Social influence

What is conformity?

is defined as a change in a person's behaviour or opinions as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or a group of people.

what are the two type of confirmity

compliance and internalisation

what are the two explanations of conformity?

Normative social influence and Informationnal social influence

What is compliance

Superficial and temporary type of conformity where we publicly agree with the group/ crowd but privately disagree. Only lasts whilst we are with the group. (short term)

What is internalisation

Internalisation happens when the individual genuinely accepts the views of the group because we believe they are correct. This leads to a change in both public and private behaviour/opinions.

This change is likely to be permanent.

What is normative social influence

Normative Social Influence (NSI) explains that we conform with the expectations of the majority in order to fit in due to our need to be liked. You don't want to be rejected by the group

Leads to compliance

What informational social influence

Informational Social Influence (ISI) explains that we conform due to our need to be right.

We agree with the opinion of majority because we believe it is correct and we accept it because we want to be correct too.

Leads to internalisation

APFC - Aschs Research

Aim - created a study to assess to what extent people will conform to the opinion of others even when the answer is certain.

E.g. if 2+2 = 4, will participants answer

5 to conform with the majority?

Procedure

• 123 American men
  Each one in a group with confederate (fake participants)

• They each saw large white cards: standard line vs comparison line.

• Had to answer loudly

Findings and Conlusion

• Participants agreed with confederates wrong answer averagely 36.8% of times.

• Only 25% never conformed - 75% did conform.

• C-Participants conform even when the correct answer is clear

What are the three Aschs variations

Group size

Unanimity

task difficulty

Effect of group size

Conformity increased with group size up to a point

conformity rose to 31.8% with 3 confederates

size majority above 3 did not increase level of conformity

effect of unanimity

presence of non conforming person made confederates conform less

suppppory by one confederate decreased conformity from 33% to 5.5%

effect of task difficulty

the hardest the task the more participants conformed

if difference in line was smaller then conformity increased

What is obedience

A form of social influence in which individuals follow a direct order.

The person issuing the order is usually someone of power/authority and usually has the power to punish the behaviour if not followed through.

APFC Milgram

Aim

Milgram was interested in why the German population had followed the orders of a dictator, Hitler, and slaughtered over 10 million Jewish people.

Procedure

40 American men (volunteers) .

Each volunteer was paired with another ppt (confederate)

Each volunteer was drawn to be the teacher "by chance" ( it wasn't chance) and the confederate was the "learner" The learner had to learn a list of words, if they forget or gave wrong response the teacher would have to deliver a shock varying from 15-450 volts.

The experimenter was dressed in a grey laboratory coat

Findings

Every participants delivered a shock of up to 300 volts.

12.5% stopped at 300 volts

65% continued to 450 volts.

Milgram also qualitative data through observation: ppts were "sweating, trembling, biting their lips.."

Conclusion

Milgram concluded that American are not different to German people and are willing to obey orders even when they are harming others.

What are situational variable s

External features(physical and social) which influence a persons' behaviour

What are the three situational variables

proximity

location

uniform

Effect of proximity

Physical closeness (e.g. closeness of teacher and learner)

• When teacher and learner were in the same room: obedience dropped from 65% to 40%

• When experimenter left the room and gave instructions through phone: obedience reduced to 20.5%

Effect of location

Place where the order was issued

When the experiment was conducted in a run-down office: obedience fell to 47.5%

Effect of Uniform

People in authority that have specific outfits to symbolise their authority

• When the role of the experimenter (grey lab coat) was taken by an ordinary man: obedience fell to 20%

What is social psychology explaintion

Social-psychological explanations concern the influences of others on an individual's behaviour as opposed to external factors in the situation.

What are two social psychology explanations

The agentic state

Legitimacy of authority

What is agentic state

A mental state where we feel no personal responsibility for our behaviour because we believe we are acting on behalf of an authority figure e.g. agent.

What is the autonomous state

a person in this state is free to behave according to their own principles and therefore feels a sense of responsibility for their own actions.

What is the agentic shift

The shift from autonomy to agentic state is the agentic shift. This shift occurs when a person perceives someone else as a figure of authority. The other person has the power because of their position in the social hierarchy.

what are binding factors

These are aspects of the situation that allow the person to ignore or minimize the damaging effect of their behaviour and thus reduce the 'moral strain' they are feeling.

