Unit Two - Weebly
A-Level Psychology
Social Influence
|Content outline - PLC |Notes |Exam Question |
| | |completed |
|Conformity |Types of conformity: internalisation, identification and compliance. | | |
| |Explanations for conformity: informational social influence and normative social influence | | |
| |variables affecting conformity including group size, unanimity and task difficulty as | | |
| |investigated by Asch | | |
| |Conformity to social roles as investigated by Zimbardo | | |
|Obedience |Explanations for obedience: | | |
| |agentic state | | |
| |legitimacy of authority | | |
| |Situational variables affecting obedience including: | | |
| |proximity, location and uniform, as investigated by Milgram | | |
| |Dispositional explanation for obedience: the Authoritarian Personality | | |
|Resistance to |Explanations of resistance to social influence, including: | | |
|Social |social support | | |
|Influence |locus of control. | | |
|Minority |Minority influence including reference to consistency, commitment and flexibility | | |
|Influence | | | |
| |The role of social influence processes in social change | | |
Social influence key terms
|Social influence | |
|Conformity | |
|Normative conformity | |
|Informational conformity | |
|Compliance | |
|Internalisation | |
|Confederate/stooge | |
|Situational factors | |
|Personality factors | |
|Collectivist cultures | |
|Individualist cultures | |
|Social roles | |
|Deindividuation | |
|Minority influence | |
|Social change | |
|Snowball effect | |
|Social cryptoamnesia | |
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| | |
Conformity
Conformity is the disease, Rebellion is the cure
What is conformity?
We will have all conformed at some time in our lives; for example when we laugh at a joke we don’t find funny just because everyone else laughs, or when we wear a certain style of clothing because all our friends do.
Try to think of an occasion when you have conformed, then answer the following questions:
• Where were you? (home, school, park, etc.)
• How old were you? Do you think your age made a difference to your decision to conform?
• Who were you with? (friends, family, strangers?) How many other people were there?
• Why do you think you conformed in this situation?
Types of Conformity
As well as explanations for conformity (informational and normative social influence), there are also different types of conformity; depending on whether the person changes their view only in public or in public and in private. Write a 2 mark definition of each type of conformity:
We often find that there is a link between the explanation for conformity (why someone conforms) and the type of conformity that occurs (compliance or internalisation)
Here are some real-life examples of conformity. For each one, identify the type of conformity (compliance or internalisation) and the explanation for why that person has conformed (normative or informational influence).
Why do we conform?
Explanations for Conformity
Psychologists have suggested two reasons (explanations) for conformity:
Give an example of a situation when you have conformed due to normative social influence;
Give an example of a situation when you have conformed due to informational social influence:
Evaluation of Types and Explanations of Conformity
Lucas (2006)
Lucas asked students to give answers to mathematical problems that were easy or more difficult. There was greater conformity to incorrect answers when they were difficult rather than when they were easier ones. This was most true for those who rated their mathematical ability as poor. The study shows that people conform when they don’t know the answer.
What explanation of conformity is being displayed in this study? Is this study supporting this explanation or not?
Linkenbach and Perkins (2003)
Marketing campaigns aimed at educating young people about what is normative in a particular group have been successful in reducing an incidence of behaviours including smoking and alcohol. It’s generally accepted that norms bring about conformity and there is a strong correlation between normative beliefs and their behaviour. Linkenback and Perkins (2003) aimed a campaign at 12-17 year olds in 7 counties in Montana, USA and found that 10% of non-smokers subsequently took up smoking following exposure to a message that that most children in their own age group do not smoke. In the control counties where the campaign did not run it was 17% but a massive 41% started smoking when told children their own age group did smoke.
What explanation of conformity is being displayed in this study? Is this study supporting this explanation or not?
Schultz (2008)
The power of influence to change behaviour in positive ways has been demonstrated in an attempt to persuade guests in a hotel to reuse their towels rather than having fresh ones each day. Schultz (2008) gathered data from 132 hotels and 794 hotel rooms where guests stayed for a week. Assigned to control or experimental condition. In the control, a door hanger informed guests of the environmental benefits of reusing towels. In the experimental condition, in addition to the information, guests were informed that ‘75% of guests choose to reuse their towels each day’. The results showed in comparison to the control group, guests reduced their need for towels by 25%
What explanation of conformity is being displayed in this study? Is this study supporting this explanation or not?
Individual Differences in NSI
Some research shows that NSI does not affect everyone’s behaviour in the same way. For example, people who are less concerned with being liked are less affected by NSI than those who care more about being liked. Such people are described as nAffiliators. These are people who have a greater need for ‘affiliation’ – a need for being in a relationship with others. For example McGhee and Teevan (1967) found that students with a high need of affiliation were more likely to conform.
Explain why these individual differences are a limitation of NSI?
APPLY IT
It is Oliver’s and Lola’s first day at college and they are keen to make a good impression. Oliver pretends to be interested in other student’s conversations even though he finds them really boring. Lola watches other students very carefully because she wants to complete her work just like they do, to avoid making any mistakes.
Whose behaviour is being influenced by Informational Social Influence, Oliver’s or Lola’s? Whose is being influenced by Normative Social Influence? Explain both of your answers.
Investigating conformity
One of the earliest investigations of conformity was carried out by Jenness in 1932. Read the study in your Mask text books and make a short APRC of the study (pg 5)
A
P
R
C
An issue with Jenness’s study is that it is limited as the participants were specifically asked to produce a group estimate, rather than just observing whether they would produce similar estimate. However, these results suggest that in an ambiguous situation, we look to others to get a reasonable answer.
Studies of conformity – Sherif (1935)
Aim: Sherif conducted an experiment with the aim of demonstrating that people conform to group norms when they are put in an ambiguous (i.e. unclear) situation.
Procedure Sherif used a lab experiment to study conformity. He used the autokinetic effect – this is where a small spot of light (projected onto a screen) in a dark room will appear to move, even though it is still (i.e. it is a visual illusion).
It was discovered that when participants were individually tested their estimates on how far the light moved varied considerably (e.g. from 20cm to 80cm). The participants were then tested in groups of three. Sherif manipulated the composition of the group by putting together two people whose estimate of the light movement when alone was very similar, and one person whose estimate was very different. Each person in the group had to say aloud how far they thought the light had moved.
Results: Sherif found that over numerous estimates (trials) of the movement of light, the group converged to a common estimate. As the figure below shows: the person whose estimate of movement was greatly different to the other two in the group conformed to the view of the other two.
Sherif said that this showed that people would always tend to conform. Rather than make individual judgments they tend to come to a group agreement.
Conclusion: The results show that when in an ambiguous situation (such as the autokinetic effect), a person will look to others (who know more / better) for guidance (i.e. adopt the group norm). They want to do the right thing but may lack the appropriate information. Observing others can provide this information.
Studies of conformity – Asch (1951)
Asch believed that the main problem with Sherif's (1935) conformity experiment was that there was no correct answer to the ambiguous autokinetic experiment. How could we be sure that a person conformed when there was no correct answer? Asch (1951) devised an experiment whereby there was an obvious answer to a line judgement task. If the participant gave an incorrect answer it would be clear that this was due to group pressure.
