Social Influence

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  • Created by: HPHGRW
  • Created on: 13-02-17 11:34
What is Conformity?
People adopt the behaviours, attitudes and values of members of a majority group
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Name 3 types of conformity
Compliance, Internalisation and Identification
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What is Compliance?
A person publicly agrees but privately disagrees with a groups viewpoint or behaviour. Their change is temporary
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What is an example of Compliance?
A person may laugh at a joke because their group of friends find it funny but deep down the person does not find the joke funny
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What is Internalisation?
A person publicly and privately agrees with the groups viewpoint or behaviour. The beliefs of the group become the individuals beliefs as well
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What is an example of Internalisation?
If someone lives with a vegetarian at university and then decides to become a vegetarian too because they agree with their friends viewpoint. (someone converting religions is another good example)
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What is Identification?
A person adopts an attitude or behaviour because they want to be associated with a particular person or group. The group becomes part of the persons identity
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What is an example of identification?
Zimbardo prison study (Stanford prison experiment). The participants adopt the role of the guards and prisoners
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What are the 2 explanations for conformity?
Normative social influence and Informational social influence
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What is normative social influence?
The desire to be liked. A person conforms to fit in with the group because they don't want to appear foolish or be left out
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What is an example of normative social influence?
A person may feel pressurised to smoke because her friends are.
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What can normative social influence lead to?
It can lead to compliance. A person smokes just to fit in with their friends but they privately disagree with it.
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What is informational social influence?
The desire to be right. A person conforms because they are unsure of the situation or lack knowledge, we look to others who we believe has more information than us.
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What is an example of informational social influence?
If a person went to a posh restaurant for the first time, they may be confronted with several forks and not know which one to use, they might look to a nearby person to see what fork to use first
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What can informational social influence lead to?
Internalisation. They agree with the persons viewpoint due to lack of knowledge about the situation. They now agree privately and publicly with the viewpoint
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What is a weakness of types of conformity?
Difficult to distinguish between compliance and internalisation. You only know if a person privately disagrees by asking them. It could either be compliance or internalisation depending on their private viewpoint which is hard to distinguish.
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What is a strength of normative social influence?
Research to support. Asch's line study.
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What is a strength of informational social influence?
Research to support. Jenness' bean jar experiment
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What is the Asch study?
123 US males, asked to look at 3 lines of different lengths, they called out which of the 3 lines matched the standard line, only 1 real participant, rest confederates, 18 trials, confederates were instructed to give the same incorrect answers
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What are the findings of the Asch study?
Participants conformed on 32% of the critical trials where confederates gave the wrong answer. 75% conformed to the majority on at least one trial
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What is the strength of the Asch Study?
Asch study has been replicated several times so it is reliable
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Another Strength of the Asch study?
Asch did debrief participants at the end of the study
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What are the weaknesses of the Asch study?
low ecological validity, it was based on people's perception of lines, this does not reflect real life situations.
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Another weakness of the Asch study?
Gender biased, results can't be applied to females low population validity.
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Another weakness of the Asch study?
Ethical issues, deception, participants were told that the study was about perception of lines therefore they couldn't give conformed consent. Participants may have felt embarrassed when the true nature of the study was revealed, psychological harm
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Name 3 factors affecting conformity?
Group Size, Unanimity of the Majority and Task Difficulty
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How does group size affect conformity?
An individual is more likely to conform when in a larger group
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An example of group size affecting conformity?
Asch altered the number of confederates in his study to see how it affected conformity. He found that conformity increases with each extra confederate in the group.
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How does unanimity affect conformity?
A person is more likely to conform when all members of the group are in agreement and give the same answers
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An example of unanimity affecting conformity?
When one other person in the group gave a different answer from the others, and the group answer was not unanimous, conformity dropped by up to 80%
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How does task difficulty affect conformity?
When we are uncertain, it seems we look to others for conformation. The more difficult the task the greater the conformity
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An example of task difficulty affecting conformity?
Asch altered the comparison lines making them more in length, because it was harder to judge the correct answer conformity increased
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Zimbardo study?
psychology building in university turned into a mock prison, he advertised for students to play the roles of prisoner and guards, participants randomly assigned to either role, prisoners and guards were assigned uniforms, guards did shifts of 8 hours
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Findings of the Zimbardo study?
prisoners and guards settling into new roles, guards adopted theirs quickly and easily, guards began to harass prisoners, behaved in a brutal and sadistic manner, prisoners adopted prisoner like behaviour, prisoners became more submissive.
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Strengths of the Zimbardo study?
It has altered the way US prisons are run. For example, juveniles accused of federal crimes are no longer housed before trial with adult prisoners (due to risk of violence against them)
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Another strength of the Zimbardo study?
Supporting research - The BBC prison study
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Another strength of the Zimbardo study?
