Social Influence

• define conformity

  changing behaviour to yield to group/majority pressure
• what are the types of conformity

  • compliance
  • identification
  • internalisation
• what is the other name for conformity

  acquiescence
• what is compliance

  going along with others as to not stand out
• what is identification

  the wish to belong in a particular group
• what is internalisation

  accepting the groups views and adopting them as your own
• explain jenness' 1932 study on conformity

  • he used an ambiguous situation involving a glass bottle filled with 811 white beans and a sample of 101 psychology students
  • the participants were asked to estimate the number of beans
  • participants were divided into groups of 3 and asked to discuss and provide an estimate on the number of beans to see if their answers changed
  • on average male participants changed their answer by 256 beans and females by 382 beans
  • demonstrates the power of conformity in an ambiguous situation where its likely the result of informational social influence
• what did Asch's line comparison 1951 find

  • he found that participants conformed on 32% of the critical trials
  • in the control group with no pressure, less than 1% of participants gave the wrong answer
• what did later studies about Asch's study find

  • social support - conformity dropped to 5% when just on other participant dissented
  • size of majority - a majority of 2 caused conformity to drop to 12.8%, increasing the majority beyond 3 did not affect conformity
  • task difficulty - conformity increased as the tasks became more difficult
  • anonymity - when participants wrote their answers, conformity decreased
• strengths of asch's study

  • his work generated a lot of further research into this topic
  • despite his study being androcentric, the many that followed replicated the study including women in the sample
• limitations of asch's study

  • low temporal validity- was in the USA which may have affected results
  • low ecological validity - artificial laboratory setting and the task means results might not be generalisable to everyday life
  • ethical issues about informed consent and protection from psychological harm (humiliation) of participants
• contrasting research to Asch's study

  Perrin and Spencer 1980

  • repeat of the study in england using engineering students showed conformity in only 1/396 trials
  • BUT when they replicated it again with youths on probation anf probation officers as confederated, conformity was similar to Asch's results
  • they put the differences between this study and Nicholson et al down to a greater sense of national cohesion at the time
• Asch's conclusions as culturally biassed

  • conformity studies in countries such as Japan and China showed higher levels
  • these are typically called collectivist countries
  • the emphasis is placed on the behaviour that benefits the group as being selfish is frowned upon
  • Oh 2013 found collectivist countries show higher levels of compliance
• Asch - independence > conformity

  • if only one third of the trials in Asch's research showed conformity, it means 70% of participants did not
  • people have a tendency to stick to what they believe
• Outline 2 methods used to investigate conformity

  Asch's line judgement task

  Jenness' study on estimating the beans in a jar
• explain normative social influence

  • based on the desire to be liked and accepted by the group
  • going against the majority isn't easy
  • humans are social species and have a fundamental need for social companionship
• explain informational social influence

  • comes from the desire to be right
  • people look to others for the right answer
  • its more likely in ambiguous situations, crisis and when we believe others are experts
• who investigated NSI and ISI

  Deutsch and Gerard 1955
• define conformity to social roles

  • it involves identification which is stronger than compliance
  • involves both public and private acceptance of behaviours and beliefs exhibited
  • e.g. behavioural changes that fit the social norms
• zimbardo's prison experiment sample:

  • 24 male volunteers
  • at standford university
  • volunteer sample
• explain the process of zimbardo's prison experiment

  • participants were randomly assigned to be a prisoner or a guard
  • the 'prisoners' were handed over to the 'guards'
  • social roles were reinforced by uniforms
  • prisoners were deindividuated by using numbers instead of their names
• what were the findings from Zimbardo's study

  • prisoners initially resisted the orders of the guards
  • the guards continually harassed and humiliated the prisoners
  • some behaved in a brutal and sadistic manner
  • the prisoners became increasingly passive and docile
  • the experiment should've lasted 2 weeks but ended 8 days early
• what were zimbardo's conclusions

  • the SPE showed the power of conforming to social roles
  • also demonstrated the tendency for aggressive behaviour to be heightened when conforming to a powerful social role
  • this was more likely as both guards and prisoners were dehumanised
• which prisoner later admitted to faking behaviour in zimbardo's study

  8612
• BBC Prison Study - Reicher & Haslam 2006

  • 15 male volunteers divided into 5 groups of 3
  • matched pairs design
  • one person randomly assigned as a guard and the other two were prisoners
• what did the BBC study find

  • unlike SPE, conformity did not occur immediately
  • prisoners worked collectively to challenge the guards authority
  • the guards failed to identify with their roles
  • this led to a shift in power and the collapse of the prisoner-guard system
• strengths to zimbardo's study

  • Important applications - it has altered the prison systems
  • real life similarities - abu ghuraib prison in Iraq where war prisoners were humiliated by military
  • highlights the influence of one person why defied orders of a malevolent authority
• weaknesses to zimbardo's study

  • low internal validity due to serious concerns about investigator effects and demand characteristics
  • zimbardo heavily influences guards behaviours
  • unethical - no protection from harm, the ends did not justify the means
  • the result may be unreliable as the BBC study provided conflicting results
• which study demonstrated conformity to social roles

  zimbardo stanford prison experiment
• what was wrong with zimbardo's sample

  it was androcentric
• what props were used to emphasise the guards social roles in the SPE

  uniforms
• what methodological issues did the SPE have

  • demand characteristics
  • investigator effects
• how did zimbardo's instructions change the behaviour in the experiment

  he implied that brutality was desirable or even necessary, recordings show that investigators intervened if guards weren't harsh enough
• who investigated obedience to authority

  milgram
• what is obedience to authority

  a type of social influence whereby someone acts in response to a direct order from a figure perceived with authority
• what is obedience

  immediately following direct orders
• what was the sample for Milgram's study

  • 40 male volunteers
  • volunteer sample
  • all between 20 and 50
  • recruited through ads and mailing
• how much were participants in milgrams study paid

  $4.50
• who was the authority figure in milgram's study

  Mr Williams - identified by his white lab coat
• explain milgram's study

  • assigned learner (confederate) and teacher (volunteer) roles
  • learners were strapped to a chair with electrodes taped to their head and hooked up to a generator
  • teachers were taken into a room where they could not see the learner
  • Milgram had placed warnings on the generator from 'moderate shock' to 'dangerous shock' to 'XXX'
  • learners had to recite a list of words and got shocked if they got one wrong
  • after 300v the learner stopped responding but the teacher was told to continue shocking them