Social Influence Flashcards
(50 cards)
What is conformity?
It’s when a person changes their behaviour, attitudes, or beliefs to align with the majority due to real or imagined pressure.
What is compliance in conformity?
It’s a superficial and temporary change in public behaviour to align with the group, with no private attitude change.
What is internalisation in conformity?
It’s a deep and permanent change where individuals adopt group beliefs publicly and privately after believing the group is correct.
What is identification in conformity?
It’s when individuals conform to be associated with a role model or social group, adopting their attitudes or behaviours.
What is Normative Social Influence (NSI)?
It’s conformity to be accepted and avoid rejection, usually leading to compliance.
What is Informational Social Influence (ISI)?
It’s conformity based on the need to be correct, often occurring in ambiguous situations, leading to internalisation.
What is ingratiation conformity?
It’s conforming to impress others, not due to group pressure but to gain favour or approval.
How does locus of control relate to conformity?
People with an internal locus are less likely to conform compared to those with an external locus.
What did Asch investigate in his line experiment?
The extent to which social pressure from a majority group could affect a person to conform.
What were the findings of Asch’s study?
The average conformity rate across all the trials was 37%; 75% conformed at least once.
How did group size affect conformity in Asch’s study?
Conformity rose with three confederates (32%) but didn’t increase much beyond that.
How did task difficulty influence conformity?
Harder tasks led to higher conformity due to increased ISI.
What was the effect of unanimity in Asch’s study?
When unanimity was broken, conformity dropped from 37% to 5%.
What are the limitations of Asch’s study?
Lacks temporal validity, gender and cultural bias, and may include demand characteristics due to the lab setting.
What did Zimbardo study?
Conformity to social roles in a simulated prison setting.
How were participants assigned roles in the SPE?
Randomly assigned as prisoners or guards.
What were the key findings of the prison experiment?
Guards became abusive, and prisoners showed extreme stress; the study ended after 6 days.
Why was Zimbardo’s study criticized?
It was unethical, had a biased sample, and demand characteristics may have influenced behaviour.
Did all guards behave the same in Zimbardo’s study?
No, some guards resisted cruel behaviour, indicating individual differences matter.
What did Milgram’s study test?
How far people would go in obeying an authority figure, even if it involved harming another person.
What percentage of participants administered the maximum shock?
65% gave the full 450 volts.
What were participants’ reactions during the Milgram study?
Many showed stress, sweating, trembling, or nervous laughter.
What ethical issues were raised by Milgram’s study?
Deception, lack of informed consent, and psychological stress.
How did proximity affect obedience in Milgram’s study?
Obedience dropped to 40% when learner was in the same room.
