Social influence Flashcards
(94 cards)
1
Q
what is conformity?
A
A phenomenon which involves someone changing, adapting or taking on new behaviours in order to fit in with the group.
2
Q
what are the types of conformity?
A
Compliance
Internalisation
Identification
3
Q
what is compliance?
A
A form of conformity which involves agreeing in public but not privately
4
Q
what is identification?
A
When an individual changes their public behaviour and their private beliefs
5
Q
what is internalisation?
A
Acceptance of influence through adoption of beliefs e.g. vegan
6
Q
what are the types of influence?
A
Majority influence
Minority influence
Stooge/confederate
7
Q
what is majority influence?
A
When a person changes themselves to fit in with a larger group
8
Q
what is minority influence?
A
Individual influences a big group to change their opinions on issues
9
Q
why do people conform?
A
Normative social influence
Informational social influence
10
Q
what is normative social influence?
A
Individuals conform due to fit in for rewards, or to avoid punishments. They dont privately agree
11
Q
what is informational social influence?
A
Individuals conform due to looking to others when theyre uncertain if right or wrong. They mostly agree the others are right
12
Q
what is the study for normative social influence?
A
Asch 1956
13
Q
how many critical trails were in Asch’s study?
A
12/18 were critical trials where the stooges gave the wrong answer
14
Q
what was the procedure of Asch’s study?
A
He placed a real ppt in a room with fake ppts who had already agreed their answers (stooge).
Ppts were asked to judge the lengths of lines and compare them to other lines.
The real ppt gave their answer last to observe if they would conform to group beliefs.
15
Q
what were the findings of Asch’s study?
A
37% conformed when they were the only real ppt.
When they had a ‘partner’ 5% conformed
16
Q
what are strengths of asch’s study?
A
- lab study
- good control of extraneous variable
- confident that the change is due to IV and it effects the DV
17
Q
what are the weaknesses of aschs study?
A
- biased sample (all male, all same age)
- lack population validity
- low ecological validity (cant be generalised to real life situations
18
Q
when a task if more ‘difficult’ how do people conform?
A
If a task is difficult people conform through ISI.
If a task if easy, people conform through NSI
19
Q
what are the studies for ISI?
A
Jenesse et al
Abrams et al (individuals are likely to conform with those who are friends/similar)
20
Q
what is deindividuation?
A
The percieved loss of individuality due to being assigned a distinct social role e.g. prisoner or guard
21
Q
what is the study for tyranny and deindividuation?
A
Zimbardo’s prison study
22
Q
what was the procedure of Zimbardo’s study?
A
- he used 24 emotionally stable students who were randomly assigned the role of a prisoner or guard
- prisoners were arrested from their home, blindfolded, strip searched and given numbers and a uniform.
23
Q
what was the deindividuation occuring in Zimbardo’s prison study?
A
- prisoners names were never used, only their given numbers
- guards had a uniform and were told they had full control over prisoners
24
Q
what were the findings of Zimbardo’s prison study?
A
- relationships became very negative
- guards became more aggressive
- prisoners became anxious and aggressive (crying, trembling, rashes)
- terminated after 6 days instead of 2 weeks due to psychological abuse
25
what are the strengths of Zimbardo's prison study?
- random allocation preventing extraneous variables
- go on to inform how prison systems create aggression
26
what are the weaknesses of Zimbardo's prsion study?
- unethical due to physical and psychological abuse
- deception
1/3 guards conformed to their roles
27
who repeated Zimbardo's prison study?
Reicher and Haslam
28
what did Reicher and Haslam do?
They repeated Zimbardo's prison experiment
29
what are the strengths of Reicher and Haslam prison study?
- improving on past ethical issues
- study was stopped when researchers thought ethical standards could be breached
- psychological and physical help available
30
what are the weaknesses of Reicher and Haslam prison study?
- demand characteristics (thye knew they were being recorded so might change their behaviour)
- the study only included males and only 15 ppts - not representative of the population
31
what are demand characteristics?
When ppts know what the study wanted so might change their behaviour positively or negatively
32
what were the ethics of Reicher and Haslam prison study?
- it was submitted for scrutiny by BPS
- ppts clinical, medically and background screened
- they gave informed consent
- monitored by clinical psychologist
- paramedic on duty
- security guard available
- monitored by 5 person ethics committee who could end the study if ethics breached
33
what was the procedure of Reicher and Haslam?
ppts:
- recruited by adverts in national press
- fully assessed over a weekend
- screened
- 332 applicants reduced to 27 men
- 15 chosen to represent diversity
- 5 guards and 10 prisoners
34
what were the quantitative and qualitative data in Reicher and Haslam and Zimbardo?
