Social Influence (conformity)

Question 1

What is conformity

Answer 1

Yielding to group pressure or behaviour in accordance with socially accepted conventions

Question 2

What are the three types of conformity

Answer 2

Compliance

Internalisation

Identification

Question 3

What is compliance

Answer 3

publicly, but not privately going along with majority influence to gain approval/avoid ridicule, weak / temporary and only shown in the presence of the group

(not really) (they just wants to fit in)

Question 4

What is internalisation

Answer 4

true conformity, public and private acceptance of majority influence, through adoption of the majority groups belief system. Stronger, permanent form of conformity, as it is maintained outside of the groups presence

(want to do it all the time)

Question 5

What is identification

Answer 5

public and private acceptance of majority influence in order to gain acceptance. Stronger form for conformity, but still temporary, don’t always agree with the group

(you agree with their opinion but you’re still not going to do it)

Question 6

What does ISI stand for

Answer 6

Informal social influence

Question 7

What does NSI stand for

Answer 7

Normative social influence

Question 8

What is informational social influence

Answer 8

(Own views)

• Uncertain
• agree with majority and believe that it right
• want to be right
• cognitive process
• public & private agreement —> internalisation
  Usually happens when:
  -situations are new to a person
  -some ambiguity
  -in crisis situations
  -one person is being regarded as being more of an expert

Question 9

What is normative social influence

Answer 9

(Want to fit in)

-agree with the optimism of majority
-need for acceptance
-gain social approval/be liked
-emotional process
-public & private views differ —> compliance
Usually happens when:
- situations with stranger
- occur with people you know
- announced in stressful situations

Question 10

What was the ashch experiment

Answer 10

Asch carried out a laboratory experiment with an independent group design. In groups of 8, participants judged line lengths by saying out loud which comparison line (1,2, or 3) matched the standard line.

Question 11

What were the results of aschs experiment

Answer 11

In the control trials, participants gave the wrong answer 0.7% of the time. In the critical trials, participants conformed to the majority 37% of the time. 75% conformed at least once.

Afterwards, some participants said they didn’t really believe their answers, but did not want to look different

Question 12

How did aschs experiment lack of validity

Answer 12

Going last

Different types of people

Gender

Age gap

Question 13

Positive evaluations of Zimbardo experiment

Answer 13

Controlled

• zimbrado and his colleagues had some control over variables
• seen in the selection of participants
• emotionally stable individuals were chosen and random,y assigne to the roles of
  guards and prisoners
• behaviour must have been due to the pressure of the situation as they ever randomly assigned
• increases the internal validity of the study - different parts of the test gave consistent results

Question 14

Negative evaluation of Zimbardo (realism)

Answer 14

• banuazizi and Mohavedi (1975) argued that participants were merely play acting rather than genuinely conforming onto a role
• based on stereotypes
• one of the guards claimed he based his role on a brutal character in the film ‘cool hand Luke’
• prisoner rioted because they thought that’s what real prisoners did

Question 15

Negative evaluation of Zimbardo (role of dispositional influences)

Answer 15

• from 1973 accused zimbardo of exaggerating the power of the situation to influence behaviour and minimising the role of personality factors
• only a third of the guards behaved in a brutal manner
• another third we’re keen on applying rules fairly and the rest actively tried to help and support the prisoners
• the conclusion drawn that participants were conforming to social roles, could be over stated
• the guards were able to exercise right or wrong choices, despite the situational pressure to conform to a role

Question 16

method of zimbardos experiment

Answer 16

Male students were recruited to act as either guards or prisoners in a mock prison. They were randomly given roles of prisoner or guard, and their behaviour was observed. The prisoners were ‘arrested’ as they went about their day, taken to ‘prison’ and given uniforms and numbers. The
guards also wore uniforms and mirrored glasses.

Question 17

results of zimbardo

Answer 17

Initially, the guards tried to assert their authority and the prisoners
resisted by sticking together. The prisoners then became more passive
and obedient, while the guards invested nastier punishments. The
experiment was abandoned early because some prisoners became very
distressed.

Question 18

conclusions of zimbardos experiment

Answer 18

Guards and prisoners adopted their social roles quickly. Zimbardo claims this shows that our social role can influence our behaviour- seemingly, well-balanced men became unpleasant and aggressive in the role of a guard.

Question 19

evaluations of zimbardos experiment

Answer 19

This was a controlled observation, so there was good control of variables. However, because it was an artificial environment, the results cannot really be generalised to real-life situations. In terms of ethics, some participants found the experience very distressing. There is also a problem with observer bias, as Zimbardo ran the prison himself, and later admitted that he became too personally involved in the situation. The conclusion Zimbardo reached does not explain why only some of the participants acted according to their assigned roles.

Question 20

what were the situational factors of asch

Answer 20

group size

unanimity / social support

task difficulty

Question 21

give examples that support aschs study (show they are confident in own opinions)

Answer 21

perrin and spenser (1980) - replicated aschs study but with engineering studentts and conformity levels were lower. this is because engineers has confidence in their skills in making accurate observations