Social Influence Flashcards - A Level Psychology AQA

• Conformity


  is type of social influence, the tendency for people to adopt behaviours, attitudes and values of other members of a group
• Compliance


  is changing to the views of the group publicly but privately maintaining different views
• Internalisation


  means changing to the views of the group both publicly and privately because we believe that they are right
• Identification


  means changing to the views of the group both publicly and possibly privately but only as long as you are a member of the group
• Normative Social Influence


  is form of influence whereby an individual conforms with the expectations of the majority in order to gain approval or to avoid social disapproval-> Compliance
• Informational Social Influence


  is form of influence which is the result of a desire to be right-looking to others as a way of gaining evidence about reality-> Internalisation
• EVALUATE Conformity


  NSI + Asch (1956), where 75% people conformed once and said they felt self-conscious and afraid of disapproval - BUT 25% never conformed so not everyone is influenced ISI + Lucas et al (2006) found when presented with difficult maths problem to solve, participants were more likely to conform to the majority answer -> showing that people will conform due to the need for information as we assume they know better than us and must be right
• Asch (1956)


  - 123 American male undergraduates - had 6-8 confederates- 12/18 trails confederates gave wrong answer- 25% never conformed- 75% conformed at least once- 5% conformed to all of the 12 trailsEVALUATION:- low ecological validity -> situation too artificial -> not the type of pressure usually exposed too -> lack mundane realism - lack population validity -> only American males no woman - PERRIN + SPENCER recreated the study in 80s using Science + Engineering students -> found only 1 conformed out of 396 trials+ BUT Science + Engineering students may be smarter and confident to not conform
• Variables affecting conformity

  - group size- unanimity- task difficulty
• Group size

  size of majority was increased-> increased conformity by 30% -> because for conformity to occur, minimum 3 confederates neededEVALUATION:+ CAMPBELL + FAIREY suggests group size has different effect depending on task + individual's motivation -> if no objectively correct answer, individual more concerned with fitting in -> larger the majority, more likely to conform- BOND (2005) said little is known about effect of larger group
• Unanimity

  presence of non-conforming person-> decreased 33% to 5.5%-> non-conforming person supports participant, increasing confidence that they are correctEVALUATION:+ ALLEN + LEVINE found a dissenter in Asch style study greatly reduced conformity -> even if dissenter said had bad eyesight -> supporting that having social support increases resistance to social influence
• Task difficulty

  lines were much closer in length to each other -> increased conformity-> confidence decreases when task is more difficult, so look to others to answerEVALUATION:+ Lucas et al (2006) when exposed to math task those with high confidence of own abilities remained more independent than those with low confidence, even when extremely hard task
• Obedience


  refers to type of social influence whereby somebody acts in response to a direct order from a figure with perceived authority
• Milgram

  - 40 participants told were study of how punishment affects learning- rigged so real participant was always the teacher and fake participant the learner- teacher required test learner on remembering word pairs- every time got it wrong teacher had to give an electric shock- participants forced to continue- 65% continued to max shock 450 volts- 100% went to 300 volts, only 5 stopped here - 35% didn't go to 450 VEVALUATION:- artificial situation, electric shock task reduces ecological validity as lacks mundane realism -> difficult to generalise to others- psychological harm/deception as participants were unaware the learner was a confederate of Milgram's study+ BUT debrief participant fully after the experiment and after period to ensure they had no harm
• Zimbardo

  - investigated social roles - mock prison set up in Stanford University- 24 males selected after extensive test- randomly assigned to prisoner or guard- Zimbardo acted as prison guards- prisoners mock arrested from home- guards given uniform, reflective glasses, handcuffs, told they had to complete power over prisoner- study stopped after 6 days rather than 14 days- prisoners rebelled after 2 days - 1 prisoner released on day 1 due to psychological disturbanceEVALUATION:+ participant observation, as Zimbardo acted a guard, so in rich detail- BUT investigator effects did Zimbardo manipulate what was happening- lack of consent, didn't know about mock arrests at beginning- no protection from physical/psychological harm prisoners had mental breakdowns
• Situation variables affecting obedience

  - proximity- location- uniform
• Proximity


  teacher and learner in same room, obedience fell to 40%-> when forced to touch learner's hand to shocking plate obedience fell to 30%-> concluded the participant isn't protected from seeing the consequences of their actions
• Location

  participants said Yale Uni gave them confidence in experimenter BUT location was less prestigious, a run-down office-> 48% went to max 450V-> although a decrease, not significant, only some effect
• Uniform


  original study experimenter has a grey lab coat -> but experimenter was confederate in everyday clothes-> obedience level dropped to 20%
• Agentic State


  when agent acts in on behalf of another - they feel anxiety but feel powerless to disobey
• Autonomous state


  opposite of agentic state
• Agentic shift


  is move between agentic state and autonomous state
• Legitimate Authority

  - hierarchy agreed by society- some are granted the power to punish therefore, we hand them out control- accepted from childhood as social norm- further enhanced with location and uniformEVALUATION:+ HOFLING 22/23 nurses obeyed unjustified orders from doctor by they didn't feel any anxiety when doing so- ignores the role of dispositional factors -> suggesting we would all act the same way when ordered by legitimate authority -> 35% didn't go to 450 V in Milgram's- using social psychological explanations is offensive to victims of holocaust or any genocide -> takes blame away putting it all on situation
• Social support

  people are more likely to resist authority when they have an ally, feeling it is easier to rebel building confidence when there's diffusion of responsibility, not solely on them- resisting obedience = disobedient role models challenges legitimacy of authority figure- resisting conformity = having an ally breaks unanimity of group in conformity situations
• Locus of Control

