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AQA A level Psychology > Social influence > Flashcards

Social influence Flashcards

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1
Q

What are the types of conformity?

A

Herbert Kelman (1958) suggested 3 ways in which people conform to opinions of a majority Internalisation, Identification and Compliance.

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2
Q

What is meant by internalisation?

A

Occurs when a person genuinely accepts the group norms.
Which results in a private as well as public change in opinions/behaviour.
This change is likely to be permanent because the attitudes have been internalised.

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3
Q

What is meant by identification?

A

When a person conforms to the groups opinions/behaviour because there is something about the group they value.
This may mean they publicly change their opinions/behaviours to achieve this goal, even if we don’t privately agree with everything the group stands for.

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4
Q

What is meant by compliance?

A

Type of conformity which involves simply ‘going along with others’ in public but privately not changing personal opinions/behaviours.
Meaning the particular behaviour stops when the pressures from that group stops.

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5
Q

What are the 2 explanations for conformity?

A

Morton Deutsch and Harold Gerard developed a two process model meaning there are two main ways in which people conform:
Informational social influence (ISI)
Normative social influence (NSI)

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6
Q

What is meant by informational social influence?

A

When you do not know the answer to a question but if the rest of the group is certain on an answer you would naturally comply with what the group are saying. Therefore you do not have the better information and therefore seek to others to gain it.
ISI is most likely to happen in a new situation and is also most likely to be a cognitive process because its to do with what we think.

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7
Q

What is meant by normative social influence?

A

When the norms of a group are conformed to because a person may be afraid to be rejected or to gain social approval from friends. Therefore it is an emotional process and could be more pronounced in stressful situations when someone has a greater need for social support.

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8
Q

What is a supporting study for the explanations of conformity?

A

Lucas et al (2006)

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9
Q

What did Lucas et al (2006) find about ISI?

A

Asked students to complete mathmatical problems, those who previously rated their mathmatical ability as worse conformed more due to ISI.

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10
Q

What is a criticism for the explanations of conformity?

A

That ISI and NSI work together. For example in the Asch experimenter a dissenter may reduce the power of NSI because they provide social support or could reduce the power of ISI because there’s an alternative source of information.
If a person is less concerned about what people think of them then NSI will have a lesser effect.

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11
Q

What was Aschs (1951, 1955) procedure?

A

Tested conformity by showing participants 2 white cards 1 of which had a line on the other had 3 comparison lines on. 1 of the 3 lines were the same length as the standard and participants were asked which of the 3 lines were the same as the standard one.

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12
Q

What were Aschs (1951, 1955) participants?

A

123 American male undergraduates, each of which were tested individually in a group between 6 and 8 confederates.

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13
Q

What were the confederates in Aschs (1951, 1955) research asked to do?

A

Give the right answers at first but to then begin to make errors. All confederates were instructed to give the same wrong answers. Participants took part in 18 trials 12 of which were ‘critical trials’ where confederates gave the wrong answers.

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14
Q

What were Aschs (1951, 1955) findings?

A

Confederates gave a wrong answer 36.8% of the time.
25% of participants did not conform on any trials meaning 75% conformed at least once.

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15
Q

What did most participants say was the reason that they conformed in Asch’s experiment?

A

To avoid rejection NSI

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16
Q

What variations did Asch do on his original study?

A

Changed the group size.
Tested unanimity by adding another confederate who either agreed/disagreed with the group.
Increased the task difficulty.

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17
Q

What was found in Asch’s variation of group size?

A

With 3 confederates conforming to the wrong answer rose to 31.8% but the addition of further confederates made a little difference.

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18
Q

What was found in Asch’s variation of task difficulty?

A

Found that conformity increased under these conditions where the line was more similar in length. Suggesting ISI is more important when the task becomes harder.

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19
Q

What was found in Asch’s variation of unanimity?

A

The presence of a dissenting confederate meant that conformity was reduced by a quarter from the level when the majority was unanimous. Presence of a dissenter enabled the participant to behave with more independence.

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20
Q

What did Perrin and Spencer (1980) do concerning Aschs procedure?

A

Repeated Asch’s original study with engineering students from the UK and found 1 student to conform in a total of 396 trials. This could mean that the engineering students felt more confident about measuring lines or that Asch’s study in the 1950s America was a particularly conformist time.

