Social Influence Flashcards
(84 cards)
1
Q
What is Social Psychology?
A
Relationships between people and social influence.
2
Q
What is Social Influence?
A
How people affect each other’s behaviour.
3
Q
What is Conformity?
A
When a person changes their views, attitudes or beliefs to be in line with the majority.
4
Q
What is Compliance?
A
When a person changes their views, attitudes and beliefs only publicly to be in line with the majority.
5
Q
What is Internalisation?
A
When a person changes their views, attitudes and beliefs publicly and privately to be in line with the majority.
6
Q
What is Identification?
A
When a person associates themselves with another person/group, adopting their views, attitudes and beliefs.
7
Q
What are the explanations for conformity?
A
Normative and Informational Social Influence
8
Q
What is Normative Social Influence?
A
When people copy behaviour because they have the desire to fit in and not be ridiculed. This leads to compliance.
9
Q
What is Informational Social Influence?
A
When a situation is ambiguous, people copy behaviour because they have a desire to be confident and correct and avoid judgement so rely on the opinion of others. This leads to internalisation.
10
Q
Advantages of explanations for conformity. (3)
- Asch
- beans
- autokinetic
A
- Asch experiment; 75% conformed on at least one trial because they feared ridicule so normative social influence affected them
- asked participants to estimate number of beans in a jar. They estimated individually then in groups. Their estimate in groups were roughly the same even though their individual estimates were much different.
- autokinetic effect is when a small spot of light in the dark appears to be moving but is really still. They were individually tested to say how far the spot had moved and these were varied. They were then put into groups of three, where two of them had similar values but one of them had a very different one. They had to start their number aloud in a group and their numbers converged to a common estimate. The person who’s individual value was very different had the most varied difference
11
Q
Disadvantages of explanations of conformity. (2)
- third
- self esteem
A
- third explanation called ingratational conformity was found. This is when the groups influence doesn’t mean the person will conform. They are motivated by their need to impress or gain favour instead of their fear of rejection
- participant variables ignored; high self esteem increases resistance to conformity
12
Q
What year was the Asch experiment conducted in?
A
1956
13
Q
What was the percentage of answers did participants get wrong in the Asch experiment?
A
33%
14
Q
How many participants conformed at least once in the Asch experiment?
A
75%
15
Q
How many participants conformed in every trial in the Asch experiment?
A
5%
16
Q
What was the rate of conformity with one confederate in the Asch experiment?
A
3%
17
Q
What was the rate of conformity with two confederates in the Asch experiment?
A
13%
18
Q
What was the rate of conformity with three confederate in the Asch experiment?
A
32%
19
Q
How does task difficulty affect the conformity rate in the Asch experiment?
A
The harder the test, the higher the conformity rate.
20
Q
What did the conformity rate drop to from 33% when one other confederate gave a different answer in the Asch experiment?
A
5%
21
Q
What was the conformity rate when one other confederate gave the wrong answer in the Asch experiment?
A
9%
22
Q
What variables affect conformity?
A
- group size
- task difficulty
- unanimity
23
Q
Advantages of the Asch experiment. (1)
- laboratory
A
- it’s a laboratory experiment so the extraneous variables are highly controlled making the results valid. The study is replicable making the results reliable.
24
Q
Disadvantages of the Asch experiment. (4)
- mundane
- gender
- volunteer
- ethics
A
- lacks mundane realism and ecological validity
- all participants where male so has gender bias, more specifically beta bias, and all white Americans so there is culture bias
- volunteer sampling has been used so the sample doesn’t represent the wider population, therefore there is no population validity
- there were ethical issues. There was deception because the participants were told it was a test on perception, no informed consent, and psychological harm, however this did prevent demand characteristics
25
What year was the Stanford Prison Experiment conducted in?
1973
26
What are Social Roles?
Behaviours expected from an individual of a certain position or status and people can conform to these.
27
Advantage of the Zimbardo experiment. (1)
| -Iraq
- similar to Abhu Ghraib, a military prison in Iraq. It is famous for the torture and abuse of prisoners by US soldiers; they were influenced by the guard role.
