social influence

Question 1

What is the definition of conformity?

Answer 1

Conformity is the act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to group norms.

Question 2

True or False: There are three main types of conformity.

Answer 2

True compliance, internalisation, identification

Question 3

what is compliance?

Answer 3

publicly conforming to behaviour or views of others in a group but privately maintaining ones own views temporary behaviour stops as soon as group pressure ends

Question 4

what is internalisation?

Answer 4

conversation of private views to match these of the group new attitudes and behaviours have become part of their value system showing this publicly or privately

Question 5

what is identification?

Answer 5

adopting views/behaviours of a group both publicly and privately because you value being part of the group usually temporary and don’t last outside group

Question 6

Which type of social influence involves changing one’s behaviour to fit in with a group, often for acceptance from the majority to appear with the norm

Answer 6

Normative social influence

Question 7

What is informational social influence ?

Answer 7

Informational social influence is when individuals conform to a group because they believe the group is better informed or has more accurate information as there’s no distinct answer (more uncertain more likely to conform) cognitive process

Question 8

what type of conformity would likely occur as a result of NSI?

Answer 8

compliance, occurring in situations where we are most worried about our own reflection

Question 9

what type of conformity would likely occur as a result of ISI?

Answer 9

internalisation - situation new to a person can be intense causing cognitive process

Question 10

evaluate individual differences in NSI

Answer 10

some research shows NSI doesn’t affect everyones behaviour in the same way as some are less concerned with being liked. those who have a greater need for affection and relationships with others tend to conform more as they want to be liked according to McGhee and teevan 1967 study on students

Question 11

evaluate sherif’s experiment 1935 on ISI

Answer 11

pps in a dark room observed a small light that appeared to move (though it was stationary) where pps where uncertain about the lights movement so they tended to see how others answered then adjusted their answers even if the others answered where incorrect

Question 12

describe the procedure of Asch (1951) study on conformity?

Answer 12

devised an experiment where there was no obvious answer line judgement task so a incorrect answer would be due to group pressure

asch put one naive pps in a room with 7 confederates who had pre agreed an answer

each pps then stated aloud which line was most similar to the target line real pps going last
18 total trials confederates giving wrong answer in 12

Question 13

results of asch 1951 study on conformity

Answer 13

33.3% of pps in each trial went along and conformed to clearly incorrect majority 75% conformed at least once

Question 14

evaluate artificial situation and task from Asch’s study on conformity

Answer 14

pps knew they were in a research study and may of gone along with the demands of the study (demand characteristics) also although pps was in a group it didn’t resemble groups from everyday life therefor findings don’t generalise to everyday situations. especially true when there is consequences making us take more consideration before conforming unlike this study

Question 15

evaluate ethical issues of asch 1951 study on conformity

Answer 15

pps where deceived because they other the other pps where real pps rather than confederates however the ethical cost is far less than the benefits from this study

Question 16

evaluate independent behaviour rather than conformity asch 1951 study on conformity

Answer 16

we should remember only 33.3% of trials where majority gave the wrong answer produced a conforming response in other words 2/3rds stuck to their original judgement despite being faced with an overwhelming majority asch believed his study showed strong independent behaviour

Question 17

what 3 ways did asch variate his study

Answer 17

group size, unanimity of majority and difficulty of task

Question 18

what affect did group size have on conformity levels asch 1951

Answer 18

addition of more confederates made little difference suggesting there is no need for a majority more than 3

Question 19

what affect did unanimity of majority have on conformity asch 1951

Answer 19

asch wanted to know if the presence of another non conforming person would affect the naive pps conformity so he introduced another confederate who disagreed with majority which led to a decrease in conformity as 25% conformed instead of 33%

Question 20

what affect did increasing the difficulty of line judgement task have on conformity asch 1951

Answer 20

made it more similar in length leading to conformity increasing under these conditions suggesting ISI plays a greater role when task becomes harder as situation is more ambiguous so look to others for advice

Question 21

describe the procedure of zimbados stanford prison study 1971

Answer 21

pps where all male psychology students who volunteered and randomly allocated role of either prisoner or guard

prisoners where arrested at their homes unexpectedly and taken to the mock prison in the basement of stanford psychology department

prisoners spent 23 hrs a day in the cell the guards given uniforms and sticks and where able to go home after shift

Question 22

describe the results of zimbardos Stanford prison study 1974

Answer 22

experiment called off after 6 days (supposed to last 2 weeks) after guards become overly abusive so brutal 2 prisoners had a form of mental breakdown. prisoners did exactly what guards told them conforming to the authority

so immersed in the make up norm that prisoners lost sense of identity and personal well being

Question 23

evaluate the control of the stanford prison study (make another card on reicker and haslam

Answer 23

strength as zimbardo had some control over variables like the selection of pps who where all mentally stable this was a way zimbardo tried to rule out individual personality differences as a explanation to the findings

Question 24

how was informed consent not given in zimbardos stanford prison study

Answer 24

behaviour of guards towards prisoners couldn’t of been foreseen therefor the consent to participate wasn’t valid

Question 25

how was protection from harm not given in zimbardos stanford prison study

Answer 25

prisoners were stressed day and night we know this as 5 prisoners had mental breakdowns and those who didn't break down emotionally were obedient to the corrupt authority who did terrible things

Question 26

what is obedience?

