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name a study investigating conformity
Asch 1951 and 1955
what was Asch's baseline procedure
123 male Americans judged the lengths of a line in groups of 6-8 with only one genuine participant sitting last; all confederates gave the wrong answer
what were the variables investigated by Asch in 1955
group size, unanimity and task difficulty
how did group size affect conformity in Asch's study
conformity increased with group size but only up to a point. with three confederates, conformity rose to 31.8% but adding any more confederates made little difference to rates
how did unanimity affect conformity in Asch's study
the genuine participant conformed less in the presence of a dissenter. rate decreased to less than a quarter of when it was when group was unanimous. this was still the case even when they disagreed with the participant and gave a different incorrect answer
how did task difficulty affect conformity in Asch's study
conformity increased as task difficulty increased, it became more ambiguous which the correct line was so participants looked for guidance from others. (ISI)
evaluate Asch's line study
artificial task and study so demand characteristics may have been in play
ethical issues as participants were deceived
support from Lucas et al where participants conformed more when task was harder
name the three types of conformity
internalisation, identification, compliance
define internalisation as a type of conformity
when a person genuinely accepts the group norms, a private and public change of opinions and behaviour, usually permanent even in the absence of group members
define identification as a type of conformity
a person values the group but not their opinions, we identify with the group so we want to be a part of it, a public change of behaviour but we don't privately agree with everything the group stand for
define compliance as a type of conformity
simply going along with others in public but not privately changing personal opinions or behaviour, only a superficial change
name the two explanations for conformity
informative social influence and normative social influence
define informative social influence
the need to be right/correct
define normative social influence
the need to be liked
name a research study into conformity to social roles
Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment 1973
outline the Stanford Prison Experiment
21 men student volunteers were tested "emotionally stable" were placed in a mock prison. They were randomly assigned roles as either a guard or a prisoner. They were encouraged to conform to social roles through their uniform and behaviour.
how did uniforms have an effect in the Stanford Prison Experiment
the uniforms created de-individualisation which meant they were more likely to conform
what happened during the Stanford Prison Experiment
within two days the prisoners rebelled, the guards harassed the prisoners daily to remind them of their powerlessness and they conducted frequent headcounts including in the middle of the night. after the rebellion was shut down the prisoners became really subdued and anxious. one prisoner was released as he showed symptoms of psychological disturbance, two more were released on the fourth day, one went on a hunger strike and the guards force fed him and punished him
how long did the Stanford Prison Experiment last
Zimbardo stopped the study after 6 days although it was intended to last 14 days
what conclusion about social roles came from the Stanford Prison Experiment
social roles have a very large influence on peoples behaviour as the guards became brutal and the prisoners became submissive
evaluation points of Stanford Prison Experiment
Control It had high internal validity as variables were controlled, emotionally stable individuals were chosen and RANDOMLY assigned their roles and therefore individual personality difference was ruled out Lack of Realism Banuazizi and Movahedi (1975) said that the participants were most likely play acting rather than genuinely conforming to their roles and that their performances were based on stereotypes, one guard even said he based his character from a film Exaggerates the power of roles Fromm 1973. only 1/3 of guards behaved in a brutal manner, 1/3 adhered to the roles fairly and the other third tried to help the prisoners. Zimbardo minimised the influence of dispositional factors such as personality
name a research study into obedience
Stanley Milgram 1963 Obedience Study
outline the baseline procedure of Milgram's study
40 American male volunteers aged 20-50 were paid $4.50. it was a supposed memory study but roles were fixed and the participant was always the teacher. the leaner (confederate) had to remember pairs of words and each time the teacher was instructed to give a stronger fake electric shock
what was the aim of Milgram's study
investigate the level of obedience ppts would show when an authority figure tells them to administer electric shocks to another person.