Aim:
Procedure:
Results:
Conclusion:
Evaluation of the Sherif and Asch studies
Both of these studies were carried out in similar environments with similar participants, meaning that they share many of the same strengths and limitations. Consider each of the following points in relation to both studies, ensuring that you explain your answers:
G - Can the results be applied to other settings? Do they have ecological validity?
Can the results be applied to other populations? Do they have population validity?
R - Did they both produce similar results? Are they reliable?
V - Both studies aim to test conformity; do they achieve this? Are they internally valid? Remember that the main threats to internal validity are demand characteristics and extraneous variables.
E - Both studies have been accused of being unethical. Explain what aspects of the study might have broken the following ethical guidelines:
Deception:
Informed consent:
Right to withdraw:
Protection of participants:
Both studies are quite old. Could they be ‘era dependent?’ If so, how might this affect the results?
Any other evaluation points you could make?
Variations on Asch’s original procedure
In further trials, Asch changed the procedure of his study in order to investigate which factors influenced the level of conformity. Use your text books to make a note of the findings of these studies
Size of group
Non conforming role model
Difficulty of task
Giving answers in private
Apply It
Some students are celebrating the end of their exams by having a night out. They have been in the pub all evening and are now discussing which nightclub to go on to. Imogen prefers ‘Rotting Flesh’ but the majority of the groups wants to go to ‘Scar Tissue’.
Briefly explain how each of the following factors might affect whether or not Imogen conforms to the majority.
a) Group Size
b) Unanimity
c) Task Difficulty
Factors affecting conformity – Further research evidence
Furman and Duke (1988)
This study looked at how a lack of confidence in the given task may affect conformity. The students used as participants were either majoring in music or in another subject for their degree course. Students were asked to listen to two versions of a piece of music and to state their preference, individually then in the presence of confederates. Music majors were not influenced to change their already stated preferences. However, the publicly stated preferences of non-music majors were significantly affected by the preferences of the confederates.
Eagly and Carli (1981)
Eagly and Carli carried out a meta-analysis to examine whether the popular idea that women are more conforming than men is supported by research evidence. They found that, although women were more likely to conform than men, the size of the difference was very small. They also found that the difference between men and women appears most in group-pressure situations where conformity occurs in public; in private the difference virtually disappears. In other words, women are more likely to comply with the group opinion rather than internalise it.
Perrin and Spencer (1980)
Perrin and Spencer suggested that the Asch effect was a "child of its time". They carried out an exact replication of the original Asch experiment using engineering, mathematics and chemistry students as subjects. They found that on only one out of 396 trials did an observer join the erroneous majority. They argue that a cultural change has taken place in the value placed on conformity and obedience and in the position of students. However, the nature of Perrin and Spencer’s sample could have also had an effect because students of engineering, maths and chemistry may have been more confident in performing the task because of the nature of their studies.
Factors affecting conformity
From Asch’s variations and the studies discussed on the previous pages, summarise how the following factors affect conformity and why this might be:
| |Increase or decrease in |Why might it have had this effect? |
| |conformity? | |
|Group size decreased from four to |Decrease |Normative social influence is reduced when the group is smaller. |
|two: | | |
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|Presence of a non conforming role | | |
|model: | | |
|Task is very difficult: | | |
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|Participants are very confident: | | |
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|Female participants instead of male: | | |
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|Answers are given in private: | | |
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|Carried out at the present time (not | | |
|1950s): | | |
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|Carried out in a collectivist | | |
|culture: | | |
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The Stanford Prison Study – Zimbardo et al (1974)
Aim:
To see whether people will conform to new social roles.
Method:
The participants were all male psychology students at the prestigious Stanford University in California. They volunteered to take part in the study and were randomly allocated to two groups prisoners and prison guards. The prisoners were to spend two weeks locked in 'cells' in a wing of the university. The prison guards were there to look after the prisoners and to keep them under control.
The prisoners were arrested at home (unexpectedly) and taken to the university. They were stripped, deloused and given a prison uniform and prisoner number. From now on they were referred to by number, not by name. They were to spend 23 hours a day locked in their cells for two weeks.
The prison guards were given uniforms, including sticks and mirrored sunglasses. They worked shifts and went home at the end of their shift.
Results:
The experiment was called off after only 6 days. The guards had become so brutal to the prisoners that two prisoners had some form of nervous breakdown, one developed a nervous rash all over his body and one went on hunger strike!! While the guards were giving their orders, the prisoners became apathetic. They did not stand up to the guards and simply did as they were told, even though it caused them distress.
Conclusion:
One explanation for why the participants’ reactions were so extreme in this study could be that they conformed to social roles. A role is a part you play during your life. Each role requires different behaviour. If you are given a new role, e.g. when you start a new job, you change your behaviour to suit. In Zimbardo's study, the students were given new roles - prisoner or guard - and simply conformed to the behaviour of these roles.
Deindividuation may also help to explain the behaviour of the participants; especially the guards. This is a state when you become so immersed in the norms of the group that you lose your sense of identity and personal responsibility. The guards may have been so sadistic because they did not feel what happened was down to them personally – it was a group norm.
Evaluation of the Stanford prison study – Zimbardo et al
GRAVE
Strengths (
Limitations (
It is important to note, there is considerable evidence that the participants did react to the situation as though it was real. For example 90% of the prisoners’ private conversations, which were monitored by the researchers, were on the prison conditions, and only 10% of the time were their conversations about life outside of the prison. The guards, too, rarely exchanged personal information during their relaxation breaks - they either talked about ‘problem prisoners’, other prison topics, or did not talk at all. The guards were always on time and even worked overtime for no extra pay. When the prisoners were introduced to a priest, they referred to themselves by their prison number, rather than their first name. Some even asked him to get a lawyer to help get them out.
Of course, the main criticism of the Stanford prison study is on ethical grounds, but Zimbardo defends the research in a number of ways:
❖ The only deception involved was to do with the arrest of the prisoners at the beginning of the experiment. The prisoners were not told partly because final approval from the police wasn’t given until minutes before the participants decided to participate, and partly because the researchers wanted the arrests to come as a surprise. However this was a breach of the ethics of Zimbardo’s own contract that all of the participants had signed.
❖ When Zimbardo realised just how much the prisoners disliked the experience, which was unexpected, the experiment was abandoned.
❖ Approval for the study was given from the Office of Naval Research, the Psychology Department and the University Committee of Human Experimentation. This Committee also did not anticipate the prisoners’ extreme reactions that were to follow.
❖ Alternative methodologies were looked at which would cause less distress to the participants but at the same time give the desired information, but nothing suitable could be found.
❖ Extensive group and individual debriefing sessions were held and all participants returned post-experimental questionnaires several weeks, then several months later, then at yearly intervals
❖ Zimbardo also strongly argues that the benefits gained about our understanding of human behaviour and how we can improve society should out balance the distress caused by the study. However it has been suggested that the US Navy was not so much interested in making prisons more human and were in fact more interested in using the study to train people in the armed services to cope with the stresses of captivity.
