Psychology Paper 1- Social Influence

Front 1

Definition of conformity

Back 1

A type of social influence defined as a change in belief or behaviour in response to real or imagined social pressure. Can also be known as majority influence.

Hint 1

A change in ...... Or ......... In response to real or imagined ...... ........

Front 2

Types of conformity

Back 2

Compliance: changes behaviour publicly but not privately. Behaviour only lasts as long as they are with the group eg only smoking socially

Identification: Public and private acceptance. Conforming because we see others in the group and want to be like them. Only lasts as long as group pressure does eg dressing like your friends.

Internalisation: conforming and changing behaviour both publicly and privately. Deepest level of conformity and beliefs of group become part of of the individuals own belief system. Eg having the same religion as your family.

Hint 2

Three types. Com....... Iden.......... And inter.......... Definitions included.

Front 3

Key conformity study, Asch's line study

Back 3

Aim: investigate whether people would conform to the majority in situations where an answer was obvious

Procedure: there were 5-7 participants per group, each group was presented with a standard line and three comparison lines. Participants had to say aloud which comparison line was the same as the standard line in length. Each group had one true participant (who said there answer second to last) and the rest were confederates. The confederates have the wrong answer in 12 out of 18 of the trials.

Results: participants conformed on 32% of the critical trails where confederates gave the wrong answers. 75% of participants conformed at least once to majority.

Hint 3

State aim, precedure and results. Study involving three lines and standard line to do with conformity.

Front 4

Evaluation for asch's line study

Back 4

1. Study lacks ecological validity as it was based on perception of lines and doesn't represent complexity of real life.

2. There are sampling issues regarding this study as it was only carried out on men. The sample was gender bias and can't be applied to females so lacks population validity.

3. Ethical issues- participants were deceived as they were told the study was about lines and didn't give informed concent. Participants could have felt embarrassed at end of study so may have gone through pathological harm. Participants were debreifed at end.

Hint 4

Mention ecological validity, population validity, ethical issues etc

Front 5

Jeness' bean jar experiment

Back 5

Participants asked to estimate how many beans they thought were in a jar. Each participant had to make an individual estimate then estimates as a group. Study found when task was carried out in group participants geussed roughly the same value even though they previously reported quite different estimates. Study shows majority influence and proved individuals behaviour and beliefs can be changed by group. Likely an example of informational social influence.

Hint 5

Not learnt in class. Study in conformity involving participants guessing number of beans in jar.

Front 6

Factors affecting conformity and variations in Asch's study

Back 6

Group size: the bigger the majority group the more people conformed. With one other person conformity was 3%, increased to 13% with three and more was 32%.

Task difficulty: when. Lines were more similar in length conformity increased.

Group unanimity: the unanimity of the group (all confederates agreeing with each other) is more important than group size and can affect conformity.

Hint 6

Three things: group ....

Task ..........

Group .........

Front 7

Types of conformity

Back 7

Normative social influence(NSI): the desire to be liked. Individuals conforms to fit in with group so they aren't left out or ridiculed. Eg feeling pressured to smoke because your friends are.

Informational social influence(ISI): the desire to be right. Conforming because they are unsure of the situation and have lack of knowledge. Eg a new employee copying colleagues Behaviour.

Hint 7

Two type (ISI and NSI)

Front 8

Conforming to social roles

Back 8

Social roles are the part that people play as members of a social group (eg a student or policeman). There's a significant pressure to conform to the expectations of a social role. This comes under identification.

Hint 8

Part of identification

Front 9

Key study: ZImbardo's prison study. (Identification)

Back 9

Aim: investigate how readily people would conform to the social roles of guard and prisoner.

Procedure: advertised for students to play roles of prisoners and guards for fortnight. Participants randomly assignment role of prisoner or guard. Prisoner issued uniform and were refered to by numbers. Guards got uniform, whistles, reflective glasses and handcuffs. They worked on 8 hour shifts. No physical violence was permitted.

Findings: within hours guards began to harass and torment prisoners. Prisoner adopted role, told tales on each other to guards, sided with guards if prisoner didn't obey rules. Guards became agreasive, put prisoner in small cupboard if didn't obey. Study was called off early (after 6 days).

Hint 9

Men adopted roles of ......... And ...... For experiment on conformity

Front 10

Evaluation of zimbardo's prison study

Back 10

1. Demand characteristics. Most guards later said they were just acting, because they were just acting they might not have been affected by the same factors others do in real life meaning the study could lack ecological validity.

2. Could lack population validity as study was only US male students. Study can't be applied to females or those of other countries.

3. One strength is that it's altered the way US prisons are run.

4. There are ethical issues such a lack of fully informed concent. Prisoners didn't concent to being arrested at gome. Prisoners weren't protected from psychological harm and experienced humiliation and distress. Debriefing was held for several years and there was no lasting psychological distress.

