Psychology - social influence

• What are the two explanations of conformity mentioned?

  Informational Social Influence (ISI) and Normative Social Influence (NSI)
• What does Normative Social Influence (NSI) refer to?

  It refers to conforming to be accepted or liked by a group.
• What were the main findings of Asch's research on conformity?

  • A significant number of participants conformed to the incorrect majority.
  • The presence of a dissenting confederate reduced conformity.
  • Group size influenced the level of conformity.
• What is the Stanford prison experiment associated with?

  Conformity to social roles
• What did Zimbardo's research demonstrate about social roles?

  It showed how individuals conform to roles assigned to them, affecting their behavior.
• Who is known for the study on obedience involving electric shocks?

  Stanley Milgram
• What was a key finding from Milgram's obedience study?

  A high percentage of participants were willing to administer shocks to others when instructed by an authority figure.
• What is the agentic state in the context of obedience?

  It is a mental state where individuals see themselves as agents executing another person's wishes.
• What is the authoritarian personality?

  It is a personality type characterized by a high level of obedience to authority.
• What are the key factors influencing resistance to social influence?

  • Social support
  • Locus of control (LOC)
• What is minority influence?

  It is a form of social influence where a minority persuades others to adopt their beliefs or behaviors.
• What are the key factors that enhance minority influence?

  • Consistency
  • Commitment
  • Flexibility
• What is the snowball effect in the context of minority influence?

  It is the process where a small number of people gradually influence the majority to change their views.
• What are the barriers to social change?

  • Social norms
  • Resistance from the majority
  • Lack of awareness
• What is the role of normative influences in social change?

  • Normative influences can motivate individuals to change behaviors to fit in with societal expectations.
  • They can lead to widespread changes in attitudes and behaviors.
• Milgram's participants were told they were taking part in an experiment on memory, where they had to administer electric shocks to another participant (who was actually an actor) if they made mistakes during a learning task.
• Participants had to administer electric shocks to the learner if they made mistakes, with the voltage increasing as the experiment progressed.
• Informational social influence happens when a person looks to the group for guidance in ambiguous situations.
• Normative social influence occurs when a person conforms to be accepted or avoid rejection by others.
• The Milgram experiment was conducted to investigate the extent to which people would obey authority figures.
• Conformity is the tendency to align one's attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors with those of a group or the prevailing social norms.
• In reality, there was no actual shock being given, but the actors would make distressing sounds as the voltage increased.
• The participants were instructed by Milgram to increase the intensity of the shock every time their partner gave a wrong answer until they reached 450 volts.
• In Asch's conformity experiments, participants were asked to match lines of different lengths to a standard line.
• The majority of Milgram's participants continued to give increasingly high levels of shock until the end of the experiment, despite hearing screams from the other room.
• Most participants continued to give increasingly high levels of 'shock', even when the victim appeared to be in severe pain or unconscious.
• Obedience is when someone follows orders given by authority figures even if it means going against their own moral code.
• Compliance is when someone agrees to do something that goes against their beliefs or values due to pressure from others.
• 65% of participants continued to the highest voltage (450 volts) and 100% of participants continued to 300 volts
• Milgram found that obedience was higher among younger people than older ones, with only 27% of those aged over 60 continuing to the maximum level of shock compared to 90% of those under 20 years old.
• How many participants were a part of the research conducted by Asch?


  123 American male undergrads
• Asch tested conformity by showing participants two large white cards at a time. On one card was a 'standard line' and on the other there was 3 comparison lines. One of these were the same length as the standard line and the other were substantially different
• Every participant were placed in a group with six to eight confederates. On the the first few trials the confederate gave the right answers but then started making errors. They all gave the same wrong answer. Each participant took part in 18 trials and in 12 the confederates gave the wrong answers (asch)
• The participant gave the wrong answer 36.8% of the time in aschs
• Overall 25% did not conform on any trials (asch)
• What were asch's three variations?


  -group size

  -unanimity

  -task difficulty
• Asch found that with three confederates conformity to the wrong answer rose to 31.8% but the addition of further confederates made little difference
• Asch wanted to know if the presence if a non-conforming confederate would affect the results. This is unanimity. Conformity reduced to 25%
• Milgram recruited 40 male participants