social influence - social resistance & change Flashcards

Question

why are people with an internal LOC more likely to resist pressures to conform/obey?

Answer 1

-if someone takes personal responsibility for their actions and experiences they are more likely to base their decisions on their own beliefs and not rely on others

Answer 2

-there is research evidence to support the link of LOC and resistance to obedience

Answer 3

P - there is research evidence to support the link between LOC and resistance to obedience E - holland repeated milgram’s study and measured whether ppts were internals or externals ↳ 37% of internals did not continue to the highest shock level ↳ 23% of externals did not continue L - internals showed greater resistance to obedience, this support increases the validity of the LOC explanation for resistance to social influence

Answer 4

-not all research supports the link between LOC and resistance -the role of LOC in resisting social influence may be exaggerated

Answer 5

P - not all research supports the link between LOC and resistance E - analysed data from american obedience studies over a 40-year period (1960-2002) ↳ the data showed that, over this time span, people have become more resistant to obedience but more external in terms of their locus of control ↳ if resistance were linked to an internal LOC then we would expect people to have become more internal L - his challenges the link between internal LOC and resistance (however, the results may be due to a changing society where many things are increasingly outside personal control)

Answer 6

P - the role of LOC in resisting social influence may be exaggerated E - rotter et al (who came up with the LOC) found LOC is only important in new situations, it has little influence in familiar situations where previous experiences are always more important ↳ people who have conformed in the past are likely to do so again even if they have a high internal LOC ↳ suggests that locus of control can only explain a limited range of situations in which people might resist social influence L - this means that locus of control is not as important a factor in resistance as some have suggested

Answer 7

the idea that one person/ a small group (the minority) can influence other people and cause them to reject the majority & follow the minority

Answer 8

through conversion - an individual is gradually won over by the minority viewpoint

Answer 9

internalisation– both public behaviour and private beliefs are changed in the process

Answer 10

the way in which minority influence is more likely to occur when the minority members share the same belief and retain it over time

Answer 11

-synchronic consistency -diachronic consistency

Answer 12

when the minority are all saying the same thing / the minority group members all sharing the same belief

Answer 13

when the members have been saying the same thing for a long time

Answer 14

the idea of the minority being dedicated to their beliefs (for example, engaging in risky behaviour to draw attention to their views)

Answer 15

the idea that when the majority sees the minority being committed to their beliefs they pay more attention and integrate it into their personal viewpoints, augmenting its importance, due to the personal sacrifice made by the minority

Answer 16

-the way in which minority influence is more likely to occur when the minority is willing to compromise -a member of the minority needs to be prepared to adapt their point of view and accept reasonable and valid counterarguments

Answer 17

researchers, including nemeth, argued that consistency can sometimes be off putting as if a minority repeats their belief constantly they may seem rigid & stubborn

Answer 18

172 female participants

Answer 19

to see if a consistent minority could influence a majority to give an incorrect answer, in a colour perception task

Answer 20

172 female participants were told they were taking part in a colour perception task -the participants were placed in groups of six and shown 36 slides, which were all varying shades of blue -the participants had to state out loud the colour of each slide -two of the six participants were confederates

Answer 21

-in the consistent condition the two confederates said that all 36 slides were green -in the inconsistent condition the confederates said that 24 of the slides were green and 12 were blue -a control group was used for comparison with the experimental group (no confederates)

Answer 22

control group: 0.25% responses were green, the rest were blu inconsistent minority: 1.25% of the participants’ answers were green consistent Minority: 8.2% of answers were green

Answer 23

-minorities can influence majorities. -however, this influence is much more effective when the minority are consistent in their responses -when the minority gave inconsistent answers, they were largely ignored by the majority

Answer 24

-make people think more deeply about the topic -deeper processing its important in conversion

Answer 25

as more people are converted by processing deeply, the rate of conversion speeds up and more people convert over time ↳ gradually the minority view becomes the majority view (this is like a snowball gathering more snow as it rolls around)

Answer 26

there is research support demonstrating the importance of consistency

Answer 27

P - there is research support demonstrating the importance of consistency E - moscovici demonstrated that when the minority are consistent in their responses they can influence the majority more When the minority gave inconsistent answers in Moscovici’s study, they were generally ignored by the majority. L - this suggests that presenting a consistent view is a major factor in minority influence

Answer 28

there is research support for flexibility increasing minority influence

Answer 29

P - nemeth (1986) believed that consistency was not the most important factor as it can be seen as a negative trait E - participants, in groups of four, had to agree on the amount of compensation they would give to a victim of a ski‐lift accident ↳ one of the participants in each group was a confederate and there were two conditions 1) minority argued for a low rate of compensation and refused to change their position (inflexible) 2) the minority argued for a low rate of compensation but compromised by offering a slightly higher rate of compensation (flexible) results: nemeth found that in the inflexible condition, the minority had little or no effect on the majority ↳ however, in the flexible condition, the majority members were much more likely to also compromise and change their view L - nemeth’s research highlights the importance of flexibility, and questions the idea of consistency, suggesting that striking a balance between the two is the most successful strategy for a minority to adopt

