social influence

Question 1

what is conformity

Answer 1

a change in a persons behavior or opinion as a result of social norms

Question 2

3 types of conformity - Kelman

Answer 2

• internalisation : when a person generally accepts group norms (private and public chage)
• identification : when we identify with a group, we want to be part of it (so we publicly change)
• compliance : ‘going along with others’ in public but ot pirvately changing opinion.

Question 3

who researched variables affecting conformity?

Answer 3

• Asch ( 2 cards, 5 confederates, 123 male American students)
• lacks population validity - limited sample, only white American males.
• high internal validity - lab study, extraneous variables controlled.
• lacks ecological validity - artificial task, doesn’t relate to every day life, cannot generalize.

Question 4

who studied conformity to social roles

Answer 4

• Zimbardo prison study ( Standford university, 24 American male students )
• ethical issues- informed consent and psychological harm.
• lack of population validity - sample only consisted of male American students
• lacks ecological validity - demand characteristics, they knew they where is a study.

Question 5

who studied variables affecting obedience

Answer 5

• Milgram electric shock study ( Randomly selected participants, learner and teacher)
• ethical issues
• it raises a socially sensitive issue- excuse for hurting people
• lack of ecological validity - abnormal task, doesn’t relate to every day life.

Question 6

ISI - informational social influence

Answer 6

• going along with somethig because you want to be right, happens when you are uncertian about what behaviour or beliefs are right or wrong.
• cognitive process.

Question 7

NSI

Answer 7

• going along woth others to ‘fit in’, happens whe you dont know the norms and look to others on how to behave.
• emotional process.

Question 8

asch - variables affectig conformity

Answer 8

• group size : no. confederates varied.
• unanimity : asch used a truthful or an innacurate confederate.
• task difficulty : comparison lines where closer or more obvious.

Question 9

obedience : situational variables

Answer 9

• proximity : in milgrams study, teacher and learner where in seperate rooms, when they where in the saem room obedience dropped 65 percent.
• location : if the study was in a run-down building rather than a university, obedience dropped ( looks like there was more authority).
• unifrom : if experimenter wore ordinary clothes rather than a lab coat, obedience rate dropped to 20 percent.

Question 10

evalutaion, situational variables

Answer 10

• research support - bickman, confederate dressed in jacket/ tie or security guard.
• milgrams research replicated in other cultures, 90 percent obedience is spanish students - fidnings are not limited to american males.
• findings are an excuse for obedience. It has been claimed offesnive to holocaust survivors- gives nazis excuse. Ignores the rolse of discrimination.

Question 11

obedience : social and psychological factors.

Answer 11

• agetic state, autonomous sate - psychological factors, agentic shift is autonomous to agentic state.
• legitimacy of authority, social hierchy - social fators, charismatic leaders use powers for destructive purposes.

Question 12

social - psychological factors, obedience evaluation

Answer 12

• research support, participants hwere shown a film of milgrams study, students blamed experimenter for the harm to learner. They realised legitimate authority as the cause of obedience.
• agentic shift doesnt exlain many research fiding, such as why some didnt obey. agentic shift can only account for some situations of obedience.
• strength of legitimacy of authority is cultural differences. Found in autralia 16 percent went to top voltage but 85 percent in germay. shows authority seen as more legitimate in some cultures compred to others.

Question 13

whos studied dispositional explanations

Answer 13

-adorno studied white americans and their unconcous attitudes towards other ratial groups : created and F-scale to test autoritarian personality.
- people who scored high on F SCALE where conscious o status and had exadurated respectfor those of higher status.
- research support - milgram
- limited explanation - obedient germans didnt have the saem personality.
- politically biased- f scale measures right wig ideology.

Question 14

explanation of the authoritarian personality

Answer 14

• originates inn childhood from harsh parenting and conditional love.
• especially obedient to authority
• scaepgoating (hatred towards those inferior due to fear of parents)

Question 15

resistance to social influence (social support and locus of control)

Answer 15

• pressure to conform is reduced if others are not conforming
• confederates not conforming in asch study led to participants not coforming.
• pressure to obey reduced when another is disobeying ( disobedient confederates lead to disobedient participans milgram)
• iternals believe they are repsonsible for what happends to them.
• externals believe tohers are responsible for what happends to them.

Question 16

minority influence

Answer 16

• leads to internalisation
• consistency makes others rethink own views
• commitment helps gain attention
• flexibility to not appear rigid means ppl will listen
• snow ball effect : overtime more people become converted - switch from minority to majority and social change has occurred.

Question 17

evaluation of minority influence

Answer 17

• research supports consistency : moscovici found consistent minority opinion had greater effct than iconsisent opinion.
• a limitation iis artifical tasks, moscovicis task identifying colour and asch comparison lines. Not every day life experieces, lack exteral validity.
• research evidence, participants given viewpoint and attitudes measure. less willing to change opinions when listened to minority group.