- video and audio recording of behaviour
- daily psychometric scales of social variables, organisation variable and clinical variables
- cortisol levels (saliva) as indicator of stress
35
what is obedience?
Type of social influence which causes someone to act in response to an order from someone else, normally who has power or authority
36
who studied obedience?
Milgram
Hofling
37
what was the procedure of Milgram's study?
- experimenter and learners were stooges
- the teacher (real ppts) reads sentences and questions
- if 'learner' got it wrong, they got shocked going from 15v to 450v, increasing by 15 each time.
38
what were the findings of Milgrams study?
65% were willing to deliver fatal shock.
All teachers showed discomfort, some more than others (groaning, digging nails into skin)
100% went to 300v
psychologists only thought 1-3% go all the way
39
what were the prompts from the experimenter?
1. please continue
2. the experimenter requires you to continue
3. its absolutely essential you continue
4. you have no other choice, you must go on
40
what were the situational variables from Milgram's study?
- Milgram believed external factors influence the level of obedience
e.g.
- proximity
- location
- uniform
41
what happened when location changed in Milgrams study?
obedience reduced to 45% as there was less professional environment
42
what happened when proximity changed in Milgrams study?
- different rooms 65%
- Same room 40%
- Touch proximity 30%
- instruction over phone 20.5%
43
what were the weaknesses of Milgrams study?
- lacks external validity (antrocentism)
- Perry found only 50% found thought shocks were real)
44
what were the strengths of Milgrams study?
- Sheridan and King found 52% males and 100% females gave 450v shock to a puppy
- Burger 2009 found no difference in male or female
45
what are the ethical weaknesses of Milgrams study?
- accused of exposing ppts to severe stress - 3 had stress seizures
- Milgram decieved them and only told them shocks werent real after they agree
- ppts had to right to withdraw before and had verbal cues to continue
46
what are the ethical strengths of Milgrams study?
- 2% said they regretted involved and there was no long term damage after 1 yr
- he debriefed them after
47
who redid Milgrams study?
Derren Brown
Burger 2009 (specifically variation 5)
48
what did Derren Brown do?
Modern day Milgram
49
what did Derren Brown find?
When he repeated Milgrams study with a more 'modern' ppts only 50% gave the lethal 450v shock
50
what is the autonomous state?
People firets their own actions, and they take responsibility. They are less likely to do bad things
51
what is the agentic state?
People allow others to direct their actions and pass responsibility for consequences to person who gave the order. They believe the authority will take the blame
52
what did Hofling do?
Obedience study using nurses who didnt know they were in a study. He wanted to test the extent to which nurses would go to obey a 'doctors' orders, even if it could injure someone.
53
what was the procedure of Hofling's obedience study?
- someone who be on the phone saying they were a doctor and ordered the nurses to give a dangerously high dose of a drug (twice the max daily limit)
- they had to find astroten and deliver 20mg
- the phone call ended when a nurse obeyed, resisted, got advice, became upset, couldnt find it, or the call lasted more 10 mins
- an observer stopped it when the nurse got to the patient, the nurse called another nurse, or if it had been 10 minutes since the call
54
what were the rules broken in Hofling's experiment?
1. nurses arent allowed to accept instructions over the phone
2. the dose was over the max limit stated on the box
3. the medicine itself was unauthorised
55
what were the results of Hofling's obedience experiment?
- in experimental group, 21/22 nurses obeyed and were about to administer the drug
- only one questioned the doctor's identity
- 11 admitted they knew the legal limit
- when others were asked (control group), 31/33 said they wouldnt comply
56
what were teh strengths of Hofling's obedience study?
- high ecological validity as it was in a real life environment
- the doctor had a script meaning it was replicable
- control group allowed comparison
57
what were the weaknesses of Hofling's obedience study?
- attrition - control group had 33 but only 22 nurses in the actual experiment
- broke ethical guidelines of deception and caused stress
- lacks reliability (Rank and Jacobson replicated but didnt get similar results)
58
what did Burger 2009 do?
Modern day Milgram. He aimed to see if he could get similar results as Milgram with a modern day participants
59
what was the procedure of Burger 2009 obedience study?
- Experimenter is white man in his 30s
- learner in his 50s
- script is exact same as Milgram but ppts was given 15v not 45v
- it was stopped when they went to give 165v
60
what was the results of Burger 2009 obedience study?
