Social Influence Flashcards
(65 cards)
What is conformity
A form of majority influence where the attitudes, beliefs and behaviour of people in a particular group are adopted in response to real or imagined group pressure
What are the 3 types of conformity
Compliance
Identification
Internalisation
Explain compliance
-Compliance is publicly conforming to the behaviour or views of others in a group but privately maintaining your own views
-It involves going along with the geoup even if you do not really agree with what they’re doing
-It is a temporary change in behaviour as it only lasts as long as group pressure is present
-This tule of conformity is likely to be linked to normative social influence
A weakness of behaviourist treatment ot phobias is flooding and systematic desensitisation may not be addressing the real cause of the phobia
The treatments have been criticised by the psychodynamic model which claims that vehavoural therapies only focus on symptoms and ignores the causes of abnormal behaviour. Psychoanalysts claim that the symptoms are merely the tip of the iceberg, the real cause of phobias may be traumatic childhood experiences which are repressed into the unconscious mind
However, they belive hat the behaviourist therapy does not deal with these issues, it rather tires to alleviate the anxiety caused by it. In long term, this will lead to the phobia resurfacing ub a different form (symptom substitution)
Therefore, using behavioural therapies such as these to treat phobias may be ineffective in the longrun
Explain identification in terms of social influence
-identification is when individuals adjust their behaviour and opinions to that of a group because being a member of the group is desirable and they are seen as role models
- This is a stronger type of conformity as it involves private and public acceptance
- It is generally temporary and does not maintained when individuals leave the group
What is internalisation
- Internalisation is a conversion of private views to match those of a group
- The behavior of belief of the majority Is accepted by the individual and becomes part of their own belief system
- It is the most permanent Form of conformity as it usually lost even if the majority is no Longer present
- This type of conformity is most likely to be linked to informational social influence
What did Deutsch and Gerald develop to provide explanations as to why people conform and what does this consist of
Dual process model
Normative social influence
Informational social influence
DUAL PROCESS MODEL
Explain normative social influence
- People conform because they desire to be liked by other members of the group and also want to avoid being rejected
- The important thing Is the need for acceptance and approval from the group
- It is associated with compliance as Conformity on occurs when the individuals within the group but stops When the individual is away from the group
DUAL PROCESS MODEL
Explain informational social influence
- Informational social influence is based on the desire to be right and occurs.When we turn to others who we believe wake me to correct in an attempt to gain information about how to think or act
- This type of conformity is common when people are uncertain about their opinions on how to behave
- It is associated with internalisation as you continue to conform to the behavior of the group when the group is not present as he believed the behaviour is correct
One strength is there is research support for informational social influence
Lucas at Al students to give answers to mathematical problems that were easy or more difficult. He found that students were more likely to give the wrong answer when questions were difficult rather than when they were easy as they conformed to the majority. This was especially true for students who rated their mathematical ability as poor. This supports ISI as ppts looked to others for answers as they had the desire to be right and this happens in ambiguous situations, in this case students were unsure of the answers themselves due to difficulty of task of perceived lack of ability
This increases the validity of dual process model as it shows conformity can occur due to informational social influence
One strength of normative social influence as an explanation for conformity is there is supporting evidence
Asch did 12 critical trials using a line judgement task and found there was approximately a 37% conformity rate to wrong answers made by the majority. In this case ppts conformed to the incorrect responses given by the confederate even when the correct answer was obvious. This supports the role of NSI as ppts conformed because they wanted to be part of the majority due to a desire to be liked by the group and avoid being rejected. Furthermore, since the answer was obvious it is unlikely that ppts were conforming to be right. This increases validity of DPM and shows conformity can occur due to nroamtive social influence
One weakness of the dual process model as an explanation of conformity is it foes not take into account individual differences and locus of control
For some people they care more about being accepted by others and are more likely to be influenced by the majority and conform to be liked.Then those who care less about being like liked. Additionally, Shute found people with an external locus of control are more likely to conform ad they beleive the cause of behaviour lies externally and beyond their own control
This is an issue as the dpm believes all people react to conformity in the same way but it doesn’t take into account personality related factors which are key in determining like hood of conformity
This means the dom is incomplete so reduces its validity
Evaluation of Asch line experiment
- Artificial situation and task -
A limitation of Asch’s research is that it employed an artificial situation and an artificial task . For example , as Fiske ( 2014 ) argued , the group that naïve participants were part of is very different to the kind of groups typically encountered in everyday life , which tend to be people we are familiar with ( e.g. , friends or colleagues ) . Furthermore , the task of matching lines has little to do with everyday life experiences and is insignificant compared to real life situations involving pressure to conform ( e.g. , making a decision on a jury about the guilt or innocence of a defendant ) . Thus , Asch’s study may therefore only explain conformity in special circumstances where there are no consequences to conformity and bear little similarity to real life . Therefore , Asch’s research lacks ecological validity and is unlikely to inform our understanding of conformity in everyday situations .
- Ethical Issues -
A limitation of Asch’s research is that it presents several ethical concerns . Asch’s naïve ( real ) participants didn’t provide fully informed consent prior to the study , because they were deceived about key aspects of the experimental procedures . For example , participants were not informed that the purpose of the research was to investigate conformity ( in order obtain valid results ) and in fact were led to believe that the study was investigating visual perception . The naïve participants also thought the other participants involved in the group task were genuine participants like themselves , when in fact they were confederates whose responses were deliberately inaccurate on most trials . Therefore , Asch’s research into conformity violates a number of ethical guidelines reducing the credibility of the research .