Complete the following table discussing the ethical issues related to this study:
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|Informed consent | |
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|Deception | |
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|Right to withdraw | |
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|Protection from harm | |
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Evaluation Extra
Lack of research support
Reicher and Haslam (2006)
Their partial replication of the Stanford prison experiment was broadcast of BBC TV, so has become known as the BBC Prison Study. Their findings were very different to those of Zimbardo and his colleagues. It was the prisoners who eventually took control of the mock prison and subjected the guards to a campaign of harassment and disobedience. The researchers used Social Identity Theory (SIT Tajfel 1981) to explain this outcome. They argued that the guards had failed to develop a shared identity as a cohesive group, but the prisoners did. They actively identified themselves as members of a social group that refused to accept the limits of their assigned role as prisoners.
Explain why this finding challenges Zimbardo’s conclusions about conformity to social roles.
Ethical Issues
A major ethical issue arose because of Zimbardo’s dual roles in the study. For example, on one occasion a student who wanted to leave the study spoke to Zimbardo in his role as a superintendent. The whole conversation was conducted on the basis that the student was a prisoner in a prison, asking to be ‘released’. Zimbardo responded to him as a superintendent worried about the running of his prison rather than as a researcher with responsibility towards his participants.
Explain why this is an ethical limitation of the Stanford Prison Study
What do you think the benefits of the study were? On balance, do you think they outweighed the ethical issues or not?
Zimbardo multiple choice questions
Read the questions carefully. There is only one correct answer for each question.
1 A role is…
(a) A part we play in society
(b) The status we hold in society
(c) Fixed
(d) Looking at the world from one perspective
2 The simulated prison was created…
(a) At Zimbardo’s home
(b) In the basement of the Psychology department at Stanford University
(c) In a film studio
(d) In the Blue Peter sunken garden
3 A weakness of the study is…
(a) It lacks some ecological validity
(b) Breaks ethical guidelines
(c) Only uses male participants
(d) All of the above
4 Who played the role of the prison warden?
(a) Ali G
(b) Milgram
(c) Zimbardo
(d) Zimbardo’s dad
5 Which one of the following items of clothes did the prisoners not wear?
(a) Underwear
(b) Smocks
(c) Nylon stocking
(d) Rubber sandals
6 Which one of the following items did the guards not wear?
(a) Khaki uniforms
(b) Reflective sunglasses
(c) Underwear
(d) Hooded tops
7 The participants were assigned to the role of guard or prisoner…
(a) Randomly
(b) Based on health
(c) Based on age
(d) Based on their own preferences
8 Which one of the following is not true?
(a) The prisoners were referred to by only their numbers
(b) The prisoners were deloused
(c) Toilet visits were supervised
(d) The prisoners had no bed linen
9 The study was planned to last…
(a) 2 weeks but had to be finished after the first day
(b) 1 weeks but was carried on for a further week
(c) 2 weeks but had to be stopped after 6 days
(d) Until the last prisoner couldn’t cope any more
10 The study demonstrates that…
(a) The roles given to the students did affect their behaviour
(b) The roles were not powerful enough
(c) The roles given to the students did not affect their behaviour
(d) The roles were not important
11 The study was not truly ecologically valid because…
(a) It was not a real prison
(b) The people involved were not real prisoners or guards
(c) All of the above are correct
(d) None of the above is correct
12 However it can still be argued that the study is still valid because
(a) The conditions never changed
(b) The prisoners wore a ball and chain
(c) The guards wore sunglasses
(d) Both prisoners and guards continued their behaviour even when they were not being observed
13 De-individuation refers to…
(a) When a person has no values
(b) When a person loses their individuality and personal values, and takes on the group values
(c) When a person becomes more aware of their individuality
(d) When a person rejects group values
Conformity key word search
**ASCH ** CONFORMITY ** CULTURE ** DEINDIVIDUATION
**ERA** GENDER ** INFORMATIONAL** INTERNALISATION
** JENNESS ** NORMATIVE ** NORMS** SHERIF** SOCIALROLES
** ZIMBARDO*
Obedience to authority
What is obedience?
How does obedience differ from conformity?
Although both conformity and obedience are forms of social influence, there are important differences between them. Using your knowledge of conformity, complete the following table by describing how the characteristics given for obedience are different to those for conformity.
|Conformity |Obedience |
| |There is a direct request to change our behaviour. |
| |The request to change our behaviour is usually from just one person. |
| |The person influencing us is of a higher status (they have authority).|
| | |
| |The person influencing us does not necessarily act in the same way as |
| |us. For example, a teacher may ask you to be quiet whilst they |
| |continue to talk. |
| |Obedience is usually seen as a positive action which we don’t mind |
| |admitting to. |
Real life examples of the dangers of obedience
Much of the research into obedience has been inspired by real life examples of what can happen when we blindly follow orders. The Holocaust is one notable example, but unfortunately there have been more recent atrocities which demonstrate just how dangerous obedience can be.
TASK:
Milgram stuff
How to write a good discussion of the Milgram study – Vicky Pollard
Now use this technique to discuss (evaluate) the Milgram study. Match the counterarguments over the page to the most relevant criticism of the study to form a reasoned discussion:
BUT….
BUT…
BUT…
BUT…
BUT…
Milgram counterarguments
Use these in the relevant places to create your discussion of the Milgram experiment:
1. Milgram argued that he could not possibly know how distressed P’s would become. In answer to a follow up questionnaire a year later - 84% of P’s said they were glad they had taken part and 74% felt they had learned something.
2. Deception was necessary to make the study as internally and ecologically valid as possible. All participants were fully debriefed when the study ended.
3. Milgram did not break any ethical guidelines because there were none at the time he carried out his experiment. Indeed, it is partly because of his study that guidelines were introduced.
4. Milgram made it clear that P’s would be paid even if they did not continue with the study. The experiment may have lacked validity if P’s were constantly reminded of their right to withdraw.
5. Later studies have supported the ecological validity of Milgram’s research. Hofling et al found that 21 out 22 nurses (in a real life hospital) were willing to administer a potentially lethal dose of a drug to a patient when ordered to by a doctor
6. When asked later, 70% of participants said that they believed that they were giving real electric shocks.
7. The participants were from mixed backgrounds. The study has been replicated in other cultures with similar results to the original, although collectivist cultures are slightly more likely to obey.
Milgram Knowledge Check
The Milgram experiment is the only one named on the specification, which means that you could be asked a specific question about the aim, procedure, results or conclusions, of the study, or be asked to evaluate it (including ethical issues). Therefore, you need to be especially confident that you can describe and evaluate it in detail. Use the spaces below to plan out what you would include you were asked to outline and evaluate the Milgram study as a 12 mark question:
E
Explanations for Obedience – Situational Variables
Variations on Milgram’s original procedure
Milgram carried out many variations of his original experiment, changing some aspect of the procedure each time, in order to investigate which factors make people more likely to obey (explanations for obedience).
