Social influence

• Conformity definition 


  When a person changes their attitude or behaviour due to a real or imagined group pressure
• Kelman (1958) 


  He came up with 3 levels of conformity

  Compliance

  Identification

  Internalisation
• Compliance 


  Change public behaviour - yes

  Change private beliefs - no

  Short or long term - short term

  Nsi or Isi - Nsi
• Identification


  Change in public behaviour- yes

  Change in private beliefs - yes

  Long or short term - short term

  Nsi or Isi - Nsi
• Internalisation 


  Change in public behaviour- yes Change in private beliefs - yes Long or short term - long term Nsi or Isi - Isi
• Normative social influence (Nsi)


  Conformity to be accepted and belong to a group

  • Socially rewarding
  • Avoid punishment
• Informational social influence 


  Conform to gain knowledge and be 'right'

  • To act appropriately
  • To avoid standing out
• Jeness (1932) - looked at group pressure on conformity

  • Used a glass bottle filled with jelly beans
  • Asked individuals to guess the amount
  • He then put them in groups in a room and asked to come up with a group answer
  • Nearly all participants changed their original answer
• Asch (1951)

  • 123 males students
  • Line judgement task where 1 participant was placed ina room of confederates
  • The participant was 2nd feom last and the correct answer was always clear
  • Each participant had 18 trials
• Asch (1951) results 


  On adverage conformity rate was 32%

  74% conformed at least once

  26% never conformed
• Perrin and Spencer (1981) 


  Did Asch's study 30 years later

  33 male students studying engineering, chemistry or maths

  0.25% conformed
• Smith and bond (1993)


  Conducted meta-analysis of 31 studies and found 2 key findings in Belgium and Fiji
• Asch (1951) advantages

  • It's a lab study so it can be easily replicated
  • It proved the aim (people give into social pressure)
• Asch (1951) disadvantages

  • Lacks ecological validity
  • Conformity rate in 1951 will be very different nowerdays
  • It's a biased sample - only white, American, male students
  • Perrin and Spencer (1981) goes against the study
  • Artificial study so results are non reliable. It's not an everyday task
• Zimbardos Stanford prison experiment (1973)

  • 22 male college students who seemed the most suitable
  • Randomly assigned 'prisoner' and 'guard' roles (one dropped out so there were 10 prisoners and 11 guards)
  • Prisoners wore numbered smocks, they were referred to as their numbers
  • The Prisoners were fake arrested at their homes
  • Zimbardo acted as a prison warden
  • It was supposed to last 2 weeks bit terminated after 6 days
• Stanford prison experiment (1973) effects

  The environment had an immediate effect

  Prisoners became verbally hostile

  After one day prisoners barricaded themselves in cells.

  Within 4 days 4 prisoners had to be released due to emotional disturbance and another on the 5th day
• Zimbardo (1973) disadvantages

  • The sample was white, middle class young men - it can't be generalised to others
  • There was a lack of informed consent - it is unethical to deceive and manipulate consent. It may have changed the outcome of the experiment
  • Extreme psychological distress - it's unethical participants weren't given the right to withdraw and this caused even more psychological harm
  • Zimbardo was involved with his own research - he could have changed different aspects to get the results he wanted
• Zimbardos (1973) advantage 


  It has high internal validity - it was conducted in a laboratory so variables were controlled
• Milgrams study (1963) 


  40 male volunteers were selected

  They were introduced to a confederate who would be the 'learner'

  The participant would be the 'teacher'

  The teacher had to ask the learner a series of questions and were instructed to deliver electric shocks if they got an answer incorrect.

  If they refused they were given prompts to continue up to 450 volts.
• Milgrams study (1963) results

  100% of the sample went up to 300 volts

  65% went to 450 volts
• Milgram (1963) evaluation disadvantages

  Ethical issues - distress : participants may had felt severe distress when faced with a situation to shock someone

  Deception: the participants thought they were actually causing harm to someone

  Right to withdraw : Milgram did not give participants the chance to leave the experiment and even influenced them to carry on once they wanted to withdraw.
• Milgram (1963) evaluation advantages 


  It has high ecological validity - milgram did other variations in other settings and participants did think that the experiment was real
• Define resistance to social influence

  Refers to the ability of people to withstand the social pressure to Conform to the majority or obey authority

  There are 2 types
• 2 types of resistance to social influence

  • Social support
  • Locus of control
• Social support 


  The presence of people who resist pressures to Conform or obey can help others to do the same. These people act as models to show others that resistance to social influence is possible
• Social support conformity

  • Conformity is reduced by a dissenting peer
  • The effect is not long lasting
• Social support obedience

  • Obedience is reduced by one dissenting partner
  • The dissenters disobedience frees the people to act on their own
• Locus of control 


  Refers to the sense we have about what directs our lives

  Refers to a person's perception of personal control over their own behaviour (personality)
• Internal locus of control

  High levels of control over their lives and behaviour, take personal responsibility for it

  Seek out information that will help them personally and are less likely to rely on others
• External locus of control

  Believe life is determined by external/environmental factors -luck

  High externals, more likely to be influenced by others, don't believe they have control over their lives
• Social support conformity research

  Asch -

  Found conformity rates dropped to 5.5% when one confederate gave a different answer to the rest

  Even if the answer was still wrong
• Social support obedience research

  Milgram-

  Obedience dropped from 65% to 10% when participants were joined by a disobedient confederate

  Independent behaviour increased from 35% to 90% in the disobedient peer condition
• Define social change 


  When society adapts to a new way of behaving which becomes the norms.

  Social change usually brings conflict

  Starts with a minority
• Stages of minority influence

  1. Drawing attention to the cause - exposed to the views of the minority
  2. Cognitive influence - examine arguments closely
  3. Consistency- minorities are taken more seriously when consistent
  4. The augmentation principle- risks of consequence the minority are willing to take
  5. Snowball effect - speads widely overtime
• minority influence evaluation

  • social change is slow (only a potential change)
  • minority groups are seen as deviant and will therefore be avoided
  • minorities try to save the issue of being deviant by claiming to be similar to the majority
• minority influence 


  social norms approach - if people perceive something to be the norm they change their own actions to fit into the norm (nsi)
• perceived norm 


  behaviours are based on what you think others believe and do
• the actual norm 


  the actual beliefs and actions that people do and think
• misperception 


  the gap between the perceived norm and the actual norm
• social norms interventions 


  correcting the misperception on a basis to approach a social change