Social Influence

Created by

Katie-May H

Cards (31)

Explanations for Conformity: Research support for ISI 
- asked students to gie answers o maths problems that were easy or more difficult.
- greater conformity to incorrect aswer when they were difficult rather than the easy ones
- study shows that people conform in situations where they dont know the answer
- exactly the outcome predicted by the ISI explanation.
Explanations/types of Conformity: NSI does not account for individual difference. 
- NSI does not affect everyone's behaviour in the ame way
- eg people who are less concerned about being liked are less affected by NSI than those who care more about being liked
- Shows that the desire to be liked underlies conformit for some people more than others
- therefore indivdual difference in wat people respond
Explanations for Conformity: ISI and NSI work together 
- Both processes are involved
- EG conformity reduced when one dissenting participant in he ASCH experiment. this dissenter may redice the power of ISI because there is an alternative source of info
- this shows that it isnt alway possible to be sure whether NSI or ISI is at work
- Casts serious doubt over the view of ISI and NSI as two processes operating independantly in conforming behaviour
Conformity Asch Research: Findings are not universal across time 
- Research repeated with engineering student in UK
- only one student out of 396 conformed.
- may be tat students felt more confident about measuring line and were less conformist
- in 1950s conformist time and made sense to conform to established social norms.
- limitation means that the Asch effect is not consistent across situations and may not be consistent across time and is not a fundamental feature of human behaviour
Conformity - ASCH research: Artificial situation and task 
- ppt knew in a research stuy and may have gone along with demands of situation.
- task was trivial and no reason not to conform
- situation was not one find yourself in everyday life
- findings do not generalise to everyday situations questioning the external validity
Conformity - ASCH research: limited applications to findings
- only men tested, other research found that women more conformist as more concerned about social relationships.
- only from US, individualist culture who are moe concerned about themselves than their social groups to compared with collectivist cultures where social groups are more important
- conformity levels are sometimes higher than asch found. findings only apply to american men making then gender and culture bound as gender and culture were not taken into account
Conformity to social roles - Zimbardo: control
- emotionally stable individuals chosen and randomly assigned to roles of guard and prisoner
- did this to rule of individual personality differences as an explanation for the findings
- having control over variables is a strength because it increases internal validity so can be more confident in drawing conclusions about the influence of roles on behaviour
Conformity to social roles: zimbardo - issue with lack of realism 
- argued that ppts play-acting instead of conforming to a role.
- performances based on sterotypes of how risoners and guards are suposed to behave, exlain why prisoners rioted because thought that what was real prisoners did.
- decreases internal validity
Conformity to social roles: Zimbardo - lack of research support 
- partial replication of Stanford prison experiment
- findings different to Zimbardo
- prisoners took control of the prison and subjected the guards to a campaign of harassment and disobedience
- social identity theory explained this, argued that guards failed to develop a shared social identity as a cohesive group but the prisoners did
- actively identified themselves as members of a social group that refused to accept the limits of their assigned role as prisoners
Milgram: Low Internal Validity 
- argued that participants behaved the way they did because didnt believe in set up - guessed it wasnt real electric shocks
- study lacks internal validity
- Perry listened to tapes of ppts and reported many expressed their doubts about the shocks
Milgrams study: good external validity 
- at first looks like it lacks external validity
- however Milgram argued that lab environment accurately reflected wider authority relationships in real life.
- research supports this eg nurses were studied on a hospital ward and found that levels of obedience to unjustified demands b doctors were very high
- lab study can be generalised to other situations
Milgrams study: supporting replication 
- french tv show replicated milgrams study
- ppts believed contestant in a episode for new game show and were paid to give electric shocks in front of a studio audience
- similar o milgrams results 80% ppts gave max shock of 460 volts.
- behaviour identical to milgrams study - nervous laughter, nail biting etc
- replication supports milgrams original conclusions and demonstrates findings were not just a one off chance
Milgrams Variations: research support
- in field experiment in NYC, 3 confederates dressed in 3 different outfits - suit, milkmans outfit and security guard.
- stood in street and asked passers by to perform tasks like picking up litter
- people twice as likely to obey security guard then person in suit
- supports conclusion that uniform conveys authority and is a factor likley to produce obedience
Milgrams Variations: lack of internal validity 
- many ppts worked out that procedure was fake, realised due to extra manipulation
-especially the variation where the exerimenter was swapped out for a member of the public and milgram even realised ptts probably worked out the truth
- limitations as unclear whether the results are due to obedience or because ppts saw through deception and acted accordingly
Milgrams Variation: findings have been replicated in other cultures
- findings of cross-cultural research are supportive.
- found obedience rate of 90% amongst Spanish students
- suggests milgrams conclusions are not limited to american males and are valid across cultures and apply to females as well
- gives good external validity
Obedience - social psychological factors: Agentic state - research support 
- film of milgrams study showed to student and asked them to identify who felt responsible for harm to learner
- students blamed experimenter
- students also indicated that responsibility due to legitimate authority and due to exert authority
- recognised legitimate authority as cause of obedience, supporting this explanation
Obedience - social psychological factors: Agentic state - limited explanation 
- agentic shift doesnt explain many of research findings.
- eg doenst explain why some ppts diddnt bey.
- agentic shift explanation doesn't also explain findings from Hoflings study.