Answer 30

minority influence provides support for informational social influence

Answer 31

P - moscovici’s research into minority influence provides support for informational social influence E - in one of his variations, after participating in the first condition, participants were later asked to write down their answers rather than say the colour of the slide out loud ↳ this meant that their response was private and not shared with the other group member ↳ it was found that agreement with the minority position was in fact higher, suggesting that they had internalised the viewpoint as correct L - moscovici suggests that the majority was convinced of the minority’s argument but found it easier to confess this privately, as being associated with a minority position may seem ‘radical’

Answer 32

-moscovici’s sample was criticised -moscovici has also been criticised for deceiving his participants -methodological issues

Answer 33

P - moscovici’s sample was criticized E - moscovici used biased a sample of 172 female participants from america ↳ we can’t generalise the results to other populations, (eg: males) ↳ we cannot conclude that male participants would respond to minority influence in the same way furthermore, research often suggests that females are more likely to conform (around 50% conform in Asch’s replication compared to about 30% males) L - further research is required to determine the effect of minority influence on other populations

Answer 34

P - moscovici has been criticised for deceiving his participants E - participants were told that they were taking part in a colour perception test ↳ this means that Moscovici did not gain fully informed consent H - though it is seen as unethical to deceive participants, moscovici’s experiment required deception in order to achieve valid results ↳ if the participants knew the true aim, they might have identified demand characteristics and acted differently

Answer 35

P - there are methodological issues with research into minority influence E - judging the colour of a slide is an artificial task & lacks mundane realism, since it is far from how minorities try to change minority opinion in real life ↳ in jury decision making and political campaigning, outcomes are much more important, maybe even a matter of life or death ↳ in real life minority groups the minority are much more passionate and committed to the cause than students in a lab L - therefore these studies into minority influence lack external validity and are limited in what they tell us about minority influence in real life

Answer 36

when a society adopts a new belief, attitude or way of behaving. this then becomes widely accepted as the norm

Answer 37

1) drawing attention to the issue 2.) consistency of position, displaying a unswerving message and intent 3) deeper processing, many people who simply accept the status quo start thinking further 4) the augmentation principle, minorities take risks to further the cause (commitment) 5) the snowball effect, people switch from a majority position to a minority one 6) social cryptoamnesia – people have a memory that change has occurred but don’t remember how it happened

Answer 38

-dissenters make social change more likely -asch’s research demonstrated that when one confederate always gave the correct answer, this broke the power of the majority – this enabled others to dissent and break the influence of the majority view -this demonstrates the potential for social change

Answer 39

social change can be encouraged by reporting the behaviour or attitudes of the majority, to urge others to follow suit for normative reasons (e.g. to fit in with the majority)

Answer 40

in his variation when one confederate refused to give shocks, the rate of obedience in genuine ppts dropped significantly (gradual commitment)

Answer 41

-once a small instruction has been followed, it is harder for larger requests to be declined -people effectively find themselves adopting a new way of behaving gradually over a period of time

Answer 42

-once a smaller commitment has been made it becomes more difficult to resist a bigger one -people ‘drift’ into a new kind of behaviour

Answer 43

-research support for the role of NSI in social change

Answer 44

P - research support for the role of normative social influence as a process for social change E - nolan et al. (2008) conducted a study which spanned one month in california and involved hanging messages on the front doors of people’s houses in San Diego encouraging them to reduce energy consumption by indicating that most other residents in the neighbourhood were already doing this ↳ as a means of control, some houses received a message about energy usage but with no reference to the behaviour of other people in the area. ↳ it was found that the experimental group significantly lowered their energy consumption L - shows that showing that conformity can lead to positive social change through normative social influence

Answer 45

-methodological issues may undermine the line drawn between social influence processes and social change -identification is an important variable that is overlooked in minority influence research -minority influence can often act as a barrier to social change.

Answer 46

P - methodological issues may undermine the line drawn between social influence processes and social change E - many of the research studies providing an explanation for social change, can themselves be criticised for issues in their methodology ranging from low generalisability to demand characteristics L - this means that there are doubts about the validity of some of the processes involved in social influence and social change due to the research informing the theories

Answer 47

P - minority influence can often act as a barrier to social change E - bashir et al. were interested in investigating why so many people resist social change even when they believe it to be needed ↳ it was found that some minority groups, such as environmental activists or feminists, often live up to the stereotypes associated with those groups, which can be off-putting for outsiders ↳ this means that the majority often does not want to be associated with a minority for fear of being stereotypically labelled L - this shows that minority influence may not always be successful in creating social change

Answer 48

P - identification is an important variable that is overlooked in minority influence research E - it has been suggested that people are less likely to behave in environmentally friendly ways because they want to avoid the label of being minority 'environmentalists' L - this suggests that being able to identify with the minority group (identification) is just as important as agreeing with their views in terms of changing behaviour

social influence - social resistance & change Flashcards

(75 cards)