Social Influence

• However Asch's study lacks external and ecological validity as it was conducted in a lab
• Asch's study was unethical as in involved deception.
• Schultz found that when hotel visitors saw a sign that said 75% of others reused towels , they were more likely to reuse theirs
• Pressure from an audience can also cause females to conform more
• Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment investigated conformity to social roles
• The Stanford Experiment used a sample of 21 males out of 75 who were paid $15 a day. They were scanned for mental illness and randomly separated into prisoners and guards.
• The Stanford Prison Experiment was a controlled observation in a realistic mock prison in the basement of Stanford University.
• Zimbardo found that prisoners became passive whereas guards became active in their role
• 5 prisoners were released early due to extreme reactions. One went on a hunger strike.
• The guards showed pathology of power and took a authoritarian role. Some made prisoners do push-ups
• The guards arrived first and briefed on rules that they could not physically harm the prisoners. The prisoners were then arrested by real police officers and then blindfolded and took to the mock prison.
• Zimbardo found the guards showed pathology of power : they enjoyed the control that they had been given
• Haney suggested that Zimbardo's experiment showed how easy people changed by being in a prison environment. This supports the situational hypothesis.
• The Stanford Prison Experiment was highly controlled, The entire experiment was filmed.
• The participants had consented to parts of the study however were unaware they would be arrested at their own homes.
• The prison was an artificial setting therefore lacks ecological validity. Real prisoners and prisoners may be much worse.
• Although a debrief was conducted at the end of Zimabrdo's experiment , many suffered extreme reactions. They were not protected from harm. Hunger strikes and psychological harm occurred.
• Zimbardo played a dual role in this experiment and was both the researcher and the participant ( prison governor) and lost objectivity. This could be and ethical concern.
• An error with The Stanford Prison Experiment is that not all people conformed to their social role and maintained normal identity.
• After the Stanford Experiment many guards returned to normal behavior and displaced guilt saying it was the role they took on. This could be agentic shift.
• The dispositional hypothesis suggests that people are bad by nature , they have a predisposition.
• The situational hypothesis suggests that the situation such as being in a prison is what creates bad behavior. Zimbardo believed in this.
• A BBC version the Stanford Experiment was conducted in 2006 that found it was the strength of social identity with the role that caused the formation of the identity to occur.
• Milgram researched obedience to authority.
• Milgram researched the shift from an autonomous state ( where you are in control of own actions) to a agentic state( where you are controlled by others and will obey them)
• In Milgram's study there was a gradual commitment to the experiment
• There was a wall between the teacher (participant) and the student(actor) in Milgram's experiment.
• The experimenter in Milgram's study dressed in a lab coat and had a clipboard. This was to make the participants feel like they were part of a scientific experiment and that the researcher had authority and should be obeyed.
• The researcher in Milgram's study was given prompts to give to the teacher(participant) if they were reluctant. An example is "please continue"
• As being shocked the actor was to appear more distressed
• Milgram's experiment included the teacher reading half of a word pair. The Learner was to then complete it. They would occasionally answer incorrectly and be shocked. The voltage of the shocks increased.
• Milgram used 40 males who had answered a newspaper ad to be part of a experiment.
• The voltage level ranged from 15v-450v
• The responses from the actor were prerecorded.
• All participants went up to 300 volts.
• 14 defied the experimenter after 300 volts.
• 26 obeyed the experimenter to the end and went to 450 volts.
• Milgram found that people were obedient to authority figures even when they knew it would cause pain for no good reason.
• Milgram's study had high internal validity as the participants believed the situation was real : this can be seen in their reactions during the experiment
• Although unethical a debrief was performed , 84% were pleased to take part.