- agentic shift explanation predicts that when nurses handed over responsibility to doctor, should of shown anxiety. but wasn't not the case
- can only be used to explain some situations of obedience
Obedience - social psychological factors: Legitimacy of authority: Cultural Differences
- useful account of cultural difference in obedience
- many studies show that countries differ in degree to which people are obedient to authority.
- milgrams study replicated, in aus found 16% went all way on voltage scale but in Germany 85% did
- some cultures authority more likely to be accepted as legitimate and entitled to demand obedience
- reflects way that different societies are structured and how children perceive authority figures
- support from cross-cultural research increases validity of the explanation
Obedience: Dispositional Explanations - Authoritarian Personality: use of correlational data 
- Adorno found many significant correlation
- found authoritarianism strongly correlated with measures of prejudice against minority group
- despite the strong correlation does not say that one variable causes the other
- cannot claim that a harsh parenting style caused the development of an authoritarian personality.
Obedience: Dispositional Explanations - Authoritarian Personality: limited explanation
- an explanation of obedience in terms of individual personality find it hard to explain obedient behaviour in majority of a country's population
- eg in pre-war germany many displayed, obedient, racist behaviour, despite the fact they differed in personalities
- limitation as clear that an an alternative explanation s much more realistic
Obedience: Dispositional Explanations - Authoritarian Personality: Political Bias
- F-scale measure tendency towards an extreme form of right-wing ideology.
- argued that its a politically biased interpretation of authoritarian personality
- extreme right and left wing ideologies have much in common - both emphasise importance of complete obedience to legitimate political authority
- limitation as its not comprehensive dispositional explanation that can account for obedience to authority across whole political spectrum
Resistance to social influence: Social Support - Research support for resistance to conformity 
- evidence supports role of dissenting peers in resisting conformity
- Allen and Levine found that conformity decreased when on dissenter in asch type study, even occurred when dissenter wore thick glasses and had difficulty with vision
- supports view that resistance is not just motivated by following what someone else says but enables someone to be free of pressures from the group
Resistance to social influence: Social Support - research support to resisting obedience 
- evidence to support role of dissenting peers in resisting obedience
- found higher level of resistance in study that Milgram, because ppts were in group
- 29 out of 33 group rebelled
- shows peer support in linked to greater resistance
Resisting Social Influence: Locus of Control: Contradictory research between LOC and resistance 
- Data was analysed from American LOC studies over 40 years.
- data showed that over time span people become more resistant to obedience and more external.
- if resistance linked in ILOC expect people to become more internal
- challenges link between internal LOC and increasing resistant behaviour, results could be due to changing society where things are out of personal control
Resisting Social Influence: Locus of Control: Research support for link between LOC and resistance to obedience
- Milgrams study repeated and measure whether ppts were internals or external
- found that 37% internals did not continue to highest shock level, only 23% of externals did not continue.
- internals showed greater resistance to authority
- increases validity of LOC explanation
Minority Influence: Research support for consistency - demonstrates importance of consistency
- Moscovici showed that a consistent minority opinion had greate effect on other people than an inconsistent opionion
- meta analysis carried out of 100 similar studies and found that minorities seen as being consistent were most infuential
- suggests that consistency major facor in minority influence
Minority Influence: Research support for depth of thought
- research evidence to show that change to minority position does involve deeper processing of ideas.
- Martin et al gave ptts a message supporting a particular viewpoint and measured their support
- one group of ppts heard a minority group agree with initial view while another group heard from a majority group
- ppts exposed to conflicting view and attitude were measure again
- found that people less willing to change opinnions if listened to minority group rather that if shared with majority group
- suggests that minority message more deeply processed and had more enduring effect
- supporting central argument about how minority influence works
Minority Influence: Artificial Task
- research tasks artificial
- research far removed from how minorities attepmt to chnage behaviour of majorities in real life
- in cases such as jury decision making, outcomes are vastly more important
- means findings of minority influence lack external validity and are limited in what they can tell us about how minority influence works in real-life situations
Social Change: research support for normative influences 
- investigate whether SI processes led to reduction in energy consumption in community
- hung messages on front doors of houses every week for a month, key message was most resident were trying to reduce energy usage
- found significant decrease in energy
- strength as shows that conformity can lead to social change through NSI
Social Change: minority influence only indirectly effective
- social change happens slowly
- argued that effects of minority influence most likely to be indirect and delayed.
- indirect because majority is influenced on matter only related to issue at hand and not the central issue.
- delayed because effects might not be seen for some time
- limitation of using minority influence to explain social change cus shows effects are fragile and its role in SI very limited
Social Change: Role of deeper processing 
- argued that minority and majority influence involve different cognitive processes, minority causes to think for deeply about an issue
- Mackie disagrees and says majority influence that creates deeper thinking cus like to believe that others share and think in same way, when find majority believing something different then forced to think long and hard about arguments and reasoning
- central element of process of minority influence been challenged and may be incorrect, casting doubt on validity of his theory