Social influence

• define conformity


  a persons change in behaviour or opinion as a result of percieved group pressure
• define confederates


  someone within the experiment who is working on behalf of the researcher but pretends to be a real participant
• Aim of Asch's study into conformity


  To investigate whether individuals would conform to an incorrect majority view
• method of Aschs study


  groups of 7 to 9 people where shown 4 sets of lines. they were asked to say out loud which comparison line is same length as standard line. only 1 real participant. all confederates told to give incorrect answer for 12 out of 18 sets. real participant always went last
• results of Asch's study of conformity


  There was an average 37% conformity rate. When broken down:

  -75% of participants conformed to at least 1 wrong answer.

  -25% never conformed

  -5% conformed to all 12 wrong answers
• Conclusion of Asch's study


  People are influenced by group pressure even when the answer is obviously wrong, it also showed a high independence majority went against group opinion so some can still resist
• Weaknesses of Asch's study


  1. low ecological validity as conducted in an artificial setting

  2. low mundane realism because no serious consequence given if participants didnt conform.

  3. has ethnocentric bias as US and UK have individualist cultures whereas collectivist cultures like China value need for groups so are more likely to conform

  4. cannot be generalised as there is an androcentric bias

  5. low temporal validity as conducted in the 50s so data may not match if repeated today
• Strength of Asch's study


  1. high reliability because conducted in a laboratory setting meant any extraneous variables could be eliminated

  2. good real-life application as can be applied in school settings to provide insight to bullying and cliques
• define social-factor


  features in your surroundings that makes you feel a stronger presence to conform
• define dispositional factor


  Internal factors like your personality and characteristics make you more of a conformist/ affects obedience levels
• Define anonymity


  a condition in which the identity of participant remains unknown
• Explain the effect of anonymity on conformity


  Less group pressure
• Explain effect of task difficulty on conformity


  As task gets more difficult, people look to others for the right answer
• Weakness of effect of task difficulty


  Can't be generalised to everyone as people with expertise in that area may not conform as easily
• Define collectivist cultures


  Importance of group values
• Define individualist cultures


  Important of individual freedom
• Explain effect of culture on authority figures


  •our culture influences how we are brought up to view authority figures

  •there are lower levels of obedience in individualist cultures
• Explain effect of authority on authority figures


  •We follow orders because we believe they have authority over us or trust their expertise

  •uniforms associated with authority

  •we are brought up to obey these figures
• Explain effect of proximity on authority figures


  •when we are close to authority figures it influences our behaviour more

  •studied by milgram
• Explain milgrims agency theory


  Suggests we are more likely to obey authority when in an agentic state (believes they are working on behalf of the authority figure). Usually we are in an autonomous state (feel responsible for own actions). However when we feel the authority is responsible of our behaviours we experience an agentic shift.

  Milgrim argued that we are taught agentic shift as children as we are taught to respect and follow orders from authority in society. This can lead to blind obedience
• Method of milgrams study


  40 participants. Participants were told that study was to measure how punishment affected learning (they were deceived). There was a confederate and an experimenter, the confederate drew lots to see who would be the teacher or learner but it was rigged that real participant would always be teacher. Teacher had to administer shocks to confederate for every incorrect question, and increased voltage on each question. These were fake shocks.
• Aim of milgrams study


  To investigate whether an ordinary person would obey an authority figure even when required to harm an innocent person
• Results of milgrams study


  65% of participant's continued to 450 volts

  All participants reached 300 volts and only 12.5% stopped there
• Conclusion of milgrams study


  People are obedient to authority even with inhumane requests. Shows that some crimes are not from evil people but just ordinary people who obey orders
• Evaluation of milgrams theory


  Not everyone blindly follows orders, some are more likely to enter agentic state than others. Theory focuses on social factors that effect obedience however other psychologists suggest dispositions factors such as personality are more important to determine how obedient someone is
• Explain adornos theory of authoritarian personality


  Some people develop personalities that make them more obedient than others due to childhood experiences.

  People who had experienced a strict parental style that involved physical punishments were more obedient adults.
• Define prosocial behaviour


  Acting in a way that would benefit other people
• Social factors effecting bystander effect


  •we are more likely to help others when we are alone compared to group environment

  People don't want to overreact so if others are not reacting, they conform to group behaviour and deem it not an emergency
• Similarity to victims affect on behaviour


  More likely to offer assistance if there are similarities to victim such as gender, age or characteristics. Able to see better from their view
• Expertise affect on behaviour


  Bystanders are more likely to help others if they have the skills or expertise needed to help a situation. If someone lacks the skill required they are less likely to help because they think someone else may be more capable
• Aim of pilivians study


  Investigated whether the appearances of a victim would influence whether people helped or not
• Study design of piliavins study

  Field experiment so had limited control over extraneous variables. Lacked informed consent as public were unaware they were part of an experiment
• Method of piliavins study

  Actor pretended to collapse in train carriage

  In 38 of the trials he appeared drunk

  In 65 he appeared to carry a walking stick

  Recorded how often and quickly the victim was helped
• Results of piliavins study


  When the actor was carrying a stick he was helped within 70 seconds 95% of the time

  When the actor appeared drunk he was helped within 70 seconds 50% of the time
• Conclusion of piliavins study


  A persons appearance affects whether or not they will receive help and how quickly this help is given
• Weakness of piliavins study

  •Lacks reliability because any extraneous variables couldn't be controlled as it was a field experiment

  •Participants had not given informed consent and were deceived about what had occurred on the carriage

  •results cannot be generalised because collectivist cultures would behave differently to individualists
• Strength of pilliavins study


  •Demand characteristics were eliminated as people didn't know they were in an experiment so acted as they would in a real example

  •high ecological validity because the event was likely to happen in daily life
• Explain social loafing

  The idea that people are likely to put in less effort into a task when they are part of a group compared to alone

  Social loafing does not occur often in collectivist societies
• Define crowd and collectivity behaviours


  Refers to how people behave in group settings. When in a crowd people usually behave more peaceful
• Explain internal locus of control


  People with an internal locus of control are more likely to believe failure is due to own effort. Take greater responsibility for own behaviour, less likely to conform