?

Answer 40

To observe how minorities can influence a majority.

Question 41

MINORITY INFLUENCE: MOSCOVICI What was the procedure of the study?

Answer 41

• It was a lab experiment • Participants were in a group where there were two confederates (the minority) and four participants (the majority). • Everyone was shown 36 blue slides, each with a different shade of blue. • They were each asked to say whether the slide was blue or green. • Confederates deliberately said they were green on two-thirds of the trials, thus producing a consistent minority view. • The number of times that the real participants reported that the slide was green was observed. • A control group was also used consisting of participants only – no confederates..

Question 42

MINORITY INFLUENCE: MOSCOVICI What were the findings for the study?

Answer 42

When the confederates were consistent in their answers about 8% of participants said the slides were green. However, when the confederates answered inconsistently about 1% of participants said the slides were green. This shows that consistency is crucial for a minority to exert maximum influence on a majority.

Question 43

MINORITY INFLUENCE: MOSCOVICI What are the three aspects needed to ensure the minority influences the majority?

Answer 43

Consistency Committment Flexibility

Question 44

THE ROLE OF SOCIAL INFLUENCE IN SOCIAL CHANGE: What is the main cause of social change?

Answer 44

Minority influence

Question 45

THE ROLE OF SOCIAL INFLUENCE IN SOCIAL CHANGE: TRUE OR FALSE: The snowball effect is when a new idea spreads and builds up over time, to form it from a minority influence to a majority one.

Answer 45

TRUE

Question 46

define social influence?

Answer 46

the process by which individuals and groups change each others behaviour and attitudes.

Question 47

define legitimacy of authority

Answer 47

we are more likely to obey people who we perceive to have more authority over us.

Question 48

identity three features of an authoritarian personality

Answer 48

submissive to superiors dismissive of inferiors prejudice

Question 49

TRUE OR FALSE: Authortarian personalities develop in adulthood

Answer 49

False, they develop in childhood due to harsh parenting.

Question 50

what scale measures the authotarian personality?

Answer 50

f-scale

Question 51

give limitations of the f-scale

Answer 51

acquiesence bias political bias: right-wing

Question 52

what does Milgram's study tell us about obedience?

Answer 52

people obey those they view as authority figures

Question 53

two situational variables that affect authority compliance

Answer 53

uniform proximity

Question 54

define the agentic state

Answer 54

when individuals obey an order even though they know it's wrong

Question 55

what keeps a person in the agentic state?

Answer 55

guilt shifting responsibilty to victim