outline the baseline findings of Milgram's study
0% stopped before 300V 12.5% stopped at 300V 65% were fully obedient and went up to the max of 450V 84% were glad to have participated
what qualitative data was collected during Milgram's study
participants showed signs of extreme tension, sweating, trembling, stutter and 3 had "full blown uncontrollable seizures"
what were psychologists predictions for Milgram's study
they estimated no more than 3% would continue to 450V
what were the four prods used in Milgram's study by the experimenter
prod 1 "please continue" prod 2 "the experiment requires that you continue" prod 3 "it is absolutely essential that you continue" prod 4 "you have no other choice, you must go on"
what are the evaluation points of Milgram's study
research support A documentary in 2012 focused on a game show La Jeu de la Mort. Ppts were paid to give fake electric shocks by the presenter and 80% gave out 460V low internal validity participants may not have thought the shocks were real and were just playacting, they may have been responding to demand characteristics ethical issues the participants in the study were deceived as they though the allocation of roles were random and that the shocks were real however they were given a debrief
when talking about situational variables which study should be talked about
Milgram 1963
name 3 situational variables investigated by Milgram
proximity, uniform, location
explain the effect of proximity on obedience
when teacher and learner were in the same room obedience dropped
explain the effect of location on obedience
obedience fell in Milgram's study when conducted in a run down office block compared to when it was held at Yale
explain the effect of uniform on obedience
obedience rate dropped when experimenter wore clothes that made him look like an ordinary person
name a strength of situational variables
research support by Bickman 1974, wore different uniforms and asked public to perform tasks
define the agentic state as an explanation for obedience
the agentic state is a mental state in which we feel we have no responsibility for our behaviour as we are acting for an authority figure eg: those working at Nazi death camps
what is the opposite of the agentic state
the autonomous state: free to behave of their own principles
define the switch from the autonomous state to the agentic state
agentic shift
how do people remain in the agentic state
through binding factors: aspects of the situation that allow the person to ignore or minimise the damaging effect of their behaviour
define legitimacy of authority as an explanation for obedience
we are more likely to obey people who we perceive to have authority over us, this is justified by the individuals position of power in a social hierarchy
evaluation of agentic state
-supported by Milgram's study as the experimenter told the ppts that he was responsible not them
a limited explanation, it only accounts for some situations of obedience
define the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience
Adorno said that people with an AP show submissiveness and an extreme respect for authority. these people view society as weaker than it once was and believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values. they are uncomfortable with uncertainty and they show contempt for those with an inferior social status
outline Adorno et al's research
1950 - Adorno studied more than 2000 middle class white Americans and their unconscious attitudes towards ethnic groups. The f-scale was used, if their score was high, they had authoritarian learnings and a string positive correlation was found between the authoritarian personality and prejudice
what are the two main factors for resisting social influence
social support and locus of control
define social support
the presence of people who resist pressures to conform or obey can help others to do the same, these people act as models to show others that resistance to social influence is possible
who was locus of control proposed by
Rotter 1966
define an internal locus of control
believing that the things that happen to you are in your control. eg: if you do well in an exam it's because you worked hard
what type of locus of control is more likely to resist social influence
internal - base decisions off their own beliefs, more self confident, much less need of social approval from other
define an external locus of control
believing that things that happen are out of their control. eg: you fail a test and you blame it on the questions being worded hardly or the examiner was harsh
evaluation of social support
-programme to help stop pregnant teens resist pressure to smoke -support from Asch and Milgram
evaluation of locus of control
-Holland repeated Milgram's study but measured LOC, internals showed greater resistance -LOC may only affect behaviour in new situations
state the three main processes in minority influence
consistency, commitment and flexibility
explain how consistency works in minority influence
synchronic consistency - they're all saying the same thing diachronic consistency - they've been saying the same thing for a long time now consistency increases the amount of interest from other people
explain how commitment works in minority influence
the augmentation principle - minorities engage in quite extreme activities to draw attention to their views, presenting risks to themselves shows how committed they are
explain how flexibility works in minority influence
someone who is extremely consistent who simply repeats the same old arguments and behaviours again and again may be seen as rigid, unbending and dogmatic so members need to be prepared to adapt their point of view and accept reasonable and valid counterarguments
explain the snowball effect in terms of social influence
as the three processes of commitment consistency and flexibility are used, more people switch from the majority to the minority and as this happens, the faster the rate of conversion
define social cryptomnesia
people have a memory that change has occurred but don't know how it happened
outline a research study done on coding of memory
Baddeley 1966, gave lists of words to four groups of participants, 1 sounded acoustically similar, 1 dissimilar, 1 semantically similar, 1 dissimilar. STM struggled with words acoustically similar. LTM struggled with semantically similar words
outline a research study done on capacity of memory
Jacobs 1887 - measured digit span, read out digits and asked participants to repeat them back Miller 1956 - noticed things come in 7s
outline a research study done on duration of STM
Peterson and Peterson 1959 - asked students to remember a consonant syllable and then made them count backwards to prevent mental rehearsal.
