Social Influence Paper 1

• Social influence is implicit or explicit pressure that causes a temporary or permanent change in behaviour
• Conformity is when a person changes their behaviour due to implied pressure from people of equal status
• Three types of conformity (ways we conform)

  • compliance
  • identification
  • internalisation
• Compliance is a short term change in public behaviour, but privately remain the same. It is the shallowest form of conformity.

  • supporting evidence from Asch
• Identification is a lasting change in public and private behaviour to show group membership. It is a deeper form of conformity.

  • supporting evidence from Zimbardo
• Internalisation is a permanent change in public and private behaviour because they agree with the majority. It is the deepest form of conformity.

  • supporting evidence from Jenness
• Two explanations for conformity (why we conform)

  • Normative social influence
  • Informational social influence
• Normative social influence (NSI) is when people conform to fit in because they want to be liked and accepted by others. NSI may lead to compliance because it results in a short term change while the majority is present.

  • support from Asch
• Informational social influence (ISI) is when people conform because they want to be right and believe others have the right answer. ISI is shown in ambiguous situations where there is no obvious answer and may lead to internalisation because it results in a long term change which remains when the majority is not present.

  • support from Jenness
• ISI key study - Jenness

  • male and female psychology students make private estimations of number of beans in a jar (ambiguous task)
  • discuss in a group
  • make a second private estimation
  • found that the second private estimation was closer to group estimation...strong evidence for internalisation and ISI
• AO3 Jenness

  • low ecological validity
  • low population validity (students)
  • lack informed consent
  • deception
• NSI key study - Asch

  • male students in groups of 7-9 where only one participant was genuine and the rest confederates
  • judge which comparison line was the same length as a standard line (unambiguous task - obviously wrong)
  • genuine participant made their judgment verbally in penultimate or last position
  • found that participants conformed in 36.8% of trials and interviews after showed that participants knew the answer was wrong, but wanted to fit in...strong evidence for compliance and NSI
• AO3 Asch

  • gender bias (used men)
  • low ecological validity
  • deception
• General AO3 for two-process model (NSI and ISI)

  • NSI and ISI may work together, not separately as the model suggests
  • individual differences affect conformity eg. some people care more about being liked than others
• Variables affecting conformity - Asch

  • Group size - conformity rates increased as the group increased (up to 4 confederates) because more social influence is experienced. Conformity did not increase beyond the original 36.8%
  • Unanimity - one supporting confederate seated before the participant. Conformity rate decreased to 5.5% because social influence was reduced.
  • Task difficulty - with a difficult task where lines were more similar in length, conformity rates increased to as high as 57%. ISI as well as NSI as participants think others hold the correct answer.
• Conformity to social roles - Zimbardo

  • mock prison in Stanford University
  • male participants randomly allocated prisoner or guard, process of deindividuation where identity is removed (uniforms)
  • both prisoners and guards conformed to roles, the experiment was stopped after 6 of 14 days due to extreme distress...strong evidence for conformity to social roles and identification
• AO3 Zimbardo

  • high control over variables (randomly allocate conditions)
  • demand characteristics
  • ethical issues
• Obedience is when a person changes their behaviour due to an explicit order from an authority figure, within a hierarchy.
• Obedience to authority

  Milgram
• Participants

  • Male
  • Recruited in a newspaper advert
  • Paid $4.50
• Confederates

  • Experimenter in white lab coat
  • Middle aged man 'Mr Wallace'
• Experiment procedure

  1. Assigned learner or teacher (participant was always teacher)

  2. Teach the learner word pairs

  3. If learner made an error, participant gave them a shock

  4. As shocks increased, learner's response became more dramatic

  5. If participant objected, experimenter encouraged them to continue
• • 65% of participants obeyed to give the maximum shock of 450v labelled 'xxx'
  • 100% of participants obeyed to give 300v
• AO3 Milgram

