Social Influence

Conformity- A change in a person's behaviour or opinions as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people.

Internalisation- A deep type of conformity where we take on the majority view because we accept it as correct. It leads to a far-reaching and permanent change in behaviour, even when the group is absent. Identification- A moderate type of conformity where we act in the same way with the group becuase we value it and want to be part of it. But we don't necessarily agree with everything majority believes. Compliance- A superficial and temporary type of conformity where we outwardly go along with the majority view, but privately disagree with it. The change in our behaviour only occurs when around the group.

Informational Social Influence- An explanation of conformity that says we agree because we think it's correct. Normative Social Influence- An explanation of conformity that says we agree because we think it's nomal and we want to be liked.

Evaluation- Strength Research Support- Lucas et al Weaknesses Individual differences in NSI- nAffiliators, NSI and ISI work together

Procedure- Ash (1951- 1955) tested conformity by showing participants two large white cards at a time. On one card was a 'standard line' and on the other card there was three 'comparison lines'. One of the three lines was the same length as the standard line. The participant was asked which comparison line matched the standard line. The participants in the study were 123 American male undergraduates. Each naive participant was tested individually with a group of 6-8 confederates.

Findings- The naive participant gave a wrong answer 36.8% of the time. Overall, 25% of participants did not conform, 75% conformed at least once.

Asch's variations- Group Size- The addition of further confederates made little difference. This suggests that a small majority is not sufficient for influence to be exerted but, at the other extreme, there is no need for a majority of more than 3. Unanimity- adding another non-conforming person. This made conformity reduced by a quarter. Task Difficulty- became harder to work out the correct answer caused conformity to increase becuase naive participants assume that majority is more likely to be right.

Evalutation- Weaknesses- A child of its time, Artificial situation and task, Limited application of findings

Social Roles- The 'parts' people play as members of various social groups. These are accompanied by expectations we and others have of what is appropriate behaviour in each role.

The Stanford Prison Experiment- Procedure- Mock Prison in the basement of psychology department at Stanford University. Students were randomly allocated the roles of guard or prisoner. The 'prisoners were arrested in their homes by local police. Findings- The guards took up their roles with enthusiasm. Their behaviour became a threat to the prisoners psychological and physical health, and the study was stopped after 6 days instead of the intended 14. Conclusions- Simulation revealed the power of the situation to influence people's behaviour. Guards, prisoners and researchers all conformed.

Evaluation- Strengths: Control- High Internal Validity. Weaknesses- Lack of Realism, Role of dispositionals influences

Obedience- A form of social influence in which an individual follows a direct order. The person issuing the order is usually a figure of autority, who has the power to punish when obedient behaviour is not forthcoming.

Procedure- Milgram (1963) recruited 40 male participants between 20-50 years. A confederate- 'Mr Wallace' always ended up as the learner while the true participant was the 'teacher'. The 'experimenter' was a confederate, also. Learner was strapped in a chair in another room with wire electrodes. The teacher had to shock them if they got a question incorrect. The shocks were not real- confederates pretended. The shock level began at 15 and rose to 30 levels to 450 volts. Findings- no participants stopped 300 volts, 12.5% stopped at 300 volts, 65% contained to the highest voltage. Participants were sweating, trembling, stuttering, biting their lip. Three had uncontrollable seizures.

Evaluation- Strengths: Good external validity, supporting replication. Weaknesses- Low internal validity

In his research Milgram identified several factors that he believed influenced the level of obedience shown by participants. They are all related to the external circumstances rather than to the personalities of the people involved.

Proximity- The physical closeness or distance of an authority figure to the person they are giving an order to. Also, refers to the physical closeness of the teacher to the victim. Location- The place where an order is issued. The relevant factor that influences obedience is the status or perstige associated within the location. Uniform- People in positions of authority often have a specific outfit that is symbolic of the authority, for example police officers and judges. This indicates to the rest of us who is entitled to expect our obedience.

Evaluation- Strengths: Research Support. Weaknesses: Lack of internal validity, Cross- cultural replications

Agentic State- A mental state where we feel no person responsibility for our behaviour because we believe ourselves to be acting for an authority figure, i.e. as their agent. This frees us from the demands of our circumstances and allows us to obey even a destructive authority figure.

