Social Influence

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What is social influence ?
How people can influence each other's behaviour, attitudes and values.
e.g. conformity and obedience
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what is conformity?
An individual or a small group of people changing their behaviour, attitudes and values to fit the view of a larger social group (majority). Even if it goes against their own personal judgement.
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what are three types of conformity?
Compliance, identification, internalisation
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what is compliance?
occurs when an individual changes their behaviour, attitude or opinion
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what is identification?
occurs when a individuals adjust their behaviour or opinions to those of a group, because they want to be like them. Alters behaviour in private. This is generally temporary
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what is internalisation?
occurs when individual genuinely accept the behaviour, attitude, or opinions of the majority group because they have accepted the group's view as being right.
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what is informational social influence? (ISI)
when a person conforms to the behaviour or opinion of the majority because they see others a as a source of the correct information and use this is a guide their personal decision.
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what is normative social influence?
when a person changes their behaviour/ view to that of the majority, in order to be liked and accepted by the group and avoid the group's disapproval.
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strength of informative social influence?
Part 1
research support for ISI:
Jenness investigated the effect on 101 American students. The aim was to investigate whether individual judgements of the number of jellybeans in a jar were influenced by group decision.
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Strength of informative social influence ?
Part 2
Jenness asked participants to estimate in private how many jellybeans were in a jar. he then grouped the participants and got them to discuss their estimates. After the discussions, the group estimates were created.
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strength of informative social influence?
Part 3
Then, the participants made a second individual private estimates were closer to the group decision than the initial estimates. this showed that individual judgements were affected by the majority opinion, especially in an ambiguous situation, and thus pe
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Limitation of informative social influence?
Part 1
Social identifies can influence ISI:
it can't be replicated reliably. Abrams et al found that in an ambiguous situation, people are more likely to conform with others they feel, they share a common social identity with, known as the 'in group', compared
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Limitation of informative social influence ?
Part 2
example of in-group would be friends, people of the same ethnicity.
this produces an in-group bias. As a result, people are likely to conform by internalising the opinions and views of friends than those of a stranger.
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Limitation of informative social influence?
Part 3
This shows that the processes that determine informational influence are much more complex suggesting that ISI as an explanation is over- simplified.
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Strength of normative social influence?
Part 1
supporting research evidence that people conform as result of NSI. Asch carried out a experiment that required a group of 7-9 American male participants, seated around a table, to look at three vertical lines (A, B and C) and judge them, by calling out wh
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Strength of normative social influence?
Part 2
in each group, there was only one genuine participant, the others were confederates, who knew about the study and were told to give a wrong answer. Asch found on average about 32% of the naïve participants conformed to the incorrect majority answer and ab
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Strength of normative social influence?
Part 3
The study showed that conformity displayed by individuals can be explained by NSI. Even in a situation where the answer is clearly obvious, people will yield to group pressure and conform to the majority view to avoid being ridiculed.
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Limitation of normative social influence?
Part 1
doesn't consider individual difference. for example people who care more about being liked by others are known as nAffiliators and more likely to be affected by NSI. McGhee and Teevan found that students who were assessed as nAffiliators were more likely
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Limitation of normative social influence?
Part 2
The desire to be liked underlies conformity for some people more than others. this shows that NSI as an explanation does not cover the fact there are differences in people, which may influence why they conform.
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Card 2

Front

what is conformity?

Back

An individual or a small group of people changing their behaviour, attitudes and values to fit the view of a larger social group (majority). Even if it goes against their own personal judgement.

Card 3

Front

what are three types of conformity?

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

what is compliance?

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

what is identification?

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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