outline a research study done on duration of LTM
Bahrick 1975 - tested photo recognition and free recall of names from old high school yearbooks of 17-74 year olds
who was the multi store memory model created by and when
Atkinson and Shiffrin 1978
name the three main parts of the multi store memory model
sensory register, short term memory and long term memory
define the sensory register in the multi store memory model
coding: depends on the sense duration: less than half a second capacity: very high all stimuli from the environment go through the sensory register and there is a register for each of the five senses
define short term memory in the multi store memory model
coding: acoustically duration: around 18 seconds capacity around 7
define long term memory in the multi store memory model
coding: semantically duration: a lifetime capacity: practically unlimited
explain the key information processes in the multi store memory model
SR->STM attention STM->LTM prolonged rehearsal LTM->STM retrieval
name a strength of the multi store memory model
research support: Baddeley found that we tend to mix up words that sound similar when using our STM but mix up words with similar meanings when using our LTM which supports the case that there are two separates stores
name two limitations of the multi store memory model
More than one type of STM: Shallice and Warrington when looking at the case study of KF found that he couldn't recall digits when they were read to him, only when he read them himself and this could suggest there are different types of STM MSM is oversimplified: There has been a lot of research since 1978 about memory stores which has proved the MSM to be too oversimplified. It was useful at the time but is now very outdated
what are the types of LTM
episodic, semantic, procedural
what is episodic LTM
ability to recall events from our lives like a diary entry
what is semantic LTM
contains our shared knowledge of the world like an encyclopaedia
what is procedural LTM
our memory on how to do things like actions or skills
who was the working memory model created by
Baddeley and Hitch (1974)
what are the systems in the working memory model
phonological loop, phonological store, articulatory process, visuospatial sketchpad, central executive, episodic buffer
what is the central executive in the working memory model
allocates subsystems to tasks
what is the phonological loop in the working memory model
deals with auditory information split into the phonological store: stores the words you hear and the articulatory process: allows maintenance rehearsal
what is the visuospatial sketchpad in the working memory model
stores visual and spatial information
what is the episodic buffer in the working memory model
temporary store of info, added later on in 2000
evaluation of the working memory model
supported by Shallice and Warrington in their case study of KF
lack of clarity on the central executive
outdated
define proactive interference
when an older memory interferes with a new one
define retroactive interference
when a newer memory interferes with an old one
define retrieval failure
a form of forgetting which occurs when we don't have the necessary cues to access memory. the memory is available but not accessible unless a suitable cue is provided
outline research done on leading questions in EWT
Loftus and Palmer
what were the four techniques used in the cognitive interview
report everything
reinstate the context
reverse the order
change the perspective
who came up with the cognitive interview
Fisher and Geiselman 1992
evaluation for the cognitive interview
support from meta analysis by Kohnken some techniques are more effective than others can be time consuming
describe Lorenz's research (1952)
randomly divided up goose eggs, half were hatched by their mother and the other half in an incubator. when the incubator group hatched the first thing they saw was Lorenz. The incubator group followed him around but the control group followed the mother goose when mixed up. The geese imprinted on him. He identified a critical period for them in which they need to imprint on something otherwise they would never attach
what did Lorenz discover about sexual imprinting
birds who imprinted on humans showed courtship behaviour to humans in later life
describe Harlow's research (1958)
Harlow placed a cloth covered fake monkey and a wire monkey that dispensed milk and the monkeys always preferred the cloth mother which showed that contact comfort was more important than food. he also looked at monkeys that had maternal deprivation and found that they were aggressive, less sociable and were unskilled at mating
what were the effects of maternal deprivation discovered by Harlow?
aggression, less sociable behaviour, unskilled at mating, neglected their own children in later life
evaluation points of animal studies
-ethics -real life value -non generalisable to humans
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO TALK ABOUT WHEN THE WORDS "LEARNING THEORY" COMES UP?????
classical and operant conditioning with food and babies (if possible Dollard and Miller 1950 and cupboard love)
evaluation point of learning theory Dollard and Miller (1950)
counter evidence from animal studies counter evidence from Shaffer and Emerson as they said that babies attach to their mothers regardless of if they feed them or not some conditioning may be involved - supports learning theory - however its unlikely that its food its more likely its comfort
describe Bowlby's monotropic theory
he believed that a child's most important form of attachment was to their mother, he said that babies are born with social releasers such as big eyes, smiling and cooing that people find cute and form attachments with the baby, he proposed a critical period (inspired by Lorenz) where an attachment must be formed
what was Bowlby's evolutionary explanation (monotropic theory)
attachment is an innate system that gives a survival advantage. attachment evolved as a mechanism
what is Bowlby's law of continuity (monotropic theory)
the more consistent and predictable a child's care is, the better the quality of their attachment is
what is Bowlby's law of accumulated separation (monotropic theory)
the effects of every separation from the mother add up
describe an internal working model in terms of attachment (monotropic theory)
each child forms a mental framework of their relationship with their primary attachment figure. if their relationship with their primary attachment figure was loving and kind, that child will have that expectation of future relationships
evaluations of Bowlby's monotropic theory
-supported by Lorenz and Harlow -counterpoint of it being based of animal studies -learning theory goes against it