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21
Q

What is a criticism of Asch’s research?

A

Perrin and Spencer (1980)
Limited application as only men were tested and other research suggests women may be more conformist (possibly because they are more concerned about social relationships)
Naïve participants were deceived because they thought others in the procedure were participants, therefore breaching the code of ethics.

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22
Q

Why did Zimbardo conduct his Stamford Prison Experiment?

A

Following reports of brutality by guards on prisoners in America during the late 1960s.

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23
Q

What did Zimbardo set out to do?

A

Answer the question of if prison guards behave brutally due to sadistic personalities or due to the situation they are in.

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24
Q

How did Zimbardo select his participants?

A

Advertised for students who were willing to volunteer and selected those deemed ‘emotionally stable’ after psychological testing.

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25
What did Zimbardo do with all of his participants?
Randomly assigned them roles of either prisoner or prison guards.
26
What did Zimbardo do with participants who were assigned role of prisoner?
To increase realism prisoners were arrested in homes, blindfolded, strip searched, deloused and issued a uniform number. Daily routines were heavily regulated and numbers were used rather than names.
27
What did Zimbardo do with participants who were assigned role of guard?
Given their own uniform, wooden clubs, handcuffs and keys. They were told to complete power over the prisoners ie saying when they can/cant go to the toilet.
28
Why was the Stamford Prison Experiment stopped and how long did it last?
The guards behavior became a threat to the prisoners psychological and physical health therefore had to be stopped after 6 days.
29
How long was the Stamford Prison Experiment meant to last?
2 weeks
30
What did the prisoners do during the Stamford Prison Experiment?
Rebelled after 2 days where they began to rip uniforms and shout and swear at guards.
31
What did the guards do when prisoners began to rebel in the Stamford Prison Experiment?
Employed divide and rule tactics by playing prisoners off against each other. Harassed prisoners by conducting head counts in the middle of the night. Highlighted differences in social roles by creating opportunities to enforce rules.
32
Did all prisoners in the Stamford Prison Experiment last the full 6 days?
NO One person was released on the first day after showing signs of psychological disturbance. Two more were released on the fourth day.
33
What did guards do with the prisoner who went on a hunger strike in the Stamford Prison Experiment?
Attempted to force feed him and then punished him by putting him in a tiny dark closet. He was then shunned by other prisoners
34
What is a criticism for the Stamford Prison Experiment?
Zimbardo only used males meaning his study lacked validity as its findings can only be applied to men.
35
What ethical issues can be established from the Stamford Prison Experiment?
Harm to participants
36
What is a strength of Zimbardos Stamford Prison Experiment?
The variables were controlled increasing the internal validity.
37
What did Milgram (1963) conduct a study into?
Obedience
38
What participants did Milgram use?
Recruited 40 male participants aged between 20 and 50 years
39
How did Milgram get his participants?
Through newspapers, adverts and flyers in the post. Which said he was looking for participants for a memory study. Offered them $4.50.
40
What roles were there in Milgrams baseline procedure?
Teacher Learner Experimenter
41
What was firstly done in Milgrams baseline study?
Firstly there was a rigged draw of role in which they were made as the 'teacher' and a confederate was the learner and another was the experimenter.
42
What happened after roles had be assigned in Milgram's baseline study?
Learner strapped in a chair in another room and wired with electrodes. Teacher required to give the learner an increasingly severe shock each time the learner answer a question incorrectly. The experimenter told the teacher to deliver the shocks.
43
What was the level of shock delivered in Milgram's baseline study?
Started at 15 which was a light shock however this rose through 30 levels to eventually reach 450 volt shocks being delivered. After 300 volts the learner pounded on the glass and did not respond to further questions.
44
What happened if the teacher turned to the experimenter for guidance in Milgram's baseline study?
The experiment simply said 'an absence of response should be treated as a wrong answer'
45
What happened if the teacher felt unsure about continuing in Milgram's baseline study?
Experimenter gave 4 prods
46
What were Milgram's quantitive findings in the original baseline study?
No participants stopped under 300 volts, 12.5% stopped at 300 volts, 65% continued to the full 450 volts.
47
What qualitative data was collected in Milgrams baseline study?
Observations of the participants showing signs of extreme sweat, trembling, stutter, bite their lips, groan and dig fingernails into their hands. 3 had uncontrollable seizures.
48
What is a criticism for Milgrams baseline study?
