Psychology - social influence

What are the types of conformity

• Internalisation

  • a person genuinely accepts the group norms

  • private & public change

  • behaviour exists even in absence of group

  • most permanent form

  • can be linked to ISI

• Identification

  • conforming to opinions/behaviours of a group because there is something about the group that we value

  • we identify with a group so want to be a part of it

  • publicly change opinions even if we dont agree privately

• Compliance

  • going along with others in public - want to be accepted

  • public not private

  • weakest form

  • can be linked to NSI

What are explanations for conformity

• ISI (informational social influence)

  • going along with an individual/group as we feel that they are likely right

  • cognitive process

  • most likely to happen in situations that are new, there is ambiguity, or in crisis situations

• NSI (normative social influence)

  • when we want to fit in so go along with the group

  • emotional

  • likely in situations with strangers where you feel concerned about rejection, social approval from friends or in stressful situations where we have a greater need for social support

What were Asch’s variations

• Group size

  • manipulated number of confederates

  • with 3 confeds, conformity to wrong answer rose to 31.8%

• Unanimity

  • introduced a dissenting confederate

  • conformity reduced a quarter from the level it was when the majority was unanimous

• Task difficulty

  • made lines more similar in length

  • conformity increased

  • ISI plays a greater role when task is harder

What were Milgram’s situational variables

• Proximity

  • in og study, teacher & learner in adjoining rooms

  • variation - in the same room

  • obedience dropped from 65% - 40%

  • touch proximity - reduced to 30%

• Location

  • conducted variation in a run-down building rather than the university (Yale)

  • obedience fell to 47.5%

• Uniform

  • in og - experimenter wore a grey lab coat

  • variation - experimenter replaced by an ‘ordinary member of the public’ (confederate) in everyday clothes

  • dropped to 20%

What is the Agentic state

• when someone feels compelled to obey the orders issued by a higher authority.

• allows them to pass responsibility on to someone else

• believes they are acting for someone else

What is the autonomous state

• opposite of agentic

• feels free to behave according to their own principles

• feels responsibility for their actions

• shift from autonomy to ‘agency’ is the agentic shift - Milgram suggested this occurs when a person perceives someone else as a figure of authority

What is legitimacy of authority

when someone holds authority in society that is legitimate because it has been agreed by the society

What is the authoritarian personality

a particular type of personality who has a desire for security, a high conventional outlook and a rigid and obedient attitude towards authority figures

What did Adorno believe was the origin of the Authoritarian personality

• childhood - through harsh parenting, conditional love

• this creates resentment and hostility in the child

What can social support help someone resist

• conformity

  • the pressure to conform can be reduced if there are other people present who are not conforming

  • Asch’s evidence - presence of a dissenter

• Obedience

  • the pressure to obey can be reduced if there is another person who is seen to disobey

  • Milgram’s variations - rate of obedience dropped from 65% - 10% when the genuine participant was joined by a disobedient confederate

Who proposed the concept of Locus of Control

Julian Rotter (1966)

What is an internal locus of control

• people with an internal locus of control believe that the things that happen to them are largely controlled by themselves

• e.g. if they did well in an exam they would believe it was down to their own hard work and revision

• more likely to be able to resist pressures to conform or obey

What is an external locus of control

People with an external locus of control believe that things happen without their own control - believe that external factors are responsible for the events/outcomes e.g. if they did well on a test they would believe it was down to easy questions or having a good teacher

What is minority influence

• Situations where one person or a small group of people influences the beliefs and behaviour of other people

• different from conformity where the majority is doing the influencing

• most likely to lead to internalisation

• Moscovici first studied this process with his ‘blue slide, green slide’ study

What are the points needed for minority influence

• Consistency

  • the consistency in the minority’s views increases the amount of interest from other people

  • this consistency might be synchronic consistency (they are all saying the same thing) or diachronic consistency (consistency over time)

• Commitment

  • extreme activities to draw attention to their views

  • majority members then pay more attention (the augmentation principle)

• Flexibility

  • Nemeth (1986) argued that consistency is not the only important factor because it can be interpreted negatively - can come across as too rigid and inflexible

  • members of the group need to be prepared to adapt their pov and accept reasonable and valid counter-arguements

  • they need to find a balance between consistency ad flexibility

What is the snowball effect

• over time, increasing numbers of people switch from the majority to the minority position,

• the more this happens the faster the rate of conversion

• gradually the minority view becomes the majority view

What are some examples of social change - minority influence

• Civil rights movement

• Suffragettes

What is the six steps of social change

1. Drawing attention

2. Consistency

3. Deeper processing

4. Augmentation principle

5. Snowball effect

6. Social cryptomnesia