Social Influence

Question 1

what is meant by social facilitation?

Answer 1

tendancy for people to perform better on tasks in the presence of others than when alone

Question 2

what is meant by social inhabition?

Answer 2

the tendency for people to perform less well in the presence of others than when alone

Question 3

what is the arousal theory of social facilitation?

Answer 3

the presence of a person causes a state of alertness or arousal. the ‘preparedness’ leads to a readiness to respond with the most adaptive response.

Question 4

What is the dominant response?

Answer 4

Zajonc - arousal acts as a drive that brings out the dominant response. > the response most likely to be given in a situation that is most usual/appropriate/best practiced answer.
[priority over other responses]
- tend to be correct so social facilitation occurs.

Question 5

What does the dominant response explain?

Answer 5

explains the contradictory findings (social inhibition)
by struggling with the task > presence of others increases arousal and therefore the dominant response >however it is the wrong response/answer.

Question 6

evaluate the arousal theory

Answer 6

-doesn’t explain why some people who are good at a task are incompetent in front of an audience.

Question 7

describe the Yerkes Dodson law (graph)

Answer 7

inverted U shape between arousal and performance. as arousal increases, so does performance up to an optimum level. after the optimum level, increased arousal means performance decreases
portions of graph:
upwards - positive
downwards - negative

Question 8

problems with arousal theory?

Answer 8

doesn’t acknowledge cognitive processes. some believe the thought of competition in the case of co action and the thought of being judged affect social facilitation. even though results from animal studies suggest they aren’t necessary

Question 9

what is apprehension theory

Answer 9

cottrell - arousal is caused by apprehension(anxiety) of being evaluated by others.
arousal = learned response.

Question 10

evaluate the apprehension theory

Answer 10

support for theory:
no social facilitation on well learned tasks when audience is blindfolded.(cannot judge)

doesn’t explain social facilitation in animals

May be ONE cause of arousal in the presence of others, not the ONLY

Question 11

distraction conflict theory?

Answer 11

baron - presence of others in distracting = 50% attention on task and 50% on audience.

distraction leads to negative effect on task performance

conflict increases arousal > dominant response more likely

processes impair performance on hard tasks but improve simple tasks performance

Question 12

evaluate distraction conflict theory

Answer 12

can be applied to any distracting stimulus. Any distraction can cause social facilitation or inhibition.

can explain results from social facilitation studies on animals

Question 13

key points for social facilitation?

Answer 13

people tend to perform better on easy tasks and worse on hard tasks in the presence of others

several theories for this effect: arousal, apprehension and distraction conflict

arousal theory means production of dominant responses

apprehension theory stresses the presence of others causes evaluation anxiety

distraction conflict theory suggest the presence of others is distracting

Question 14

what is conformity?

Answer 14

form of social influence where group pressure (real or imagined) result in a change in behaviour

Question 15

where would you find conformity?

Answer 15

any group important to the individual such as membership or a reference group ( we like or admire)

Question 16

describe sherif’s research on conformity

Answer 16

participants were asked how far and in which direction the light moved (auto kinetic effect - visual illusion)

singular people gave their own answers and the answers varied

in small groups of two or three participants answers converged and gave similar estimates
therefore, participants are influenced by judgement of others

SherifSharif had not asked participants to arrive at a group estimate; this shows conformity due to imagined pressure

Question 17

criticisms of the sherif’s study

Answer 17

it is not unusual for people to be influenced by the judgement of others when they are unsure of their own judgement

Question 18

describe Asch’s experiment

Answer 18

in groups of 7 to 9 there was one participant all the rest were stooges. they were asked to match lines (participant answered 2nd to last)

when stooges answered wrong the participant was more likely to answer wrong as well even though it was obvious which was the right answer

Question 19

what does asch’s experiment show?

Answer 19

has been referred as ‘the surprise of solomon asch’ as the participants were in a situation where the information from others in the group was wrong.
this shows the errors made by participants was due to social influence - conformity

Question 20

why did people conform in asch’s experiment

Answer 20

• not to look like an outcast
• convey a good impression
• excuse of inaccurate perception
• not to spoil experiment for experimenter

Question 21

what did Asch believe from his responses?

Answer 21

major factor in conformity was to:

• avoid conflict
• avoid social disapproval.

