Social influence

• What is conformity?


  Defined as a change in belief or behaviour in response to real or imagined social pressure. It is also known as majority influence.
• What is an example of conformity?


  Going on a scary ride
• What are the three types of conformity?


  Compliance, Internalisation and Identification
• What is compliance?


  -Refers to instances where a person may agree in public with a group of people but the person actually privately disagrees with the group's viewpoint or behaviour. The individual changes their views, but it is a temporary change.

  -E.g. a person may laugh at a joke because their group of friends find it funny but deep down the person does not find the joke funny.
• What is Internalisation?


  -Publicly changing behaviour to fit in with the group while also agreeing with them privately. An internal (private) and external (public) change of behaviour. This is the deepest level of conformity were beliefs of a group become part of the individual's own belief system.

  -E.g. An example of internalisation is if someone lived with a vegetarian at university and then decides to also become one too because they agree with their friends viewpoint.
• What is Identification?


  -Identification occurs when someone conforms to the demands of a given social role in society. -E.g. a policeman, teacher or politician. This type of conformity extends over several aspects of external behaviour. However, there still be no changed to internal personal opinion.
• Why do people conform?

  Informational Social Influence (ISI) and Normative Social Influence (NSI)
• What is Informational Social Influence (ISI)?


  -A form of influence, which is the result of the desire to be correct - looking at others is a way of gaining evidence for this.

  -In uncertain situations especially we look to others to find out how to behave which can lead to any of the 3 types of conformity.
• What is Normative Social Influence (NSI)?


  A form of influence whereby and individual conforms with the expectations of the majority in order to gain approval or avoid disapproval.
• What are the discussion points for the explanations of conformity?

  -NSI and ISI can overlap in situations

  -Different tasks in Asch's line study e.g. 1 true participant, 1 true participant with someone else saying the correct answer, 1 true participant writing the answers down.
• In Asch's line study, what did he want to investigate?

  Whether people would conform to the majority in situations where an answer was obvious.
• What was the procedure in Asch's line study?

  - 5-7 participants per group.

  -Each group was presented with a standard line and three comparison lines.

  -Participants had to say aloud which comparison line matched the standard line in length.

  -In each group there was only one true participant the remaining 6 were confederates.

  -The confederates were told to give the incorrect answer on 12 out of 18 trails.
• What are the results of Asch's line study?

  True participants conformed on 32% of the critical trials where confederates gave the wrong answers. Additionally 75% of the sample conformed to the majority on at least one trial.
• What validity does Asch's line study lack and why?

  Ecological validity as it was based on peoples' perception of lines, this does not reflect the complexity of real life conformity.
• What other issues is involved with this study?

  Sampling issues as it was only carried out on men so the sample was gender bias and therefore results cannot be applied to females. Sample therefore lacks population validity.
• What ethical issues are there in Asch's line study?

  -Deception as participants were told the study was about perception of lines

  -They could not give informed consent.

  -Participants may have felt embarrassed when the true nature of the study was revealed.

  -Potentially put them through some form of psychological harm. However Asch did debrief at the end.
• What links does Asch's line study have with other theories?

  Some Participants said they conformed to fit in with the group, this claim supports NSI.
• What was the procedure in Jenness' Bean Jar Experiment?

  Participants were asked to estimate how many beans they thought was in a jar. Each participant had to make an individual estimate, and then do the same as a group.
• What results were found in Jenness' Bean Jar Experiment?

  In a social group, participants would report estimates of roughly the same value (even though they had previously reported quite different estimates as individuals).
• What was this study successful in showing?

  Majority influence proving that individuals' behaviour and beliefs can be influenced by a group. Additionally this is an example of ISI as participants are uncertain about the actual number of beans in the jar.
• How does a groups size effect conformity?

  -An individual is more likely to conform when in a larger group.

  -E.g. Asch altered the number of confederates in his study to see how this effected conformity. He found that conformity increases with each extra person (i.e. confederate) in the group. However, conformity did not increase much after the group size was about 4/5.

  -Because conformity does not seem to increase in groups larger than four, this is considered the optimal group size.
• How does task difficulty effect conformity?


  -When we are uncertain, it seems we look to others for confirmation. The more difficult the task the greater the conformity.

  -E.g. Asch altered the (comparison) lines (e.g. A, B, C) making them more similar in length. Because it was harder to judge the correct answer conformity increased.
• How does unanimity effect conformity?

  -A person is more likely to conform when all members of the groups are in agreement and give the same answer.

  -When one other person in the group gave a different answer from the others, and the group answer was not unanimous, conformity dropped.

  -Asch (1951) found that even the presence of just one confederate that goes against the majority choice can reduce conformity as much as 80%.
• How does NSI effect conformity?

  -Desire to be liked

  -E.g. a person may feel pressurised to smoke because the rest of their friends are

  -NSI leads to compliance as the person smokes just for show but deep down they wish not to smoke

  -This means any change of behaviour is temporary.

  -Linked to Asch's study as people wanted to fit in the group.
• How does ISI effect conformity?

  -Desire to be right

  -ISI leads to internalisation.

  -E.g. if someone was to go to a posh restaurant for the first time, they may be confronted with several forks and not know which one to use, so they might look to a near by person to see what fork to use first.

  -This is linked to Jenness' Bean Jar Study as
• What are the strengths of Asch's line study?

  -Lab experiment so has high control of variables.

  -Several replications of this study due to the high control of variables
• What is Social Roles?

  The part people play as members of a social group (e.g. student, teacher, policeman etc). There is considerable pressure to conform to the expectations of a social role. Conforming to a social role is called identification.
• What did Zimbardo want to investigate?

