Social influence

What is conformity?

When your attitudes, beliefs or behaviours are changed due to the presence of a majority group.

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What are the three types of conformity?

Compliance, internalisation & identification.

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Compliance

An individual follows everyone else to avoid being disapproved of by the group.

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Identification

They choose to follow the group because they want to be associated with that particular group.

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Internalisation

An individual will follow a group to get recognition and acceptance for their views.

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Explanation for conformity: normative social influence

An individual conforms with the expectations of the majority in order to gain approval or to avoid social disapproval.

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Explanation for conformity: informtional social influence

The result o the desie to be right; looking to others as a way of gaining evidence about reality.

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Evaluation of types & explanations for conformity: distinguishing between compliance & internalisation

Hard to measurepublic compliance & private acceptance. It's possible to accept in public, but it can dissipate later when in private, as they have forgotten information or they've received new information.

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Evaluation of types & explanations for conformity: research supportfor normative influence

Linkenbach & Perkins - found that adolescents exposed to the message that the majority of their age group did not smoke were subsequently less likelyto take up smokin.

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Asch (1956): procedure

123 US males. Look at 3 lines of different lengths & ompare to 1 standard line; which one matched. 12/18 trials, confederates give the same incorrect answer.

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Asch (1956): findings

12 critical trials: 33% conformed (wrong answer). 25% never conformed.

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Asch (1956): conclusions

Some decisions were influenced by the majority.

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Evaluation of Asch: reliability

Used a standardised procedure which means that the findings can be replicated, increasing their reliability.

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Evaluation of Asch: internal validity

There was no ambiguity in the task and therefore he was measuring conformity and not people's ability to perceive small differences in length, giving it internal validity.

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Evaluation of Asch: ethics

The participants were deceived as they thought it was a visual perception task.

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What are the 3 variables affecting conformity?

Group size, unanimity & task difficulty.

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Group size

Asch: the rate of conformity increased as the size of the majorit infuence increased.

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Unanimity

Asch: breaking the group's unanimous position that was the major factor in conformity reduction.

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Task difficulty

Asch: as the difficulty of the task increased, the conformity increased.

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Zimbardo (1973): procedure

Mock prison. 24 US male students. Prisoners/guards. Prisoners arrested, uniform, ID number. Guards in uniform, whistle, clubs, reflective sunglasses.

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Zimbardo (1973): findings

Prisoners became passive & negative; guards became aggressive. 5 left early due to stress. Lasted 6 days. Guards showed authority throughout.

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Zimbardo (1973): conclusions

Both guards and prisoners conformed to their social roles quickly due to the situation that they were in.

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Evaluation of Zimbardo: consent

This was given, but participants were not fully informed. E.g. prisoners were not aware they would be arrested at home.

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Evaluation of Zimbardo: ethics

There were severe reactions by the prisoners. Psychological & physical harm for the prisoners from the guards.

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Evaluation of Zimbardo: observer bias

Zimbardo has since admitted he lost his objectivity as the prison governor and got too involved.

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Milgram (1963): procedure

40 men. Newspaper advertisement; volunteer. Laboratory. Prompts from experimenter who wore a lab coat. Voltage levels from 15 volts to a maximum of 450 volts (15v increments). The learner (confederate) is pretending to be shocked & sound distressed.

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Milgram (1963): findings

Tension participants. 100% went to 300v. 65% went to 450v.

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Milgram (1963): conclusions

People are surprisingly obedient to authority even when being told to inflict pain for no good reason.

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Evaluation of Milgram: internal validity

Milgram appeared to have created a situation which the participas believed to be true as evidenced by their strong reactions.

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Evaluation of Milgram: informed consent

There was no informed consent, and the participants ere very stressed and not protected, although they met the unharmed learner at the end.

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Evaluation of Milgram: low external validity

The task did not reflect real life obedience.

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What are the 3 situational factors in obedience?

Proximity, location & the power of uniform.

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Proximity

Milgram: obedience levels fell to 40% as the acher was now able txperience the learner's anguish more directly when in the same room.

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Location

Milgram: several participants remarked that the location of the study gave them confidence in the integrity of those involved and said they wouldn't have shocked the learner if elsewhere.

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The power of uniform

Milgram: laboratory coat. Easily recognisable, convey power and authority.

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What is agentic state?

A person sees themself as an agent for carrying out another person's wishes.

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What is autonomous state?

The thought that we show free will and make our own choices and decisions.

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What is legitimate authority?

A person who is perceived to be in a position of social control within a situation.