Consider each variation, and produce a ‘guesstimate’ of the percentage of P’s who continued to give ‘shocks’ up to the full 450 volts. Your teacher will then reveal the actual percentage of people who obeyed in each variation. Copy this into the last column.
|Variation |Your guesstimate |Actual obedience |
| | |rate |
|The original experiment | |65% |
|Venue moved to seedy offices in a nearby town | | |
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|Teacher and learner are in the same room | | |
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|Teacher had to force learner’s hand onto the plate to | | |
|receive the shock | | |
|Teacher given support from two other ‘teachers’ | | |
|(confederates) who refuse to obey | | |
|Experimenter left the room and instructed the teacher by | | |
|telephone from another room | | |
|Teacher paired with an assistant (confederate) who threw | | |
|the switches that gave the shocks | | |
Situational Variables
After Milgram conducted his first study on obedience, he carried out a large number of variations in order to consider the situational variables that might create greater or lesser obedience.
The situational variables that you MUST know are Proximity, Location and Uniform.
Proximity
In Milgram’s original study, the teacher and learner were in an adjoining room, so the teacher could hear the learner but not see him. In the proximity variation, they were in the same room.
In this condition, the obedience rate dropped from 65% to 40%.
In an even more dramatic variation, the teacher had to force the learner’s hand onto an ‘electroshock plate’ when he refused to answer a question. In this touch proximity condition, the obedience rate dropped further to 30%.
In a third proximity variation, the experimenter left the room and gave instructions to the teacher by telephone. In this remote instruction condition time proximity was reduced. The outcome was a further reduction in obedience to 20.5%
Think of reasons why this would obedience reduced in each of the conditions?
Location
In another variation, Milgram changed the location of the obedience study. He conducted a variation in a run-down building rather than the prestigious university setting where it was originally conducted (Yale University). Obedience levels fell to 47.5%. This is still quite a high level of obedience but is less than the original 65% in the baseline study.
What reason could there be for the drop in obedience when it took place in a run-down building?
Uniform
In the original baseline study – the experimenter wore a grey lab coat as a symbol of his authority (a kind of uniform) Milgram carried out a variation in which the experimenter was called away because of a phone call right at the start of the procedure. The role of the experimenter was then taken over by an ‘ordinary member of the public’ ( a confederate) in everyday clothes rather than a lab coat. The obedience level dropped to 20%, the lowest of the variations.
What reason could there be for the drop in obedience when the experimenter was in ordinary clothes?
Situational Variations Results Task - Plot in the graph so it shows different obedience levels in Milgram’s Variations of the baseline study. This needs to include, the original baseline results, Change of Location, different proximity variations and uniform.
Evaluation of Milgram’s Variations
Bickman (1974) – The power of uniforms
Three male researchers gave orders to 153 randomly selected pedestrians in New York. The researchers were dressed in one of three ways: in a suit and tie, a milkman’s uniform, or a guard’s uniform.
They gave various orders for example:
• Pointing to a bag on the street – “Pick up this bag for me”
• Nodding in the direction of a confederate – “This fellow is over parked at the meter, but doesn’t have any change. Give him a dime”.
Bickman found that participants were most likely to obey the researcher dressed as guard (80%) than the milk man or civilian (40%).
Does this support or contradict Milgram’s findings for Uniforms? What do the findings of this study suggest?
Further studies of obedience - The effect of culture and gender on obedience levels
Milgram’s procedure has been replicated by other researcher in many countries and with a variety of participants. Two of the factors investigated have been gender and culture. Consider the table below and then draw at least two conclusions from the data:
|Country |Researchers |Participants |% Obedience |
|USA |Milgram (1963) |Male, general population |65 |
| USA |Milgram (196) |Female, general population |65 |
|Germany |Mantell (1971) |Male, general population |85 |
|UK |Barley & McGuinness |Male students |50 |
|Spain |Miranda (1981) |Students |90 |
|Australia |Kilham & Mann (1974) |Female students (+ female learner) |16 |
|Italy |Ancona & Pareyson (1968) |Students |85 |
Conclusions:
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Apart from Australia – do the findings support or contradict Milgram’s findings? Do you think carrying out cross-cultural research is a good or bad thing? Why?
Smith and Bond suggested that the replications took place mainly in westernised countries – what criticism could arise from this?
Read through the description of each study and then answer the question(s) below:
Orne and Holland
They criticised the original study because they felt that many participants working out the procedure was faked. It is even more likely participants in the variations realised this because of the extra manipulation. A good example is when the experimenter was ‘replaced by a member of the public’. Even Milgram himself said the situation was so contrived that the participants may well have worked out the truth.
Why is this a limitation of all Milgram studies, the original, and variations?
Sheridan and King (1972) – Puppy love?
Students trained a puppy to learn a discrimination task by punishing it with increasingly severe real electric shocks whenever it made an error. Although the puppy actually received only a small shock, the participants could see and hear its squeals.
After a while, an odourless anaesthetic was released into the puppy’s cage, causing it to fall asleep. Although participants complained about the procedure (and some even cried), they were reminded that the puppy’s failure to respond was a punishable error, and that they should continue to give shocks. 75% of participants delivered the maximum shock possible. 54% of males students and 100% of female students delivered what they thought was a fatal shock.
Hofling et al (1966) – Obedient nurses
22 nurses working a various American hospitals received telephone calls from a confederate “Dr Smith of the Psychiatric Department”, instructing them to give Mr Jones (Dr Smith’s patient) 20mg of a made up drug called Astrofen. Dr Smith said he was in a desperate hurry and would sign the drug authorisation form when he came to see the patient in 10 minutes time.
The label on the box containing the Astrofen clearly stated that the maximum dose was 10mg. So if the nurse obeyed Dr Smith’s instruction she would be exceeding the maximum daily dose. She would also be breaking the rules requiring written authorisation before any drug is given and that a nurse be absolutely sure that “Dr Smith” is a genuine doctor.
In reply to questionnaires, most nurses said they would not obey such an order. In reality, 21 out of the 22 nurses that received a call from “Dr Smith” complied without hesitation and 11 later said that they had not noticed the dosage discrepancy.
Rank and Jacobson (1977) – Not so obedient nurses
Queried the facts that the nurses had no knowledge of the drug involved and that they had no opportunity to seek advice from anyone of equal or higher status. (Both of which would apply in most hospital situations.)
They replicated Hofling’s experiment but the instruction was to administer Valium at 3 times the recommended level, the telephoned instruction came from a real, known doctor on the hospital staff and the nurses were able to consult with other nurses before proceeding. Under these conditions, only 2 out of 18 nurses prepared the medication as requested.
Le Jeu De La Mort (The Game of Death)(2010)
Le Jeu De La Mort is a documentary about reality TV, presented on French Television in 2010. It includes a replication of the Milgram study. The participants believed they were contestants on a pilot show for a new game show called La Zone Xtreme. They were paid to give (fake) electric shocks- when ordered by the presenter, to other participants, who were in fact actors, in front of the studio audience.
