all social influence

compliance

when individuals go along with the group to gain its approval or avoid disapproval

does compliance result in a change in underlying attitudes?

no, only in the views and behaviours that person expresses in public

internalisation

when individuals go along with a groups views because of an acceptance of its views

does internalisation result in a change in underlying attitudes?

yes, it can lead to a change both publicly and privately

identification

when individuals accept influence because they want to be associated with the group

does identification result in a change in underlying attitudes?

yes, the individual accepts the group as correct, but does this to be accepted as a member of the group.

normative social influence

when individuals go along with the majority because of a desire to be liked rather than an acceptance of the majorities point of view

what is NSI based on?

NSI is based on a need for social companionship and a fear of rejection

what must individuals believe in NSI?

they must believe their behaviour is being monitored by the group

NSI - where do individuals conform

they conform to the majority position in public but not in private

informational social influence

occurs when individuals accept the majority viewpoint because it is most likely to be right

in ISI when do people rely on the opinions of others?

if objective tests against reality are not possible

when is ISI most likely?

in ambiguous situations and where others are seen as experts

in ISI do individuals change their behaviour?

yes, individuals change their behaviour to fit in with the group position

what did Soloman Asch study

the effects of peer pressure through a series of labrotaroy experiments

what was the procedure of Asch’s line test

each participant was placed in a room with 7 confederates \n 2) participants were shown with a line on it, followed by a card with 3 lines on it \n 3) participants were then asked to say aloud which line matched the line on the first card in length \n 4) the confederates sat in a manner so that the real participant was always the last to respond

how many trials were there in total and in how many of them did the confederates answer incorrectly?

18 total trials and 12 of them were answered incorrectly by the confederates making them critical trials

in total how many participants were there

57 real participants and 37 participants in the control conditon

in the control condition how many ppts gave an incorrect answer

less than 1%

how many answers of the critical trials were incorrect

1/3 or 33%

In the experimental group how many of participants gave an incorrect response to atleast one question

3/4 or 75%

group size

Asch (1956) found very little conformity with a majority of one or two, but above this, conformity rates rose to 30%

when is group size most significant?

in the absence of an objectively correct answer and when the individual is concerned about fitting in

when is group size less significant?

when there is a correct response and the individual is concerned about being correct

unanimity of the majority

when a confederate gave correct answers, conformity rates dropped to 5.5%

did the unanimous confederate have to answer with the correct answer?

no, even when a confederate put a different wrong answer, conformity rates dropped to 9% this suggests that breaking the unanimity was the key factor in reducing conformity rates

difficulty of the task

when task difficulty was increased (smaller differences between line lengths), conformity levels also increased.

how does self-efficiency effect task difficulty?

the relationship between task difficulty and conformity is moderated by self-efficacy (confidence in one's own ability).

what happens in situations of high self-efficiency?

in situations where individuals have high self-efficacy, they are more likely to remain independent, regardless of the difficulty of the task

Asch procedure?

individual participants were seated round a table with confederates and asked to judge lines of different length and match one of these to a standard line

what did the confederates do in 12/18 trials?

on 12 of 18 trials, confederates were instructed to give the same wrong answer. Asch was interested in whether eg) participants went along with (conformed with) the major

Asch findings?

on these critical trials, the average conformity was 33% one quarter of participants never conform and one in 20 conformed on all 12 critical trials.

why did the majority of conforming ppts conform?

the maiority of those who conformed admimed to only changing their public behaviour to avoid disapproval from other group members

ao3 - lack of research support?

Perrin and Spencer - repeated Asch's study with engineering students in the UK.only one student conformed out of 396 trials.

ao3 - lacks external validity?

artificial task - participants knew they were in a study so demand characteristics could have played a part.lab experiment lacks external validity and can't be generalisable and applicable to real-life situations.

ao3 - IDA?

only men were tested - androcentric.the men used were from the America (an individualistic country), can't be generalised to more collectivist countries such as China - where conformity rates are higher.

what was the Stanford prison experiment?

mock prison set up at Stanford University by Zimbardo

what roles were the students assigned to?

male students were randomly assigned to play the role of ‘prisoner’ or ‘guard’

how were the prisoners identified?

prisoners wore smocks and were given ID numbers, which they were referred to as for the duration of the study

how were the guards identified?

guards were given uniforms, clubs and whistles and wore reflective sunglasses.

how long was the experiment meant to last?

two weeks

what did the guards do during the experiment?

the guards grew increasingly tyrannical and abusive towards the prisoners and made them carry out various degrading activities

did the ppts conform to their roles?

despite the fact this was a study, prisoners and guards conformed to their roles, even when they were unaware of being watched.

how long did the study actually last?

five prisoners were released early because of their extreme reactions and the study was ended after six days following the intervention of Christina Maslach.

who conducted the BBC prison study?

