social influence

• conformity is yielding under social pressure. it occurs when an individual's behavior and/or beliefs are influenced by a larger group of people.
• Social impact theory - Latane and Wolf 1981

  1. status - authority figure may be perceived as lacking status (eg, not in uniform)
  2. Strength - authority figures may be perceived as having less strength than others due to the setting or individual differences (ethnicity, age)
  3. knowledge - may be perceived as lacking knowledge,e which may deem orders as illegitimate
  4. Closeness - lack of physical and emotional proximity to authority figure reduces authority
• Internal vs External locus of control

  • Internal - they believe they are in control and take responsibility for their actions
  • External - blame external forces for their circumstances
• Rotter 1966 - people with internal locus of control are less likely to be conformist
• Types of conformity:

  1. compliance - temporarily changing behaviour to fit with the groups while privately disagreeing
  2. identification - conforming to the expectations associated with a social role (eg teacher)
  3. internalisation - permanently changing your attitudes and behaviour to fit with the groups while also agreeing privately
• whats a study on compliance?

  Asch's line experiment
• whats a study on identification?

  Zimabrdo's Stanford prison study
• whats a study on internalisation?

  sherif's autokinetic experiment