SOCIAL INFLUENCE

what is conformity

this is the process of changing your behaviour or beliefs to fit in with a majority

what are the types of conformity

internalisation and compliance

who suggested that there were types of confirmity

Kelman

what is internalisation

this is when you change your behaviour publicly and privately i.e the change is still there even tho you are no longer with the group

what is compliance

this is the process where you claim to have changed your opinion or view point publicly but privately disagree. this is usually temporary

who where the psychologist that develpoed a two way process theory explananing the reasons for conformity

Gerard and Deutsch

what are the two explanations for why people conform

normative social influence and informative social influence

what is isi

this is the process by which people conform or follow a group based of of the idea that the group knows what they are doing or is right. this usually stems from the need to be right

who did the research to support isi

lucas et al and also asch

What research support is linked to the idea of isi

lucas et el when he asked students to give answers to math questions that were both easy and difficult and he found out that there was greater conformity to the harder questions especially amongst he kids who are bad at math

what type of conformity does isi usually lead to

internalisation

what is good about the isi research

it has resaech support suggesting that it is a thing for example lucas et el

what is the weakness in the research that supports isi

it is too over simplified as they participants where given math problems which does not reflect the actuall emotional pressure involved in conformity

what is nsi

this is conforming to a particular belief or idea in order to be liked by the majority

what type of conformity does nsi usually lead to

compliance

what research did asch do to support the idea of nsi and also the variable affecting conformity

the one with lines

outline aschs reasearch

1. participants here presented with 4 lines with only one standard line

2. they were then asked to state which of the lines were the same length as the line in question

3. the participants was in the same room with the confedrate where they were position of last or second to last to answer

4. confederates were made to give the wrong answer for 12 outta 18 of the trials

what was the population of aschs research

123 male americans

what were the outcomes of aschs research

1. 36.8% conformed

2. 25% did not conform

3. 75% conformed at least once

what is were the strengths of Asch's research

1. high internal validity

2. was easily repeatable

what were the weaknesses in aschs research

1. lacks ecological validity
2. lacks population validity
3. might not be valid due to the time period

explain how high internal validity in aschs study is a strength

there was a strict control over extraneous variables like timing of assessment and the type of task. the participants also did the experiment without the confederate to prove that they did know the correct answer. this shows that the result of the experiment was indeed a result of conformity

how is the fact that aschs study easily repeatable a strength

people have been able to repeat aschs experiment over the years to give similar results

explain how aschs study lacking ecological validity is a weakness

his study does not replicate real world solutions so his study does not emmulate the emotional and psychological process associated with conformity

explain how aschs study lacking population validity is a weakness

he only used american males and so the study was subject to gender bias as it generalises that men and women would act the same way

what psychologist later repeated aschs study with both male and females and wat was the results

mori and arai and they found out that women conformed more than men

explain how aschs study having ethical issues is a weakness

there was a deception as participants were tricked into thinking the study was about perception so could not give an informed consent. although it was argued that the real reason could not be exposed as it would cause the hawthorne effect

what is the hawthorne effect

when participants change thier way of acting simply because they know they are being studied

how is the study being outdated a weakness to the aschs study

in the 1920 when the study was done it was an anti communist period where people were scared to be different. psychologist have argued that this motion at that time could have been the reason for conformity

what psychologist looked into the variables affecting conformity

asch

what kind of test did asch carry out

a line judgement task where participants had to match a standard line to three lines in comparison

what factors did the psychologist that looked into the variables affecting conformity look at

group size unanimity task difficulty

what is a confederate

a fake participants

how asch investigate the factor of group size

1. asch varied the number of confederates from 1 to 15
2. he found out that conformity increased with group size but only stopped at 3 people as after 3 people it did not make much of a difference showing that a large amount of people is not needed for someone to conform

how did asch investigate the factor of unanimity

1. the point was to show that a person is more likely to conform when the group is unanimous i.e when they all give the same answers.
2. asch introduced a confederate that disagreed with majority of the group and found out that the level of conformity dropped drastically from 32% to 5.5%

how did asch investigate task difficulty

1. asch believed that conformity would increase with task difficulty
2. so asch made the lines much closer in length and conformity increased because the situation was difficult thereby shifting the reason for conforming from nsi to isi

what is obedience

following a dirct order from an authoritative figure

what is the agentic theory

this is a theory that states that people are more likely to obey when they are in an agentic state as they believe they will not suffer from the consequences of their actions

what is agentic state

this is when a person obeys someone in authority based of of the idea that they are no responsible for their own actions but the person who they are obeying is now responsible

what is legitimacy of authority

this is the measure of how credible a figure of authority is. people are more likely to obey if they are seen as credible in terms of being morally good.