  How readily people would conform to the social roles of guard and prisoner in a role-playing exercise that simulated prison life.
• What was the procedure in Zimbardos Stanford Prison Experiment?

  -Study the roles people play in prison situations

  -Zimbardo converted a basement of the Stanford University Psychology Building into a mock prison

  -He advertised for students to play the roles of prisoners and guards for a fortnight.

  -Participants randomly assigned to the role of prisoner or guard in a simulated prison environment.

  -Prisoners were issued a uniform and referred to by their numbers.

  -Guards were issued a khaki uniform, together with whistles, handcuffs and dark glasses, to make eye contact with prisoners impossible.

  -Guards worked shifts of 8 hours each (other guards remained on call)

  -No physical violence was permitted.

  -Zimbardo observed the behaviour of the prisoners and guards (as a researcher), and also acted as a prison warden.
• What are the findings of Zimbardos Stanford Prison Experiment?

  -Both guards and prisoners settled into their roles very quickly.

  -Guards adopted theirs quickly and easily.

  -Guards began to harass prisoners within the first few hours of the experiment.

  -Brutal behaviour and sadistic manner, apparently enjoying it

  -Other guards joined in, so other prisoners were tormented

  -Prisoners soon adopted prisoner-like behaviour.

  -Talked about prison issues a great deal of the time

  -They 'told tales' on each other to the guards

  -Took the prison roles very seriously, some even began siding with the guards against prisoner who disobeyed the rules

  -As the prisoners became more submissive, the guards became more aggressive and assertive

  -Demanded greater obedience from the prisoners

  -Prisoners were dependent on guards for everything so tried to find ways to please the guards, such as telling tales on fellow prisoners.
• What could demand characteristics explain in the Zimbardos Stanford Prison Experiment?

  -Could explain the findings of the study

  -Most guards later claimed they were acting

  -As the guards and prisoners were playing a role their behaviour may not be influenced by similar factors which affects their behaviour in real life

  -Shows the studies' findings aren't generalisable to real life e.g. prison settings i.e. study has low ecological validitySee an expert-written answer!We have an expert-written solution to this problem!
• What validity does Zimbardos Stanford Prison Experiment lack?

  -Population validity as the sample comprised US male students

  -The findings can't be applied to female prisons or those from other countries

  -For example, America is an individualist culture (were people are generally less conforming) and the results maybe different in collectivist cultures (such as Asian countries).
• What are the strengths of Zimbardos Stanford Prison Experiment?

  -Altered the way US prisons are run

  -E.g. juveniles accused of federal crimes are no longer housed before trial with adult prisoners (due to the risk of violence against them)

  -Harmful treatment of participant led to the formal recognition of ethical guidelines

  -Studies must now gain ethical approval before they are conducted

  -An ethics committee review whether the potential benefits of the research are justifiable in the light of possible risk of physical or psychological harm

  -They may request researchers make changes to the studies design or procedure, or in extreme cases deny approval of the study altogether.
• What are the ethics of Zimbardos Stanford Prison Experiment?

  -Lack of fully informed consent by participants as Zimbardo himself didn't know what would happen in the experiment (it was unpredictable)

  -Prisoners didn't consent to being 'arrested' at home.

  -Pariticpants playing the role pf prisoners weren't protected from psychological harm, making them humiliated and distressed

  -E.g. one prisoner had to be released after 36 hours because of uncontrollable bursts of screaming, crying and anger

  -Emotional distress experienced by the prisoners could not have been predicted from the outset

  -Zimbardo did conduct debriefing sessions for several years afterwards and concluded they were no lasting negative effects.
• What is Obedience?


  A type of social influence where a person follows an order from another person who is usually an authority figure.
• In Milgram's shock study, what did Milgram want to find out?

  Why Germans were willing to kill Jews during the Holocaust. He thought that it might have been because German's were just evil.
• What did Milgram think about Americans?

  He thought Americans were different and would not follow orders. To test this 'German's are different' hypothesis he carried out this study
• What was the Procedure of the Milgram study?

  -Milgram wanted to see if people would obey a legitimate authority figure when given instructions to harm another person.

  -He created a set which two participants were assigned either a role as a teacher (always given to true participants) or learner (confederate called Mr. Wallace)

  -Teacher and learner put into separate rooms

  -Teacher was asked by the experimenter (who wore a lab coat) to administer electric shocks (which were actually harmless) to the learner each time he gave the wrong answer.

  -Shocks increased every time the learner gave a wrong answer, from 15 - 450 volts.

  -Experimenter (Mr Williams) wore a grey lab coat and he gave a series of orders/prods when the participant refused to administer a shock

  -4 prods and if one was not obeyed then the experimenter read out the next prod, and so on:

  Prod 1: Please continue.

  Prod 2: The experiment requires you to continue.

  Prod 3: Absolutely essential that you continue.

  Prod 4: No choice but to continue.
• What are the results of the Milgram Shock Study?

  -All participants went to 300 volts and 65% were willing to go all the way to 450 volts

  -Milgram did more than one experiment - he carried out 18 variations of his study.

  -All altered the situation (IV) to see how this affected obedience (DV)

  -E.g. the experimenter instructed and prompted the teacher by telephone from another room, obedience fell to 20.5%.
• What is a limitation of the Milgram Shock Study?

  -Lacks ecological validity as it was carried under artificial conditions.

  -So It'll be harder to generalise to real life settings as people don't receive orders to hurt other people

  -The sample was biased.

  -Milgram only used males so the study can't be generalised to females