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Study - Hofling (1966): procedure

Confederate doctor rang a ward and asked the nurse to give twice the marked safe dose of an unknown drug. 'Astroten' to a patien

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Study - Hofling (1966): findings

21/22 nurses obeyethe orders against the hospital rules. Control group: said they wouldn't have said yes to giving the drug.

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Study - Hofling (1966): conclusions

The power of hierarchy in hospitals was a bigger influence on nurses than following hospital rules.

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Evaluation of Hofling: ecological validity

Used a natural setting.

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Evaluation of Hofling: hard to measure

Autonomy and agency are concepts that are hard to measure and define. They vary depending on the situation.

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What is the authoritarian personality?

A distinct personality pattern characterised by strict adherence to conventional values and a belief in absolute obedience or submission to authority.

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What is meant by dispositional?

Explanations of behaviours such as obedience emphasise them being caused by an individual's own personal characteristics rather than situational influences within the environment.

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What is the F scale?

A measure of authoritarian traits or tendencies.

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What is meant by right-wing authoritarianism?

A cluster of personality variables that are associated with a 'right-wing' attitude to life.

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Evaluation of the authoritarian personality: research evidence for the authoritarian/obedience link

Studies have reported that more authoritarian participants are more obedient inMilgram-type obedience situations. Yet the sdies tend to suffer from a good deal of suspicion on whether the shocks were real or not.

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Evaluation of the authoritarian personality: the social context is more important

Relying on an explanation of obedience based purely on authoritariansm lacks the flexibility to acount for the variations in personality.

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What is locus of control?

People differ in their beliefs about whether the outcomes of their actions are dependent on what they do or on events outside their personal control.

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What is internal locus of control?

Actions dependent on what they do.

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What is internality?

Individuals who tend to believe that there responsible for their behaviour and experience rather than external forces.

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What is external locus of control?

Actions dependent on events outside their personal control.

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What is externality?

Individuals who tend to believe that their behaviour and experience is caused by events outside their control.

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Evaluation of locus of control: validity

The LoC self-report inventory has been standardised and used over vast samples, increasing its validity.

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Evaluation of locus of control: Twenge

Found that external locus people have increased in number over time, but resistance to hority has increased as well which sheds some doubt on the concept.

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What is social support?

The perception that an individual has assistance available from other people, and that they are part of a supportive network.

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Evaluation of social support: support may not have to be valid to be effective

Both conditions of Allen & Levine's study reduced the amount of conformity, t the valid social supporter had much more impact, showing that an ally is helpful in resisting conformity, but more so if they are perceived as offering valid social support

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What is meant by minority influence?

A form of social influence where members of the rity group change their beliefs/behaviours as a result of their exposure to a persuasive minority.

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What is meant by commitment?

The degree to which members of a minority are dedicated to a partiicular cause or acitvity. The greater the commitment, the greater the influence.

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What is meant by consistency?

Minority influence is only effective provided there is stability in the expressed position over time & agreement among different members of the minority.

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What is meant by flexibility?

A willingness to be flexible and to compromise when expressing a position.

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Moscovici (1969): procedure

Groups of 4 participants & 2 confederates. Estimate clolour of 36 slides; same colour (blue), but different shades. Confederates said green for 1 condition.

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Moscovici (1969): findings

Participants conformed when green was said on 8.42% of the trials. 32% said green in the consistent condition.

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Moscovici (1969): conclusions

Small changes, but they are significant. They show that a minority can sway t majority even when absent as long as consistency is maintained.

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Evaluation of Moscovici: artificial

Used artificial laboratory experiments so lack ecological validity and internal validity.

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Evaluation of Moscovici: ethics

Ethical issue of deceit as they were told it was a visual peception task.

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Evaluation of Moscovici: another condition

In another condition, Moscovici found that getting his participants to write their answers privately after exposure to the minority view maintained the conformity effect even in its absence.

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What is meant by social change?

Occurs when a society or section of society adopts a new belief or way of behaving which then becomes widely accepted as the norm.

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What is meant by social norms interventions?

Attempt to correct misperceptions of the normative behaviour of peers in an attempt to change the risky behaviour of a target population.

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What are the 5 stages of social change?

Drawing attention to an issue; cognitive conflict; consistency of position; the augmentation pinciple; he snowball effect.

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Evaluation of social change: time

The time for minority influence to work is often very long because groups tend to conform to the majority position.

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Evaluation of social change: social norms interventions can backfire

Social norms interventions using the majority influence can sometimes backfire, encouraging those who already behave in a socially acceptable way to conform to the majority and drop their high standards.

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Social influence

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