28
Disadvantages of the Zimbardo Experiment. (4)
- unethical
- warden
- sample
- demand
- unethical as psychological harm was inflicted on the prisoners. They experiences extreme reactions, like crying, rage, and acute anxiety but this wasn’t expected from Zimbardo
- Zimbardo lost his objectivity by becoming the prison warden. This made the study less valid and he had to be told by a colleague to end the experiment
- the sample was unrepresentative as there was gender bias
- there were demand characteristics as the guards thought this was what Zimbardo wanted them to act like. This reduces the validity.
29
What year was the Milgram Experiment conducted in?
1963
30
What is Obedience?
Behaving as instructed by authority figure who had power and/or status
31
What are the situational explanations of obedience?
Agentic State and Legitimate Authority
32
How many participants obeyed up to 450 volts in the Milgram experiment?
65%
33
Advantages of the Milgram experiment. (1)
| - laboratory
- it was a laboratory experiment so it was controlled and means it’s valid
34
Disadvantages of the Milgram experiment. (3)
- unethical
- ecological
- sample
- there was deception as Milgram lies about the purpose and details of the experiment
- it caused participants psychological harm as participants were distressed
- there was no right to withdraw for the participants
- lacks ecological validity as it is artificial
- sample is unrepresentative as there is gender bias and culture bias
35
What year did Milgram conduct the variations of his original 1963 experiment?
1974
36
What situational variables affect obedience?
- proximity
- location
- uniform
37
What is the proximity variation and what was the obedience rate?
When the learner and teacher are in the same room.
| 40%
38
What is the touch proximity variation and what was the obedience rate?
When the teacher forced the learner’s arm onto a metal plate to administer a shock.
30%
39
What is the absent experimenter variation and what was the obedience rate?
When the experimenter leaves the room.
| 21%
40
What is the alternative setting variation and what was the obedience rate?
The experiment was done in s run down office and the experimenter was in casual clothing.
48%
41
What are the situational explanations for obedience?
Agentic state and legitimate authority
42
What is agentic state?
This is the state of obeying the orders of an authority figure as you believe it is not your responsibility and they are believed to be trustworthy.
43
What is an agentic shift?
Moving from an autonomous state to an agentic state.
43
What is diffusion of responsibility?
When the person believes that the authority figure is responsible for their actions so they obey them.
44
What is gradual commitment?
When orders start off as reasonable but then gradually become more aggressive.
45
What are buffers?
Psychological protection from the consequences of a persons actions. If they can see the consequences of their actions then there are no buffers.
46
Advantages of Agentic State. (2)
- responsibility
- seeing
- in Milgram’s experiment participants kept asking who was responsible and the obedience rate reduced when they were told they were responsible
- the participants were also less likely to shock if they could see what was happening which prevented them from going into an agentic state
46
How does agentic state develop?
It developed during evolution as obeying authority figures in society is functional and essential in order to prevent chaos.
47
Disadvantage of Agentic State. (1)
| - Jewish
- a Major in Nazi Germany was ordered to have a large group of Jewish people shot. The soldiers had to option to say no but they few did and so the massacre continued. There were no buffers here but the soldiers still carried on and they shouldn’t have been able to.
48
Advantages of Legitimate Authority. (2)
- litter
- nurse
- confederates ordered people to pick litter up dressed as a guard, milkman and in a business suit; 90% was the obedience rate when dressed as a guard and 50% when dressed as a civilian.
- nurses received a phone call from an unknown doctor called Dr Smith (actor) instructing them to give a patient 20 milligrams of a drug (sugar pill). This was two times the maximum dosage as it said on the bottle but 95% still obeyed and gave the drug.
49
What is legitimate authority?
Being perceived to be in a position of social control
50
Disadvantage of Legitimate Authority. (1)
| - 35%
- doesn’t explain how 35% of participants didn’t obey in the Milgram experiment.
51
Why does an authoritarian personality develop?
From a strict upbringing that often uses physical punishment.
52
What are the traits of authoritarian personality? (7)
- servile towards those of a higher status
- hostile towards those of a lower status
- preoccupied with power
- inflexible in their beliefs and values
- conformist and conventional
- likely to categorise ‘us’ and ‘them’
- dogmatic
53
Advantages of dispositional explanations of obedience. (2)
- arithmetic
- themselves
- those who scored higher on the F scale were more likely to obey when told to hold onto electric wiring while working on an arithmetic problem
- participants who were willing to give themselves shocks when a questions was wrong had a high score on the F scale
54
Disadvantages of the Social Support Theory. (1)
| - without
- neither disobedient role model nor ally completely eradicated social influence in the original Milgram’s and Asch experiment. They were still able to resist without these.