JUST READ THIS
Asch line experiemnt
PROCEDURE US undergraduates took part in what they were told was a study of visual perception . Seven people sat looking at a display and had to say out loud which one of the three lines was the same length as a given stimulus line . The correct answer was always obvious . All participants , except for 1 , were confederates . The genuine / naïve participant was always the last but one to answer and the confederates gave the same wrong answer on most trials
FINDINGS Participants conformed to the wrong answer on 37 % of trials and 75 % of participants conformed at least once
CONCLUSIONSShows that participants will conform to the group’s behavior when they know the answer is wrong
What are the 3 variations in Asch’s line experiment
Group size
Unanimity
Task difficulty
Explain the geoup size variable in Asch’s line experiment
Increased number of confederates from 1 to 15
-Research indicates conformity rates increase as the size of a majority influencing the person increases, but there comes a point where furher increases in the size of the majority doesn’t lead to further increases in conformity
-Asch found that with three confederates, conformity to the wrong answer was about 31.8% but adding one more confederate knly increased this to 35% with no further increase as more confederates were added till 15
RESEARCH INTO ASH’S VARIABLES AFFECTING CONFORMITY
Explain unanimity
-Unanimity means to what degree the group members are in agreement with eachother
-Conformity rates decline when majority influence is not unanimous
-Asch found that when there was a confederate present who disagreed to the majority, conformity reduced to 5.5% which is significantly lower than the original conformity rate(where the group was unanimous - 35%)
RESEARCH INTO ASH’S VARIABLES AFFECTING CONFORMITY
Explain Task difficulty
-Conformity increases when task difficulty increases as the right answer becomes less obvious, therefore confidence in out own judgement tends to drop
-Asch increased task difficulty by making the comparison lines similar in length to eachother, so the correct answer was less obvious when he did this ppts were more likely to conform to the wrong answer, demonstrating the effect of task difficulty on conformity
One strength of Asch’s research is there is research support for task difficulty
Lucas et al asked students to give answers to mathematical problems that were easy or more difficult. Students were more likely to give the wrong answer (conform to the people around them) when the questions were difficult rather than when they were easy ones. This was especially true for students who rated their mathematical ability as poor
This supports Asch’s findings as it lrovided evidence that increasing task difficulty leads to greater conformity. Furthermore, if participants find a task more difficult to perceived lack of ability, it also increases conformity
This increases validity of Asch’s findings on task difficulty
A weakness of Asch’s research is it has low ecological validity because it involves a very artifical task
The task of matching lines is not representative of real life situations involving pressure to conform. This shows whilst someone may have conformed in a non consequential setting of a lab experiment, they are more likely to resist the pressures when the choices have real consequences. Asch’s studies only explain conformity in special circumstances where judgements have no consequences and have little similarity to real life
As the studies lack ecological validity, the findings fo not inform our understanding of conformity in everyday situations
A limitation of Asch’s studies is it has low temporal validity
Asch’s studies were conducted during the 1950s
During this time in America, people were more likely to conform to social norms due to concerns about the rise of communism. Moreover, Perrin and Spencer repeated Asch’s study several decades later and found much lower rates of conformity compared to Asch’s originally study(conformity was found on only one trial out of a total of 396 trials)
This shows that Asch’s findings are not consistent Overtime because conformity may have been higher when Asch conducted his research due to specific conditions within society at that time
Therefore, conclusions about conformity and the variables that affects conformity may not apply to modern day behaviour, undermining the validity of Asch’s research
What is a social role
Social role are the parts people play as members of various social groups. These are accompanied by expectations we and others have of what is appropriate behaviour in each role
ZIMBARDL - THE STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT
aim
Procedure
Findings
Conclusion
AIM
To investigate the extent to which people would conform to the roles of guard and prisoner in a role playing simulation of prison life
To investigate whether conformity was due to the nature of the person (dispositional factors) or the prison context(situational factors)
PROCEDURE
Before the study
-A mock prison was set up in the Basement of the psychology department at Stanford University USA
-Zimbardo recuited 24 male students from a volunteer sample
-All volunteers were psychologically and physically screened to select those who were most stable with no violent or anti social tendencies and were randomly allocated to either the role of the prsioner or guard
During the study
-The prisoners were unexpectedly arrested at home and were taken to prison
-Dehumanisation and deindividuation occurred through the use of ID numbers in prisoners and dark sun glasses in guards
-The study was intended to run for 14 days
FINDINGS
-Within a day, the prisoners rebelled and ripped of their numbers. The guards responses by confiscating their blankets and using aggressive behaviour
-Dehumanisation was increasingly apparent as guards humiliated the prisoners until they became submissive. Deindividuation was noticeable by the prisoners referring to eachcother and themselves by their prison numbers instead of their names
-The prisoners became rapidly depressed. After 36 hours, 1 prisoner was released because he showed symptoms of psychological disturbance. 3 more prisoners developed similar symptoms and were released later.
-The study was ended after 6 days
CONCLUSION
-Conformity to social roles in a situation affects behaviour and behaviour is influences by a loss of identity
-Power of situation as opposed to dispositional factors influenced behaviour
Obedience Samsung notes
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