Orne and Holland (1968) Ethical issues - deception
49
What did Orne and Holland (1968) say about Milgrams study?
Milgrams original study lacked internal validity because participants could have behaved the way they did due to not fully believing in the set up and guessed the shocks were staged therefore submitting to demand characteristics.
50
What is a support for Milgrams baseline study?
Good external validity - due to teacher, experimenter reflecting authority relationships in real life.
51
What qualitive data was found from Milgram's baseline study?
Observations that participants showed signs of tensions as many were seen to sweat, tremble, bite there lips, groan and dig fingernails into their hands.
52
What ethical issues are there with Milgram's studies?
He deceived his participants both in leading them to believe the assigning of roles was random and in the fact they believed the shocks were real.
53
What changes to the baseline study did Milgram make in his variations?
Change of location Put the teacher and learner in the same room Teacher forced the learners hand onto the electric shock plate Experimenter gave the order via a phone Experimenter was played by a member of the public
54
What did Milgram do in the change of location variation?
Changed the location of the study to a run down building rather than a prestigious university setting which caused obedience to drop to 47.5%.
55
What were the results of Milgrams change in location variation?
Experimenter had less authority and obedience fell from 65% to 47.5%
56
What happened in Milgram's change in uniform variation?
The experimenter got called out of the room after an inconvenient phone call. The role of experimenter was then taken up by a member of the public (confederate in normal clothes rather than a laboratory coat).
57
What were the results of Milgram's change in uniform variation?
Obedience dropped from 65% to 20%
58
What happened Milgrams variation where the teacher had to force the learners hand onto the plate?
The teacher was asked to place the learners hand onto the electric shock plate and then to deliver the shock, obedience was 30%.
59
What were Milgrams results when the teacher forced the learners hand onto the plate?
Obedience dropped from 65% to 30%
60
What happened in Milgrams variation where the teacher and the learner were in the same room?
In this variation the teacher and learner were in the same room where they originally had a piece of glass between, this caused obedience to drop to 40%.
61
What were the results in Milgrams variation where the teacher and the learner were in the same room?
Obedience dropped from 65% to 40%
62
Why is Milgrams variations said to lack internal validity?
Many participants realised it was fake, which is even more likely due to the extra manipulation shown in the variations. Which is especially shown when the experimenter was played by a member of the public. Which makes the results unclear whether they were being obedient or just acting with accordance to the deception.
63
What is a strength of Milgrams variation considering the reliability?
All the other variables were kept the same. He systematically altered one variable at a time, to test its effect on obedience which shows he had control over the variables.
64
Is Milgrams variations and baseline cross culturally applicable?
Yes as the findings when the studies have been repeated in other countries have been supportive such as Miranda et al who found obedience in 90% of Spanish students.
65
What are the psychological factors of obedience?
Agentic/autonomous state Legitimacy of authority
66
What is meant by agentic state?
The opposite to autonomous. States that obedience to a destructive personality occurs because a person doesn't take responsibility for their actions as they believe they are acting for someone else.
67
What is meant by autonomous state?
The opposite to agentic state. States that a person acts with autonomy and is therefore free to behave how they feel necessary this also means they take responsibility for their own actions.
68
What is meant by agentic shift?
Milgram proposed it occurs when a person views someone else as a figure of authority. This person therefore has more power due to their position of social hierarchy.
69
What is meant by binding factors?
Aspects of the situation in Milgrams study which allowed the person to ignore/minimise damaging effects of their behaviour and thus reduce their moral strain they feel due to being in an agentic state.
70
What is a criticism for the agentic state explanation?
It does not explain many of the research findings. ie doesn't explain why some participants didn't obey in Milgrams research.
71
What is a supporting study for the agentic shift explanation for obedience?
Blass and Schmitt (2001)
72
What did Blass and Schmitt (2001) find and do?
Showed students a film of Milgrams original study and asked them who they felt was responsible for the harm. Students blamed the experimenter as he was on top of the social hierarchy.
73
What is meant by legitimacy of authority?
The perceived right that a person of authority has control and power over others. This is often granted to those who we trust such as parents, teachers, bouncers, police etc.
74
What is meant by destructive authority?
