Social Influence

• Conformity


  A type of social influence where there is a change in a person's behaviour or opinion as a result of a real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people
• Types of conformity (Kelman)


  • Internalisation
  • Identification
  • Compliance
• Internalisation


  Making the beliefs, values, attitude and behaviour of the group your own (the strongest type of conformity, and often occurs as a result of informational social influence)
• Identification


  Temporary/short term change of behaviour and beliefs only in the presence of a group (middle level)
• Compliance


  Following other people's ideas/going along with the group to gain their approval or avoid disapproval (lowest/weakest level of conformity)
• Informational Social Influence


  When someone conforms because they want to be right, so they look to others by copying or obeying them, to have the right answer in a situation
• Normative Social Influence

  When someone conforms because they want to be liked and be part of a group
• NSI and ISI may not be completely exclusive, as suggested by Deutsch and Gerrard's 'Two Process Model'
• It may be more beneficial to look at NSI and ISI as complementary, as opposed to mutually exclusive mechanisms
• Asch's study


  • 123 male American undergraduates in groups of 6; consisting of 1 true participant and 5 confederates
  • Participants and confederates were presented with 4 lines; 3 comparison lines and 1 standard line
  • Confederates would give the same incorrect answer for 12 out of 18 trials
  • Asch observed how often the participant would give the same incorrect answer as the confederates versus the correct answer
• Group size


  An individual is more likely to conform when in a larger group
• Unanimity of majority


  An individual is more likely to conform when the group is unanimous i.e. all give the same answer, as opposed to them all giving different answers
• Task difficulty

  An individual is more likely to conform when the task is difficult
• Zimbardo's study


  • 24 American male undergraduate students
  • Participants were randomly issued one of two roles; guard or prisoner
  • Guards began to harass and torment prisoners in harsh and aggressive ways
  • Prisoners would only talk about prison issues and snitch on other prisoners to the guards
• Agentic state


  When a person believes that someone else will take responsibility for their own actions
• Legitimacy of authority


  How credible the figure of authority is. People are more likely to obey them if they are seen as credible in terms of being morally good/right, and legitimate
• Situational factors


  Factors in the situation that can influence obedience
• Agentic state


  When people believe they are acting on behalf of an authority figure, rather than taking personal responsibility for their actions
• Legitimacy of authority


  How credible the figure of authority is, in terms of being morally good/right, and legally based or law abiding
• Students are more likely to listen to their parents or teachers than other unknown adults
• Expert authority


  When the authority figure is seen as legitimate because they are knowledgeable and responsible, such as a scientist
• Zimbardo's study suffered from demand characteristics and lacked ecological validity
• Zimbardo's sample only consisted of American male students, so the findings cannot be generalised to other genders and cultures
• There was a lack of fully informed consent due to the deception required in the Stanford Prison Experiment
• Zimbardo's participants were not protected from stress, anxiety, emotional distress and embarrassment
• Proximity


  • Participants obeyed more when the experimenter was in the same room (62.5%) compared to separate rooms (40%) or touch proximity (30%)
• Location


  • Participants obeyed more when the study was conducted at a prestigious university
• Uniform

  • Participants obeyed more when the experimenter wore a lab coat
• Demand characteristics were particularly evident in the uniform condition
• Authoritarian personality


  Belief that people should completely obey or submit to their authority figures, and suppress their own beliefs
• Fixed cognitive style


  Tendency to adopt absolutist/'black and white' thinking and not challenge stereotypes
• Reaction formation


  Displacing anger with parents onto seemingly 'inferior' others
• The F-scale used to measure authoritarian personality is susceptible to acquiescence bias
• Adorno's psychodynamic theory


  A person's personality traits and attitudes as an adult stemmed from childhood influences such as that of one's parents
• Scapegoating


  Child with overly harsh and disciplinarian parents displaces their anger with their parents onto seemingly 'inferior' others
• On a surface level, the child would idolise their parents, but on an unconscious level, they would fear and despise them, and so arises the need to displace such anger
• The child would be more likely to target their displaced anger on those who seem weak and unable to defend themselves, such as minority groups
• Reaction formation


  The process where the child displaces their anger onto seemingly 'inferior' others
• Reaction formation is often seen in current politics
• Acquiescence bias


  Respondents always responding in the same way using the scales provided, regardless of the content shown in the scales