In a remarkable confirmation of Milgram’s results, 80% of participants delivered the maximum shock of 460 volts to an apparently unconscious man. Their behaviour was identical to that of Milgram’s participants – nervous laughter, nail biting and signs of anxiety.
Explanations for Obedience – Social-Psychological Factors
Why do people obey so readily? Obedience research has led psychologists to suggest a number of possible explanations. Use Mask text book to help you describe and/or give an example of each of the explanations listed below:
Evaluation: What research is there to support or conflict these explanations?
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Using page 28 in Mask, read about Dehumanisation as another explanation. Summarise this using no more than 100 word:
The Trial of Milgram and Zimbardo
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|Stanley Milgram, you are hereby charged with unduly causing participant distress, through unnecessary use of coercion and deception. |
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You will be put into two teams; one must prepare the case of the prosecution and the other the case of the defence. The ‘Zimbardo’ half of the class will act as jurors, and based on the case you present, will vote on whether Milgram is guilty or not guilty.
|Zimbardo |
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|Philip Zimbardo, you are hereby charged with unduly causing participant distress through physical and psychological humiliation and not |
|maintaining the proper professionalism of scientific objectivity. |
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You will be put into two teams; one must prepare the case of the prosecution and the other the case of the defence. The ‘Milgram’ half of the class will act as jurors, and based on the case you present, will vote on whether Zimbardo is guilty or not guilty.
Use this page to summarise the main arguments of all teams (not just your own):
Milgram
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Resistance to Social Influence
Introduction to resistance to social influence
So far in this module, we have looked at why people conform or obey. In this section, we turn that around and look at why some people DON’T give in to these influences.
What makes people act independently?
Most of the information you need for this topic can be found by revisiting studies of conformity and obedience to discover why some of the participants resisted pressures to conform or obey. Use your answers to the following questions to begin a mind map of the factors affecting independent behaviour, then add any others that you can think of:
• What factors made people less likely to conform in Asch’s variations on his original study?
• What factors made people less likely to obey in Milgram’s variations?
• Why did the nurses in the Rank and Jacobson study shower lower levels of obedience than those in the Hofling study?
How do people resist pressures to conform and obey?
Using your text books, complete the following:
What is Social Support?
What do disobedient models bring to the explanation?
Evaluation - Resistance to Conformity – what does the research say?
Locus of control: complete the questionnaire on the following page then answer the following questions
One factor that psychologists believe may have an effect on independent behaviour is whether we have an internal or external locus of control. [pic]
Example: “I have failed my exam.”
Internal locus of control – “I really should have studied more. I know that I didn’t put as much effort into revision as I could have.”
External locus of control – I had a rubbish teacher. My little brother kept interrupting me when I tried to revise. The exam was on a really bad day.
Rotter's Locus of Control Scale
Identify which of the two statements for each number that you agree with the most:
1. a. Children get into trouble because their patents punish them too much.
1. b. The trouble with most children nowadays is that their parents are too easy with them.
2. a. Many of the unhappy things in people's lives are partly due to bad luck.
2. b. People's misfortunes result from the mistakes they make.
3. a. One of the major reasons why we have wars is because people don't take enough interest in politics.
3. b. There will always be wars, no matter how hard people try to prevent them.
4. a. In the long run people get the respect they deserve in this world.
4. b. Unfortunately, an individual's worth often passes unrecognized no matter how hard he tries.
5. a. The idea that teachers are unfair to students is nonsense.
5. b. Most students don't realize the extent to which their grades are influenced by accidental happenings.
6. a. Without the right breaks, one cannot be an effective leader.
6. b. Capable people who fail to become leaders have not taken advantage of their opportunities.
7. a. No matter how hard you try, some people just don't like you.
7. b. People who can't get others to like them don't understand how to get along with others.
8. a. Heredity plays the major role in determining one's personality.
8. b. It is one's experiences in life which determine what they're like.
9. a. I have often found that what is going to happen will happen.
9. b. Trusting fate has never turned out as well for me as making a decision to take a definite course of action.
10. a. In the case of the well prepared student there is rarely, if ever, such a thing as an unfair test.
10. b. Many times, exam questions tend to be so unrelated to course work that studying in really useless.
11. a. Becoming a success is a matter of hard work, luck has little or nothing to do with it.
11. b. Getting a good job depends mainly on being in the right place at the right time.
12. a. The average citizen can have an influence in government decisions.
12. b. This world is run by the few people in power, and there is not much the little guy can do about it.
13. a. When I make plans, I am almost certain that I can make them work.
13. b. It is not always wise to plan too far ahead because many things turn out to be a matter of good or bad fortune anyhow.
14. a. There are certain people who are just no good.
14. b. There is some good in everybody.
15. a. In my case getting what I want has little or nothing to do with luck.
15. b. Many times we might just as well decide what to do by flipping a coin.
16. a. Who gets to be the boss often depends on who was lucky enough to be in the right place first.
16. b. Getting people to do the right thing depends upon ability - luck has little or nothing to do with it.
17. a. As far as world affairs are concerned, most of us are the victims of forces we can neither understand, nor control.
17. b. By taking an active part in political and social affairs the people can control world events.
18. a. Most people don't realize the extent to which their lives are controlled by accidental happenings.
18. b. There really is no such thing as "luck."
19. a. One should always be willing to admit mistakes.
19. b. It is usually best to cover up one's mistakes.
20. a. It is hard to know whether or not a person really likes you.
20. b. How many friends you have depends upon how nice a person you are.
Score one point for each of the following:
2.a, 3.b, 4.b, 5.b, 6.a, 7.a, 9.a, 10.b, 11.b, 12.b, 13.b, 15.b, 16.a, 17.a, 18.a, 20.a,
If you didn’t get these answers for these questions, you shouldn’t give yourself a point. If an answer for the question isn’t listed, don’t give yourself a point.
A high score (9 or more) = External Locus of Control
A low score (8 or less) = Internal Locus of Control
Application of locus of control to real life situations
For each of these examples, identify whether the person is displaying an internal or external locus of control:
1. Amanda doesn’t bother applying to be her class representative because she feels she is not popular enough to win.
2. Saima checks her horoscope every day to see if she is going to have a good or a bad day.
3. Harry feels confident that he will get the job he applied for because he has good exam results and did well in the interview.
Now use your knowledge to describe how someone with each type of locus of control would explain being involved in a car accident:
a) Internal
b) External
Resistance to Social Influence
People who have an internal LOC are more likely to be able to resist pressures to conform or obey. This makes sense if you think about it- if a person takes responsibility for their actions and experiences (good or bad) then they are more likely to base their decisions on their own beliefs and thus resist pressures from other people.
Another explanation for the link with greater resistance is that people with a high internal LOC tend to be more self-confident, more achievement orientated, have higher intelligence and have less need for social approval.These personality traits lead to greater resistance to social influence.
Evaluation of the effect of locus of control on independent behaviour
Oliner and Oliner (1988) interviewed two groups of non-Jewish people who had lived through the Holocaust and Nazi Germany. They compared 406 people who had protected and rescued Jews from the Nazis and 126 people who had not done this. Oliner and Oliner found that the group that rescued the Jews had scores demonstrating an internal locus of control.
