Social influence Flashcards
(10 cards)
Define conformity
Conformity: a change in a person’s behaviour or opinions as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or group (e.g. a person changes their behaviour to fit in with a group which is said to be conforming)
What are the types of conformity?
1) Internalisation is when a person accepts group norms = results in a private & public change of opinions &behaviour = this leads to permanent change & persists in absence of group members as the attitudes become part of how the person thinks (e.g a boy joins in with a group’s bad behaviour as he accepts the belief that
they need to hit back because of police victimisation)
2) Identification occurs when we identify with a group that we value as we want to become part of it = there’s a public change of opinions/behaviour to be accepted but we don’t privately agree with everything (e.g a
boy joins in with a group’s bad behaviour because he wants to be seen as a member of a
tough group from a tough area)
3) Compliance involves ‘going along with others’ in public but privately not changing opinions/behaviour = results in a superficial change and the opinions/behaviour stops when group pressure stops
(e. g. a boy joins in with a group’s bad behaviour because he does not want to be ridiculed for not behaving in the same way).
What are the explanations for conformity?
1) Informational social influence is about information and the desire to be right = a cognitive process
- If we’re uncertain in a situation, we tend to look for guidance and rely on other’s opinions = more likely to occur in situations that are new and others have more knowledge or when it’s ambiguous and unclear = results to internalisation where other’s views validate their own beliefs and convinced that they’re wrong and the group is right = public & private change of attitudes
2) Normative social influence is about norms that regulate the behaviour of groups & individuals and the desire to gain social approval and avoid disapproval from others due to the fear of rejection and a need to be liked = an emotional process
- when an individual is exposed to the views of the group, they engage in social comparison & identify with the majority as they’re desirable = so they conform in public to fit in but may not change their attitudes when in private (compliance)
Explain Asch’s line study for conformity
Asch studied 123 American male students = each tested individually with a group of 6 to 8 confederates = had to identify which of the 3 lines was the same length of the standard line = the confederates were seen as participant & gave the same wrong answer on 12 of the 18 trials
Found: - naive participants conformed to pressure and gave the wrong answer 36.8% of the time on the 12 critical trials = shows people conform in ambiguous situations: called the Asch effect
- Individual differences in conformity rate: 25% of participants never conformed to the wrong answer, so 75% conformed at least once but a few conformed most of the time
= he found 3 reasons why they conformed, after interviewing the participants:
- Distortion of perception = a few saw the lines the same way as the majority
- Distortion of judgement = unsure of their own judgement
- Distortion of action = most continued to avoid rejection (normative) and continued to privately trust their own opinions but go along with others publicly
Explain the variables affection conformity
3 variables:
- Asch found there was very little conformity (13.6%) when the majority was 1 or 2 confederates = When confederates increased to 3, conformity increased to (31.8%) = adding more confederates made little difference
- Asch introduced a dissenting confederate to break the the unanimity of the group and the conformity levels decreased, whether the confederate was giving the right or wrong answer, the average was 25% wrong answers given = having a dissenter allowed a naive participant to behave more independently = Asch believed that it was breaking the group’s
unanimous position that led to the reduction in conformity
- Asch made the task more difficult by making the differences between the line lengths similar in length = conformity increased = informational social influence played a greater role when the task becomes harder = Asch believed that situational differences (task difficulty) and individual differences (self-efficacy) are
both important in determining conformity.