54
What is the dispositional explanations of obedience?
Authoritarian personality
55
Disadvantages of dispositional explanations of obedience. (3)
- variations
- rare
- education
- Milgram had other variations; when Mr Wallace made no noise the obedience rate was 100%, when another teacher pressed the button the obedience rate was 10% and when two authority figures disagreed the obedience rate was 0%. So situational factors are more important.
- authoritarian personalities are not common. Fewer than 65% of people who obeyed in Milgram’s study had authoritarian personality so can’t be the only explanation
- less educated people are more likely to have an authoritarian personality so are therefore more obedient. Lack of education may be the cause.
57
What is an ally?
A person that refuses to conform and causes other people to resist social influence.
58
Advantages of the Social Support Theory. (2)
- Milgram
- Asch
- in Milgram’s experiment, when there was a disobedient role model, the obedience rate was 10%
- in the Asch experiment, when there was an ally, the conformity rate was 5%
58
What is a disobedient role model?
A person that refuses to obey and resists social influence.
59
What is the situational explanation for the resistance to social influence?
Social Support Theory
60
What is locus of control?
The extent to which someone believes they have control over their own actions and behaviour.
61
What is an internal locus of control?
Blaming your own actions and behaviour and believing you have the ability to alter what happens to you.
62
What is an external locus of control?
Blaming things outside of your control and believe what happens to you is determined by chance and other people.
63
Advantages of locus of control. (2)
- Germans
- questionnaire
- interviewed 406 Germans who sheltered Jews in the 1930s-1940s had an internal locus of control
- 35% of participants given a questionnaire to test their locus of control had an internal locus of control
64
What is the dispositional explanation for the resistance to social influence?
Locus of control
66
Disadvantages of locus of control. (1)
| - assertiveness
- conformers were found to be less assertive, but conformers and non conformers showed no difference in a questionnaire to test their locus of control. This suggests that assertiveness is more important.
67
What is minority influence?
When persuasive small groups or individuals gain social influence and change the view of the majority.
68
What is conversion?
When a person changes their views, attitudes and beliefs privately to be in line with the minority.
68
What is socio-crypto amnesia?
When you are not aware where a new idea originated from.
69
What does the minority need to be like to make a difference?
- committed
- consistent
- flexible
71
Advantages of minority influence. (2)
- gay
- creative
- with views on gay rights, participants publicly agreed with the majority but privately with the minority
- people exposed to the minority and majority views converged on majority response but the presence of minority influence stimulated more creative thinking.
72
Disadvantages of minority influence. (3)
| - resistance
- meta-analysis was conducted and found that people who wrote confronted about supporting the minority resist the appearance of agreement privately and publicly.
73
What are the stages of social change through minority influence? (5)
1) Drawing Attention to the Issue
2) Cognitive Conflict
3) Consistency of Position
4) Augmentation Principle
5) Snowball Effect
75
What is social change?
Changes in attitudes, beliefs, behaviours or laws taken place on a large scale, affecting all of society.
75
Advantages of social change through minority influence. (2)
- gay
- creative
- with views on gay rights, participants publicly agreed with the majority but privately with the minority
- people exposed to the minority and majority views converged on majority response but the presence of minority influence stimulated more creative thinking.
77
Disadvantages of social change through minority influence. (1)
- resistance
- meta-analysis was conducted and found that people who wrote confronted about supporting the minority resist the appearance of agreement privately and publicly.
78
What is the perceived norm?
What people believe the majority think and do
79
What is the actual norm?
What people really think and do
80
What is a misperception?
The gap between the perceived norm and the actual norm.
82
What are social norm interventions?
They are used to correct misperceptions and informing the public about the actual norm.
83
Advantages of social change through majority influence. (2)
- smoking
- drink driving
- adolescents exposed to the message that the majority of their peers don’t smoke are less likely to themselves.
- Montana had a problem with drunk driving accidents among 21-34 year olds. 20% of them drove and 92% believed drunk driving was the norm. This was corrected with adverts saying most young adults don’t drink and drive and accidents decreased.
84
Disadvantages of social influence through majority influence. (1)
- alcohol
- marketing campaigns were used to bring down the use of alcohol use among students across 14 different college sites. They surveyed at the start of the campaign and three years later and they did not show lower perceptions.