• Holland (1967) repeated Milgram’s baseline study and measured whether participants were internal or external.
• He found that 37% of internals did not continue to the highest shock (showed resistance)
• However 23% of externals did not continue.
• Research support of this nature increases the validity of the LOC explanation and our confidence that it can explain resistance.
HOWEVER
Twenge (2004) analysed data from American obedience studies over a 40 year period (1960 to 2002). The data showed that, over this time span, people have become more resistance to obedience but also more external.
It is also possible that the results are due to a changing society where many things are out of personal control.
Apply it
You are a member of the student council at a sixth-form college. You are all meeting to elect a chairperson. The three candidates have all addressed the meeting and now left. It’s decision time. But you begin to get a bit worried because the teacher who liaises with the student council is asking a lot of questions about one of the candidates. After a while, it becomes clear that he is trying to influence students to vote for this person.
Question
What factors might make it difficult for you to resist pressure from the teacher to vote a certain way? Refer to research in your answer.
Obedience – Dispositional Explanations
What is obedience?
Obedience refers to a type of social influence that causes a person to act in response to a direct order from a figure with perceived authority. This implies that the person carrying out the order is being made to do something that they otherwise would not have done.
Who in our society has perceived authority (i.e. who’s orders would you follow without question?)
The first quote from Milgram suggests that some element of obedience is necessary for society to function. If people did not obey laws, or do what others ask, society would fall apart. Milgram argues that obedience serves a number of purposes, and can be used as a force for good.
However, obedience has its dark side. Throughout human history there have been numerous atrocities involving human inhumanity to other humans. The second quote from Milgram argues that these acts could only have been carried out if people obeyed orders. Milgram investigated destructive obedience where orders are obeyed even though the individual understands the negative consequences. Milgram was particularly interested in explaining what happened in the concentration camps during the Second World War. At Auschwitz for example, there were up to 12,000 deaths a day.
During his trial in 1961, Adolf Eichmann (see right) claimed that he had only been following orders. Many other Nazi’s who stood trial also gave the same defence.
The political theorist Hannah Arendt who observed the trial wrote in 1963 “It would have been comforting indeed to believe that Eichmann was a monster…The trouble with Eichmann was precisely that so many were like him, and that the many were neither perverted nor sadistic, that they were and still are terribly and terrifyingly normal.”
What implication does this have?
Adorno(1950) - Procedure
He investigated the causes of the obedient personality in a study of more than 2000 middle-class, white Americans and their unconscious
attitudes towards other racial groups. They developed several scales to investigate this, including the potential for fascism scale (F-scale) which is still used to measure authoritarian personality.
A few examples questions from the F-scale include ‘Obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues children should learn’. You will all have a good at the F-scale questionnaire.
Findings – Use GHG / handout to summarise the findings of the study
Adorno Findings
Plot into the graph the strong positive correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice.
What does this correlation mean?
The Germans are different hypothesis
An alternative to the implication above was that there was something about the German personality that allowed the Holocaust to happen.
Adorno et al (1950) proposed that Germans had an Authoritarian Personality. This means…
Adorno et al proposed that people with this type of personality are likely to be prejudiced against minority groups as a result of unconscious hostility arising from a harsh, disciplined upbringing, and that this would be displaced onto groups such as Jews, black people, gypsies etc. This type of explanation relied heavily upon ideas from the ___________________________ approach.
Evaluation
Milgram and Elms (1966) conducted interviews with a small sample of fully obedient participants, who scored highly on the F-scale, believing that there might be a link between obedience between obedience and authoritarian personality.
However, this link is merely a correlation between two measured variables.
Limited Explanation
Any explanation of obedience in terms of individual personality will find it hard to explain obedience behaviour in the majority of a country’s population. In pre-war Germany, millions of individuals displayed obedient, racist and anti-Semitic behaviour. This was despite the fact that they must have differed in their personalities in all sorts of ways. It seems extremely unlikely that they could all possess an authoritarian personality.
Political Bias
The F-scale measures the tendency towards an extreme form of right-wing ideology.
Christie and Jahoda (1954) argued that this is a politically biased interpretation of authoritarian personality.
They point out the reality of left-wing authoritarianism in the shape of, for example, Russian Bolshevism and Chinese Maoism. In fact, extreme right and left wing ideologies have much in common – they also both emphasise the importance of complete obedience to legitimate political authority.
Apply It
Leon works in the Head Office of a big national company. His boss has a reputation as a bully because he is always shouting at people and telling them what to do in no uncertain terms. The floor Leon works on is open-plan so his boss can easily see what everyone is doing. Leon has noticed that his boss is always sucking up to the senior managers at every opportunity.
Question
Explain the behaviour of Leon’s boss in terms of
i)Situational variables
ii)Social-Psychology factors
iii) Dispositional factors
Refer to research in your answer where appropriate.
Minority Influence and Social Change
What is Social Control?
What is Social Change?
Research has shown that minorities can be influential provided they adopt the appropriate style of behaviour.
If people simply went along with the majority all the time and minority views never prevailed, there would be no change, no innovation
One example of social change is attitudes towards homosexuality. Although it was an imprisonable offence in the UK until 1967, public attitudes have changed over time and most people now regard being gay as a normal variation of human behaviour.
Eventually new laws have been created to protect the rights of gay people, and in 2005 same sex civil partnerships were introduced. This represents a huge change in society in a relatively short period of just 50 years.
What is the Process of Social Change?
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Minority Influence
What features of minorities are needed to promote change?
Minority Influence
Minority influence refers to situations where one person or a small group of people (i.e. a minority) influences the beliefs and behaviours of other people. This is distinct from conformity where the majority is doing the influencing.
Minority influence is most likely to lead to internalisation – both public and private beliefs are changed by the process.
To consider how social change happens, in the next section of this workbook we will consider the answers to two questions:
1. How should the minority behave if they want to influence the majority?
2. How does the minority become the majority and what happens then?
How should the minority behave if they want to influence the majority? - The role of minority influence in social change
However, it takes more than one or two people to bring about a real change in society. For change to happen, the minority somehow has to bring the majority around to their way of thinking. The behavioural characteristics that the minority must possess in order to influence the majority have been investigated by studies of minority influence.
Moscovici (1969) “Calling a blue slide green”
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Behavioural characteristics of the minority
As you can see, research shows that consistency is the most important behavioural characteristic that the minority should possess in order to influence the majority. Moscovici also suggested it is important for the minority to show commitment and flexibility.
We need to understand Consistency, Commitment and Flexibility in more detail. Use page 41 in mask to elaborate on the definitions of these traits.
As well as the behavioural characteristics of the minority, you also need to understand the impact of the snowball effect and social cryptoamnesia on social change. Outline these below:
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Fill in the gaps to complete the final stage of the process:
When the minority become the majority, people feel the pressure to _________________ to the majority opinion. The government eventually introduces new laws which people must _________________.
