Social Psychology

Question 1

Social psychology is…

Answer 1

The study of how people’s behaviours and attitudes are influenced by the presence - actual or imagined - of other people.

Question 2

A social group is..

Answer 2

Two or more people who interact together, share things in common, and share a common identity.

Question 3

What is meant by conformity?

Answer 3

Conformity is when a person’s public or private attitudes are influenced by the majority.

Question 4

when a person conforms to imitate a social role or role model that they admire they have..

Answer 4

identified

Question 5

Identification

Answer 5

when you conform to imitate a social role or role model that you admire

you conform privately and publicly because you think that any attitude associated with the role model is great

people stop having the attitudes if they decide they don’t like the role model any more

Question 6

Internalisation

Answer 6

you conform privately and publicly because you are persuaded that the attitudes of the majority are correct

because they believe they are correct people will keep their attitudes and behaviours even if the majority changes their mind

Question 7

Compliance

Answer 7

Compliance is when a person conforms publicly, but not privately, to be accepted by a group and avoid social rejection.

the effect of the majority influence is short, people only comply when the group is around

Question 8

How strong are the types of conformity?

Answer 8

Compliance is a weak form of conformity

Identification is a medium form of conformity

Internalisation is a strong form of conformity

Question 9

What was the aim of Zimbardo’s experiment?

Answer 9

To investigate if prison brutality happens because of the personality of guards and prisoners or because they are conforming to social roles

Question 10

What conclusion was supported by Zimbardo’s experiment?

Answer 10

Prison violence is caused by people conforming to social roles of prisoners and guards, because violence is seen when normal people are put in prisons.

Question 11

What are the 4 main criticisms of Zimbardo’s prison experiment?

Answer 11

UNETHICAL
😩 Zimbardo put his participants through stress, so it could be criticised for being unethical.
LACK OF AWARENESS
🛑 But he didn’t know the study would go so badly and he did stop the study once it got out of control.

LACK OF GENERALISABILITY
👨🏻‍🦳 Zimbardo only recruited people from one group in society so it could be criticised for lacking generalisability.
EXPLAIN REAL WORLD EXAMPLE
👮‍♂️ But his study does explain real-life conformity to social roles.

LACK OF ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY
🎭People might not have taken the experiment seriously, so the study might have lacked realism.
BEHAVIOUR SUGGESTS THEY TOOK IT SERIOUSLY
🗯 But 90% or 90 percent of participant’s conversations in the study were about life in prison suggesting they did take it seriously.

INVESTIGATOR EFFECTS
👨‍⚖️ Zimbardo played the role of warden in his experiment so the study might have suffered from experimenter bias.
NO RESPONSE

Question 12

What is an individual variable?

Answer 12

Individual variables, also called dispositional variables, are variables that describe personal characteristics of a person

Question 13

Resistance to social influence?

Answer 13

When a person withstands pressure to obey or conform

Question 14

Locus of control

Answer 14

Locus of control means the amount of control someone believes they have over their own life.

People who think they have a lot of control have an internal locus of control

People who think they don’t have much control have an external locus of control

Question 15

Locus of control can be measured through

Answer 15

a personality questionnaire developed by Rotter.

Question 16

Describe Shute’s study on locus of control and conformity.

Answer 16

Shute used Rotter’s questionnaire to study conformity in undergraduates. All of the students filled in Rotter’s
locus of control questionnaire.

Students then interacted with other students who had strong attitudes either for or against drugs.

The results found that people with high internal locus control conformed less to the attitudes of others. But, this was only in a situation that produced
normative social influence and not informational social influence.

Question 17

How do a minority change the perspective of the majority?

Answer 17

The minority change the views of the majority through conversion.

Question 18

What factors can strengthen the influence of a minority?

Answer 18

Consistency which is when everyone in the minority repeatedly holds the same attitude.

Commitment which is where the minority demonstrate how important the cause is to them

Flexibility which is where the minority compromises with the majority.

Question 19

the snowball effect

Answer 19

The snowball effect describes how as more people convert to the minority, the influence of the minority gets bigger and bigger, causing more and more people to convert at a faster rate, until the minority becomes the majority.

At first, minorities convert people to their position slowly. As more people convert, the influence of the minority gets bigger, causing more and more people to convert at a faster rate. This effect is called the snowball effect.

Question 20

What was the aim of Moscovici’s study?

Answer 20

To investigate whether a minority could influence the attitudes of the majority in an unambiguous task.

Question 21

What is meant by flexibility in minority influence?

Answer 21

Minorities can show flexibility by listening to and understanding other people’s points of view, and being willing to compromise.