Social Influence is when a persons behaviour or attitude is influenced by other people/groups.
Compliance is when a person agrees in public, but privately they disagree.
Internalisation is the deepest level of conformity, when you both privately and publicly agree with the group view.
Identification is when a person conforms to the groups opinion because these is something about the group they value.
Normative social influence is when a person conforms to fit in with the group because they don't want to be left out.
Informational social influence is when a person conforms because they want to be right about something, so they conform to the opinions of those they believe hold more information than them.
Asch's line study
1. Groups of 5-7participants
2. Asked to say out loud which lines were the same length as the comparison line
3. Unknown to participants, only 1 real participant, rest were confederates hired to give the wrong answer
When the confederates all said the wrong answer, the participants conformed at least once 75% of the time
Asch's line study
Limitation) Lacks ecological validity
-> based on peoples perception of lines, doesn't reflect real life conformity.
Limitation) Sampling bias
-> Only tested men, cannot generalise results to women
1)Group Size: Curve-linear relationship where the size of the group affected conformity levels but only until a certain level (3 confeds).
2)Unanimity: Introduced another confed which disagreed with the unanimous decision. The participant conformed less in the presence of the dissenter.
3)Task Difficulty: The line task became harder, participants looked to the others for the right answer.
Stanford prison experiment
21 men, tested to be emotionally stable, were given randomly the role of 'prisoner' or 'guard'
Prisoners wore a loose smock, hat and were referred to as a number
Guards given tools and uniform
This caused a lack of personally identity called de-individualisation
Zimbardo did this so the participants were more likely to conform to their social role
Findings of the Stanford prison experiment
The guards treated the prisoners very harshly
The prisoners became emotionally disturbed
1 participant had to leave early
Stanford prison experiment
Limitation)Lack of realism
-> Guards said they were acting like a character in a show they watched. Suggests that they weren't conforming to social roles but merely "play-acting".
Limitation)Lacks population validity
->Only used male students, cannot generalise results to women.
Strength) Control over key varaibles.
->Participants tested as emotionally stable and randomly assigned roles. Researches ruled out individual personality differences as an explanation for the findings.