Evaluation of Minority Influence
Using all your resources complete an evaluation for the theory of Minority Influence
Apply it
There was a time in this country when very few people recycled cans, bottles, newspapers and the like. In fact, people who did were often viewed by the majority with suspicion, as anyone who carried out such ‘green’ activities were often considered a ‘bit strange’.
Question
How did the minority activity of recycling become so widely accepted by the majority? (Include all of the features of minority influence in your answer and research where appropriate).
Social Change
The Special Role of Minority Influence
You need to be able to consider the steps in how minority influence creates social change. Use Page 34 of GHG to fill in the steps.
To do this it’s best to look at this from a real life example such as the African-American civil rights movement.
African-American civil rights movement
1) Drawing Attention
The was done through social proof – in the 1950s in America, black separation applied to all parts of America. There were black neighbourhoods, and in southern states of America, places such as schools and were exclusive to whites. The civil rights marches of this period drew attention to the situation by providing social proof of the problem.
2) Consistency
There were many marches and many people taking part. Even though they were the minority of the American population, the civil rights activists displayed consistency of message and intent.
3) Deeper Processing
Deeper processing of the issue – this attention meant that many people who just accepted the status quo began to think about the unjustness of it.
4) The Augmentation Principle
There were a number of incidents where individuals risked their lives. For example, ‘freedom riders’ were mixed racial groups who got on bu ses in the south to challenge the fact that black people still had sit separately on buses. Many ‘freedom riders’ were beaten there were incidents of mob violence.
5) The Snowball Effect
Civil rights activist such as Martin Luther King continued to press for changes that gradually got the attention of the US government. In 1964 the US Civil Rights Act was passed, which prohibited discrimination. This represented a change from minority to majority support for civil rights.
6) Social Cryptoamnesia
This is where people have a memory where change has occurred but cannot remember how it happened. There is no doubt that social change occurred and the south is quite a different place now but some people have no memory of the events that led to the change.
Real life examples of social change
Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott
• In the 1950s, in the South of America, public buses were segregated. This meant that the first four rows of the buses were reserved only for whites.
• Rosa Parks was the secretary for the local branch of the NAACP - National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. On December 1st, 1955 as Rosa rode the bus home from work the bus driver moved toward the back of the bus and demanded that four black people relinquish their seats to the white people. The three black men near her moved, but refused to give up her seat. When asked why, she said she did not see why she should have to.
• The bus driver then proceeded to call the police, who subsequently arrested Rosa. The police charged her with violating the part of the Montgomery City code that dealt with segregation law, even though she had not technically violated the law.24 hours after her arrest, Rosa Parks was bailed out of jail by Edgar Nixon, president of the NAACP.
• Nixon and Jo Ann Robinson - a member of the Womens Political Council - quickly generated over 35,000 copies of a flyer announcing a boycott of the buses. Two days after Rosa's arrest, in local church services, members of the black community were notified of the boycott. A unanimous agreement was made that black people would boycott the buses until fair seating was arranged, changes were made to the way blacks were treated on the bus, and some black drivers were hired. This tactic proved to be highly effective because, at that time, statistics showed that blacks made up 75 percent of the buses riders.
• The flyers announcing the bus boycott were completely distributed by the day of Parks' trial and all blacks were asked to remain out of any form of bus transportation, including to and from school for the day. The support turned out to be incredible and the boycott was extended. During the boycott, a carpool made up of 300 cars that were volunteered was set up. Black taxi drivers charged ten cents per ride, a fare equal to the cost to ride the bus, in support of the boycott.
• Across the nation, black churches raised money to support the boycott and collected new and slightly used shoes to replace the tattered footwear of Montgomery's black citizens, many of whom walked everywhere rather than ride the buses and submit to Jim Crow laws. The boycott lasted for a total of 381 days.
• Pressure increased across the country until, finally, a law was passed that allowed black bus passengers to sit virtually anywhere they wanted, and the boycott officially ended on 20th December, 1956.
The suffragette movement
• In 1832, Lord Grey piloted the highly controversial Great Reform Act through Parliament. It used the word "male" instead of "people", excluding women from the vote.
• The first leaflet advocating votes for women appeared in 1847, and suffrage societies began to crop up throughout the country. Twenty years later, John Stuart Mill led an unsuccessful attempt to secure votes for women in the Second Reform Act. That defeat led to the founding of the National Society for Women's Suffrage. The following year Richard Pankhurst, an MP and Manchester lawyer, made a fresh attempt to win votes for women. His wife and daughter, Emmeline and Christabel, went on to become the two most important figures in the movement.
• The first country to give the vote to women was New Zealand in 1893, a move which acted as a major fillip to British campaigners. Australia took nine more years to do the same. Frustrated by no sign of reform at home, the leading campaigners of the day took matters in to their own hands. Women began chaining themselves to railings, and within five years the campaign had extended to smashing windows. The most determined - and the first to be jailed - were Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kennedy. They disrupted a Liberal Party meeting, got themselves arrested and then refused to pay fines so their jailing created headlines.
• By 1911, the UK had witnessed the first act of suffragette arson (orchestrated by Christabel) and two years later Emily Davison died at the Derby as she rushed out to bring down the King's horse. In Parliament, pressure for change was led by some liberal MPs, who were the leading figures in a suffrage committee. But away from the reasoned debate of Westminster, prisons filled with women prepared to go to jail for the right to vote. The civil disobedience continued behind bars, with many women force-fed to prevent them hunger striking. While the authorities tried to present them as insane, their families campaigned for the inmates to be given political status, including the right to wear their own clothes, study and prepare their own food.
• World War I proved to be the turning point for the campaign. The suffragettes effectively put on hold their campaign of civil direct action in the interests of national unity. As men went to the Western Front, women proved how indispensable they were in the fields and armaments factories.
• By 1918, no government could resist and the Representation of the Peoples Act allowed women over 30 the right to vote. It would take a further 10 years to abolish the age qualification and put men and women on an equal footing.
Applying your knowledge of the processes involved in social change to real life examples
For each of the factors that research has shown to be important in bringing about social change, try to select a piece of evidence from the real life examples of Rosa Parks and the Suffragettes. An example is completed to help you.
| |Suffragette movement | Black American civil rights |
|Evidence that the people who initiated | | |
|the change had an internal locus of | | |
|control | | |
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|Evidence of consistency | | |
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|Evidence of flexibility |The Suffragettes agreed to postpone their campaigning| |
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|Evidence of the augmentation principle | | |
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|Evidence of a snowball effect | | |
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Social change fill in the gaps quiz
Social influence research has helped us to understand the ____________ processes involved in bringing about social change. This has implications for the future, in that knowledge of these processes can be applied to help bring about positive social changes in society.
People who initiate social change are likely to have an ______________ locus of control, meaning that they believe they are in control of events in their life, not some external force.
Social change is usually a result of ______________ influence. Moscovici found that ______________ is the most important factor in deciding whether the minority are influential or not. This means that the minority must be clear on what they are asking for and not change their minds, or disagree amongst themselves. Moscovici found that commitment and ______________ are also important factors.