what are factors that affect obedience

1. appearance of authoritative figure
2. the location/ surrounding of scenario
3. proximity

how does appearance of an authoritative person affect obedience

it increases the chances of obedience as they are looked up to and expected to know what they are doing

how does the location of the scenario affect obedience

the more serious or put together a place is, the higher the obedience as well as increasing trust

who was the researcher behind the idea of obedience

Milgram

what was milgrams sample

40 American male volunteers

what was milgrams aim

to observe if people would obey a figure of authority when told to harm another person

how did milgram carry out his experiment

1. participant was given a role of a teacher and confederate was then given the role as the learner
2. participants were asked to give a series of questions and whenever the confederate says the wrong answer the participant had to give him an electric shock and if no answer was given an electric shock would also be administered
3. the volts ranged from 300 to 450 where 330 was marked as the lethal dose
4. the psychologists role was to give orders to the participants and increase demandingness when the participant refused to shock the confederate

what did milgram find out from his experiment

1. all participants went up to 300
2. and 65% went up to 450
3. only 12.5% stopped at 300

how was proximity proven to affect obedience in milgrams study

the participants level of obedience was 65% percent when they were in the same room with the psychologist , 45 percent when the psychologist gave the order over the phone and 30 percent when they had t be the one to directly placed the hand of the confederate to be electrocuted

how is location proven to affect obedience in Milgrams study

the participants obeyed more when the study was in a prestigious university than a run down place it decreased to 48%

how does uniform affect obedience in the Milgram study

participants obeyed more when the psychologist wore a lab coat as it gives them a higher legitimacy. when he was in normal clothes the obedience rate dropped to 20%

what were the strengths of the milgram study

high ecological validity high internal validity and high external validity

how is the fact that the participants were debriefed after the experiment a strength in the milgram study

the experiment went against the guideline of protection and deception so after the experiment the participants were thoroughly debriefed about the main aims of the experiment and a year later 84% of the participants were glad they had this study and 74% felt like they learnt something so this suggest that the study lest little to no permanent or long term psychological harm

how is the fact that milgram study has real life applications a strength in milgrams research

it helps us to see the dangers of obedience and how it leads to problems in the society e.g the Nazis obeyed orders and as a result a lot of Jews were killed

how is high internal validity a strength in milgrams study

although Gina Perry reviewed tapes and found out that a large amount of participants raised questions about the legitimacy of the electrical shocks, the data gathered by Milgram shows that 70% of participants believed the shocks were real

how is the fact that milgrams experiment is highly replicable a strength for his experiment

its able to be repeated and still gives the same results for example the TV show that replicated Milgrams study found out that more than half of the people were willing to give lethal electric shocks which increases the reliability of the findings

how is the fact that the milgrams experiment has external validity a strength in his experiment

Hofling et el observed the behaviour of doctors and nurses in a natural experiment. the researchers found out that 95%of the nurses obeyed the doctor (a confederate) over the phone to increase the dosage of a patients medicine to double what was advised in a bottle.

what are the weaknesses of Milgrams research

1. ethical issues

2. it raises a socially sensitive issue

3. lack of internal validity

4. lack of ecological validity

how were they ethical issues in the milgram study and why is this a weakness. (what are the two ethical issues)

it is an ethical issue because there was deception and so informed consent was not taken although this deception was justified by the please-U effect where people change their behaviours once they become aware that you are studying them. it was also seen as unethical as psycological harm was also inflicted on the patient as seen by trembling and sweating. IT WAS ALSO COMMON IN THE TV SHOW THAT REPLICATED THIS STUDY SHOWING THAT THE RESULTS WERE NOT DUE TO THE PARTICIPANT BUT BY THE EXPERIMENT

how did milgrams study raise a social sensitive issue and how is it a social sensitive issue

because it shows that people who are responsible for killing innocent people can be excused because it is not thier personality that made them do it but because of the situation they were in and how hard it is for them to disobey. some may disagree with this especially in the judicial system where individuals are to take moral responsibility for thier actions

what questions where raised by psychologist about milgrams study

because the experiment reults may have been about trust instead of actual obedience because the experiment was held in a well known university so the participants may have trusted that nothing bad would happen to the confederate. this is evident as when the location was changed to a run down place obedience dropped to 20.5% showing that the experiment did not study what it was there to investigate

How does Milgram's study lack ecological validity?

the task that was given to the participants is not a representation of the everyday task of obedience which means that the method lacks mundane realism

what is mundane realism

it measures how closely an experiment and procedure mirror the real world