Social Influence

Question 1

All Situational Factors

Answer 1

• Majority Influence and Conformity
• Deindividuation
• Culture
• Authority Figures

Question 2

Majority Influence

Answer 2

When the majority of a group tries to influence others in the group to conform their beliefs

Question 3

Conformity

Answer 3

Yielding group pressure

Question 4

Collective Behaviour

Answer 4

The behaviour of 2 or more individuals who are acting collectively together

Question 5

Crowd Behaviour

Answer 5

Refers to a group of people who have came together for a common purpose (Football Match)

Question 6

Pro-social Behaviour

Answer 6

Positive behaviours that benefit members of society

Question 7

Anti-social Behaviour

Answer 7

Negative behaviours that go against members which harms them

Question 8

Obedience

Answer 8

Following orders from an authority figure

Question 9

Normative Conformity

Answer 9

Where people yield to group pressure because they want to fit in and are concerned about being rejected by the other in the group

Question 10

Group Norm

Answer 10

Specific ideas or assumptions held by a particular group about what is considered acceptable behaviour within that group.

Question 11

Asch Line Study

Answer 11

• Participants were put into groups and shown a series of three lines on a card. One line was on another card and a participant had were asked to match it
• The answer was clear but all the participants were confederates apart from one person
• 1/3 of the real participants gave the wrong answer

Question 12

Informational Conformity

Answer 12

People conform because they want to be perceived as correct and so follow the lead of others

Question 13

Gustave Le Bon

Answer 13

• When in crowds people lose their sense of self, responsibility and morality - they have a group mentality
• It unconscious, therefore driven by instinct

Question 14

Steve Reicher

Answer 14

• Crowds have a common social identity - they all share similar background and culture/interests
• They shared social identity and they viewed the passers-by as a part of their ‘‘in-group’’ and someone else as their ‘‘out-group’’

Question 15

In-group

Answer 15

Someone who is part of your group

Question 16

Out-group

Answer 16

Someone who is not in your group

Question 17

Deindividuation

Answer 17

When people are in a crowd and they lose their sense of individuality and the feel more anonymous. This can happen when you wear a costume (HALLOWEEN)

Question 18

Collectivist Culture

Answer 18

The needs of society are placed before the needs of the individual. The society of this culture see themselves as interdependent

Question 19

Individualistic Culture

Answer 19

The needs of an individual are placed before the needs of society. People of this culture see themselves as independent

Question 20

What culture shows more pro-social behaviour

Answer 20

Children from a collectivist culture show more pro-social behaviour as they will work as a collective (big group). They show more altruism

Question 21

Authority Figure

Answer 21

Someone we perceive as having more power than us

Question 22

Milgram’s Agency Theory

Answer 22

Milgram proposed a theory that people obey orders that they know to be ethically wrong because they have from being in an autonomous state where they have power over their actions, to an agentic state where they act as agents to the authority and therefore not responsible for their actions

Question 23

Milgram’s Electric Shock Experiment

Answer 23

• He conducted a controlled experiment on obedience
• It involved participants teaching a word list to a learner and then administer an electric shock if the wrong answer was given
• A researcher wearing a lab coat sat in the same room as the participants and prompted the p’s to administer shocks even if the learner did not want to carry on.
• The learner was a confederate and never got shocked (p’s did not know)
• 65% obeyed all the way up to 450v

Question 24

Criticisms of ALL Situational Factors

Answer 24

• DEINDIVIDUATION does not always lead to violence. Deindividuation can be a positive experience like at a music festival
• Not everyone CONFORMS in the same way. Psychologists tend to generalise it to one whole culture
• Milgram’s results on OBEDIENCE can be seen as too deterministic. P’s had little free will over the decision
• Too much research on Culture is age biased. It focuses too much on the role of children in that culture
• Themes focusing on situational factors suggests our behaviour are simply determined by what is happening around us and that we do not resist this

Question 25

Research Study: BICKMAN Experiment 1

Answer 25

Aim - To investigate the degree of social power the uniform has on people Hypothesis - A uniformed guard has more social power than a low levelled powered uniform such as a milkman Experiment 1: Method - Field Experiment, took place in Brooklyn Design - IMD as P's saw 3 levels of authority Materials - 3 Uniforms Sample - 153 adults pedestrians (Opportunity Sample) Procedure: - 4 males experimenters aged 18-20 and were similar in all aspects - There were not told the purpose of the experiment and were told to act in the same way regardless the uniform 3 situations: - Picking up a bag - E would stop the person and point to a small paper bag and tell them to pick it up - Dime and Meter - Asks him to give him a dime - Bus stop (no standing) - E chose the person standing alone at a bus stop. He had to tell them to stand on the other side because its a no standing area. Results - No significant differences between the civilian and milkman across 3 scenarios. Guard was obeyed the most