  • ethical issues
  • high external validity - same in real life settings eg. Hofling's nurse study
  • low internal validity - guessed shocks were fake, so not measuring obedience
• Obedience to authority - Hofling

  • Nurses telephoned by either 'unknown doctor' or 'unknown nurse' and asked to administer a dangerous dosage of an unfamiliar drug
  • 21 of 22 nurses obeyed the doctor
  • 0 of 22 nurses obeyed the nurse...shows obedience to authority figure
• AO3 Hofling

  • high external validity (real life)
  • reliable so can be repeated easily
• Explanations for obedience

  1. Situational explanations suggest an external explanation caused by the environment (uniform, location, proximity)
  2. Dispositional explanations suggest an internal explanation caused by personality (authoritarian personality)
  3. Social-psychological explanations suggests the influence of others affect behaviour (agentic state and legitimacy of authority)
• Dispositional explanation - Authoritarian personality

  Adorno identified the authoritarian personality, which makes it more likely for a person to obey. There are three shared traits

  1. highly conventional
  2. aggressive and hostile
  3. unquestioning respect for authority

  The authoritarian personality is measured using the 'F-scale' to assess their beliefs

  It is caused by harsh parenting as a child, making them more likely to obey
• AO3 Adorno

  • support from Milgram who found the most obedient participants in his experiment scored highly on the F-scale
  • F-scale is politically biased
  • Can't establish cause and effect
• Situational explanations (Milgram)

  1. people are more likely to obey if the authority figure is wearing uniform, in a variation the experimenter wore every day clothes and obedience rate decreased
  2. people are more likely to obey in high status locations with perceived authority, in a variation the experiment was conducted in a run down office building and obedience decreased
  3. people are more likely to obey if the authority figure is close by, in a variation the teacher forced the learners hand onto the shock plate and obedience decreased
• AO3 Milgram's variations

  • demand characteristics
  • cross cultural support (however many replications are Western)
  • excuse for wrong behaviour
• Social-psychological explanations

  1. Agentic state - Milgram suggested that obedience to authority occurs because the individual does not take responsibility, they believe they are acting on behalf of someone else (they are an agent)

  People give up their free will because they are not responsible - individuals feel high anxiety when they know what they are doing is wrong but they have to obey.

  The opposite is an autonomous state where a person feels they can behave how they wish and is responsible for their own actions.
• 2. Legitimacy of authority - people are more likely to obey if the person giving orders has a high level of legitimate authority. This is because the social role of authority increases their social influence.

  Most societies are structured in a hierarchal way, meaning people have authority over others eg. police. This authority is legitimate as we can agree this allows society to run smoothly, so some have power to inflict punishment on others.

  Problems occur when this becomes destructive eg. Hitler
• AO3 Social-psychological explanations

  • support for agentic state from Milgram - his participants suggested they did not feel responsible when interviewed
  • legitimacy of authority accounts for cultural variations
• AO3 for all explanations for obedience

  • they do not consider alternative explanations (use other explanations to evaluate) For example, Situational explanations fail to consider dispositional factors.
• Resistance to social influence - Locus of control is a personality characteristic that influences whether people conform and obey. It is measured using a questionnaire which places people on a spectrum between high internal and high external LOC
• Internal locus of control

  • have control over own behaviour
  • take responsibility for their actions
  • do not seek social approval

  so they are less likely to conform or obey because they can resist social influence
• External locus of control

  • behaviour is controlled by external forces (luck or fate)
  • less confident in decision making
  • seek social approval

  so they are more likely to conform or obey because they are less able to resist social influence
• AO3 Locus of control

  • support in a replication of Milgram's study found that more internals than externals did not continue to the highest shock level
  • the role of LOC has been exaggerated - it is only important in new situations and has little influence in familiar situations
• Resistance to social influence - social support allows people to resist social influence. They are less likely to conform or obey because they are supported by others who also choose not to conform or obey. Giving them confidence to show independent behaviour.