social influence A03

strength of types of conformity

research support for normative social influence from perkins- teens exposed to simple message that most teens their age dont smoke, were less likely to smoke- as they would not face social disapproval nor gain social approval

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another strength

research support from lucas- informational social influence- maths problems easy or difficult, more people conformed to difficult questions, as these were most difficult

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weakness

difficulty in distinguusing between complienace and internalisation- assumed that when somone publically accepts but privately doesnt they showing complaince, however they may change their view later on- to internalise it

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strength of aschs research

research support from lucas- for the effects of task difficuluty, maths problem, 3 parctipants gave incorrect answer- conformity was higher on tasks that were more difficult

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weakness- artifcal settings and task

the identifying a line task was too trival- low mundane realism, had no need to conform- low mundane realism- in every day situations like in situations of peer group pressure the consequences are greater so conformity may have been higher

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weakness- doesnt truely test group size

Bond critised, suggesting that asch cant account for effects of group size- as the majority was too small- 8 confederates- limited application in our understadning of how group size effects conformity

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limited sample characteirccs and cultural differences

just men, from US(individualistic culture)- care for themselves rather than social groups- so their conformity was only 33%- may well be much higher in collectvist cultures like china

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strength of social influence and social change

there is research support for the role of normative social influence in social change, nohlan investigated whether this led to a reduction in energy usages in a community-hung the message that most people have been reducing their energy usage on peoples d

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in a control condition...

the message was displaced without refrence to peoples behaviour, it was found that the first group significnatly reduced their energy usage- due to effects of normative social influence.

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barriers to social influence processes

bashari investigated why some peple dont change their behaviour even when they agree that it is essential, suggesting that people are less likely to behave in enviromentaly freindly ways as they dont want to identify with enviromntalists(tree huggers)

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what was basharis suggestion to reduce this

avoid behaving in ways which reinforce stereotypes as this may be offputting.

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weakness- metholdological limitations

research on social change processes work on the basis of research into conformity(ASCHs) and obedience(milgram) which have several limitatiuons like demand characteircs and limited sample characteircs

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strength of zimbardos research into conformity to social roles

good control- the parctipants were the emotionally stable ones, - as real like as possible dehumanised the prisoners etc

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another strength

its relevance in explaining ABU GRAIB- the horrific events(human rights violations by US military personnel) which happened in iraq from 2003-2004- conformity to social roles as prison guard, zimbardo noted simialriyt between the two- boredem and lack of

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limitation

there were demand characteircs- present, not valid- may have guessed the aims of the study and behaved in that way, details of the SPE were presented to other uni students- they predicted that guards would beahve in the way that they did

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ethical issues

zimbardo played the role of superintendant when in reality he should have been fulfilling his ethical responsibility as researcher, which he didnt do. Instead they were exposed to extreme pyschological harm and suffered extreme reactions like crying. stud

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questions

questions on whether findings justify the mistreatment and harm caused to innocent men- some would say it reflects badly on pysch

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strength of stanley milgrams research into obedience

His findings have actually been replicated in other cultures, findings of cross cultural research have been supporytive of milgrams research. Miranda found obedieince rates-90% of spanish students, Milgram's findings are not limited to american males, an

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weakness

- holland argued that demand characteristics must have been present, 2didnt behave in a natural way because they guessed that it was set up- fake electric shocks. So milgram wasnt testing what he intended to test- lacked internal validity

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who futher strengthens this idea- perry

Perry leaked the audiotapes for milgrams study- many parctipants expressed doubts if the shocks were real- only half believed that they were real.

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research support from King and sherridean

conducted a similar study involving puppies- 54% of men went up to max, 100% of women did.

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ethcial issues- deception

Baumrind was critical of the way in which milgram deceived his parctipants(as they were lied to, were told they were parctipating in a study about memory)- belived shocks to be real, damage pyschologists reputation

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strength of milgrams variations

research support from bickman and his three confederates demonstrating the power of uniform- milkman, jacket and tie, secuirty guard- on street corner, asked to perform simple tasks- more likely to obey guy in uniform

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Holland critised the uniform condition- members of public

demand characteircs were too obvious- milgams varuations were contrived

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cross cultural replications

His findings have actually been replicated in other cultures, findings of cross cultural research have been supporytive of milgrams research. For example Miranda found obedieince rates of 90% of spanish students, Milgram's findings are not limited to amer

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discussion of alternative theories, eg authoritarian personality (Adorno) suggests that dispositional
factors are more influential than situational variables

may be better-

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strength of agentic state

There is research support from blass, schmitt- showed a film to of milgrams experiment to participants. Asked to identify who was responsible, they all said it was the researcher- authority figure, I.E they were acting under him in the agentic state beca

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strength from milgram

Most of Milgram's ppts resisted giving shocks at some point .One q- 'Who is responsible if Mr Wallace (Learner) is harmed?' When the Experimenter replied ‘I'm responsible', ppts often went through the procedure quickly with no further objections.
-

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what does this show

shows that once ppts perceived they were no longer responsible for their own behaviour, they acted more easily as the Experimenter's **agent**, as Milgram suggested.

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weakness of agentic state

Limited explanation-doesent explain all situations of ondience, for example doesent explain why some people did not show obedience even tho humans are animals and have a fundamental need to obey- only explains some situations of obedience

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strength of legitamacy of authority

research support from Bickman

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strength

kilmann and mahnn, as people from different cultures recognise different figures of authority. only 16% of participants went up to the full 450 volts- the effects of legitimacy of authority- as in australia people may recognise authority figures different

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Limitation

However, one limitation of legitimacy of authority is the fact that it cannot account for rates of disobedience in studies, suggesting that obedience may be dispositional, in the form of the autheterian personality, which can also account for rates of dis

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strength of the authoterian personality

research support from elms/ milgrams- they interviewed a sample of people from milgrams original investigation- 20 fully obedient people completed an interview using the F scale and scored signifcantly higher than parctipants that were not fully obedient

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weakness of the authoterian personality

limited explanation as it defintely cannot explain a whole populations obedience, its not possible that the whole of nazi germany had a population with the exact same personality type- and same childhood, social identity and scapegoating is more appropiat

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weakness- political bias in the F scale

it measures tendancy towards an extreme right wing ideology, not towards authoterian personality- jahoda said that its right wing biased, cant account for obediencce on a wide politcial spectrum, only right wing people.

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strength of locus of control

research support from holland supports the link between locus of control and obedience(internal) he repeated milgrams baseline study and measured whether parctipants where external/ internal locus of control.

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what did he find

that 37% of internals went to full 450 volts compared to 23% of externals- externals showed greater resistance to obedience

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weakness of LOC

may have a limited role. only relevant in unfamilar settings where there is no past experience, however in familar situations our previous experience will always be more important- people that have obeyed in past will be likely to do it again

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strength of social support

research support for social support in resistance to conformity, in Asch's study when a dissenting confederate was introduced(unamity condition) conformity dropped from 33-5%

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weakness

cannot explain all events of disobedience, as there have been many cases where parctipants do not obey even tho they have no social support. Locus of control may be more relevant.

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strength of research into minority influence

theres research support from moscovis study of blue/ green coloured slides- which showed that a consistent minoirty opinion has a greater effect than an inconconsistent one. wood carried out a meta analysis of 100 similar studies and found that minorities

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weakness-

artfical tasks- coloured lines, in real life usually results in a more serious outcome- so have a lack of external validity and limited application to real life.

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the studies only make a distinction between group size, in real life its more complicated

as there are more power disparities and status, not just group size- so again do not reflect real life- there are more complicated factors.

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social influence A03

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