Social Influence

• What is conformity a type of?

  Social Influence
• What is conformity?

  Yielding to group pressures.
• What did Kelman propose?

  3 types of conformity:

  1) Compliance - Public behaviour changes, but private beliefs don't.

  2) Identification - temporary changes in behaviour and beliefs in the presence of a group.

  3) Internalisation - accepting group beliefs and values as your own.
• What are the two explanations for conformity?

  NSI- conforming to be 'normal'

  ISI - conforming to be 'right
• What is the evidence for ISI?

  - Research suppport: Fein et al - Asked ppts to vote for a presidential candidate after seeing someone else vote - most ppts changed their mind because they wanted to be correct, therefore proving ISI as an explanation for conformity..
• What is evidence for NSI?

  - Real life app.: link between NSI and bullying - Garandeau et al found that a boy can be manipulated by a bully into victimising another child, in order to avoid his friends' disapproval.
• What is the disadvantage of NSI and ISI as explanation for conformity?

  - Deutsch and Gerrard's 2 process model: eg. Confederates can provide social support, reducing NSI while also reducing ISI by providing an alternative source of info.
• What was the aim of Asch's study?

  To investigate conformity and majority influence.
• What was the method of Asch's study?

  - Ppts and confederates presented w/ 4 lines: 3 standard, 1 comparison.

  - Asked to state which of the 3 was the same length as standard line

  - Confederates gave the wrong answer

  - Asch observed how often the ppt gave the same incorrect answer.
• When did the real participant answer in Asch's study?

  - Always last or second to last
• How often did the confederates answer incorrectly?

  12/18 TRIALS
• Who were the ppts of Asch's study?

  123 male American undergraduates, in routs of 6 (5 confederates, 1 true ppt.)
• What were the results of Asch's study?

  - 36.8 conformed

  - 25% never conformed

  - 75% conformed at least once
• What were the results of the control trial in Asch's study?

  - Only 1% of responses given by ppts were incorrect (high validity of Asch's experiment, proves no extraneous v. present
• What are the strengths of Asch's study?

  H-igh internal validity: strict control over extraneous v, eg. Timing of assessment and type of task used, control group results only 1% incorrect

  E-thical issues: researchers breached BPS guideline of deception and the ability to give informed consent, However PPT's DEBRIEFED.

  L-ab experiment: extraneous and confounding variables controlled, so replication of experiment is easy - high reliability.

  S - upports NSI - ppts reported they said incorrect answers to fit in.
• What are the weaknesses of Asch's study?

  L- acks ecological validity: based on people's perception of lines - doesn't reflect the complexity of real life conformity

  E - thical issues: breached BPS guidelines of deceptions and informed consent.

  L-acks population validity - androcentric study, so results can't be generalised

  L-acks validity - social context of 1950s America - very anti-communist, people may have been scared to be different, so lacks temporal validity.
• What are 3 variables affecting conformity?

  - Unanimity of the group: if the majority ALL agree, conformity is more likely.

  - Group size: increases level of conformity

  - Task difficulty: ISI - ppts are more likely to conform if they are less certain of the right answer.
• Who investigated conformity to social roles?

  Zimbardo: Stanford Prison Study
• What was the aim of Zimbardo's study?

  To investigate the extent to which people would conform to the roles of guard and prisoner in a simulation of prison life.
• What was the method of Zimbardo's study?

  - Made Stanford University basement a prison

  - 21 male students selected for their mental stability and lack of anti-social tendencies

  - Divided randomly into prisoners and guards

  - Prisoners arrested by real police and subject to real police booking

  - Guards wore sunglasses to prevent eye contact and khaki uniforms

  - Prisoners (referred to as numbers), wore numbered jackets and a chain
• How long was the study supposed to run for?

  2 weeks
• The guards became increasingly...

  Sadistic - eg. made prisoners repeat their numbers and use buckets as toilets in their cells
• The prisoners became increasingly...

  Submissive - eg. stopped questioning guards and sides with them against other prisoners
• What happened after 35 hours in Zimbardo's experiment?


  One prisoner began to "act crazy", to scream, curse and go into an uncontrollable rage.
• How many prisoners were released over the course of the experiment?

  - 4 participants
• When was the experiment stopped and why?

  - After 6 days

  - Guards' sadism became so harmful experiment had to be stopped.
• What are the strengths of Zimbardo's research?

  - Real life app. Changed the way prisons in the US were run eg. Young and adult prisoners kept separate

  - Ppts fully debriefed about the purpose of the study and offered counselling
• What are the limitations of Zimbardo's research?

  - Suffered from demand characteristics - interview w/ guard said he based his role off of film "Cool Hand Luke" - further reducing validity of findings

  - Ethical issues- ppts. Underwent significant HARM eg. Mental breakdowns

  - Lacks population validity - all male American sample - limits generalisability of findingd
• What are the 3 explanations for obedience?

  - Situational factors

  - Agentic state

  - Legitimacy of authority
• What is the agentic state?

  When someone sees themself as an "agent" carrying out someone else's wish, so they believe they don't hold responsibility for their actions.
• What is the agentic shift?

  Moving from an autonomous (responsible/in control) state to an agentic (responsibility is someone else's) state.
• What is legitimacy of authority?

  It explains that we are more likely to obey people who we perceive to have an authority over us/be legitimate (law based). (Eg. Teachers, scientists etc.)
• What are the 3 situational factors affecting obedience?

  - Uniform

  - Proximity

  - Location
• How does uniform affect obedience?

  - Gives figure a higher status and a greater sense of legitimacy.
• How does proximity affect obedience?

  - More likely to obey when in close proximity to authority figure

  - More likely to obey when they cannot see harm they're causing (Milgram)
• How does location affect obedience?

  - More likely to obey someone in a location linked to higher status and legitimacy.
• Who were the participants in Milgram's research?

  Randomly selected - 40 male volunteers.
• What was the aim of Milgram's experiment?

  - Evaluating the influence of a destructive authority figure.
• What was the procedure of Milgram's experiment?

  - Participants 'allocated' to roles of teachers and confederates as learners.

  - Participants asked learners questions - if learner got questions wrong/no answer given, participants were instructed to administer shocks.

  - Shocks labelled 300-450v - 330 marked as lethal

  - Experimenter used series of 'prods': 3 demanded obedience to science, last one demanded obedience to experimenter.
• What were the results?

  All ppts went to 300v

  65% went to 450v