Question 22

discuss the experiment Asch did to show social disapproval

Answer 22

one stooge gave the incorrect answer in the presence of 16 naive participants - this led to the stooge being ridiculed by the participants

Question 23

evaluate Asch’s work

Answer 23

• implications for many aspects of group behaviour - decision making and social interaction.
• can be used as an example pf rigorous standards required in psychological research: highly controlled conditions
• results have been replicated with similar results
• shows conformity has beneficial effects such as: social stability, group norms provide a standard, expectations of behaviour ensures a structure and order
• lack of validity
• ethical issues
• 2/3 participants guessed correctly

Question 24

variations of Asch’s experiment (factors effecting conformity)

Answer 24

• size of majority (1 stooge had no effect, 2 stooges had some 3 stooges had the most and no more after that)
• unanimity (gave participant a supporter and reduced conformity by 5.5%)
• task difficulty (more difficult = more conformity) HOWEVER people who perceive themselves as competent tend to conform less than others (perrin and spencer & maths/science kids)
• self esteem (low self esteem conform more than people with high self esteem: strong need for social approval)
• anonymity (conformity dropped by just over 12% when naive participants could write answers down privately. this shows we are still influenced by others even when asked for private views eg politics)

Question 25

why do people conform?

Answer 25

• normative social influence - people need to be see as part of a group (group mentality basically lol)
• informational social influence - people’s need to be right

Question 26

discuss normative social influence?

Answer 26

-when people conform because of the need of approval from others in the group (liked, respected, accepted and not rejected)
results in PUBLIC AGREEMENTS but NOT PRIVATE ones
-superficial
-probably main reason for Asch’s results
-known as compliance

Question 27

what is informational social influence?

Answer 27

• when people conform because they think the group knows more/has more knowledge.
• motivated by the need to be right
• explains Sherif’s results
• results in PUBLIC AND PRIVATE AGREEMENT
• known as internalisation

Question 28

which study shows both informational and normative social influence?

Answer 28

Baron, Vandello and Brunsman -
-2 stooges and 1 naive participant per group
-shown a suspect followed by a slide of a four person line up
-indentify the right person
-one group was told it was important, one was told it was not. stooges would give incorrect answer
-when given 1sec to find suspect - 51% error for important
and 35% error for unimportant
-given longer - 16% error for important and 33% error for unimportant
-when we are unsure: look to others for guidance, explaining high error rate (informational influence)
-easy task and unimportant: better to be wrong than risk social disapproval therefore: normative social influence.

Question 29

evaluation of baron, vandello and brunsman study?

Answer 29

• deception

- all students: cannot generalise findings from biased sample

Question 30

What is obedience to authority?

Answer 30

type of social influence where someone acts in response to a direct order from authority

• one behaves as instructed by doesn’t necessarily change their opinion
• similar to compliance (public agreement/private disagreement)

Question 31

what is the difference between obedience to authority and compliance?

Answer 31

obedience to authority doesn’t necessarily involve a group of people > influence is from someone of power.

• obedience orders are direct
• obedience can be an excuse for behaviour

Question 32

discuss milgram’s study

Answer 32

participants were asked to give electric shocks to the other participant (who was actually a stooge) varying from mild to high voltage.

it was predicted that no one would go to the high voltage but results found that almost all participants did. this was because they were prompted to do so by the experimenter

this is known for it’s ethical issues: deception, right to withdraw and protection of participants

Question 33

factors affecting obedience to authority in the milgram experiment

Answer 33

location: prestigeous/professional buildings are more likely to have obedience

proximity of victim: closer the victim was, the less obedient the participant was

proximity of the authority figure: further away they were, the less obedient the participant was

social supporters: if stooges refused, obedience dropped

peer administers shock: obedience rose

Question 34

why do people obey?

Answer 34

personal responsibility: agentic state - acting as agents of the authority figure
the further away the authority figure was: autonomous state - becoming aware of own actions

perception of of figure and state: socialised to recognise authority figures. orders must seem justified

social norms: social norms and roles produce obedience

Question 35

what is the authoritarian personality?

Answer 35

believed to be a result of harsh parenting, characterised by:
hostility towards people of lower status and respect for higher status
preoccupation with power
respect for authority

Question 36

explanation of defiance

Answer 36

social support: participant is more likely to disobey with supporters

role models; one person can rebel and others will follow

personal experience including education:

questioning motives

loss of freedom: participants felt manipulated. disobey to regain freedom