Social influence

• What is conformity in social psychology?

  A type of social influence that involves changing behavior to go along with the group.
• What does the Asch effect refer to?

  The influence of the majority group on an individual's judgment.
• Who conducted experiments in the 1950s to study conformity?

  Solomon Asch
• What variables did Asch identify that affect conformity?

  Group size, unanimity, and task difficulty.
• What are the two types of motivation to conform identified by Deutsch & Gerard?

  Social influence and informational social influence.
• What are the three types of conformity identified by researchers?

  • Internalisation
  • Identification
  • Compliance
• What was the purpose of the Stanford prison experiment conducted by Phillip Zimbardo?


  To demonstrate the power of conformity in social roles.
• What did Milgram's 1963 study reveal about normal members of the public?


  They would administer stronger electric shocks when instructed by a psychologist.
• What is compliance in the context of social influence?

  Going along with a request or demand in public while disagreeing privately.
• How did participants behave in Asch's (1951) studies regarding compliance?


  They complied in public but did not agree with the incorrect answers privately.
• What is internalisation in terms of conformity?

  Changing behavior to fit in with a group publicly while agreeing with them privately.
• Why is internalisation considered the strongest form of conformity?

  Because the group's beliefs become part of the individual's belief system.
• What does identification refer to in the context of conformity?

  Conforming to the demands of a social role in society.
• How can the Stanford prison experiment be used as an example of identification?

  It illustrates how individuals conform to the demands of social roles.
• What year did Asch conduct his experiment on normative social influence?

  1951
• What was the main aim of Asch's experiment?

  To see if people would conform to a group's wrong answer even if the answer was ambiguous
• What is the Asch effect?

  The influence of the group's majority view on an individual's judgement
• What was the line judgment task in Asch's experiment?


  • Participants shown printed line segments of different lengths: a, b, c, and x
  • Asked to identify which line segment resembled the length of line segment x
• Who were the confederates in Asch's study?


  Members of the group who were part of the research design and manipulated social situations
• What did true, naive participants believe about the confederates?

  They believed that the confederates were uninformed participants like themselves
• What incorrect choice did the confederates make in Asch's study?

  They identified a line segment that was obviously shorter than the target line
• What percentage of participants conformed to group pressure at least once in Asch's study?

  75%
• What are the four key factors that influence conformity according to Asch?

  1. Size of the majority
  2. Presence of a dissenter/non-conformist
  3. Public or private nature of responses
  4. Task difficulty
• How does the size of the majority influence conformity?

  The larger the majority, the more likely an individual will conform, but there is an upper limit
• What happens to conformity rates when there is at least one dissenter?

  Conformity rates drop to near zero
• How does the public or private nature of responses affect conformity?

  Responses made publicly are more likely to lead to conformity than private responses
• What effect does task difficulty have on conformity?

  The harder the lines are to distinguish in length, the more conformity increases
• What are the pros and cons of Asch's 1951 experiment methodology?

  Pros:

  • Strictly controlled laboratory setting
  • Easy to replicate
  • Minimization of extraneous variables

  
  

  Cons:

  • Artificial situation leading to low ecological validity
  • Deception of real participants regarding confederates
• How does confidence affect conformity according to Asch?

  Participants who displayed confidence were less likely to succumb to group pressure
• What did Perrin and Spencer find in their 1980 study related to Asch's experiment?

  Conformity rates were not as high as in Asch's experiment
• Why might engineering students have lower conformity rates in Perrin and Spencer's study?

  Because the engineers were confident in their decision making
• What did Wiesenthal et al. (1976) observe about confident participants?

  Participants who were confident in their ability to complete a task were less likely to conform
• What did Eagly and Carli (1981) find regarding gender and conformity?

  • Before the 1970s, women were thought to conform more than men
  • Eagly and Carli found differences in studies with group pressure
  • Social roles influence conformity: women avoid conflict, men show independence
• What was the general belief about gender and conformity before the 1970s?

  That women conformed more than men
• According to Eagly, why do men and women show different levels of conformity?

  Because of their different social roles
• What is a strength of social learning theory related to health campaigns?

  The application to health campaigns
• What did Andsager et al (2006) find regarding anti-alcohol advertisements?


  Perceived similarity to a model was positively related to the message's effectiveness
• How do health campaigns utilize social learning theory to increase effectiveness?

  By matching characters that model desired behaviors with the target audience
• What does the application of social learning theory suggest about its impact on health promotion campaigns?

  It has had a positive impact on health promotion campaigns
• What research supports the concept of identification in social learning theory?

  Fox and Bailenson's study