Social Influence

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    Created by
    maisie lawson

    Cards (59)

    • Conformity

      Change how we behave in response to others
    • Types of Conformity 

      Compliance
      Identification
      Internalisation 
    • Compliance

      The individual confirms out loud but still privately disagrees 
    • Identification

      The individuals views are changed publicly and privately when they are with that group
    • Internalisation

      The individual takes on the views permanently 
    • Explanations of Conformity

      Normative Social Influence
      Informational Social Influence
    • Normative Social Influence

      The desire to be liked
      People do what they think others will approve of 
    • Informational Social Influence

      The desire to be right
      People do what others they think are more expert than they are do 
    • Aim (Asch - Conformity)

      What would happen to conformity if participants were in a situation where there could be no doubt as to the correct answer
    • Procedure (Asch - Conformity)

      The students were sat around a table and asked to state which line matched the example
      The confederates gave the same wrong answers
    • Sample (Asch - Conformity)

      50 male college students
    • Number of Confederates (Asch - Conformity)

      6
    • Number of Naives (Asch - Conformity)

      1
    • Findings (Asch - Conformity)

      37% conformity rate
    • Reasoning (Asch - Conformity)

      Participants didn’t want to be ridiculed 
      Participants thought they were wrong 
    • Conclusion (Asch - Conformity)

      There is a strong pressure to conform, especially if the group is a unanimous majority
    • Variables Affecting Conformity (Asch)

      Unanimity
      Group Size
      Difficulty 
    • Unanimity (Asch - Conformity)

      If someone else agreed with the naive participant they were less likely to conform  
    • Group Size (Asch - Conformity)

      The more people that said the same wrong answer the more likely it was that the naive participant would conform 
    • Difficulty (Asch - Conformity)

      If the task was more difficult then naive participants were more likely to conform 
    • Strengths (Asch - Conformity)

      Lab Experiment - high levels of control
    • Weaknesses (Asch - Conformity)

      Artificial Setting - lacks ecological validity
      Ethical Problems - embarrassment 
      Cultural Bias - only American college students 
      Gender Bias - only male students
    • Conformity to Social Roles
      Philip Zimbardo: Stanford Prison Study
    • Aim (Zimbardo - Conformity)

      How much people conform to the social roles of prisoner and prison guard
    • Procedure (Zimbardo - Conformity)

      Participants were split into prisoners and guards and the basement of Stanford University was turned into a fake prison
      Scheduled to run for 2 weeks
    • Procedure: Prisoners (Zimbardo - Conformity)

      Arrested at home and put into cells 
      Wore jackets with their number and a chain around one ankle 
    • Procedure: Guards (Zimbardo - Conformity)

      Worked 8 hour shifts and told to refer to prisoners by their numbers
      Wore uniforms and sunglasses and carried handcuffs and wooden batons
    • Results (Zimbardo - Conformity)

      People do conform to social roles
    • Results: Guards (Zimbardo - Conformity)

      Became increasingly sadistic 
      • made prisoners use a bucket as a toilet 
      • took away mattresses
      • took away clothes
      Sadism became so harmful the experiment was stopped after 6 days
    • Results: Prisoners (Zimbardo - Conformity)

      Became increasingly submissive 
      • stopped questioning the guards behaviour 
      • sided with guards against rebellious prisoners
      Some ‘went crazy’ and had to be released 
    • Participant Interviews (Zimbardo - Conformity)

      Both prisoners and guards were shocked at how out of character their behaviour was
      Some said they were just acting
    • Strengths (Zimbardo - Conformity)

      Practical Applications - prompted reform in the way juvenile prisoners were treated 
    • Weaknesses (Zimbardo - Conformity)

      Ecological/External Validity - they knew they were taking part in a study and may have felt that they had to act a certain way 
      Ethical Concerns - participants didn’t consent to all aspects and were subjected to high levels of stress 
    • Obedience

      When a person complies with the orders of another person
    • Aim (Milgram - Obedience)

      To what extent would participants obey the orders of an authority figure
    • Procedure: Teacher  (Milgram - Obedience)

      Participants were ‘randomly’ selected to be the teacher and were told to teach the learner a list of words.
      If they got it wrong the participant was told to give them an electric shock at increasing voltage
    • Procedure: Learner (Milgram - Obedience)

      In on the study and ‘randomly’ given the role of learner
      On shocks above 150 volts they would protest (pre recorded)
    • Procedure: Experimenter (Milgram - Obedience)

      ‘Randomly‘ assigned the roles of teacher and learner
      If the teacher asked to stop the experiment they had 4 set responses
      “Please continue”
      ”The experiment requires you to continue“
      ”It is absolutely essential that you continue”
      ”You have no other choice, you must go on”
    • Results (Milgram - Obedience)

      65% administered shocks all the way up to the maximum (450V)
      100% administered shocks up to 300V
      Most participants displayed physical signs of discomfort
    • Motivation (Milgram - Obedience)

      Desire to understand why Nazi soldiers acted the way they did
      Wanted to know of German people had a uniquely obedient disposition
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