Reicher and Haslam (2006)

what was the procedure of the BBC prison study?

male participants were randomly assigned to roles of guard or prisoner in a mock ‘prison’

how were the ppts divided during The BBC prison study?

participants were divided into groups of three, with each person closely matched with the other twi. One was assigned the role of guard, the other two prisoners.

did the ppts conform to their assigned roles during The BBC prison study?

ppts did not conform to their assigned roles. prisoners worked collectively to challenge the authority of the guards.

why did the ppts not conform to their assigned roles?

guards were reluctant to impose their authority on the prisoners, which led to a collapse of the prisoner-guard system.

ao3 - lack of realism

Mohavedi at el argued that participants were role-playing rather than genuinely conforming to roles. their performances were based on stereotypes of how guards and prisoners are supposed to behave.eg - one guard claimed he based his role on a violent character in Cool Hand Luke.however, Zimbardo collected qualitative data that showed that 90% of conversations were about prison life which suggests that the situation was real for the participants, adding internal validity.

ao3 - ethical issues?

psychological and physical harm done to the participantsZimbardo acted as a superintendent of the prison rather than a researcher with responsibility when a prisoner asked to leave.

ao3 - dispositional factors?

argued that Zimbardo exaggerated power of situation and minimised dis-positional factors (participant's personalities).eg- only 1/3 of guards were actually brutal, the rest tried to help the prisoners.suggests that Zimbardo's conclusions were overstated.

ao3 - lack of research support?

The BBC Prison Study - social identity theory is used to explain this as the guards failed to develop a shared identity as a group but the prisoners did.

proximity - what happened when the learner was in the same room?

levels of obedience dropped to 40%

touch proximity - what happened when the teacher forced the learners hand to the shock plate

levels dropped to 30%

proximity - in the experimenter absent condition what happened when the authority figure left the room?

levels of obedience dropped to 21%

location - what did the ppts say about the fact the experiment was conducted at Yale University?

it gave them confidence in the integrity of the study making them more likely to conform

location - what happened when the study was moved to run-down offices

obedience levels dropped to 48%

uniform - how do they influence obedience?

because they are easily recognisable and convey power and authority

uniform - Bushman (1988)

found that people were more likely to obey a researcher in a police style uniform than dressed as a business executive

Milgram - procedure

the study involved a series of different conditions, each varying some aspect of the situation - the participant always acted as the ‘teacher’ while a confederate acted as 'learner’

what did the ppt do in Milgrams study?

the teacher tested the learner’s ability to remember word pairs, administering (bogus) shocks for any errors increasing in 15-volt increments

what happened in the ‘voice-feedback' condition?

the learner was in another room and stopped responding at 315 volts - the experimenter used ‘prods’ to try and keep the teacher delivering the shocls

what happened in the ‘touch proximity’ condition?

the ppt had to force the learners hand onto the shock plate

what happened on the experimenter absent condition?

the authority figure left the room with the ppt in

what did Milgram ask various groups to predict?

how far the ppts would go before refusing to continue

what did people predict about the ppts?

that very few would go beyond 150 volts

were the predictions correct?

all ppts went to at least 300 volts with only 12.5% stopping there

how many delivered the maximum shock of 450 volts?

65% of ppts

ao3 - androcentric

Milgram's experiment is that it used a biased sample. \n all participants were male (gender bias) who volunteered to take part by responding to an advertisment (volunteering sampling). \n this means the study is limited to men who are likely to volunteer for research- this means that the study lacks population validity and the findings, therefore, cannot be generalised to females or individuals who do not read newspaper advertisment.

ao3 - ethics

deception - told them the experiment was on ‘punishment and learning’, when in fact he was measuring obedience, and he pretended the learner was receiving electric shocks. right to withdraw - it was very difficult for participants with withdraw from the experiment, as the experimenter prompted the participants to continue. protection from harm - many of the participants reported feeling exceptionally stressed and anxious while taking part in the experiment and therefore they were not protect from psychological harm. debrief - he did debrief his participants following the experiment and 83.7% of participants said that they were happy to have taken part in the experiment and contribute to scientific research.

ao3 - Holfling et al

levels of obedience in nurses on a ward to unjustified demands by doctors were very high (21/22 obeyed)

what is the agentic state?

a person does not see themselves as responsible for their actions, but attributes responsibility to someone else, particularly an authority figure

how does someone shift to the agentic state?

under certain circumstances, a person may shift from an autonomous state, where they feel responsible for their own actions, to an agentic state - agentic shift

why do we undergo agentic shift?

one explanation is the need to preserve a positive self-image, by shifting responsibility onto the authority figures the person does not feel guilty about their actions

why are people kept in agentic state?

individuals are kept in agentic state by ‘binding factors’ eg. the fear of appearing rude by refusing to obey the authority figure’s commands

what is moral strain?

when an authority figure issues an order that goes against our conscience this is because we have two contradictory urges: to obey the authority figure(and society's expectations) and to obey our consciences (and keep our own self-image as "a good person").

what are the stages of moral strain?

