Social influence Psychology

• Conformity


  Changing your beliefs and values to be able to be part of a group
• Asch's research


  1. 123 male American students took part

  2. Participants were told to give the incorrect answer and the confederates would say the answers first

  3. Participant would have to decide what answer to give
• At least 37.% of participants would give an incorrect answer and 75 % would at least conform once
• Variables in Asch research

  • Group size
  • Unanimity
  • Task difficulty
• Group size


  The number of confederates, affected conformity but only up to a certain point
• Unanimity


  The addition non conforming confederate reduced conformity
• Task difficulty


  Increasing difficulty of the lines ambiguously increased conformity
• Lucas et al did a study with participants and gave easy and hard maths questions. Three of the participants already knew the correct answer and the questions got harder. Participants gave the wrong answer. This suggests support for the idea of task difficulty as people are more likely to conform.
• One limitation would be the use of 123 male American students from a college in university
• Some psychologists suggest women are more likely to conform for social relationships than men
• The study was conducted in an individualistic culture in America, where people are more concerned over themselves rather than forming social groups
• Asch research could have been done in a collectivist culture where people are concerned with forming social relationships
• Another limitation would be artificial stimuli as the participants know they are taking part in a study therefore they may change their answers to be able to match the groups
• Compliance


  A person changes the way they behave and act but not their private beliefs
• Internalisation


  A person changes their behaviour and the way they also believe that as their private belief when the group is not present
• Identification


  A mixture of both compliance and internalisation
• Normative social influence


  Avoiding getting rejected in a social group and wanting to fit in
• Informational social influence


  Finding something in a group that could be right
• Asch research participants were more likely to copy the answer of other people. When Asch asked participants to write down their answer rather than speaking aloud, the conformity rates dropped by 12.5% as participants felt they were less likely to be judged this way.
• The Stanford Prison Experiment (Zimbardo Research)

  1. Zimbardo used 21 male American university students

  2. Participants were either assigned as being a prison guard or a prison officer

  3. Zimbardo wanted to make it as realistic as possible

  4. The experiment was expected to last two weeks but only lasted 6 days
• The prisoner and the guards adapted to the roles. Within days the prisoners started to rebel however the guards crushed the rebellion and started to be extremely abusive towards the prisoners.
• The experiment was expected to last 2 weeks but only lasted 6 days, however Zimbardo had to be persuaded by a university student who explained how inhumane the situation is.
• Zimbardo's results suggest they were replicated in another prison. Between 2003 and 2004 US soldiers would abuse the Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison.
• Obedience


  A type of social influence when an individual follows direct order tends to be someone who has higher authority
• Milgram's Research


  1. 40 male American students took part

  2. Participants asked learners to recall pairs of words. If the learner got it wrong they would get shocked

  3. The experiment continued until the participant asked to stop or until the voltage reached 450 voltages
• 100% continued to 300 volts, 12.5% stopped at 300 volts, 65 % went up to 450 volts
• One limitation to Milligram's research is low internal validity as Milligram may not have found what he intended to investigate. However, Milligram says 75 % say they believed in his research and the shocks were real, but Orne and Holland say that the set-up was fake and they were acting.
• Deception - participants were told they were coming into to do an experiment on the punishment on learning and not told they will be getting shocked
• Protection from harm - in Milgram study participants were not protected from psychological harm as they may have gone home knowing they may hurt someone from the experiment.
• Social support


  When a person encourages another person to conform or obey and help others to do the same
• Locus of control


  The extent to which others take control of their own actions
• Internal locus of control

  They take control of their own destiny
• External locus of control


  They believe other people control their destiny
• Holland repeated Milligram's study and wanted to see whether participants were internal or external. 37% of internal participants did not reach the highest shock level. 27% of external participants did not reach the highest shock level.
• Minority influence


  When a person or a group can change your beliefs
• Commitment, Consistency, Flexibility


  • Factors that enable minority influence
• Moscovici research - blue and green slide study


  1. 172 women were asked to judge the colour of 36 slides

  2. Two confederates in each group - who said the colour green

  3. The same wrong answer was given 8.4% of the trial

  4. A second participant were given the trial, the rate then fell to 1.25%
• There are problems with Moscovici research as only 172 female American participants are used. This is gender biassed and also we can not get a wide range of data. As females are more likely to conform and copy another idea to gain social approval.
• Situational variables in obedience

  • Location
  • Proximity
  • Uniform
• Location


  Milligram's obedience level was 65% in Yale University but dropped to 46.5% when done in an office block