- 70% were prepared to go past 150v
- those who stopped at 150v or sooner had significantly higher locus of control
- Burger found empathy made no difference even though Milgram said it did
61
what was variation 5 in Milgrams study?
Variation 5 had the learner complaining about heart conidtions
62
how is authoritarian personality measured?
On the F-scale
63
what is meant by situational factors affecting obedience?
Explanations focusing on the influences that stem from the environment in which that person is found
64
what is meant by dispositional factors affecting obedience?
Suggests individual bheaviour caused by internal characteristics within their personality
65
who studied obedient personalities?
Adorno et al
66
what did Adorno et al do?
Studied the causes of obedient personalities in a tusy of 2000 middle class white Americans and their unconscious attitudes to other races
67
what did Adorno et al develop?
The F-Scale questionnare to measure relationship between personality and prejudiced beliefs
68
what was the findings of Adorno et als study?
- those who scored highly identified with 'strong' people and looked down on the 'weak'
- high scorers on the F-Scale had a cognitive style with fixed stereotypes about other people, and there was a strong correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice
69
what are the characteristics of an authoritarian personality?
- obedient to authority
- submissive to authority
- inflexible with their outlook
70
why do people have the authoritarian personality?
- harsh parenting
- creates hostility and despair in the child
71
who studied authoritarianism?
- Elms and Milgram 1966
- Altemeyer 1988
- Zimer et al 1995
72
what dd Elms and Milgram do to study authoritarian personality?
- they did a follow up study with those who were in Milgrams original study
- they found those who gave 450v scored higher on authoritarianism and lower on social responsibility
- however some who were more obedient had good relationships with parents
73
what did Altemeyer 1988 do to study authoritarian personality?
they found authoritarianism personality gave themselves higher shocks
74
what did Zilmer et al 1995 do to study authoritarian personality?
Found 16 Nazis scored highly on most of the F-Scale suggesting there might be other factors influencing obedience
75
who came up with locus of control?
Rotter 1966
76
what did Rotter 1966 do?
Studied locus of control
77
what is locus of control?
Locus of control refers to someones perception of personal control over their own behaviour
78
what is internal locus of control?
Individuals believe their life is determined by their own efforts e.g. I made that happen'
79
what is external locus of control?
Individuals believe their life is determined by fate, luck and external facotrs e.g. wrong place wrong time
80
how does internal locus of control affect obedience?
- they seek out information which will help them
- they are less likely to rely on others
- they resist pressure from others
81
how does external locus of control affect obedience?
- more likely to be influenced by others
- dont believe they exercise personal control over their lives
- not very self assured
82
what is the evaluation of locus of control?
- Spector 1983 (gave rotters questionnare)
- Shute 1975 (undergraduates and drugs)
- Avtgis 1998 (meta-analysis)
- Holland 1967 (no relationship)
83
what are the important factors of minority influence?
1. consistency
2. commitment
3. flexibility
84
what is the process of change of minority influence?
- all 3 factors make people think about the topic
- over time, people become converted to minority view.
- the more this happens the faster the rate of conversion is (snowball effect)
85
who studied minority influence?
Moscovici
86
what did Moscovici state was the steps of minority influence?
1. drawing attention to an issue
2. cognitive conflict makes majority deeply think about minority views
3. consistnecy of position
4. the augmentation prinicple (willing to suffer means more committed)
5. snowball effect
87
what was Moscovici's minority influence study?
- 192 women
- they had to judge colours of 36 slides
- when there was 2 confederates, 8.4% said green, 32% said green at least once when the colour was blue
- in control group with no confederates, o.25% said green
88
what is social change?
The alteration of behaviour patterns and attitudes within a cultural grouping
89
who studied social change?
Martin, Hewstone and Martin 2003
90
what did Martin, Hewstone and Martin 2003 do?
Study social change.
They wanted to see if opinions given by majoirty or minroity group influence are more resistant
91
what did Martin, Hewstone and Martin find in their social change experiment?
They found the minority influence creates systematic processing and are more resistant to counter-persuasion.
It supports the idea that minority influence can lead to social change
92
what did Burgoon suggest about social change?
Suggested its the deviant and unexpected behaviour of the minority that grabs attention to ideas and behaviours, leading to deeper thinking, leading to social change
93
what did Nemeth suggest about social change?
the resistance by minority to conform to social norms encourages people to think and search out more information
94