Denial: some of the participants in Milgram's study minimised the pain they were causing to the Learner, convincing themselves that the shocks weren't dangerous (even though "DANGER" was written on the shock generator); Milgram argues that many people in Nazi Germany did this, refusing to believe what was going on in the death campsAvoidance: many participants tried not to look at the Experimenter or even look up from the shock generatorDegree of Involvement: some participants only flicked the switches on the shock generator lightly, as if this would somehow lessen the painHelping the Learner: other participants tried to help the Learner by stressing the correct answer on the memory test; in Variation \#7, some participants deliberately gave a weaker shock rather than the stronger shock because they thought no one was watching

where does the power of a legitimate authority figure stem from?

their perceived position in a social situation rather than any personal characteristics

how does legitimate authority interact with Milgram’s experiment?

ppts had the expectation that someone would ‘be in charge’, and the experimenter fulfilled this by having an ‘air of authority’

do people accept definitions of a situation that are provided by a legitimate authority figure?

yes, in Milgram’s experiment, ppts unquestioningly accepted the experimenter’s reassurances about the learner

what must happen for and authority to be perceived as legitimate?

they must represent a respected institution - eg. in a scientific lab of a prestigious university

ao3 - contradictory research

Lifton (1986) - study of German doctors at Auschwitz.Found doctors had changed gradually and irreversibly from ordinary professionals into men and women capable of carrying out vile and lethal experiments on prisoners.Milgram's claim people shift back and forth between autonomous state and agentic state fails to explain this.

ao3 - supporting research

Tarnow (2000) - support for power of legitimate authority through study of aviation accidents.Studied data from US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) review of serious accidents in US between 1978-1990.As with Milgram's study - Tarnow found excessive dependence on captain's authority and expertise, with sometimes tragic consequences.

ao3 - conflict in regards to moral strain

in Milgram’s observational studies, moral strain was shown by the participants who obeyed (weeping, groaning, shaking, fainting), not by the ones who disobeyed. Milgram’s theory suggests that the Agentic State is an escape from moral strain, but this is not what is observed in his studies.

ao3 - lacks ecological validity

in real life teachers are not asked to electrocute students, nor were wartime Germans asked to do this by the Nazis. The artificial and unusual nature of the supporting research might count against the theory. \n \n Meeus & Raaijmakers (1986) replicated Milgram with insults instead of shocks; this is much more realistic but this study still put participants in an unusual position (making them pretend to interview people for a job and deliver insults that appeared on an overhead TV screen).

what does the identification of a specific Authoritarian Personality provide?

provides a possible explanation as to why some individuals require very little pressure in order to obey

what did Adorno (1950) develop?

the F-Scale to measure the different components that made up the Authoritarian Personality

what was an indicative of an Authoritarian Personality?

agreeing with statements on this scale such as ‘Obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues children should learn’ was indicative of an Authoritarian Personality

what did Adorno find about people who scored high on the F scale

they tended to have grown up in a particularly authoritarian family with a strong emphasis on obedience.

how did Altemeyer refine the concept?

by identifying a cluster of three of the original personality variables that he referred to as right-wing authoritarianism (RWA).

what characteristics do individuals with high RWA possess?

conventionalism authoritarian aggression and authoritarian submission predispose them to obedience.

what was the Elms and Milgram (1966) study?

a follow-up study using 20 ‘obedient’ and 20 ‘disobedient’ ppts from Milgram’s study

what did each ppt do in Elm’s and Milgram’s study?

each ppt completed a personality scale (the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory or MMPI) and the authoritarianism scale (F scale)

what else were the ppts asked in Elm’s and Milgram’s study?

questions about their upbringing and their attitude to the experimenter and the learner in Milgram’s study

what was the findings from Elm’s and Milgram’s study?

there was little difference between obedient and disobedient ppts on MMPI scores

were there higher levels of authoritarianism among obedient or disobedient?

higher levels of authoritarianism among obedient participants than disobedient ppts

what relationship did the obedient have with their father?

obedient participants reported being less close to their fathers during childhood and saw the authority figure as more admirable than the learner.

what is social support?

the perception that a person has assistance available from other people within the group

what does social support do to resistors?

this makes them better able to remain independent in situations where they would be expected to conform or obey