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Summary Social influence
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Content and Evaluations for all key topic areas in Social influence within AQA Alevel Psycholoogy
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Types of ConformityConformity = change in a person's behaviour/opinion as a result of real/imagined pressure from a person/group of people Milgram's obedience study
Kelman 1958 proposed 3 types of conformity:
● Compliance-lowest level, person changes public behaviour but not private belief. short term and result of NSI e.g saying you like dancing Stanley Milgram wanted an anwer to why such a high proportion o Germans supported Hitlers plan for the holocaust .
because people around you do but privately you actually hate it He recruited 40 participants aged 20-50 who were paid $4.50. Had 2 confederates(a learner & experimenter) who were paired with
● Identification-Middle level, person changes public behaviour and private belief but only in presence of group e.g being eg when your with participant became the ‘teacher’- gave fake electric shocks to learner per wrong answer which increased a level of voltage from previous
veggie friends but still eat chicken privately shock (Shocks began at 15 volts(labelled as slight shock) to 450 volts (labelled as dangerous)
● Internalisation-Deepest level, person changes public behaviour and private belief -result of ISI and is long term e.g change religion and
practice it even in absence of group At 315 volts the learner was advised to pound on the wall for last time then stop responding.
Explanations for conformity If participant felt unsure about continuing the experimenter would use sequence of 4 standard prods:
Deutsch and Gerard developed the dual processing dependency model = suggested 2 reasons for conformity:NSI(need to be liked) & ISI(need to be right) ● Prod 1 = “please go on”
● Normative social influence = emotional process which regulates behaviour of group/individual according to norms where we want to gain
social approval not rejection ● Prod 2= “The experiment requires you to go on”
● Informational social influence = Cognitive process about who was better info you or the rest of the group, occurs in situations of ambiguity ● Prod 3=”It’s absolutely essential that you continue”
and leads to internalisation ● Prod 4 = “You have no other choice, you must go on”
There's supporting evidence as Lucas et al (2006)= there was greater conformity fro harder questions than easier ones hences evidence for ISI Findings:
But there's a false distinction between ISI and NSI as both processes can be involved e.g in Asch where dissenter reduces power of NSI and ISI by providing
social support or alternate source of info No participants stopped before 300v, Only 12.5% stopped at 300 volts and 65% continued to 450 volts. Participants showed extreme
tension e.g sweating, trembling. 3 = full seizures
Asch research 1951 Prior to experiment 14 psychology students predicted that only 3% would continue to 450 volts showing how unexpected results were
Investigated conformity in 123 male undergraduates each paired with 6-8 discreet confederates. Conducted a lab experiment showing each participant 2 cards All participants were debriefed at the end and assured their behaviour was normal and 85% if participants were happy they took part
one card=standard line and other card= 3 comparison lines(1 line had identical length but other 2 were substantially different to standard) participants= then
asked to select which comparison line matched length of standard. In 12/18 trials confederates gave wrong answer. As a result naive participants gave wrong
answer 36.8% of time and 75% conformed at least once-not due to eyesight as extraneous variable = in control trial only 1% of participants answers= incorrect High external validity -due to it being a lab experiment hence easier replication and can be generalised to real life. Supporting
Post trial interview= participants conformed due to NSI evidence=Hofling (1966) studied nurse in a hospital and found 21/22 nurses would obey a doctor to double the dosage of a medicine
Therefore Milgram's obedience to authority can be generalised
Asch variations
Group size:
Added more confederates to procedure to increase size of majority but found with 3 confederates conformity rose to 31.8% and additional confederated made little difference. Low internal validity- Orne & Holland 1968 = participants guessed it wasn't real electrical shocks therefore lacked internal validity due
But when 15 confederates introduced conformity decreased to 29% possibly as participants realised aims of experiment to demand characteristics. But Sheridan & King 1972 = conducted similar experiment gave real shocks to a puppy and found 54% of men
Unanimity: and 100% of female would deliver fatal shocks therefore increasing validity of milgram's study
Extent to which all members agree, in one variation he introduced a dissenting confederate as a result conformity decreased by almost 25%=shows how social support
increases resistance to conformity
Task difficulty: Ethical issues-Diana Baumrind Milgram deceived participants into believing allocation of teacher and experimenter was random and
Asch made task more difficult by decreasing the difference between the standard line and comparison lines and as a result conformity increased due to role of ISI due to an that they were administering real electrical shocks - causing psychological trauma where 3 participants even had seizure This brings
ambiguous task
down the merit of this research and of Psychology due to it being seen as a deceptive practice
● Lab experiment increases scientific validity due to strict control over Extraneous variables therefore high internal validity and easier replication
● Child of its time - Perrin and Spencer (1980) repeated experiment with engineering students in uk where only 1 student conformed out of 396 trials. This
could be as engineering students have more confidence in their abilities of as Asch was conducted during a conformist time in America st red scare and Situational variables affecting obedience
Mccarthyism Variations to Milgram's original study to see which situational factors affect obedience.
