AQA psychology paper 1

What was Asch looking into?

If participants would conform to the majority.

What did people measure in aschs research

Lines

How many trials were there (asch)

18

How many participants were there (asch)

123

Who were the participants (asch)

USA male undergraduates

How many confederates in one group (asch)

6-8

How many out of the 18 trials did the confederates have to give the wrong answer? (asch)

12

How often did the naive participant give the wrong answer? (asch)

36.8% of the time

How many people conformed at least once (asch)

75%

What explanation of conformity applied to the participants (asch)

Normative social influence

what are the Weaknesses of asch

Child of its time

Artificial situation and task

Limited application of findings

what were ascus Variations in his research

Group size

Unanimity

Task difficulty

what is Unanimity (asch)

Whether all the confederates agreed with each other

how did Asch test Task difficulty

The lines became similar

What happened to the level of conformity when there were 3 confederates (asch)

Rose to 31.8%

What happened to the level of conformity when there were more than three confederates (asch)

Little difference

what Effect did the presence of a dissenter have (asch)

Level of conformity decreased to 25%

What explanation of conformity plays a bigger part when the talks becomes more difficult? (asch)

Informative social influence

What happened when the task became more difficult? (asch)

Conformity increased

what are more Weaknesses of asch

lack of ecological validity

Androcentric bias

Unethical- participants were decieved

demand characteristics

what were the Unethical variables in aschs research

Protection from harm (embarrassment)

Deception

in what year was the study done? (asch)

1956

what percentage of people never conformed? (asch)

25%

what happened to conformity when the task difficulty increased? (asch)

conformity increased.

What was the conformity rate when one confederate agreed with participant? (asch)

5.5%

what was the conformity when one confederate disagreed with the group? (asch)

5.5%

what is deindividuation (zimbardo)

loss of identity and inhibition

what was zimbardos aim

To investigate how people conform to their given social roles (guard/prisoner)

what participants did zimbardo use

24 US male uni students who were mentally stable (chosen from 75)

where did zimardos experiment take place

basement of psychology building in stanford uni

what was zimardos method

zimbardo advertised for participants and selected 24.

randomly assigned to be prisoners or guards.

guards given uniform.

prisoners picked up in police car and taken to mock prison.

prisoners went through simulation of real prison.

guards took on the roles and enforced prison rules.

prisoners became depressed and rebelled against guards on 2nd day.

experiment stopped after 6 days because of the psychological harm it was having on some participants.

what were the ethical concerns in zimbardo research

withdrawal rights

- prisoners forgot that they could leave

informed consent

-didn't know the experiment would escalate to the point of abuse that it did

do no harm

- were psychologically harmed

what was the outcome of the study (zimbardo)

the simulation became so real, and the guards became so abusive, that the experiment was stopped after 6 days

how the guards behaved (zimbardo)

abusive, demanding, authoritative, machiavellian, brutish, sadistic, domineering

how the prisoners behaved (zimbardo)

submissive, cowardly, zombie-like, depressed, mentally unstable, hysterical

how long was the experiment meant to last (zimbardo)

2 weeks

how many days did the experiment actually last(zimbardo)

6 days

how did zimabrdo gather participants

newspaper advertisements

when did the experiment occur (zimbardo)

1973

How much were they paid a day? (zimbardo)

$15

Prisoner uniform: (zimbardo)

Smocks, with numbers

How many days until the prisoners rebelled (zimbardo)

2

Characteristics of rebellion from prisoners (zimbardo)

Swore at guards

Ripped their uniform

Hunger strike

Characteristics of harassment from guards (zimbardo)

Head counts at early hours of the morning

Punishments such as the hole

Sexual Humiliation

How many prisoners released (zimbardo)

3

Negative Evaluation points (zimbardo)

Unethical

- Broke several of the ethical guidelines

Lacks ecological validity

- Guards were just basing their act on films

Role of dispositional influences

- Undervalues effect of people's personalities

Positive Evaluation points (zimbardo)

Methodically good

- Highly controlled and random selection effective

Who was in Milgram's study?

40 male's between the ages 20 and 50

How did Milgram recruit people to his study?

Through newspaper ad's and flyers

Method of Milgram

- Met Mr Wallace and randomly assigned whether they were to be teacher or learner.

- Random assignment rigged so participants always teachers.

- the learner was strapped into electrodes and the teacher was told to electrocute them everytime they got the word pair wrong

- The electricity started at 15v and went up to 450v.

- The teacher was told to raise the voltage each time he got it wrong.

- There were four prods from the experimenter to keep the teacher going

What were 15v 300v and 450v labelled? (Milgram)

15v - slight shock

450v - danger severe shock

300v - intense shock

What did the learner do at 300v? (Milgram)

Banged on wall and gave no response to next question.

What did the learner do at 315v?(Milgram)

Banged on the wall but gave no further answers.

What were the four prompts? (Milgram)

1) please continue

2) The experiment requires that you continue.

