social influence

• what is internalisation?

  when an individual changes both their public and private behaviour and beliefs even when the group isn't present
• what is identification?

  when an individual publicly changes their views/behaviour to match the group but doens't conform when the group isn't present
• what is compliance?

  an individual changes their behaviour publicly, but privately disagrees
• what is an exapmle of internalisation?

  an individual lived with a vegan in uni, then also decides to become one beacuse they agreed with their views
• what is an example of identification?

  an individual became a vegan at uni because all their housemates were, but would eat meat when they went home during the holidays
• what is an example of compliance?

  an individual says a book they enjoyed was terrible, because everyone else thought it was terrible
• informational social influence

  (isi)

  when a person conforms because they believe someone else is right
• normative social influence (nsi)


  a person conforms in order to be accepted into a group
• what is an example of isi?

  an individual doesn't know which bin to put their cup in, so they watch other people first, then copy them.
• what is an example of nsi?

  dressing like a group of people and saying you like the same things as them with the intention of becoming friends with them
• how does group size affect conformity?

  conformity increases as the group size increases
• how does unanimity affect conformity?

  individuals are more likely to conform to group decisions when the rest of the group's response is unanimous
• how does the difficulty of the task affect conformity?

  the harder the task, the higher the levels of the conformity
• what was the aim of Asch's study?

  to examine the extent to which social pressure from a majority affects conformity
• what was the procedure of Asch's study

  Asch used one ps and 7 confederates, and asked them to do a line judgement task.
• what were the results of Asch's study?

  the participants agreed with the confederates 36.8% of the time, and 25% of participants never gave a wrong answer
• what was the conclusion of Asch's study?

  people conform to the majority because they want to be liked, and they want to be right.
• what is the evaluation of Asch's study?

  lacks population validity - all ps were male and from the same age group, ethnocentric, androcentric

  used artificial task - low e.v as it can't be generalised to real life

  low temperal validity - 1950's America was very conservative. just after ww2, people more likely to confom

  low ecological validity - took place in a lab, controlled environment
• what are situational factors?

  external factors that can affect a situation
• what was the aim of zimbardo's study?

  to examine whether people conform to social roles
• what was the procedure of Zimbardo's prison study?

  24 american men were placed in a mock prison environment, and randomly assigned the role of prisoner or guard.
• what was the result of zimbardo's study?

  guards conformed to their roles quickly, and harrassed prisoners . Prisoners also adopted priosoner-like behaviour and were obedient for the most part. Prisoners did start riots, and guards used physical force against them.
• what was the conclusion of zimbardo's study?

  the study revealed how people conform to the social roles they're expected to play, especially if the roles are strongly stereotyped
• what is the evaluation of Zimbardo's study?

  lack of ecological validity - prison was set up in the basement of Stanford university, experiment was shorter then a real prison study, influenced by demand characteristics (simply acting)

  lack of population validity - male American students, America has an individualist culture
• ethical issues with zimbardo's study

  lack of fully informed consent, prisoners weren't protected from physical or psychological harm
• what is agentic state?

  a mental state where we feel no personal responsibility for our behaviour
• what is an autonomous state?

  a person is free to behave according to their own principals, and will take responsibility for their actions
• what is agentic shift?

  moving from an autonomous state to an agentic one
• what is legitimacy of authority?

  authority is legitimate due to the person's position of power in society. People are more likely to obey those they feel have authority over them
• how does uniform affect obedience?

  people are more likely to obey those in uniform as it's a symbol of authority
• how does proximity affect obedience?

  obedience is higher when the person is in close proximity to the authority figure
• how does location affect obedience?

  if the location has a high status (yale uni), then obedience levels are higher
• what was the aim of milgram's study

  to investigate how far people would go in obeying an instruction if it involved harming another person.
• what was the procedure of milgram's study?

  40 American men between the ages of 20-50 were used. They were paired with a confederate. Confederate played the role of student, and the ps was the teacher. The learner had to correctly identify word pairs, and the teacher had to give them an electric shock every time they got one wrong.
• what were the results of milgram's study?

  65% of ps went to the highest volatge

  (450), and all ps went to 300volts
• what was the conclusion of milgram's study?

  Ordinary people are likely to follow orders given by an authority figure, even to the extent of killing an innocent human being.
• what is the evaluation of milgram's study?

  low e.v - took place in Yale, not a real life situation

  low p.v - andocentric sample, ethnocentric sample, volunteer personality
• what is an authoritarian personailty?

  a person who has extreme respect for authority and is more likely to be obedient to those who hold power over them.
• what is minority influence?

  a form of social influence where one person, or a small group, influences the beliefs and behaviour of the majority
• what is consistency?

  consistency is when the minority repeats the same message