Question 26

Research Study: BICKMAN Experiment 2, 3A, 3B

Answer 26

Experiment 2: - Field Experiment - 48 pedestrians - Dime and Meter scenario was used - Guard and Civilian was used - Surveillance Condition, the E stood with the participant next to the parking meter, while the confederate stood near the car - Non-Surveillance Conditions, the E approached the participant in the street, asked for a dime and walked away Results - Surveillance had no effect on obedience. The guard was more obeyed Experiment 3A: - Data gathered using a questionnaire - 29 different scenarios, including the first three - Guard, Milkman and Young man Results - Some new scenarios were more legitimate. Uniform did not make it more legitimate Experiment 3B: - Asked to predict what they would do in the scenarios Results - P's did not think the guard would have more power than the other uniforms

Question 27

Research Study: BICKMAN Criticisms

Answer 27

- P's selected by opportunity sample. Could affect unknown behaviours. Lack validity - Culturally Biased. Only based on results in America - Unethical as p's did not know what they were being studied on - Gender Biased. All experimenters were males - Little control over extraneous variables. Experimenters were unable to control weather which could have effected the mood of p's

Question 28

All Dispositional Factors

Answer 28

- Self Esteem - Locus of Control - Morality - Authority Personality

Question 29

Self-esteem

Answer 29

Self-esteem is how we perceive ourselves. Someone with a low self-esteem will have a low opinion on themselves therefore more likely to conform. Someone with a high self-esteem will feel confident in who they are and how they behave - less likely to conform

Question 30

Locus of Control

Answer 30

How much control a person feels they have over their own life (internal and external factors)

Question 31

Internal Locus of Control

Answer 31

- People who have internal locus of control believes they have the ability to control their decisions about their own lives and any success or failure is due to choices they have made - More confident and more motivated - Less likely to get involved in crowd behaviour

Question 32

External Locus of Control

Answer 32

- People with external locus of control believe they have very little or no control over their own lives and how other people act around them - Believe they have no option but to obey - More likely to get involved with crowd behaviour

Question 33

Morality (Kohlberg's 6 stages)

Answer 33

Preconventional: 1. Punishment - Children are focused on the consequences rather than the actions 2. Benefit - Action is based on what benefits them but will return the favour Conventional: 3. Approval - Children do things with good intentions and want to be praised 4. Obedience - Action is based on obeying and maintain order in society Post-conventional: 5. Lawful - People do things in society that are deemed to be acceptable 6. Abstract Ethics - People do things that require deep thoughts about ethics

Question 34

Morality

Answer 34

Understanding what is right and what is wrong

Question 35

What stage of Moral development is the most antisocial

Answer 35

Stage 2 in Kohlberg's Moral Development (Benefit) is the most egocentric. The children care more about the consequence rather than the action they have done.

Question 36

The Influence of the Brain

Answer 36

Argoskin Et Al found a positive correlation between self-esteem and grey matter. People with low self-esteem tend to have reduced amounts of grey matter in the hippocampus. Correlation between damage to the prefrontal cortex and faulty moral reasoning

Question 37

Authoritarian Personality

Answer 37

A personality type that is very obedient to authority

Question 38

Adornos Authoritarian Personality

Answer 38

- see the world in black and white - offer blind obedience to those in higher authority - very conformist - prejudiced to those they see as inferior

Question 39

Authoritarian Personality link to Upbringing

Answer 39

Very strict and rigid upbring leads to an authoritarian personality. They would see there parents as a person in authority and constantly obey. Milgram's shock theory links to Adorno's theory

Question 40

Criticisms of ALL Dispositional Factors

Answer 40

- Dispositional explanations focus too much on the individual making generalisable difficult - Dispositional explanations of conformity and obedience are reductionist - they ignore the influence around them - Kohlberg's research is not generalisable as it is culturally biased - LOC may not be a good explanation for behaviours in crowds as your LOC can change depending on the situation - Kohlberg's research is gender biased

Question 41

Research Study - NATCEN

Answer 41

Aim - Investigate what had triggered the 2011 Tottenham Riots Hypothesis - Wanted to know, who, what, why did it happen Sample - 36 interviewees, sample was diverse Procedure: - Data was gathered 5 weeks after the riots had taken place - Gained consent from all p's and assured confidentiality - P's were interviewed alone or in groups Results: - Interview data proposed that a wide range of people were involved in the riots. - Four different types of involvement - watchers, rioters, looters, non-involved - Different factors made people more likely (nudge) or less likely (tug) to get involved

Question 42

Research Study: NATCEN Criticisms

Answer 42

- Researchers relied on the participants memory - A distrust of authority may have affected participants honesty - Participants may have been affected by social desirability - The researchers may have had difficulty in recruiting participants making it hard to generalise the results

Question 43

Minority Influence

Answer 43

The idea that small groups of people can change the opinions and beliefs of larger group of people

Question 44

Moscovici

Answer 44

Said that a minority could only change the views of a majority if the message was consistent, they were committed and if the argument was persuasive

Question 45

Snowball Effect

Answer 45

Members of the minority slowly change the opinion of a majority. (knock on effect)

Question 46

How a Majority affects social change (Stigma and Discrimination)

Answer 46

Evidence has shown that the majorities can be extremely powerful at changing the minority's negative belief