Harmful treatment of participant led to the recognition of ethical guidelines. Studies must gain ethical approval before they are conducted, researchers can make changes to studies, design or procedure. In some cases can deny approval altogether.
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Weakness of the Zimabrdo study?
Demand characteristics could explain findings, guards later claimed they were simply acting. They were playing a role their behaviour may not be influenced by the same factors which affect behaviour in real life. Can't be generalised to real life.
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Another weakness of the Zimbardo study?
Lack population validity. US male students. The findings cannot be applied to female prisons or those from other countries. America is an individualist culture (people are generally less conforming) results may be different in collectivist cultures.
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Another weakness of the Zimbardo study?
Ethical issues. Lack of fully informed consent by participants as Zimbardo himself did not know what would happen in the experiment (unpredictable). Also the prisoners did not consent to being 'arrested' at home.
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Milgram study?
Two participants assigned either role of teacher or learner. Teacher and learner put into separate rooms, teacher then asked by experimenter to administer electric shocks to the learner each time they gave a wrong answer
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Milgram Study continued?
The shocks increased every time the learner gave a wrong answer from 15-450 volts, the experimenter gave a series of orders when the participant refused to give a shock. If the first order was not obeyed he moved onto the next order
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What are the 4 orders/prods the experimenter gives?
1 - Please continue, 2 - The experiment requires you to continue, 3 - It is absolutely essential that you continue, 4 - You have no other choice but to continue
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What are the findings of the Milgram study?
All particpants went to 300 volts, 64% all the way to 450 volts. 18 variations of this study. He altered the situation to see whether it would affect obedience. Instructed teacher from another room by telephone. Obedience fell to 20.5%
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What is a strength of the Milgram study?
gave insight into why people in the Nazi were willing to kill Jews when given orders to do so. It also highlights how we can all be blind to obedience often doing things without question
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A weakness of the Milgram study?
Lacks ecological validity, carried out in a lab under artificial conditions. It might not be possible to generalise the findings to a real life setting as people don't usually receive orders to hurt another person in real life.
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Another weakness of the Milgram study?
Gender biased. Only used males in his study, results cannot be generalised to women.
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Another weakness of the Milgram study?
Individual differences. Women are more susceptible to social influence than men. Gender differences in obedience
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Extra evaluation points for Milgram study
Ethics/Historical validity - supporting research done today backs up Milgram's research, the same findings as Milgram's
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What are the 3 types of situational factors in obedience?
Proximity, Location and Uniform
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What is Proximity in obedience?
People are more likely to obey if an authority figure in nearby and are more likely to resist obedience when the authority figure is far away
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An example of proximity in Milgram study
The experimenter instructed and prompted the teacher to shock the learner through a telephone in the other room. Obedience fell by 20.5%
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What is Location in obedience?
The more prestigious the location is the higher the obedience the less prestigious the location is the lower the obedience
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An example of location in Milgram study
The study was conducted at Yale university, the high status of the university gave the study respect in the eyes of the participants making them more likely to obey. When Milgram moved the experiment to a run down office, obedience dropped.
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What is Uniform in obedience?
If the experimenter is in a uniform the more likely the participant is to obey, if the experimenter isn't in a uniform they are less likely to obey.
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An example of uniform in Milgram study
Milgram's experimenter wore a lab coat (scientist) which gave him a high status. However, when the experimenter just wore very basic everyday clothes obedience was very low.
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What is the agentic state?
People will obey an authority when they believe that the authority will take responsibility for the consequence of their own actions.
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what is the agentic shift?
When a person goes from seeing themselves as responsible for their own actions into an agentic state where a person sees themselves as an agent for carrying out another person's wishes
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What is self-image and the agentic state?
shows why people maintain an agentic state. Need to maintain a positive self image. When the teacher shocks the learner they assess the consequence of this action. Once the participant has moved into the agentic state, no longer their responsibility
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What are binding factors in the agentic state?
Once a person has entered the agentic state, what keeps them in it. If the participant no longer wanted to take part in the experiment they would have to break the commitment they made to the experimenter and therefore would be seen as rude.
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What is legitimacy of authority?
People obey others if they recognise their authority as morally or legally right. E.g. family, schol, workplace etc.
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What is the authoritarian personality?
A person who favours an authoritarian social system and admires obedience to authority figures. The individual is hostile to those who have inferior status but obedient to those with a high status
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Evaluation of authoritarian personality
Research Support - Milgram and Elms interviewed fully obedient participants from one of Milgram's studies, all scored high on the F scale, it is just a correlation it doesn't help draw a conclusion that authoritarian personality causes obedience
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Another evaluation of authoritarian personality
Unlikely that the majority of the countries population all had an authoritarian personality. The majority of German people probably identified with the Nazi state which is why they obeyed it didn't necessarily mean they had an authoritarian personali
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

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Name 3 types of conformity

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Compliance, Internalisation and Identification

Card 3

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What is Compliance?

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Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

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What is an example of Compliance?

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

What is Internalisation?

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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