Legitimacy of authority makes sense however problems arise when someone with this authority becomes destructive. This authority was shown in Milgrams studies when the experimenter used prods to order participants to behave in ways against their conscience. Also shown throughout history ie Hitler.
75
What is a strength of the legitimacy of authority explanation of obedience?
It's a useful account of cultural differences in obedience. As many cultures are shown to have different levels of obedience to those of authority.
76
What did Kilham and Mann (1974) find and do?
Replicated Milgrams procedure in Australia and found only 16% of participants went all the way to the top of the voltage scale.
77
What did Adorno et al (1950) investigate?
The authoritarian personality.
78
Who were Adorno et al (1950) participants?
2000 middle class white Americans with unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups.
79
What was Adornos procedure?
Developed several scales to investigate the authoritarian personality including the F scale which is still used today.
80
What is the F scale?
Fascism scale (Adorno et al 1950) which is used to measure the authoritarian personality.
81
What did Adorno et al (1950) find?
Those who scored high on the F scale identified with 'strong' people and were generally contemptuous of the 'weak'.
82
What did Adorno et al (1950) find correlated with the authoritarian personality?
They had a cognitive style which was very black and white, they had strong fixed stereotypes and often had a very strong correlation with prejudice.
83
What characteristics did Adorno associate with the authoritarian personality?
People with this personality are seen to have huge respect for authority and are submissive to it. This makes them especially obedient. To this person everything is either right or wrong and therefore those they view as inferior they show contempt for.
84
What was found about the origins of the authoritarian personality?
That it formed in childhood as a result of harsh parenting consisting of strict discipline, high expectation, high standards and absolute loyalty.
85
What approach explains the authoritarian personality?
Psychodynamic explanation
86
What research can be used to support the authoritarian personality theory?
Milgram and Elms (1966) conducted interviews with some fully obedient participants who scored highly on the F scale. They found a correlation to obedience but its impossible to say one causes the other.
87
Why is authoritarian personality said to have a limited explanation?
As its in terms of an individual personality it is therefore hard to explain the obedient behaviour in terms of the majority of a country. Ie in pre war Germany millions of individuals showed obedient, racist behaviours despite all having different personalities.
88
What is a criticism of Adornos procedure?
No matter how strong a correlation between 2 variables found, it cannot be determined which one causes the other (causation fallacy).
89
What explanations are there for resistance to social influence?
Social support Locus of control
90
What can social support help a person to resist?
Conformity Obedience
91
How does social support help a person to resist conformity?
Asch's research showed the pressure to conform was resisted when there was another person who was not conforming.
92
How does social support help a person to resist obedience?
Milgram showed the pressure to obey was lifted when another person is seen to disobey. The rate of obedience dropped from 65% to 10% in this case.
93
Why does a non conforming/individual allow others to not conform/obey?
Because they act as a model for the other therefore they do not feel as needed to do as they say.
94
What is meant by locus of control?
The sense that we each have about what directs events in our lives.
95
Who proposed the concept of locus of control?
Julian Rotter (1966)
96
What does an internal locus of control mean?
A personality which believes that the things which happen to them are largely controlled by themselves.
97
What does an external locus of control mean?
A personality which believes that the things which happen to them are without their own control.
98
What might an internal locus of control say if they failed an exam?
Because they did not work hard enough.
99
What might an external locus of control say if they failed an exam?
Because they had a bad textbook or the questions were hard.
100
What is meant by the continuum of locus of control?
The line in which high external and internal locus of control sit at either end a low external and internal LOC cluster in the middle.
101
Which locus of control are more likely to resist to social influence?
Internals as they take personal responsibility for actions whether they are bad or good.
102
What traits come with an internal locus of control personality?
More self confident, achievement oriented, higher intelligence, less need for social approval all of which lead to greater resistance to social influence.
103
What research support is there for resistance to conformity?
Allen and Levine (1971)
104
What research support is there for resistance to obedience?
Gamson et al (1982)
105
What did Allen and Levine (1971) find concerning social support and conformity?
That conformity decreased when there was one dissenter in an Asch type study. This was even found when the dissenter wore thick glasses and had vision difficulties.