Evaluations: Strengths- Research support- Blass and Schmitt studetns blamed experiment. Weaknesses- Limited explanation- Only account for some situations of obedience

Autonomous state- The opposite of being in an agentic state is being in an autonomous state. 'Autonomy' means to be independent and free. Binding factors- aspects of the situation that allow the person to ignore or minimise the damaging effect of their behaviour and thus reduce the moral strain they are feeling. Legitimacy of authority- An explanation for obedience which suggests that we are more likely to obey people who we percieve to have authority over us. This authority is justified by the individual's position of power within a social hierarchy.

Evaluation: Strengths- Cultural Differences

Dispositional Explanation- Any explanation of behaviour that highlights the importance of the individual's personality. Such explanations are often contrasted with situational explanations.

Authoritarian Personality- A type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority. Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.

Procedure- Adorno et al (1950) investigated the causes of the obedient personality in a study of more than 2000 middle-class, white americans and their unconcious attitudes towards other racial groups. They developed several scales to investigated this, including the potential for fascism scale.

Findings- People with authoritarian learnings identified with 'strong' people and were generally contemptuous of the 'weak'. Adorno et al found that authoritarian people had a cognitive style where there was no 'fuzziness' between categories of people.

Evaluation- Strengths- Research Support. Weakness- Limited explanation, Political bias

Refers to the ability of people to withstand the social pressure to conform to the majority or to obey autority. This ability to withstand social pressure is influenced by both situational and dispositional factors.

Social Support- The presence of people who resist pressures to conform or obey can help others t do the same. These people act as models to show others that resistance to social influence is possible. In Asch's research, the person not conforming doesn't have to be giving the 'right' answer but simply the fact that someone else is not following the majority.

Evaluation- Strengths- Research Support: Conformity, Research Support: Obedience

Locus of Control- Refers to the sense we each have about what directs events in our lives. Internals believe they are mostly responsible for what happens to them (Internals). Externals believe it is mainly a matter of luck or other outside forces. People who have an internal LOC are more likely to be able to resist pressures to conform or obey. Another explanation for the link with greater resistance is that people with a high internal LOC to be more self-confident and less need for approval.

Evaluation- Strengths- research support. Weaknesses- Contradictory research

A form of social influence in which a minority  of people (sometimes just one person) persuade others to adopt their beliefs, attitudes or behaviours. Leads to internalisation or conversion, in private attitudes are changed as well as public behaviours. Moscivici studied this process in his 'blue side, green side' study.  Consistency- Minority influence is most effective if the minority keeps the same beliefs, both overtime and between all the individuals that form the majority. It's effective because it draws attention to the majority view.  Commitment- Minority influence is more powerful if the minority demonstrated dedication to their position, for example, by making personal sacrifices. This is effective because it shows the minority is not acting out of self- interest. Flexibility- Relentless consistency could be counter -productive if it is seen by the majority as unbending and unreasonable. Therefore, majority influence is more effective if the majority show fluxibility by accepting the possibility of comprimise.

Moscovici (1969) had 2 confederates and four participants. They were shown 36 slides of blue. In condition one, the confederates answered green for all slides. In condition two, they answered green 24 times. In condition one, 1.42% of participants gave a green response. In condition 2, only 1.25% said green. 32% of al participants judged a slide as green atleast once.

Evaluation- Strengths- Research support for consistency: meta-analysis, Research Support for depth of thought. Weaknesses- Artificial tasks

Social Influence- The process by which individuals and groups change each others attitudes and behaviours. Includes conformity, obedience and minority influence.

Social Change- This occurs  when whole societies, rather than just individuals, adopt new attitudes, beliefs and ways of doing things.

Steps to minority influence- Drawing attention, consistency, Deeper processing, The augmentation principle, Snowball effect, social cryptomnesia

Lessons from conformity research- Dissent has the potential to lead to social change. Social chnage is encouraged by drawing attentions to what the majority are actually doing.

Lessons from obedience research- Milgram's research demonstrates the importance of disobedient role models. Zimbardo suggested how obedience can be used to create social change through the process of gradual commitment.

Evaluation- Strengths- Research support for normative influences. Weaknesses- Minority influence is only indirectly effective, Role of deeper processing.