Social Influence

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  • Created by: xshriyax
  • Created on: 24-05-22 09:38
Conformity
Aronson (2011) defined this as a change in a person's behaviour or opinions as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people.
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Who conducted a baseline study to investigate variables that could impact conformity?
Asch (1955)
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What was the first of the variables investigated as a part of this baseline study into conformity?
Group Size
-Asch increased the number of confederates from 1 to 15, so the group size was therefore increased, from 2 to 16.
-Asch found a curvilinear relationship between group size and conformity rate but only up to a point. With 3 confederates, conform
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What was the second of the variables investigated as a part of this baseline study into conformity?
Unanimity
-Asch introduced a confederate (C) who disagreed with the other Cs- in one variation the C gave the correct answer and in the other the wrong answer.
-The conformity rate decreased to less than a 1/4 of when the majority was unanimous in the pre
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What was the third of the variables investigated as a part of this baseline study into conformity?
Task Difficulty
-Asch increased the difficulty of the line-judging task by making length of the stimulus line and the comparison line more similar to each other, so it was harder for naive p'pants to differentiate.
-Conformity increased, perhaps because
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Which variable produces the greatest degree of conformity>
Unanimity
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What are the strengths of research into variables affecting conformity?
Support from other studies:
-Lucas et al asked their p'pants to solve 'easy' and 'hard' maths problems, and p'pants were given answers from 3 other Cs. The p'pants conformed more often when the problems were harder.
CP: Their study also found that conform
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What is one limitation of research into variables affecting conformity?
Artificial Situation and Task
-P'pants knew they were taking part in a study and might have just gone along with what was expected of them (demand characteristics).
-The task was trivial so there was no real reason not to conform- may be consequences in r
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What is one limitation of research into variables affecting conformity?
Limited application
-P'pants were American men. Neto (1995) suggested that women may be more conformist because they are concerned with social relationships and being accepted.
-The USA is an individualist culture, and similar conformity studies in collec
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Who suggested that there are 3 ways in which people conform to the opinion of a majority?
Kelman (1958)
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What is the first way in which people conform to a majority?
Internalisation
-This occurs when a person genuinely accepts the group norms. This results in private and public changes in behaviour, and this change is usually permanent because it has become internalised, meaning it's become a part of the way they thin
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What is the second way in which people conform to a majority?
Identification
-Conformity can occur if we identify with a group, so want to be a part of it, for example, if there is something about a group that we value.
-This may mean we publicly change our behaviours or opinions to be accepted by the group, even if
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What is the thrid way in which people conform to a majority?
Compliance
-This is simply 'going along with others' in public, but privately not changing personal opinions/behaviour.
-Compliance results in only a superficial change, and means that a particular behaviour or opinion stops as soon as group pressure stop
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Who developed a two-process theory to say that there are two main reasons people conform?
What are these 2 main things based on?
- Deutsch and Gerard (1955)
- The need to be right (ISI) and the need to be liked (NSI)
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What is the first reason people conform?
Informational Social Influence
-This is about who has the better information- you or the rest of the group, eg. if in class everyone gives one answer you accept it because you assume they are more likely to be right; we follow the behaviour of the group b
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When is Informational Social Influence (ISI) most likely to occur?
- Situations that are new to a person where they don't know what's right, or when there is some ambiguity, where it's not clear what's right.
- It can also occur in crisis situations where decisions have to be made quickly and we assume that the group is
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What is the second reason people conform?
Normative Social Influence (NSI)
-This is about norms, as people do not like to appear foolish, and prefer to gain social approval rather than be rejected.
-It an an emotional rather than cognitive process, and leads to a temporary change in opinions/beli
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Who conducted a baseline study to investigate variables that could impact conformity?

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Asch (1955)

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What was the first of the variables investigated as a part of this baseline study into conformity?

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What was the second of the variables investigated as a part of this baseline study into conformity?

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Card 5

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What was the third of the variables investigated as a part of this baseline study into conformity?

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