Social influence

• Conformity


  A type of social influence where there is a change in a person's behaviour or opinion as a result of a real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people
• Types of conformity (Kelman)


  • Internalisation
  • Identification
  • Compliance
• Internalisation


  Making the beliefs, values, attitude and behaviour of the group your own (the strongest type of conformity, and often occurs as a result of informational social influence)
• Compliance


  Following other people's ideas/going along with the group to gain their approval or avoid disapproval (lowest/weakest level of conformity)
• Informational social influence


  When someone conforms because they want to be right, so they look to others by copying or obeying them, to have the right answer in a situation
• Normative social influence


  When someone conforms because they want to be liked and be part of a group
• NSI and ISI may not be completely exclusive, as suggested by Deutsch and Gerrard's 'Two Process Model'
• It may be more beneficial to look at NSI and ISI as complementary, as opposed to mutually exclusive mechanisms
• Asch's study


  • 123 male American undergraduates in groups of 6; consisting of 1 true participant and 5 confederates
  • Participants and confederates were presented with 4 lines; 3 comparison lines and 1 standard line
  • The real participant always answered last or second to last
  • Confederates would give the same incorrect answer for 12 out of 18 trials
  • Asch observed how often the participant would give the same incorrect answer as the confederates versus the correct answer
• 36.8% conformed, 25% never conformed, 75% conformed at least once
• Factors affecting level of conformity

  • Size of majority/Group size
  • Unanimity of majority
  • Task difficulty
• Size of majority/Group size

  An individual is more likely to conform when in a larger group
• Unanimity of majority


  An individual is more likely to conform when the group is unanimous i.e. all give the same answer, as opposed to them all giving different answers
• Task difficulty


  An individual is more likely to conform when the task is difficult
• When the task is difficult, we are more uncertain of our answer so we look to others for confirmation. The more difficult the task the greater the conformity
• Zimbardo's study


  • 24 American male undergraduate students
  • Aim: To investigate how readily people would conform to the social roles in a simulated environment, and specifically, to investigate why 'good people do bad things'
  • Procedure: The basement of the Stanford University psychology building was converted into a simulated prison. Participants were randomly assigned to be either guards or prisoners and their behaviour was observed
• Agentic state


  When a person believes that someone else will take responsibility for their own actions
• Agentic shift


  When a person shifts from an autonomous state (the state in which a person believes they will take responsibility for their own actions) to the agentic state
• Legitimacy of authority


  How credible the figure of authority is. People are more likely to obey them if they are seen as credible in terms of being morally good/right, and legitimate
• In Milgram's study, the people saw the experimenter as legitimate as they knew he was a scientist and therefore is likely to be knowledgeable and responsible - this is called expert authority
• Agentic state


  When people believe they are acting on behalf of an authority figure, rather than taking personal responsibility for their actions
• Legitimacy of authority


  How credible the figure of authority is, in terms of being morally good/right, and legally based or law abiding
• Students are more likely to listen to their parents or teachers than other unknown adults
• Expert authority


  When the authority figure is seen as legitimate because they are a knowledgeable and responsible expert, like a scientist
• Location


  Participants obeyed more when the study was conducted at a prestigious university, as it demands obedience and increases trust in the researchers
• Uniform


  Participants obeyed more when the experimenter wore a lab coat, as it gives them higher status and greater sense of legitimacy
• Authoritarian personality1950


  Belief that people should completely obey or submit to their authority figures, and suppress their own beliefs
• 1. F scale

  A scale used to measure the authoritarian personality, requiring participants to rate their agreement with certain statements
• Fixed cognitive style


  The tendency of those with an authoritarian personality to adopt absolutist/'black and white' thinking and not challenge stereotypes
• Reaction formation


  When those with an authoritarian personality displace their anger with their harsh, disciplinarian parents onto seemingly 'inferior' others
• Adorno's psychodynamic theory


  A person's personality traits and attitudes as an adult stemmed from childhood influences such as that of one's parents
• Scapegoating


  Child with overly harsh and disciplinarian parents displaces their anger with their parents onto seemingly 'inferior' others
• On a surface level, the child would idolise their parents, but on an unconscious level, they would fear and despise them, and so arises the need to displace such anger
• The child would be more likely to target their displaced anger on those who seem weak and unable to defend themselves, such as minority groups
• Reaction formation


  The process where the child displaces their anger onto seemingly 'inferior' others
• There are serious methodological issues associated with the F-scale, as suggested by Greenstein
• Acquiescence bias


  The phenomenon of respondents always responding in the same way using the scales provided, regardless of the content shown in the scales
• The findings produced by the F-scale may be lacking in validity and reliability due to acquiescence bias
• The Authoritarian Personality may not be able to explain all cases of obedience across the whole political spectrum, according to Christie and Jahoda
• There are more similarities between the two ends of these spectrums than differences, most notably a large emphasis on utmost respect for legitimate authority