Social influence

• What did Moscovichi do?


  - 6 people (2 confederates & 4 participants)

  - They were asked to identify if slides were green or blue

  There were two conditions:

  Condition 1 = Two confederates gave the wrong answer consistently

  Condition 2 = Two confederates have the wrong answer inconsistently
• Who did a study investigating minority influence?

  Moscovichi
• Define flexibility

  A willingness to be adaptable and to compromise when expressing a position can increase the belief of minorities influence.
• Define consistency


  A minority influence is most effective when there is stability in the expressed position over time and agreement among the members of the minority.
• Define commitment


  The degree to which members of the minority are dedicated to a cause or activity. People in the minority take great risk to go against social norms, which shows confidence in their beliefs.
• What particular behaviour style must the minority show to change the majority's opinion?

  - Commitment

  - Flexibility

  - Consistency
• What is an example of minority influence?


  Emily Pankhurst - a women's right activist

  They held the minority opinion that women should be able to vote but convinced the majority of this too.
• What type of conformity is minority influence associated with?

  Internalisation
• What is the minority influence driven buy?

  The need to be right - e.g. informational social influence
• Define Minority influence

  A form of social influence in which the majority of people are persuaded to adopt the beliefs, attitudes and behaviour of the minority.
• What are strengths of social support to explain resistance to social influence?

  One strength is there is further research to support.Mullen found when participants saw a person crossing the road illegally they were more likely to do the same.Shows social support effects social influence increasing mundane realism/ecological validity.Can be used in the real world.Co-pilots should be able to talk to someone else about their thoughts to prevent plan carsh.Less likely for accidents.
• How did Milgram measure the effect of social support and what did he find?

  HOW? Two confederates and one confederate worked with the participant to give the other confederate an electric shock

  FINDINGS? Obedience dropped from 65% to 10% when they had social support
• How did Asch measure the effect of social support and what did he find?

  HOW? he had one confederate give the correct answer to matching the line task

  FINDINGS? conformity dropped to 5.5% when participants had social support
• Define social support


  The feeling of solidarity among yourselves and others making you less likely to conform.
• What is a weakness of locus of control?

  Relies on questionnaires to explain resistance to social influence.For example questionnaires cannot portray how someone would act in an everyday situation.Lacks mundane realism/ecological validity.
• What is a strength of Locus of controls?

  Research to support.Holland repeated Milgram's study and found internals were more likely to go to highest shock level than externals.This shows that LOC does affect social influence.HOWEVERPeople may have known of Milgram's study meaning they showed demand characteristics which reduces the internal validity.
• Who is more likely to resist social influence?

  People with an internal locus of control
• Define external locus of control


  You believe things turn out certain way regardless of your actions.
• Define internal locus of control


  You believe you can affect the outcomes of situations
• Define Locus of control

  The extent to which people believe they are in control of their own lives
• Who identified locus of control?

  Rotter
• What is a weakness of Socio-psychological factors of obedience?

  Agentic state mightn't be only explanation as to why people carry out atrocious behaviours.For example doc's in Auschwitz slowly changed from saving lives to carrying out lethal experiments on helpless prisoners.This may be more gradual of a shift than thought.
• What are two strengths of Socio-psychological factors as an explanation for obedience?

  Evidence suggesting that a legitimate authority can make us carry out negative behaviour.e.g causes for plane crash analysed and on 19/37 it was due to the flight crew not challenging the pilot.This is a strength because we can use it to save lives.Research supporting the effect pf Legitimacy of authority.e.g. bicker men found people were more likely to obey to someone wearing a security guard uniform compared to normal clothes.Interaction between these variables has an effect on obedience.
• Define legitimate authority?

  A person who is perceived to be in a position of power and therefore has control over the situation.
• What is Social etiquette?

  A binding factor - it holds us to the situation and makes us obey
• Why do people stay in the agentic state even when they are being asked to do something negative?

  We look for approval from others therefore following the social etiquette of the situation.
• What is the agentic shift?


  When we remove responsibility from ourselves to an authority figure.
• What is an autonomous state?


  Where someone takes responsibility for their own actions.
• What is the agentic state?


  A mental state where we feel no personal responsibility for our behaviour because we believe ourselves to be acting for an authority figure. I.e as an agent
• What is a socio-psychological explanation?


  Refers to the influence others have on your own behaviour rather than external factors.
• What are three weaknesses of Authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience?

  May be mediating factors to do with obedience and authoritarianism.Elms and Milgram found less education increased likelihood to show authoritarianism personality.This is a weakness as maybe not causal relationship between obedience and authoritarianism personality.F-scale questionnaire has methodological issues.In the questionnaire participants had to agree to every statement to have an authoritarian personality.Demand characteristics & may just be finding people who agreeAdditionally sample had class and culture bias
• What is a strength of Authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience?

  Research suggesting people with left wing views are less likely to have authoritarian personalities.For example Begue that those on the left side of the political spectrum were less likely to give the highest amount if electric shock (Milgrams study).This is provides supporting evidence as it also suggests political view point may influence likelihood to obey.
• What was the procedure and findings of Elm's and Milgram's Study?


  Procedure -

  Asked participants (20 submissive and 20 defiant) who had taken part in Milgram's study to complete the F-scale questionnaire.

  Findings -

  They found those who were submissive were more likely to have higher scores on the F-scale.
• What traits are individuals with authoritarian personalities likely to show?

  - Hostile and aggressive to those inferior to them

  - Inflexible to rules
• What was the procedure and findings of Fromm's study to do with the F-scale?

  Procedure:

  - 2000 middle class white Americans answered his questionnaire

  Results:

  - Authoritarian personalities are more likely to obey authority figures

  - Strong correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice
• What is the f-scale?

  - Developed as a questionnaire

  - Used to measure how likely you are to obey authority figures.

  Example question - "obedience and respect are the most important virtues a child a child should learn.
• What does the F in f-scale stand for?


  Fascism
• Define authoritarian personality


  A personality type characterised by absolute obedience to authority and domination of minority
• Who proposed the authoritarian personality?

  Fromm in 1941
• Define a dispositional factor

  A personality factor or characteristic