5. Another strength is the harmful treatment of participants led to better ethical guidelines in study's.

Hint 10

Ethical guidelines and issues, ecological valididty etc

Front 11

Definition of obedience

Back 11

A type of social influence where a person follows a direct order from another person who is usually an authority figure.

Hint 11

One person following a direct ..... From another person

Front 12

Key study: Milgrims shock study. Obedience.

Back 12

Aim: see whether people would obey a legitimate authority figure when given instructions to harm another human being.

Procedure: two participants were assigned a role as either a learner (a confederate) and the teacher (which was always the true participant) Teacher and learner put into seperate rooms and teacher told by experiment to administer electric shocks to learner each time they have wrong answer. Shocks began at 15v and increased to 450v. Experimenter wore lab coat and gave verbal prods like "please continue" when participant wanted to stop study.

Results: all participants went to 300v and 65% went all the way to 450v .

Hint 12

Shocks Stuyvesant involving learner and teacher

Front 13

Variations and factors affecting Milgrim's study

Back 13

1. Proximity: how close the learner was to participant affected conformity. One variation was learner and teacher in same room and conformity reduced significantly.

2. Location. Location changed from university to seedy office and conformity decreased to 47.5%

3. Uniform. A variation included a normal member of the public replacing the Experimenter with the lab coat. Conformity dropped to 20%

Hint 13

Three main sections.

Front 14

Evaluation of milgrims study.

Back 14

1. Study lacked ecological validity as it was carried out in lab. Means it's less generalisable as people don't usually order people to hurt others in real life.

2. Sample was biased, all male participants so can't generalise to females.

3. Was lab study so improves the reliability

4. Ethical issues included deception as participants throught they were really shocking another person. Participants exposed to stressful situations so weren't protected from harm and it could have caused lasting psychological harm. Milgrim did fully debrief participants after Study.

Hint 14

Type of experiment and validity

Front 15

Explanation of obedience: agentic state

Back 15

Agentic theory says people will obey authority when they believe the authority will take responsibility for the consequences of their actions.

Front 16

Explanation of obedience: Legitimacy of authority

Back 16

People obey others If they recognise their authority as morally right or legally based. The response to legitimate authority is learned in a number of situations such as family, school, workplace etc.

Hint 16

People obey authority figures because....

Front 17

explanation of obedience: Authoritarian personality

Back 17

Adorno thought that personality factors rather than situational factors could explain obedience. He thought there was such a thing as authoritarian personality. Somebody with an authoritarian personality favours the authoritarian social system and obedience to authority figures. They usually have characteristics like being hostile to those of a low social status but obedient to those of a higher social status.

Hint 17

A personality an individual may have which.......

Front 18

Resistance to social influence

Back 18

Resisting social influence is when an individual has independent behaviour that isn't affected by social influence. This happens when someone resists pressures to conform or obey.

Hint 18

When someone resists pressures to ....... Or ....

Front 19

Explanations of resisting social influence: social support

Back 19

In one of Asch's variations he showed the presence of a confederate who didn't conform led to a decrease in conformity for participants. This is because the non conforming confederate have the participant social support and made them more confident in their decision. Social support also decreases obedience in authority, eg in Milgrims study if a participant had other teachers that refused to obey they were less likely to.

Front 20

Explanation of obedience: locus of control

Back 20

This term refers to how much control a person believes they have in their own behaviour. An individual can either have an internal or external locus of control. People with an internal locus of control think they are responsible for their own actions and things in their life however people with an external locus of control often think it's due to external influences such as luck. Research has shown internal people are more likely to resist social influence compared to external people. This could be because they feel responsible for their own actions.

Front 21

Minority influence

Back 21

Occurs when a small group (minority) influences the opinion of a much larger group (majority). Commitment, consistency and flexibility help a minority group change opinions.

Hint 21

Minority to majority

Front 22

The three ways a minority group should behave

Back 22

Consistency: Moscovici stated being consistent and not changing views is more likely to influence a majority group compared to being inconsistent and changing opinions. There are two types of consistency. 1. Diachronic consistency (consistency over time) 2. Synchronicity consistency (consistency between its members).

Commitment: when the majority is confronted with someone with dedication and refuses to back down they may think they have a point.

Flexibility: some researchers think consistency alone wouldn't help influence the majority. The minority should be flexibile on their opinions to influence the majority.

Hint 22

Three factors. C.......... C......... And f..........

Front 23

Social change

Back 23

This occurs when a whole society adopt a new belief or behaviour and it is regarded as the norm. Social influence involved in social change include minority influence, internal locus of control and disobedience to authority. Social change is usually due to minority influence. Micovici found consistency is the most important factor into a minority group influencing a majority and would help most with social change. It's been found one a minority group begins to persuade people the snowball effect begins to happen. This is when more and more people begin to adopt the minority opinion until it becomes the majority. When a minority opinion becomes the norm people often don't remember where the opinion came from. This is called crypto amnesia

Hint 23

Whole society adopting new b..... Or b........