Explain Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment research on conformity to social role
Zimbardo set up a mock prison in the basement at Stanford University, testing 24 psychologically and physically healthy male students who were
randomly assigned to play the roles of either prisoners or guards = their behaviour in the simulated prison was planned to be observed for two weeks, with
Zimbardo himself playing the role of Prison Superintendent
-Zimbardo observed over the first few days that the guards grew increasingly abusive toward the prisoners, (forcing them to clean the toilets with their bare hands) = de-individuation occurred with the participants
- They all forgot it was a psychological study & conformed to their social role as either a prisoner or guard even when they were unaware their behaviour was being observed = guards highlighted the differences in social roles by enforcing rules and to punish them all the time
-After 5 prisoners had to be released early due to becoming depressed, psychologically disturbed and one going on a hunger strike, the study was terminated after only 6 days than the 2 weeks it had been planned for
= thus, the simulation revealed the power of the situation to influence people’s behaviour = all participants and researchers conformed to their social role within the prison = the more the guards identified with their roles, the more brutal and aggressive their behaviour became
Explain Milgram’s research on obedience
Obedience: when an individual follows a direct order
-recruited 40 male participants from ads for a ‘memory study’ = aged 20-50 years, skills ranging from unskilled to professional
-A confederate was the ‘learner’; the true participant was the ‘teacher’ & another confederate was the ‘experimenter’ = they were told they could leave at any time
-learner strapped into chair and wired = teacher gave learner increasingly severe electric shocks each time they gave the wrong answer for the word pairs = teachers thought the shocks were real but they were fake
- shocks started at 15 volts to 450 volts
-Teacher turned to experimenter for guidance when the learner gave no response and the absence should be treated as a wrong answer
-4 standard prods given, if teacher was unsure about continuing: 1) ‘Please continue’, 2) experiment requires you to continue, 3) essential to continue, 4) you must go on
= found: 12.5% stopped at 300v & 65% continued to 450v
=before the study, Milgram asked psychology students to predict the naive participants’ behaviour, estimated no more than 3% would continue to 450v = findings were unexpected
Explain the situational variables for obedience
Original study: teacher and learner were in adjoining rooms = teacher could hear learner but not see them
1) Proximity = teacher and learner in the same room=obedience rate dropped from 65% to 40%
- Touch proximity = teacher forced learner’s hand onto shock plate = obedience rate dropped to 30%
- Remote proximity = experimenter left room and gave instructions on the phone = obedience rate dropped to 20.5%
2) Location = this study was located in a run down building than a university setting in the original = obedience dropped to 47.5% = shows experimenter had less authority in this setting
3) Uniform = original study, experimenter wore a grey lab coat for authority = in this variation, the experimenter was replaced by an ‘ordinary member of the public’ in everyday clothes = obedience dropped to 20% = suggest uniform acts as a strong visual authority and a cue to be obedient
What are the socio-psychological factors that explain obedience
1) Agentic State = a mental state where we feel no personal responsibility for our behaviour as we believe they are acting for someone else by being an ‘agent’ = they experience ‘moral strain’ when they realise that what they’re doing is wrong, but are powerless to disobey
- Autonomous state= is to be independent or free to behave according to their own principles and have responsibility for their own actions
- the shift from autonomy to agency is called: Agentic shift = Milgram suggested this occurs when a person sees someone else as an authority figure who has greater power due to their position in the social hierarchy
- Milgram questioned why a person remains in this agentic state, it’s due to Binding factors= aspects that allow the person to ignore/minimise the damaging effect of their behaviour = thus, reduces moral strain = Milgram said the individual uses the strategies: shifting responsibility to the victim or deny damage they were doing to victims
2) Legitimacy of Authority = suggests we are more likely to obey people who we see to have authority over us= this authority is justified by the individual’s position of power within a social hierarchy
- some authority figures: parents, teachers, police = most accept that they have to be allowed to exercise social power over others so society functions smoothly
- one consequence is that some are granted the power to punish others = we’re willing to give up some independence and hand over control to people who we trust to use authority appropriately = learn acceptance of legitimate authority from childhood from parents, teachers
- legitimate authority becomes destructive = charismatic leaders use their legitimate power to order people to behave cruel = shown in Milgram’s study using prods to order participants to go against their consciences
What is the dispositional explanation (explains importance of individual’s personality) of obedience
Authoritarian Personality = a personality that Adorno argued was susceptible to obeying people in authority = submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors
-Adorno et al wanted to understand antisemitism and believed a high level of obedience was a psychological disorder and tried to locate the causes in the personality
-they investigated the causes of the obedient personality by studying more than 2000 white Americans and their unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups = developed scales such as ‘f-scale used to measure authoritarian personality
= found those who score high on the f-scale identified with strong people; conscious of their own and others’ status, showed excessive respect to those of higher status
-Adorno concluded people with an authoritarian personality are obedient to authority; extreme respect; highly conventional attitudes & uncomfortable with uncertainty
-origin of the authoritarian personality: formed in childhood due to harsh parenting and conditional love depending on how he or she behaves = experiences create resentment and hostility but the child cannot express these feelings against their parents due to the fear of reprisals = fears are displaced onto others who are percieved as weaker (known as scapegoating) explains a main trait of obedience which is a dislike for people who are socially inferior = this is a psychodynamic explanation