106
What did Gamson et al (1982) find concerning locus of control and obedience?
Conducted a variation of Milgrams study in which participants were in groups. Therefore he found higher levels of resistance.
107
What research is there to support locus of control?
Holland (1967)
108
What did Holland (1967) find concerning locus of control?
Repeated Milgrams baseline study but tested for LOC before. He found 37% of internals didn't continue to the highest shock level whereas 23% of externals didn't continue.
109
What research is there to criticise locus of control?
Twenge et al (2004)
110
What did Twenge et al (2004) do and find concerning locus of control?
Conducted a meta analysis of American LOC studies over a 40 year span. Data showed over that time people have become more resistant to obedient but more external. However if resistance is linked to internal LOC we would expect people to become more internal.
111
What does minority influence refer to?
Where one person or a small group of people (minority) influence the behaviours/opinions of a larger group (majority)
112
What are the factors which affect minority influence?
Consistency Commitment Flexibility
113
What is meant by consistency in minority influence?
When the people in the minority group are consistent in having the same beliefs this can be synchronic (all saying same thing) or diachronic (saying the same thing for a longer time).
114
What is meant by commitment in minority influence?
When a minority engages in extreme activities to draw attention to their views/beliefs. Its important these activities impose risk to the majority.
115
What is meant by flexibility in minority influence?
Nemeth (1986) argued consistency isn't the only important factor as it can be interpreted negatively. Therefore people should be flexible in the progress they receive.
116
What is meant by the process of change?
Snowball effect where each of the factors consistency, commitment and flexibility each cause a person to think about the topic. This cause progressing numbers of people to switch from the majority to the minority until the minority becomes the majority.
117
What type of conformity happens in minority influence?
Internalisation
118
What research is there to support minority influence?
Moscivici et al study
119
What did Moscivici et al do?
Group of 6 people were asked to view a set of 36 blue coloured slides that varied in intensity and then state whether they were blue or green. In each group there were 2 confederates who consistently said the slides were green on 2/3s of trials.
120
What did Moscivici et al find?
Participants gave the same wrong answer on 8.42% of trials, 32% gave same answer as the minority on at least 1 trial.
121
What is a limitation of research into minority influence?
Tasks such as identifying the colour of a slide are artificial judgment tasks. This is very different from how a minority may attempt to change behaviour of majorities in real life.
122
How does a variation of Moscivici's blue-green slide study support consistency?
When a consistent opinion was presented to the participants there was a greater effect than when it was inconsistent.
123
How does a variation of Moscivici's blue-green slide study support internalisation?
Participants were allowed to write down answers therefore response were private. Private agreement was seen to be greater
124
What are the 6 stages in the process of social change?
Drawing attention - Consistency - Deeper processing - Augmentation principle - Snowball effect - Social cryptomnesia
125
With reference to the black civil rights movement what is meant by the 'drawing attention' stage in social change?
Civil rights marches showed proof of unjust in black schools, neighbourhoods etc. This drew attention to the problem at hand.
126
With reference to the black civil rights movement what is meant by the 'consistency' stage in social change?
Many marches and people taking part even though they were a minority of the American population, this showed consistency of the message and therefore the seriousness of it.
127
With reference to the black civil rights movement what is meant by the 'deeper processing' stage in social change?
When people begin to realise the unjustness of it and therefore realise how wrong it is to believe what they used to.
128
With reference to the black civil rights movement what is meant by the 'augmentation principle' stage in social change?
There were a number of incidents where individuals risked their lives. 'Freedom riders' were punished and beaten for challenging the idea that blacks had to sit separately to whites.
129
With reference to the black civil rights movement what is meant by the snowball effect stage in social change?
Civil rights activists such as Martin Luther King continued to press for changes which gradually got the attention of the US government. When the US civil rights act passed it represents a change from minority to majority.
130
With reference to the black civil rights movement what is meant by the 'Social cryptomnesia' stage in social change?
The idea that people have a memory of the change occurring but don't remember how it happened. Ie the south of the US is a very different place now but people have no memory as to why.
131

AQA A level Psychology (11 decks)

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