A level Psychology - Social Influence

NSI

A person conforms to be liked and accepted by a group. may lead to compliance

ISI

A person conforms because they believe the group is right and want to be right too. may lead to internalisation

Conformity

Change in a person’s behaviour or opinions as a result of real or imagined pressure from people

Social roles

characteristics and behaviours expected of someone who is in a certain position

internalisation

conforming to the group because you accept its norm privately and publicly

identification

conforming to the group because we value it and are prepared to change our view to be a part of it

compliance

superficial agreement with the group, agreeing publicly but holding different beliefs privately

ISI research

Lucas et. al asked students to give answers to maths problems of different difficulty. The students who rated their maths skills as poor, and the harder the problem got, the more students conformed, showing ISI as they want to be right.

nAffiliators

those who need an affiliation and to be liked by others

NSI research

McGhee and Teevan found students high in need of affiliation conformed more

Unanimity

The extent all members of a group agree

Group size - Asch

Conformity increases with group size but levels off after three people

Task difficulty - Asch

conformity increases with difficulty, naïve assume majority is correct

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What is conformity?

Yielding to group pressure, or the influence a group has over an individual. While most people see themselves as autonomous, they still tend to conform to social norms which can be explicit (e.g signs) or implicit (e.g not standing too close)

We conform to social norms which may be either E\_______ or I\_______

explicit, implicit

How did David Myers (1999) define conformity?

"A change in behaviour or belief as a result of real or imagined group pressure"

What are Kelman's 3 types of conformity?

Compliance

Identification

Internalisation

What is Compliance in conformity?

"temporary conformity"

.Publicly conforming to the behaviour or views of others but privately maintaining ones own views

What is Identification in conformity?

"Part-time conformity"

.A type of conformity in which people change their beliefs to fit in with a group, although they do not keep these views after leaving the group

What is Internalisation in conformity?

"Full-time conformity"

.A conversion of private views to match a group.

A true \_______________ of views will survive even if contact is lost with the influencer

internalisation

What was the aim of Asch's study?

To see if participants would conform to majority social influence to give incorrect answers in a situation where the correct answer was obvious.

What did the total sample of real participants contain in Asch's study?

123 male college students

How many confederates did Asch use in each study?

6

Outline the procedure of Asch's study

.1 participant and 6 confederates looked at two cards

.One card showed a verticial line, the other showed 3 lines of different lengths

.Participants had to call out which of the 3 lines were the same as the test line.

.Real Participants answered last

.Confederates gave unanimous wrong answers on critical trials

In Asch's study __/\__ trials were critical

12/18

What % of critical trials did participants conform on?

32%

What % of participants conformed at least once in Asch's study?

76%

__% of participants never conformed in Asch's study

24%

What conclusion did Asch reach?

Even in ambiguous situations there may be group pressure to conform especially if the group is a unanimous majority.

What, did Asch conclude, are reasons for conformity?

Normative and informational social influence

Positively evaluate Asch's study into Majority influence

.Highly-controlled lab experiment

Negatively evaluate Asch's study into majority social influence

.Lacks ecological validity - Artificial task, places with srangers

.Lacks Temporal Validity due to Mcarthyism, so the Asch effect may not be a fundamental part of humans

.Confederates may not have been convincing

Asch's study was conducted in \____

1951

Outline the procedure of Perrin and Spencer's study

.Repeated Asch with engineering students in the 1980 in the UK

Perrin and Spencer found that _ student conformed in \___ trials

1, 396

How did Mori and Arai overcome the issue of how convincing the confederates were?

.Only used true Participants, wearing glasses with polarising filters. 3 wore identical glasses and a 4th saw different lines through different glasses

Mori and A\___ found that participants conformed on __% of \__ trials

Arai, 36, 12

What is normative social influence and which of the 3 types of conformity does it link to?

.Influence based on a desire to be liked.

.Linked to compliance.

What is an important factor for normative social influence to take place?

People believe they are under serveillance by a group

What is informational social influence? Which of the 3 types of conformity does it link to?

.Based on a desire to be right. This type of influence is stronger in ambiguous situations or when we perceive the majority as experts

.Linked to identification and Internalisation.

Informational social influence is stronger in \_________ situations where we perceive others as \_______

ambiguous, experts

Positively evaluate explanations of conformity

.Research support for informational social influence from a musical variation of Asch's study

Outline the procedure of a variation of Asch which used musical notes

.Participants asked to judge which comparison musical note was the same as the standard note

.Only 1 confederate

.confederate sometimes introduced himself as a music expert

What were the findings of the variation of Asch which used musical notes?

Higher conformity when the confederate introduced himself as a musical expert

Negatively evaluate explanations of conformity

.Individual differences in normative social influence (Doesn't affect everyone the same)

.Normative and informational social influence often overlap

\______ and \______ found that students high in need of affiliation were \____ likely to conform

Mcghee and Teevan, more

Give an example of how NSI and ISI often overlap

Dissenters in Asch's study may have reduced the majorities power either by Social support (NSI) or by being an alternative source of information (ISI)

Conformity is affected by G\____ \____, \_________ and \____ d\________

Group Size

Unanimity

Task difficulty

How did Asch investigate the effect of group size on conformity?

Manipulated the size of the group of confederates using 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 10 and 15

Conformity seems to reach a maximum at a majority of _-_

3-5

How did Asch investigate the effect of unanimity on conformity?

Positioned a confederate just before the real participant around the table and instructed them to give the correct answer on critical trials.

Asch found that the support of either a \___________ or a real participant reduced conformity from __% to _%

32% to 5%

Why does breaking a groups unanimous position reduce conformity?

.Dissenter supports the participant, increasing their confidence that they're correct

.Dissenter breaks the groups united front

How did Asch investigate the effect of Task difficulty on conformity and what did he find?

.Reduced difference in line lengths and found an increase in conformity

What were the aims of Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiment?

To invesigate whether ordinary people would conform to their social roles of prisoners and guards when placed in a simulated prison environment

He wanted to test the hypotheses which saw prison violence as either due to dispositional or situational factors

Who were chosen as participants in Zimbardo's Stanford Prison experiment and how many?

21 people deemed "emotionally stable"

Explain how Zimbardo selected his sample

He used volunteer sampling, told participants their rights would be suspended and then selected 21 deemed emotionally stable

How were participants in Zimbardo's experiment assigned to their roles?

Randomly

Explain how prisoners in the Stanford Prison Experiment were "dehumanised" on arrival

They were stripsearched and given a uniform and ID nummber

Prisoners in the Stanford prison experiment had a heavily \_________ routine: they were allowed _ meals a day, _ toilet trips, and _ visits from \_________ per week

regulated, 3, 3, 2, relatives

What was Zimbardo's role in his experiment?

Superintendent

How long was the Stanford Prison Experiment supposed to last?

2 weeks

How long did the stanford prison experiment actually last?

6 days

What was given to participants selected to be Guards in the Stanford prison experiment?

A uniform complete with a club, handcuffs, keys and mirror shades.