3) It is absolutely essential that you continue

4) You have no other choice, you must go on.

How many participants stopped below 300v? (Milgram)

0

How many participants stopped at 300v? (Milgram)

12.5%

How many continued to the highest, 450v? (Milgram)

65%

Examples of qualitative data collected (Milgram)

sweating, trembling, biting their lips

3 had seizures

Good ethical points within the study (Milgram)

- right to withdraw

- debriefed

Strengths of milgram's study

Good external validity

- similar to a real life authority relationships

Supporting replication

- Game of death participants went too 450v 80% of time

Weaknesses of Milgrams study

Low internal validity

- Participants are said to have guessed it was fake

Ethically poor

- There was deception and harm to the participants.

What variables did Milgram test?

1) Location

2) Uniform

3) proximity

How did they test location? (Milgram)

Changed location to a run down office block

How did they test uniform? (Milgram)

Had the experimenter wear normal clothes

How did they test proximity? (Milgram)

1) Learner/teacher in same room

2) Teacher putting Learners hand on electric plate

3) Experimenter gave instructions over the phone.

how many went up to 450v with the location change (Milgram)

47.5%

how many went up to 450v with the uniform change (Milgram)

20%

how many went up to 450v with the learner and teacher in the same room? (Milgram)

40%

how many went up to 450v with the teacher putting the learner's hand on a plate? (Milgram)

30%

how many went up to 450v with the experimenter giving instructions down the phone? (Milgram)

20.5%

Strengths of Milgram's variable studies

Research support

- Bickman's uniform experiment

Cross-cultural support

- Spanish students had similar responses.

Weaknesses of Milgram's variable studies

Low internal validity

- The extra changes made it even less believable

Socially sensitive

- Obedience alibi.

What is the authoritarian personality?

a personality type found by Aldorno related to a person with it being more likely to obey.

how did aldorno measure the authoritarian personality

the F scale - facist opinions

Characteristics of the authoritarian personality

-black and white thinking

- traditional morals

- Looking up to those with power

- Looking down upon those below them

- Not understanding today's society

Strengths of authoritarian personality

Research support

- Milgram found people who obeyed most had these characteristics

Weaknesses of the authoritarian personality

Politically inaccurate

- shown to be extremes on both sides of political spectrum not just right

Poor explanation

- Social Identity better explanation

Poor methodological issues

- Based on leading questions

What is the agentic state?

A mental state where we feel no responsibility for our actions due to feeling like we are doing them on behalf of an authority figure

What is an autonomous state?

Where you are acting on your own opinion and are aware that you are responsible for your actions

What is the agentic shift?

The movement from an autonomous state to being in an agentic one.

What causes the agentic shift?

When the person percieves another to be in charge or more powerful than them.

what are binding factors?

Aspects of situations that allow the person to ignore the moral strain being caused by their actions

Examples of binding factors

- Shifting responsibility to the victim

- Denying the harm they have done.

Strengths of the Agentic state

Research support

- When shown Milgram's study people said ti was the experimenter's fault showing how people view the responsibility as not on the person but whoever instructed them to do it.

Weaknesses of the agentic state

Limited explanation

- Does not explain why some disobey

Alibi

- Makes prosecution hard as people can just claim they were simply acting on others orders.

What is legitimacy of authority?

The idea we are more likely to obey people of whom we perceive to have rightful authority to tell us what to do.

When is authority seen as legitimate?

When the authority is socially and widely accepted.

Examples of positions of legitimate authority

Teachers

Police

Parents

Nightclub bouncers

Why does legitimacy of authority occur?

Integrated into our lives in childhood and we trust the people to use their authority wisely.

Strengths of legitimacy of authority

Research support

- Bickman uniform study

Cultural differences

- Allows for cultural differences and explains why they occur

Real life applications

- Studies into war crimes - leads to an explanation

Weaknesses of legitimacy of authority

none

what are the two types of resistance to social influence?

social support

locus of control

What is social support?

People feel less pressure to conform or obey when they are with someone who is not conforming/obeying.

how does social support effect conformity?

Asch's study showed that even when the other person was not perceived as right the participant still conformed less when there was another there not conforming.

How does social support effect obedience?

Obedience drops dramatically when there is another person present who is not obeying.

milgrams rate of obedience dropped from 65% to 10% when the participant was joined by a non obeying individual

in what way does social support aid people to resist social influence?

The social support acts as a 'model' and helps the person see that they are able to use their counciousness and make their own decisions.

Strengths of social support

Research support - Conformity

- Allen and Levine recreated Asch's study and found there was still lower levels of conformity even when the person was clearly wrong showing it is the person aiding

Research support - Obedience

- Gamson put people into groups to create a smear campaign for an oil refinery. 88% rebelled showing being in groups aids rebelling.

Weaknesses of social support

none

What is locus of control?

What people think directs their lives.

What does it mean to have internal loc?

You believe you control your actions

EG you did well in a test as you worked hard