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AS Psychology > Social Influence: Key Terms + Points > Flashcards

Social Influence: Key Terms + Points Flashcards

1
Q

Social Influence

A

the process by which an individuals attitudes, beliefs or behaviour are modified by the presence or action of others

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2
Q

Conformity

A

yielding to group pressure or the tendency to change what we do, think or say in response to the influence of others, the pressure to conform can be real or imagined

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3
Q

Majority Influence

A

an individual is said to conform if they choose a course of action that is favoured by majority of other group members or is considered socially acceptable

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4
Q

3 Variables Affecting Conformity

A

group size, unanimity, task difficulty

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5
Q

3 Types of Conformity, Kelman (1958)

A

compliance, identification, internalisation

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6
Q

Compliance

A
  • publicly conforming to behaviour or views of group but privately maintaining ones own views
  • temporary
  • shallowest type
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7
Q

Identification

A
  • adopting views or behaviour of group both publicly and privately because you value membership of group
  • new attitudes and behaviours are temporary and not maintained on leaving group
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8
Q

Internalisation

A
  • conversion or true change of private views to match those of the group
  • new attitudes aren’t dependent on presence of group
  • deepest type
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9
Q

Informational Social Influence (ISI)

A
  • based on desire to be right
  • cognitive process
  • look to others we believe to be correct - particularly in novel or ambiguous situations
  • links to identification or internalisation
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10
Q

Normative Social Influence (NSI)

A
  • based on desire to be liked
  • emotional process
  • conform becuase we think others will approve of us so we can be accepted
  • links to compliance
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11
Q

Why do we conform?

A

ISI: when we move from one group to another and experience situational ambiguity
NSI: according to Latames (1981) social impact theory, when group is important to us and when we spend a lot of time with it

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12
Q

Obedience

A

the result of social influence where somebody acts in response to a direct order from an authority figure, it’s assumed that without such an order the person wouldn’t have acted in this way, motivated by fear of punishment or belief in the legitimacy of authority

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13
Q

Situational Variables

A

related to external circumstances rather than the personalities of the people involved

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14
Q

3 Situational Variables that Affect Obedience

A

1) location
2) proximity
3) uniform

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15
Q

How Location Affects Obedience

A
  • the relevant factor that influences obedience is the status or prestige associated with the location
  • variation of Milgram: run-down office instead of lab in university
  • obedience dropped to 47.5%
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16
Q

How Proximity Affects Obedience

A
  • variation of Milgram: teacher and learner in same room instead of adjoining rooms
  • obedience dropped to 40%
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17
Q

How Uniform Affects Obedience

A
  • Bickman (1974) found that participants were more likely to obey experimenter dressed as a guard than milkman or civilian
  • Bushman (1988) found 72% obeyed “police”
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18
Q

Situational Explanations

A

look at external reasons for a behaviour eg environment

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19
Q

2 Situatoinal Explanations for Obedience

A

1) agentic shift
2) legitimacy of authority

20
Q

Agency Theory

A
  • states people operate on 2 levels: autonomous state (behaving voluntarily and aware of consequences of actions) and agentic state (see themselves as agents of others and not responsible for their actions)
  • obedience due to move from autonomous to agentic (agentic shift)
  • occurs in hierachal social systems where individuals act as agents on behalf of those with perceived higher ranks than themselves
  • remain in agentic due to binding factors: fear of appearing rude or arrogant, fear of increasin anxiety levels
21
Q

Research to Support and Refute Agentic State and Legitimacy of Authority

A
  • Milgram (1963): supports, teacher autonomous at start but became agent of experimenter, experimenter above them in social hierachy, wore uniform
  • Hofling et al (1966): supports, nurses became agents of doctor, doctors above them in social hierachy
  • Rank and Jacobson (1977): refutes, 16/18 remained in autonomous state, didn’t obey those above them in hierachy
22
Q

Legitimacy of Authority

A
  • obey as we feel obligated to those in power
  • respect credentials and assume they know what they’re doing
  • legitimate social power is held by an authority figure whose role is defined by society
  • usually gives person in authority right to exert control over behaviour of others who usually accept it
  • legitimacy increased by visible signs of authority eg uniform
23
Q

Disposititonal Explanations

A

look for internal reasons for behaviour eg personaluty characteristics

24
Q

Dispositional Explanation for Obedience

A

authoritarian personality

25
Q

Authoritarian Personality

A

1) extreme respect for authoruty and submissiveness to it
2) contempt for people who are seen as having inferior social status
3) highly conventional attitudes to sex, race and gender
4) inflexibility - no grey areas
- measured using F-scale by Adorno et al (1950)
- more you agree with statements, more of an authoritarian personality you have
- Adorno et al states origins are result from harsh parenting in childhood
- this parenting featured strict discipline, expectation of absolute loyalty to family, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of failings

26
Q

Situational Explanation for Resisting Social Influence

A

social support

27
Q

Social Support

A

research suggest when there are others in social situations who defy attempts to make them conform or obey it becomes easier for individuals to resist forms of social influence

28
Q

How Social Support Affects Conformity

A
  • a dissenter represents a form of social support, they break the agreement of the majority
  • Asch (1956) found social support helps individuals to resist conformity. The introduction of an ally droppped conformity from 33% to 5.5%
29
Q

