Social Influence studies

Question 1

which variation of Asch’s experiment supports NSI

Answer 1

Asch removed NSI by getting ppts to write their answers down on paper
no fear of rejection but had ISI as heard others answers
conformity reduced to 10%

Question 2

evidence for ISI

Answer 2

Lucas et al
asked students to give answers to maths problems
harder they get greater conformity -ISI as in situation where they aren’t sure of the answer
more conformity for those with poor maths skills

Question 3

Asch - baseline

Answer 3

123 American students - length perception
incorrect answer on 12/18 times
75% of participants conformed at least once
37% conformity rate

Question 4

Asch - variations

Answer 4

1. group size - conformity rose to 31% with 3 confederates but had little effect after that
2. unanimity - not conforming confederate introduced, conformity decreased to 9%
3. task difficulty - ISI has more influence and conformity levels rose

Question 5

Perrin and Spencer

Answer 5

replicated engineering students in UK
only one ppts conformed on 396 trials
limitation of Asch’s study as not consistent across situation time or place.

Question 6

Zimbardo

Answer 6

Stanford prison experiment
opportunity sample of emotionally stable students randomly allocated to prisoner or guard
ppts conformed:
prisoners - rebelled then came depressed and anxious asking for ‘parole’
guards - became brutal and began to enjoy their behavior

Question 7

Milgram - baseline

Answer 7

lab study
40 males through opportunity sample
leaner - confederate and teacher - ppt
give a shock every incorrect answer from 30- 451 volts
100% to 300 volts
65% went up to 450 volts compared to expected 3%

Question 8

Hofling

Answer 8

conducted similar study to Milgram with nurses in a hospital told by doctor to deliver drug which would kill patient 21/22 nurses obeyed

Question 9

Milgram - variations

Answer 9

proximity - leaner in same room - 40%
teacher gives instructions over phone - 20%
location - in a run down office - 47.5%
uniform - replaced by a normal member of the public played by confederate - 20%

Question 10

Adorno

Answer 10

several scales including the F scale for fascism and authoritarian personality
those who scored highly on the F scale identified with ‘strong’ people and contemptuous of the weak and showed a lot of respect for those of higher status
also a positive correlation between authoritarianism ad prejudice

Question 11

harsh parenting and authoritarian personality

Answer 11

Adorno concluded there was a coloration between harsh parenting and conditional love when young

Question 12

authoritarian personality and upbringing

Answer 12

Milgram and Elms
conducted interviews with obedient people and thought there might be a link between that and their score on the F scale
only correlational

Question 13

Asch - social support

Answer 13

found that conformity decreased when there was one non conforming confederate regardless of it they were giving the right answer or not - gave courage to follow own conscience so rate of conformity dropped by 37% to 9%

Question 14

Milgram - social support

Answer 14

when another confederate acted as teacher and disobeyed and refused to continue. ppt didn’t necessarily go along but reduced their pressure to obey so rate of obedience dropped from 65% to 10%

Question 15

Avtgis

Answer 15

found a 0.37 correlation between LoC and non conformity in a meta analysis

Question 16

Holland

Answer 16

63% obedience rate for low internal LoC
77% obedience rate for high internal LoC
small difference so shows It has less of an effect on obedience than non conformity

Question 17

Moscovici

Answer 17

inconsistent minority - 1.25%

consistent minority - 8.5%

Question 18

Nemeth

Answer 18

showed importance of flexibility
when individual argued for low compensation majority didn’t budge
when compromised majority changed their opinions

Question 19

which variation of Asch’s experiment supports ISI

Answer 19

changing task difficulty

made lines more similar in length, conformity increased

Question 20

evidence in post experiment interviews that support NSI and ISI

Answer 20

NSI - many ppts said they conformed because they didn’t want the group to laugh at them
ISI - some ppts said they believed that the group was more likely to be right

Question 21

McGee and Teevan

Answer 21

shows examples of individual differences in NSI

children with a high need for affiliation were more likely to conform

Question 22

Reicher and Haslam

Answer 22

replicated Zimbardo’s study on live TV, prisoners eventually took control and subjected guards to harassment and disobedience
key evidence for individual differences in conformity rates