social influence

• What is conformity


  a change in a persons behavior or opinions as a result of pressure from a group or person
• What is normative social influence


  temporary change, agreeing with majority due to wanting to be liked
• What is informational social influence


  permeant change, agreeing with the majority view because we believe they know better or are right
• Who produced Stanford prison experiment


  Zimbardo
• What was Milgram's experiment

  used multiple choice questions and if answered incorrectly naïve participant had to 'electrocute' them.

  Tested for obedience levels
• What is a agentic state


  individual carries out orders of an authority figure with little personal responsibility

  likely to obey
• What is a autonomous state


  aware of what we are doing and feel responsible for our actions

  less likely to obey
• What are the three situational variables that effect and explain obedience


  proximity

  uniform

  location
• What is proximity


  physical distance between two people

  increasing proximity decreases obedience
• What is location


  less professional location, obedience decreases
• What is uniform


  uniform makes authority more legitimate, increases obedience
• what are the types of conformity

  compliance

  identification

  internalisation
• what is compliance

  agreeing to fit in with majority but holding a different view privately
• what is identification

  agreeing with the group because you value and admire them and want to be liked by them
• what is internalisation

  agreeing publicly and privately because you value their norms
• what was Aschs research experiment

  lab experiment, 123 male US students.

  In groups asked out loud to say which line A,B or C matched the stimulus line.

  1 confederate in a group giving wrong answers.
• what were the findings of Aschs research experiment

  naive ppts conformed 37% of the time.

  5% conforming every single time

  75% conformed at least once, 25% didn't conform at all
• what are the variations of Aschs research experiment

  group size: bigger the group, the higher the conformity (1 confederate: 3% and 3 confederates: 32%

  unanimity: if group agreement was broken ppts felt more confident to go against the group

  task difficulty: harder the task, higher the conformity. If answer is not ambiguous ppts looked for those good at the task and used them as guidance.
• what are strengths and weaknesses of Aschs research

  X: not a representative sample, all male US students. gender and cultural bias (doesn't account for collectivist cultures or how females would conform)

  X: lacks ecological validity so can't be generalised to real life due to artificial task.

  X: ppts deceived and no informed consent

  +: Aschs debriefed ppts about true aims at end
• what was zimbardos research in conformity

  24 male college students, who volunteered through an advertisement and were psychologically healthy.

  randomly assigned a guard or prison role by a flip of a coin.

  prisoners: stripped naked, personal possessions removed, given prison clothes and bedding. only referred to by a number.

  guards: same uniforms whistle around the neck and baton, special sunglasses to make eye contact impossible.

  zimbardo acted as prison guard
• what were the findings of zimbardos research

  guards and prisoners conformed to their social roles.

  guards physically abused prisoners and prisoners were having mental breakdowns.

  after 6 days it was terminated as zimbardos wife felt he was to involved and questioned his morality
• what are the strengths of zimbardos experiment

  + better understanding of why people conform to social roles in such atrocities

  + changes in real life, guards no longer wear mirrored sunglasses to reduce mistreatment

  + ecological validity as layout was realistic OR X: prisoners and guards weren't real so cant be applied to real life.

  + internal validity, measured what he said and reduced EVs by ensuring ppts were psychologically healthy
• what are the limitations of zimbardos experiment

  X: lacks generalisability, not a representative sample as ppts were all male. gender bias

  X: reliability cant replicate to measure this due to how unethical it is

  X: doesn't consider individual differences (personality)
• what was milgrams research for obedience

  advertised in newspapers, 40 males.

  told they were participating in a memory test. they would act as teachers and another ppt was a learner. but the learner was a confederate.

  confederate was taken into a room with electrodes attach to their arms. Ppts and research were in another room with a voltage machine. if the confederate answered Q wrong they'd be shocked and it would increase each time.

  if they refused to shock, milgram (in white coat, showed authority) would promt them to keep going
• what were the findings of milgrams experiment

  65% continued to 400 volts, all ppts reached 300 volts.
• what does milgrams research show

  people are more likely to follow orders given by an authority figure, even to the extent of killing an innocent human
• what are the strengths and weaknesses of milgrams research

  X: no protection from harm and abuse.

  X: demand characteristics, doesn't account for individuals personality differences.

  X: not a representative sample, only males, gender bias.

  X: lab experiment, cant be generalised to real life.
• what are variations for milgrams experiment

  victim silent throughout 100% to 450v as they didnt think there was a person on the other side. feel less guilt.

  victim in same room as teacher 40% to 450v see their pain, emotions will increase.

  experimenter not present 20.5% feel less pressure.

  The study performed in run down offifce 48% reduces legitimacy of experiment looks less professional
• what are the explanations for obedience

  agentic + autonomous state

  legitimacy of authority

  situational variables

  authoritarian personality
• what is legitimacy of authority

  for a person to obey an authority figure, they need to believe the authority is legitimate and credible e.g milgram wearing a white lab coat.
• what research support is there for legitimacy of authority

  Bickman: three male actors, one as milkman, one as security guard, one in ordinary clothes. Asked members of the public to: pick up a bag, give someone money for parking or stand on other side of bus stop where there was a 'no standing' sign.

  guard was obeyed 89%, milkman on 57% and pedestrian on 33% of occasions. more likely to obey those wearing a uniform, as it infers a sense of legitimate authority and power.
• what is adornos research

  2000 middle class, white americans and their unconscious attitudes towards ethnic groups. adorno developed the f-scale to measure fascism which is also used for authoritarian personality.
• what were adorno's findings

  people with an authoritarian personality, identified with 'strong' people, very conscious of status and showed respect to those of a higher status

  they also had fixed and distinctive stereotypes about other groups.

  found a strong correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice.
• what is a authoritarian personality

  susceptible to obeying people in authority and show extreme respect to authority. View society as weaker and believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values. They hold a inflexible outlook on the world- no 'grey' areas

  believe people from different ethnic groups are responsible for the ills of society and they are also a target for authoritarians who are likely to obey orders even when the order are destructive or cause harm.
• what are the origins of authoritarian personality

  suggested the authoritarian personality develops in childhood (psychodynamic explanation) as a result of strict parenting with impossibly high standards and conditional love

  these experiences create hostility and resentment but this cant be expressed to their parents from fear of punishment so it is displaced onto others who they perceive to be weaker, this is known as scapegoating
• what are limitations of authoritarian personality

  X: f-scale is biased politically as an interpretation of AP as it only measures the tendency towards an extreme form of right-wing ideology.

  X: ignores level of education and intelligence

  X: F-scale suffers from social desirability bias which questions the validity. making it an invalid scale
• what are strengths of authoritarian personality

  + research support, Elms and milgram: 20 obedient ppts administer 450v (scored higher on f scale compared to) 20 disobedient ppts who refused to continue. This supports AP as an explanation for obedience which increases validity of the explanation.

  support f-scale as a valid measurement of AP
• what are the explanations for resistance to social influence

  social support

  locus of control
• what is social support

  if someone else isnt following the majority, it enables naive ppt to be free to follow their own conscience.

  any difference of opinion gives rise to more different opinions and makes ppt feel empowered because it shows the majority is no longer in agreement.

  having a ally builds confidence making it easier to resist

  disobedient model challenges legitimacy of authority figure which makes it easier for other to disobey
• what are strengths and limitations for social support

  + asch line perception task: one confederate gave a different answer (broke unanimity) and conformity dropped to 5%

  + milgram: obedience levels dropped from 65%-10% when the teacher (naive ppt) was joined by a disobedient confederate