How Social Support Affects Obedience

A
  • people are more likely to resist pressure to obey if they can find an ally who’s willing to join them in opposing the authority figure
  • Milgram found that obedience levels dropped from 65% to 10% when the teacher was joined by another disobedient confederate
30
Q

Dispositional Explanation for Resisting Social Influence

A

locus of control

31
Q

Locus of Control

A
  • a personality dimension which concerns the extent to which people perceive themselves as being in control of their own lives
  • internals: believe they’re in control of their life, believe things happen as result of individuals choices and decisions, more resistant to social pressure as they perceive themselves as having free choice
  • externals: believe things happen whichc are out of their control, believe things happen as result of luck, fate or other uncontrollable external forces, passive and fatalistic attitude, less resistant to social pressure
32
Q

Minority Influence

A
  • type of social influence that motivates indivuals to reject established majority group norms as result of exposure to persuasive minority
  • achieved through process of conversion - majority scrutinise minority’s message and gradually won over
  • tends to occur through ISI; minority provide new information and ideas to majority
  • tends to involve belief/behaviour being accepted both publicly and privately
33
Q

3 Behavioural Styles of Minority Influence

A

1) flexibility
2) consitency
3) commitment

34
Q

Behavioural Styles: Flexibility

A
  • Mugny (1982) distinguished between rigid and flexible negotiating styles
  • rigid minority who is too dogmatic risks being seen as narrow-minded, but minority who is too flexible and too prepared to compromise risks being seen as inconsitent
  • if minorities are seen as flexible by demonstrating an ability to be moderate, co-operative and reasonable then they will be more persuasive than those who are rigid and uncompromising in their beliefs
  • Nemeth and Brilmayer (1987): mock jury arguing for compensation, majority opinion shifted more when minority confederate was more flexible and adjusted to group mean
35
Q

Behavioural Styles: Consistency

A
  • when first exposed to minority people ten to assume minority is in error, however if consistent others reassess the situation and consider the issue more carefully (Wood et al 1944)
  • synchronic consistency: people in minority all saying the same thing
  • diachronic consistency: have been saying the same thing for a long time
  • Mosovici et al (1969): ps shown blue slides of varying shades and asked to state colour out loud, 0.25% in control said green, 8.4% in consistent minority said green
36
Q

Behavioural Styles: Commitment

A
  • because joining minority inevitably has greater costs for individual than staying with majority, degree of commitment shown by minority is often greater
  • suggests certainty, confidence and courage in face of hostility
  • eg hunger strikes, civil rights movement
37
Q

Social Change

A

occurs when society or section of society adopts new belief or way of behaving which becomes widely accepted as norm

38
Q

Social Change Through Majority Influence

A
  • Perkins and Berkowitz (1986) argue that if people perceive something to be the norm, they tend to change their behaviour to fit the norm
  • behaviour is based on what people think others do (the ‘perceived norm’) rather than their real beliefs and actions (the’actual norm’)
  • suggests majority influence can be used to bring about social change through correcting people’s ‘misperceptions’ (the gap between the perceived and actual norm)
  • known as social norms interventions
39
Q

Social Change Through Obedience

A
  • suggested that obedience can be used to create social change through process of gradual commitment
  • once small instituation obeyed it becomes more difficult to resist bigger one
  • research: Milgram
  • real world example: Nazi Germany
  • disobedient example: Rosa Parks
40
Q

Social Change Through Minority Influence

A
  • mosovici’s explanation of minority influence is based on idea that if individual exposed to persuasive argument under certain conditions, they may change their views to match those of the majority
  • Mosovici referred to this process as ‘conversion’, a prerequisite for social change, and occures due to flexibility, commitment and consistency
41
Q

6 Processes of Social Change Through Minority Influence

A

1) drawing attention to an issue
2) cognitive conflict
3) consistency of position
4) the augmentation principle
5) the snowball effect
6) social cryptoamnesia

42
Q

Social Change Through Minority Influence: Drawing Attention to an Issue

A

minorities can bring about social change by drawing the majority’s attention to an issue

43
Q

Social Change Through Minority Influence: Cognitive Conflict

A

the minority persuade the majority to think more deeply about issues by creating conflict between what the majority currently believe and the position advocated by the minority

44
Q

Social Change Through Minority Influence: Consistency of Position

A

minorities are more persuasive if they express their views over time and agree with each other

45
Q

Social Change Through Minority Influence: The Augmentation Principle

A

if a minority appears willing to suffer for their views, they are seen as more committed and are taken more seriously by others

46
Q

Social Change Through Minority Influence: The Snowball Effect

A

although a minority’s influence often has a small effect, as their views spread more widely more and more people consider the issues being promoted until it reaches a tipping point, at which point it leads to wide-scale social change

47
Q

Social Change Through Minority Influence: Social Cryptoamnesia (Perez et al 1995)

A
  • minority views are so strongly associated with their source that to adopt the message risks assuming the negative identity of the source
  • if the ideas are dissociated (separated) from the source, the majority group can avoid the stigma of being associated with the minority group while still drawing inspiration fro their ideas
  • this may account for why minority influence is often delayed

AS Psychology (22 decks)

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