● Artificial situation & task- Participants knew they were in an experiment and may have demand characteristics as task = trivial therefore no reason not to
Proximity:
conform and according to Fiske (2014) = the groups were not very groupy = therefore don't ensemble real life groups and situations don't generalise to
everyday situations hence low ecological validity Originally teacher and student were in adjoining rooms therefore could only hear not see but in this variation the teacher and student
● Ethical issues = as participants didn’t know they were paired with confederates but if participants knew they were confederates then no point of research
were placed in the same room as a result-obedience decreased from 65%-40%
Stanford Prison Experiment Location:
Following accounts of police brutality in Late 1960s Zimbardo wanted to know if prison guards behave brutally due to sadistic personalities or if situation Originally the experiment was conducted at a prestigious university but in this variation it was conducted in a run down building. As a
creates such behaviour therefore he set up mock prison in basement of psychology department in Stanford. Then students deemed psychologically stable after result obedience decreased from 65% to 47.5%
extensive testing were selected and randomly assigned role of prisoner or guards Uniform:
Social roles were strictly divided where prisoners were arrested at their homes had strictly regulated days and guards were given uniforms and sunglasses to
prevent eye contact and used numbers no names Originally the experimenter wore a grey lab coat but in this variation he was called away and their role was take over by a confederate
Findings: with casual clothes as a result obedience decreased from 65% to 20%
● Guards took up roles and their behaviour soon became threat to prisoners-also started rebelling on 2nd day by ripping uniforms, swearing e.t.c
● Guards retailed by fire extinguishers and would do headcounts in middle of night and punish even slightest misdemeanors Supporting evidence-Bickman 1974=made 3 confederates dress in 3 different outfits:as security guard, milkman and jacket/tie who asked
Impact:
● Experiment was intended for 14 days but ended in 6 after prisoners became depressed and anxious passerby’s to perform tasks like picking up litter or giving a coin for parking. Found people = 2x more likely to listen to security guard over
● 1 prisoner released on Day 1 = showed psychological disturbance, 2 more released on day 4, 1 prisoner went on hunger strike=force fed the jacket and tie confederate = supporting Milgram's claim that uniform conveys authority/produces obedience.
● Guards seemingly enjoyed power and demanded more obedience as experiment went on
Conclusion Control of variables-systematically altered one variable at a time to see its impact on obedience-allows for easier replication
Guards and prisoners internalised and conformed to social roles, even researches such as prison chaplin saw themselves in a real prison not a study.
Zimbardo explained behavior of guard as Lucifer effect-Good people doing evil things is not because a few rotten apples turn the other apples rotten but the
barrel itself is rotten Lack of internal validity-Orne & Holland criticise Milgram's variations as not having genuine results due to participants figuring out
aims of research especially in variation where experimenter = replaced by member of public -even Milgram admitted of being contrived.
● High degree of Control=chose psychologically stable participants + randomly assigned roles =ruling out personality differences as explanation
for behaviour. Such control means high internal validity
● Can help explain real life atrocities such as when US army personnel committed human rights violations against Iraqi prisoners Obedience Alibi-David Madel suggested that all these variations are excuses for evil behaviour and areoffensive to holocaust surviors
which take blame off Nazi superiros and put it on situational factors
● Lack of realism as Banuazizi & Mohavedi = participants were merely acting to stereotypes on social roles. E.g one guard based his role on a
brutal police officer in a movie. But prisoner 416=suggested this was a real prison just run by psychologists not the govt
● Ignored role of dispositional factors-Fromm (1973) accused Zimbardo of exaggerating power of situation and minimising dispositional
factors(personality) as Zimbardo (2007) found on ⅓ of guards behaved brutally and the rest were fair and sympathised with prisoners. Therefore
showing free will in behaviour = could still differentiate between right and wrong
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