What is legitimacy of authority

An explanation for obedience which suggests that we are more likely to obey to those we perceive to have authority over us.

what is destructive authority

Destructive authority when they order people lower down in the social hierarchy to act in cruel and torturous ways.

What is dispositional explanation

Dispositional explanation - internal factors such as personality which make us more prone to be obedient.

What is authoritarian personality

The Authoritarian Personality is a personality type which that Adorno argues makes individuals more prone to obey people in authority.

What is the F scale

a measure (questionnaire) of to test Authoritarian personality

APFC Adorno et al research

Aim

Adorno et al., (1950) aimed to understand the authoritarian personality and its features.

Procedure

• 2000 middle class white Americans

• The F-scale was used to gain information about people's opinions towards different groups.

Examples of questions in the F-scale questionnaire are:

'Obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues children should learn'

"There is hardly anything lower than a person who does not feel a great gratitude and respect for his parents'

Findings

• People with high scores on the F-scale were labelled to have an authoritarian personality.

C ?

Features of people with Authoritarian personality

Rigid thinkers

Have great respect for authority

See the world in black and white

• Enforce strict adherence to social rules and hierarchies

• They identify with strong people and generally find weak people worthless

• Are conscious of their own and others' status
  Hold fixed and distinctive stereotypes of groups of people

Previous LO:

Understanding

situational factors as an explanation for

Where does authoritarian

Where does authoritarian personality come from

Authoritarian personality originates in childhood as a result of harsh parenting.

Parenting style features

• extremely strict discipline/ conditional love

• Expectation of absolute loyalty : impossibly high standards severe criticism of perceived failure.

What is resistance to social influence

The ability of people to withstand the social pressure to conform to the majority or to obey authority.

What are the two reasons people resist to social influence e

social support situational

locus control disposituonal

What is social support

The presence of people who resist pressures to conform or obey can help others do the same.

Social support in conformity

Social support can help people resist conformity. The pressure to conform can be reduced it there are other people who are not conforming.

Asch's variation of social support introduced an ally who also gave the right answer (resisting the majority) which caused conformity levels to drop sharply from 33% to 5.5%

Social support in obedience

Social support can also help people resist obedience. The pressure to obey can be reduced if there is another person who is seen to disobey.

In one of Milgram's variations, the rate of obedience dropped form 65% to 10% when the genuine participant was joined by a disobedient confederate.

What is locus of control

Locus of control refers to a person's perception of personal control over their own behaviour.

It is a personality explanation!

Describe internal locus of control

An individual who believes their life is determined by their own decisions

Describe external locus of control

An individual who believes their life is determined by fate, luck and external factors.

How does high internal locus of control effect resistance to social influence

High internals actively seek out information which will help them personally and are less likely to rely on others.

They are more achievement orientated. They can resist pressure from others.

how does high external locus go control effect behaviour

High Externals are more likely to be influenced by others as they don't believe they exercise personal control over their lives.

What is minority influence

Minority influence refers to situations where one person or a small group of people (i.e. a minority) influences the beliefs and behaviour of other people.

What are the theee factors affecting minority influence

Consistency

commitment

flexibility

Consistency

Minority influence is most effective when they all keep the same beliefs, over time and is consistent.

commitment

Minority must demonstrate commitment to their cause or view. Making personal sacrificed which can be risky at times.

flexibility

Minority must show flexibility by accepting the possibility of compromise

APFC - Moscovici's blue-green slide study

(1969)

Aim

to demonstrate minority influence

Procedure

• 172 female participants who were told that they were taking part in a colour perception task.

• The participants were placed in groups of six and shown 36 slides, which were all varying shades of blue.

• In each group of 6, there were 2 confederates (the minority) and 4 real participants.

• The participants had state out loud the colour of each slide.

Conditions

Condition 1) The two confederates (minority) answered green for EVERY slide. They were consistent.

Condition 2) They answered green 24 times and blue 12 times. They were inconsistent.

Condition 3) Control group - no confederates, so no social influence.

Findings

Condition 1) In the consistent minority condition, real participants said green on 8.2% of the trials

Condition 2) In the inconsistent minority condition, real participants said green on 1.25% of the trials

This shows that a consistent minority is 6.95% more effective than an inconsistent minority

Conclusion

consistency is key