Answer 26

where one behaves as instructed but not necessarily changing ones opinion - person giving order seen to have authority and can punish if obedience isn't shown

Question 27

describe milligrams 1974 study on obedience

Answer 27

- German hypothesis = germans have a sort of character defect making them more obedient milligram selected pps by advertising for males to take part in a study at Yale uni the pps (teacher) was paired with a confederate (learner) the teacher then administered a shock (not real) to the learner for incorrect answer increasing the voltage for each incorrect one 15v to 450v pps believing it was real experimenter used prompts to keep pps in study to see if they wold obey 65% obeyed and administered a fatal (fake) shock some subjects began showing distress by twitching, sweating and shaking

Question 28

how was deception an ethical issue in milligrams study

Answer 28

pps were deceived due to not knowing electric shocks were fake and learners were actors swell pps thought study was on memory

Question 29

how was right to withdraw an ethical issue in milligrams study

Answer 29

teacher (pps) asked not to continue as they thought they were hurting the learner told by researcher to continue through prompts if person dies wouldn't be there fault was very unclear if they could withdraw

Question 30

was milligrams study ecologically valid?

Answer 30

at first glance is may appear to lack ecological validity due to occurring in a lab however the central feature was the relationship between authority figure and pps milgram argued the lab experiment accuracy reflected wider authority relationships in real life and can be generalised

Question 31

are there individual differences e.g gender in milligrams study?

Answer 31

an assumption was made that women would be more susceptible to social influence than men eagly 1978 thought we would find gender differences in obedience milgram had a condition with all female pps and found females carried out the maximum shock at a rate significantly higher than men

Question 32

evaluate the power of uniforms from milgrams variation study (bickman 1974)

Answer 32

Bickman found that pps were more likely to obey the researcher dressed as a guard (80%) than a civilian (40%)

Question 33

what is the agent state - explanation of obedience socio-psychological factors:

Answer 33

acting as a agent for a authority figure means a person doesn't feel responsible for their actions e.g nazi soldiers feeling innocent at trials Hamilton 1978 suggests obedience levels drop significantly when pps are told they are responsible

Question 34

what is the autonomous state - explanation of obedience

Answer 34

opposite of acting as an agent meaning independent people feel free to behave according to their own principles and therefor feel a sense of responsibility for their actions

Question 35

what is an agentic shift?

Answer 35

autonomy to agency milgram 1974 suggested this occurs when a person perceives someone else as an authority as they have a higher position on the social hierarchy

Question 36

what are binding factors - explanation for obedience

Answer 36

binding factors of the situation allow the person to ignore or minimise the damaging effect of their behaviour and thus reduce the moral strain they should feel

Question 37

what is legitimacy to authority

Answer 37

someone who is perceived to be in a position of social control within situation the power of a legitimate authority stems from their perceived position rather than certain characteristics

Question 38

what is a destructive authority

Answer 38

milgram work on obedience found people will obey an authority if specific situational factors are present even to the point of harming others we see this through history through leaders like hitler and ghenghis khan can use their power for destructive purposes

Question 39

cultural differences milgrams study evaluation

Answer 39

kilman and mann 1974 replicated milgrams study in Australia and found only 16% gave the max volt on the other hand mantell 1971 found 85% of germans delivered max voltage showing in different cultures authority is more likely to be accepted

Question 40

what are situational explanations?

Answer 40

explaining someones behaviour based on external factors in the environment rather than internal personality traits

Question 41

what are dispositional explanations

Answer 41

obey authority due to their own internal personality traits

Question 42

what is an authoritarian personality

Answer 42

a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority also seen to be submissive to those of higher status

Question 43

describe the procedure of Adorno's study on obedience

Answer 43

studied more than 2000 middle class white Americans and their unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups done by creating the F scale

Question 44

findings of adorno's study on obedience

Answer 44

people who were high on the F scale (authoritarian) were generally opposed to weak people and followed the strong conscious of their and others status strong positive correlation between authoritarian and prejudice

Question 45

evaluate correlation not causation of adorno's study on obedience

Answer 45

they found positive correlations between variables but we can't say that one caused the other e.g we can't claim that harsh parenting caused the development of authoritarian personality only that the variables are linked in some way

Question 46

describe the political bias of adorno's study on obedience

Answer 46

christie and jahoda 1954 argued that this is a politically biased interpretation of authoritarian personality which is a limitation of adorno's study as its not a comprehensive dispositional explanation that can account for obedience to authority across the whole political system

Question 47

what is independent behaviour

Answer 47

term used to describe behaviour that seems not to be influenced by others occurs when pressure to conform or obey is resisted

Question 48

describe research on resisting conformity (asch)

Answer 48

asch 1956 found that the presence of social support allowed individuals to resist conformity easier we see this through asch variation introducing an ally which led conformity to drop from 33% to 5.5%

Question 49

describe research on resisting obedience (milgrim)

Answer 49

in one of milgrams variations the pps had to other confederates testing the learner who both declined to continue this influenced the real pps as only 10% conformed to the max voltage

Question 50

what is an external locus of control?

Answer 50

perceives their behaviour as being caused by external influences. luck, God or fate

Question 51

what is an internal locus of control?

Answer 51

perceive themselves as having a great deal of personal control over behaviour and more likely to take personal responsibility

Question 52

evaluate holland 1967 on the effect of locus of control

Answer 52

he repeated milgrams study and measured whether pps where internal or external loc he found that 37% of internals didn't continue to the highest shock whereas 23% of externals didn't continue showing internal loc people are more able to resist obedience than external

Question 53

what is minority influence

Answer 53

situations where one or a small group of people influences the beliefs and behaviours of other people this differs from conformity where the majority do the influencing

Question 54

describe moscovici study 1969 on minority influencing majority

Answer 54

all female group placed in a group of 4 with 2 confederates then shown 36 slides that where different shades of blue and asked to state the colour out loud first group confederates were consistent and answered green every slide second group were inconsistent and answered green 24 times and blue 12 times consistent group had 8.42% of trials agreeing with majority and 1.25% in the inconsistent group

Question 55

what are the 3 behavioural characteristics the minority should possess to influence majority

Answer 55

flexibility commitment and consistency

Question 56

Reicker and haslam (2006)