social influence part 1

Question 1

define conformity

Answer 1

our tendency to change our behaviours or attitudes inresponse to influence of others or social pressure (real or imagined)

Question 2

3 types of conformity and briefly outline them

Answer 2

1) compliance- the desire to be liked, superficially going along with the majority to appear normal

2) internalisation- desire to be right, going along with the majority because you believe they are right.

3) identification- publicly changing our opinions or behaviours to conform with a group

Question 3

who came up with the 3 types of conformity?

Answer 3

Kelman

Question 4

what are the 2 explanations of conformity and who came up with them?

Answer 4

normative social influence and informational social influence- Deutsch and Gerard

Question 5

define normative social influence

Answer 5

-the desire to be liked
-links to compliance
-don’t want to appear foolish
-fear of rejection
-emotional process
-nAffiliators are more likely to show this

Question 6

define informational social influence

Answer 6

-the desire to be right
-changing your public and private beliefs
-links to internalisation
-cognitive process

Question 7

what was the aim and method of Asch’s study into conformity?

Answer 7

aim: to see if p’s would choose the wrong answer in an unambiguous task

method: 123 male American p’s, 1 at a time sat with 6 confederates. shown 3 lines and asked which matched the control line, the confederates all answered wrong then it was the real p’s turn

Question 8

what were the findings of Asch’s study into conformity?

Answer 8

p’s conformed on 32% of critical trials , 74% conformed at least once, 26% didn’t conform once

Question 9

evaluate Asch’s study into conformity

Answer 9

• insignificant: no consequences, unimportant task
• lacks ecological validty: lab experiment
  + lab experiment: high control, replicable, unambiguous, high internal validity
  + real life application: eyewitness testimony impacted by other witnesses
• temporal validity: 1950’s people were afriad to be different (McCarthyism), Perrin and Spencer did the same expt. on british students n the 1970s and found low levels of conformity

Question 10

what were the 3 variations of Asch’s experiment?

Answer 10

1) group size: conformity peaked at 7 confederates (any more aroused suspicion)

2) task difficulty: harder tasks mean higher levels of conformity

3) unanimity: conformity dropped 5% if they had an ally who also didn’t conform

Question 11

define social roles

Answer 11

behaviours based on roles we hold in society and how we match our behaviour to these

Question 12

what was the method of Zimbardo’s (and Haney’s) prison expt. ?

Answer 12

• set up a mock prison at Stanford uni
• volunteer sample of 21 male and american students who were ‘emotionally stable’
• randomly allocated either prisoner or guard role
• went through de-individuation: guards wore khaki uniforms and mirrored sunglasses, prisoners were given a number, stripped, searched, dresses the same

Question 13

how did the prisoners, guards and zimbardo all show conformity in the sanford prison expt. ?

Answer 13

• prisoners followed the guards orders, doing degrading tasks
• guards dehumanised and mistreated the prisoners, waking them up in the middle of the night, putting them in slitary confinement etc.
• zimbardo became the super-intendent and failed to see the reality of the expt.

Question 14

how long was the stanford prison expt. meant to last and how long did it actually go for?

Answer 14

meant to last 2 weeks, ended after 6 days

Question 15

evaluate the stanford prison expt.

Answer 15

• ethical issues: informed consent and protection from harm
  + terminated after 6 days
  +practical applications: helps explain why normal people commit atrcious acts eg. the american soldiers in 2003 who were seen degrading and abusing Iraqi prisoners
  + high internal validity: high control and realistic environment, individual differences were minimised (all emotionally stable), random assignment to roles
  -findings lack reliability: Reicher and Haslam did a similar study and got different results… some guards felt uncomfortable in their authority and prisoners rebelled very early on

Question 16

define obedience

Answer 16

following a direct order from someone in a position of authority who has the power to punish you

Question 17

what was the aim of Milgram’s research?

Answer 17

to investigate whether any other nationality would behave in the same way the Germans did in the holocaust

Question 18

what was the procedure of Milgram’s research?

Answer 18

1. advertised a memory expt. in the newspaper and got a volunteer sample
2. 40 male p’s went to Yale uni and met Mr wallace (a confederate) who told them he had a heart condition
3. real p’s got allocated the teacher role and Mr Wallace always got the learner role
4. teacher reads words and learner has to give correct answers or the experimenter instructs the teacher to give them an electric shock (15v-450v)
5. experimenter gave the teacher verbal prods to continue when they didn’t want to continue eg. “the experiment requires you to continue”

Question 19

what were the results of Milgram’s expt. ?

Answer 19

• every p went up to 300v
• 65% went up to the deadly 450v shock
• all showed signs of distress like sweating, twitching, stuttering, 3 had siezures

Question 20

evaluate Milgram’s expt.

Answer 20

-ethical issues: deception, informed consent, protection from harm
-ecological validity: Orne and Holland said that obedience wouldn’t look like this in real life
+ Hofling: 21/22 nurses gave the dangerous dose of a drug because the doctor told them to

Question 21

Milgram’s 3 situational variables?

Answer 21

1. uniform- we are taught from a young age to obey those in a uniform so when the experimenter didn’t wear a lab coat, obedience dropped
2. proximity- he vaired how close the teacher was to mr wallace, if they were in the same room, obediance dropped as the buffer was no longer there
3. location- Yale is a respected uni and gives the original expt. legitimace, when repeated in a seedy office block obedience dropped

Question 22

key words for situational explanations of obedience

Answer 22

• autonomous state
• agentic state
• agentic shift
• binding factors
• legitimacy of authority
• (+ gruadual commitment and the role of buffers)

Question 23

define autonomous state

Answer 23

when we feel responsible for our own actions and their consequences, free to behave by our own moral principles

Question 24

define agentic state

Answer 24

mental state where we feel no personal responsibilty for our actions and insted act as an agent for an authority figure

Question 25

define binding factors

Answer 25

reasons you stay in the agentic state, they shift the moral strain off. eg in Milgram's expt. some of the p's shifted the moral strain onto the victims

Question 26

define legitimacy of authority

Answer 26

we will only fall into the agentic state if the authority figure seems legitimate so we tend to obey those who are above us in the social heirarchy

Question 27

evaluate situational explanations of authority

Answer 27

+ supporting research: Milgram's own study shows the agentic state- some p's asked the experiementer who would be responsible, when they resisted they showed evidence of the autonomous state + Hofling : 21/22 nurses acted as agents for the doctors - conflicting evidence: Rank and Cardell did a similar nursesstudy and 16/18 didn't obey the doctors

Question 28

evaluate legitimacy of authority

Answer 28

+ explains cultural variations in obedience as different societies have different hierarchies therefore different obedience rates - doesn't explain all situations eg. breaking the law is obeying those above us in the social hierarchy