  - refers to how much people believe they are in control of their own lives- can be used to explain resistance to social influenceINTERNAL LOC- when people believe they are always responsible for their own behaviour- likely seek more info before following orders- have greater self-confidence and more likely to be leaders themselves EXTERNAL LOC- people who see their life as being controlled by luck, chance or by others, especially others with more power- therefore more likely to obey an authority figure- may relate to learned helplessness because they feel unable to escape from itEVALUATION:+ HOLLAND repeated Milgram's study + measured whether participants had internal or external LOC -> found 37% of internals refused to obey to max voltage, compared to 23% externals- Twenge et al, analysed American obedience studies over 40 year period -> found over time Americans became more resistant to obedience, but have also become more external in LOC+ Rosenstrasse protest, German woman protested where Gestapo were holding husbands -> Milgram found presence of disobedient peers gave participant courage to resist the authority
• Minority influence


  occurs when a minority influences the behaviour and attitudes of othersusually leads to internalisation
• Commitment

  minority groups are more influential if they engage in extreme activities when demonstrating their commitment to causethese activities must have some negative impact on the minority groups to effectively demonstrate commitment (AUGMENTATION PRINCIPLE)
• Consistency

  minorities are more influential if they are consistentconsistency between members = SYNCHRONIC consistencyconsist over time = DIACHRONIC consistency it encourages others to pay attention to them and consider what they are sayingEVALUATION:+ MOSCOVICI ET AL in groups of 6 with (2 confederates) participants were shown 36 slides with various shades of blue, had to decide if slide was blue or green -> condition 1 = confederates said green on same 2/3 slides -> condition 2 = confederates said green on 2/3 slides but didn't always agree -> control condition = no confederates present-> found consistent minority wrong answers = 8.42% -> inconsistent minority = 1.25% -> control = 0.25%- BUT lacks mundane realism + ecological validity -> minority groups tend to try convert people based on meaningful issues
• Flexibility


  if minority group is willing to compromise they seen more reasonable and fair NEMETH argued if minority group repeats same message over and over again they can be seen as dogmatic and stubborn
• Snowball Effect

  the more people a minority group converts, the easier it becomes to convert even more people
• Adorno et al (1950)


  - investigate why people were blindly obedient to anti-Semitism of holocaust- procedure used F-scale- measured 2000 middle class, white Americans and their unconscious attitudes towards racial groups- found higher score = higher authoritarianism you are - strong positive correlation with prejudice and authoritarianism
• Authoritarian Personality


  highly obedient towards people of perceived higher status, rigid and harsh parenting (usually physical punishment), see world as black/white, traits include respect for authority, sticks to social rules + hierarchies, hostile towards people perceived as lower classEVALUATION:+ ELM + MILGRAM interviewed small sample people participated in original study, and were fully obedient -> completed F-scale -> found 20 obedient scored significantly higher than disobedient participants+ ADORNO ET AL, said that obedient people show characteristics similar to authoritarian personality- BUT correlation could be from cofounding variable like lower education and not causation - GREENSTEIN said F-scale flawed as every item worded in same direction -> if not paying attention may tick all agree -> Authoritarian personality
• Social change


  occurs when whole societies rather than individuals, adopt new attitudes, beliefs and ways of doing things
• Steps of social change

  1) DRWAING ATTENTION = minority must draw attention to issue through social proof2) COGNITIVE CONFLICT = minority creates conflict between majority group members believe, this makes majority group members think more deeply about issues3) CONSISTENCY = minority must express their views consistently, over time + with each other, so taken more seriously 4) AUGMENTATION PRINICIPLE = minority appear willing to suffer for their cause, if risk involved, taken more seriously 5) SNOWBALL EFFECT = minority must spread their message widely, small impact until tipping point leading to wide scale change
• SOCIAL NORMS ~ Perkins + Berkowitz


  if people perceive something to be the norm, they change own actions to fit the norm -> NSI
• Social norms interventions

  correcting the gap between perceived norm and actual norm is called misconception
• EVALUATION Flexibility:

  + NEMETH had groups of 4, where they had to agree on the amount of compensation they would give a victim of a ski-lift accident -> condition 1: minority argued for low compensation rate and was inflexible -> condition 2: minority argued for low compensation but compromised for slightly higher compensation and were flexible -> FOUND in inflexible condition minority had little effect on majority, BUT in flexible condition minority compromised and more likely to effect majority -> therefore shows importance of flexibility