Psych 137I Social Influence Midterm Study Guide

what is the difference between obedience and compliance?

obedience: it is an unequal power relationship were you submit to explicit requests of the person in authority, ex. military orders

compliance: is responding favorably to an explicit request by another person and can come from anyone, ex. peer pressure

compare and contrast conformity & social norms

conformity: changing one’s behavior or beliefs in response to some real or imagined pressure from others, requires the presence of a group, ex. laughing at a joke you didn’t get

social norms: unspoken rules that tell us how to behave in different situations, and can also be practiced privately ex. laugh tracks, not littering when you’re by yourself because it’s the norm

how does culture make someone more or less likely to respond to these social influence processes?

‘tight’ cultures = having really strong norms about how people should behave and do not tolerate departure from those norms, ex. religious communities

‘loose’ cultures = norms are not so strong and their members tolerate deviance, ex. creative industries

***** also there is individualistic and collectivist members and collectivist are more likely to conform, but there is no clear difference between the terms

how does age affect various social influence processes?

children as young as 3.5 follow reciprocity, so age does not matter for obedience, but teenagers conform the most

what social motivations drive people’s susceptibility to the various compliance techniques?

for reciprocity —> it is motivated by belonging and trust

for commitment-based compliance —> it is motivated by people wanting to be consistent with themselves so their actions can have meaning

for scarcity —> people want control over their ability to choose among all possible options

in the jonestown massacre what’s an example of way people may have been influenced to drink the poison that corresponds to every concept above?

(i) obedience, because their leader told them to

(ii) conformity, because the whole group was doing it

(iii) social norms, the culture of the group was very tight and no one questioned their leader

(iv) ostracism, bc if they didn’t drink, they would be excluded from heaven

(v) compliance, it was a step-by-step process were members were slowly asked to give up small things first, then to kill themselves later on

a new freshman student was hospitalized due to a hazing incident, what have we learned that helps us understand why this happened?

1. teens are more susceptible to conformity

2. the freshman lost their sense of belonging and are trying to gain that back with a new friend group

3. foot-in-the-door, ex. rush week, where there were increasingly more intense things to do

4. descriptive norms, ‘everyone in the group has done this before’

5. prescriptive norms, ‘you can’t join us without doing this’

you’re working on a group project, but you’re worried that other people are just conforming instead of speaking up about their opinions, what can you do to decrease conformity pressures in the group?

- you could speak up a few times against the group’s consensus

- ask everyone to publicly voice their opinions first before hearing others

- make sure everyone feels secured or accepted

what are three examples of where the need to be consistent motivates people?

1. the milgram study —> because participants already started shocking the learner at weaker levels so they continue to do so at higher levels to appear consistent with their behavior

2. lowball technique —> because once you have committed to an offer, even when that offer is no longer as good as it seemed, you want to stay consistent by agreeing to it

3. public commitments —> because once you made a public commitment, you’re more likely to stick with it to appear consistent