evals for social influence

strength for nsi

asch interviewed his participants to ask why they conformed and it was because they felt self concious giving the correct answer afraid of dissapproval and when they wrote their answers down instead conformity fell to 12.5% as giving answers priv ately helps avoid group pressure

strength for isi

todd lucas et al. (2006) found that participants conformed to incorrect answers more when the questions were more difficult, as the situation became ambiguous

weakness for nsi

cannot predict every case. individual differences as some people are affiliators and feel a very strong need to be liked. shows nsi underlies more for some people more than it does for others

asch weakness

task and situation were artificial. participants knew they were doing an experiment leaving the experiment vulnerable to demand characteristics

asch weakness

limited application as aschs participants were american men. other research suggests women are more likely to conform due to the need of social relationships and being liked. l;ack of generalisability.

asch strength

support from other studies for task dffiiculty todd lucas 2006 found participnts most likely to conform when given harder math questions

milgram weakness

low internal validity as milgrams procedure might not have been testing what he intended them to test. martin and charles 1968 sggested participants behaved as they did as they did not belive in the set up and were play acting

strength of situational variables

bickman 1974 had confederates dress up in different costumes.people were twice as likely to obey to the man dressed as a security guard than a person wearing a jacket and tie

strength of situational variables

his findings have been replicated in other cultures wim and quinitin 1986 did the same experiment but with dutch participants. suggests milgrams findings can be generalised to different cultures

weakness of situational variables

low internal validity as participnats may have been aware that the experiment was faked and they were play acting open to demand characteristics

strength of agentic state

milgrams study as as participants asked the experimenter “ whos responsible if the learner is harmed’ when experimenter responded that he is, the participants continued with no hesitation. opnce participants found they were no longer responsible they became and agent for the experimenter.

weakness of agentic state

doens’t explain findings of on rank and jacobsen 1977 study they found that 16 of 18 nurses disobeyed orders from a doctor to admisister excessive drugs to a patient.

strength of legitimacy of authority

useful account of cultural differences in obedience

weakness of legitimacy of authority

cannot explain all instances of disobedicne where the legitimacy of authority is accepted it is possible innate tendencies have a bigger effect on obedience than the legitimacy of an authority figure. like an authoritarian personality.