It has been found that once the minority begins to persuade people round to their way of thinking, a ______________ effect begins to happen. This means that more and more people adopt the minority opinion, until gradually the minority becomes the ______________. The majority opinion then becomes law, and people have to______________ this law.
Once this happens, the minority opinion has become the dominant position in society, and people often do not even remember where the opinion originated from. This is a process known as________________.
|Bottom of Form |
TASK:
Everyone agrees that Britain in is an obesity crisis – 65% en and 58% women are now overweight or obese. Heart disease certain cancers and especially type 2 diabetes are all on the increase, costing the NHS billions of pounds every year
Experts agree that any improvement in the situation is going to require significant changes in attitudes and behaviours across the whole of society.
Question
You have been asked to advise a government department worried about the developing obesity crisis. Using your knowledge of both
i) Conformity and
ii) Obedience
iii) Processes can influence social change,
Develop a presentation that explains what advice you would give the government. Make sure you refer to social influence research in your advice.
The social influence alphabet
Think of a social influence related word or phrase for each letter of the alphabet. This could be related to conformity, obedience, independent behaviour or social change. You should even be able to think of one for Z!
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B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
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S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
Past exam questions on social influence
Conformity
• Explain what is meant by internalisation in the context of conformity. (2 marks)
• Most research into conformity takes place in a laboratory. Outline one strength of conducting research into conformity in a laboratory. (2 marks)
• When we are in a large group of friends, it is very easy to agree with them and simply go along with their views. However, sometimes we are able to resist the pressure to conform. Using what you have learned from studying conformity, outline one reason why we might resist the pressure to conform. (2 marks)
• Outline and evaluate explanations of conformity. (8 marks)
Obedience
• In a hospital, you are very likely to obey a nurse. However, if you meet her outside the hospital, for example in a shop, you are much less likely to obey. Using your knowledge of how people resist pressures to obey, explain why you are less likely to obey the nurse outside the hospital. (4 marks)
• Milgram’s work has been criticised as being unethical. Describe one way in which his research is unethical. (2 marks)
• Apart from being unethical, outline one strength and one limitation of Milgram’s methodology (2 + 2 marks)
• Outline one limitation of conducting research into obedience outside a laboratory setting (2 marks)
• Outline and evaluate one or more explanations of why people obey. (12 marks)
Independent behaviour
• Discuss one or more explanations of independent behaviour, for example, how people resist pressures to conform or obey. (8 marks)
• Explain how locus of control influences independent behaviour. (4 marks)
• Three students, George, Petra and Dan, have just started in the sixth form. Dan is a confident person who thinks that his fate lies firmly in his hands. By the end of the first week, Dan has put himself forward to be nominated as the class representative. Petra has also put her name forward to be nominated. She believes it is just luck whether or not she will be selected and feels that there is not much she can do about it. George did not put his name forward because his father told him not to.
o What type of locus of control does Petra’s behaviour show? (1 mark)
o Which one of the three students is most likely to resist pressures to conform? Use your knowledge of psychology to explain your choice. (4 marks)
Social change
• Describe how social influence research has contributed to our understanding of social change. (6 marks)
• For many years, smoking in public places such as trains, pubs and restaurants was quite acceptable. People could smoke wherever they wanted and non-smokers had to put up with smoky atmospheres. However, in 2007, the Government finally introduced a law banning smoking in public places and those who smoke are limited in where they can smoke.
o Using your knowledge of the psychology of social change, explain how this social change has occurred.
• Mike and his grandfather were having a conversation about recycling. Mike explained that he always puts empty cans and plastic bottles in one box and newspapers and cardboard in another box and that his mum takes these to be recycled once a week. His grandfather said that when he was Mike’s age, people did not recycle. Mike said that everyone in his street recycles and that they have a big box at school especially for recycling.
o Using your knowledge of the psychology of social change, explain why recycling is now behaviour carried out by a majority of people in this country. (6 marks)
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Conformity
Compliance
Internalisation
Identification
Emma is a student. When she first went to university, she made friends with a group of students who were passionate about animal rights. At the time, Emma didn’t have very strong opinions on animal research but over the past few months she has become very much against it. Now she has joined a campaign against animal research and has started attending public demonstrations with her friends.
Explanation for conformity:
Type of conformity:
Sam has just started work in an office. On his second day there, his colleagues had a discussion about asylum seekers coming to the UK. His colleagues thought that they received favourable treatment from the government and that this should stop. Sam doesn’t agree with this view, but when he was asked what he thought, he said that his colleagues were right.
Explanation for conformity:
Type of conformity:
It is Jim’s first day of college, but he has arrived late and missed the part where a lecturer told all the new students what they should do during induction. He sees a group of students filing off towards a corridor and decides to follow them.
Explanation for conformity
Type of conformity:
Normative social influence –
Informational social influence
Is conformity in this study a result of normative or informational social influence? Explain your answer:
Which factor had an effect on conformity in this study?
Which two factors may have had an effect on conformity in this study?
1.
2.
Which two factors may have had an effect on conformity in this study?
1.
2.
Write a 2 mark definition of obedience:
Orme and Holland argue that the experiment lacks (experimental) validity because participants could not have believed that they were administering real electric shocks.
The study was unethical.
Milgram’s sample was unrepresentative because it used only white male Americans.
The money paid and the prods given to participants e.g. “the experiment requires that you continue” meant that they were not given the right to withdraw.
Milgram did not take adequate precautions to protect his participants from harm.
Participants were deceived as to the real purpose of the experiment.
The study was carried out in a laboratory, meaning that the results lack ecological validity.
Describe the Milgram study (6 marks)
Evaluate the Milgram study (6 marks)
How does this study support the validity of Milgram’s original experiment?
Why is this study more ecologically valid than Milgram’s?
What made the nurses in the Rank and Jacobson study less likely to follow orders than those in the Hofling et al study?
Why is this study a good supporting piece of evidence?
Agentic State and Autonomous State
Legitimacy of the Authority
What is independent behaviour?
How might understanding why people act independently be put to practical use in society?
What percentage of people acted independently (did not conform in any of the trials) in Asch’s original study of conformity?
What percentage of people acted independently (did not obey all the way up to 450 volts) in Milgram’s original obedience study?
How many nurses in the Hofling study did not obey the order from the doctor?
Independent behaviour
Allen & Levine (1971)
Asch (1956)
Mullen et al ( 1990)
Milgram (1974)
What is locus of control?
What questionnaire is used to measure whether someone has an internal or external locus of control?
What type of locus of control would you expect to be linked to resistance to social influence? Why?
What issues do you think needs to be taken into consideration with this study?
Does research support a link between locus of control and resistance to obedience? What is it?
Can you think of any methodological problems with the questionnaire used to measure locus of control?
What would we expect the results to be? What does this suggest?
“…from 1933-1945 millions of innocent persons were systematically slaughtered on command…These inhumane policies may have originated in the mind of a single person, but they could only be carried out on a massive scale if a very large number of people obeyed orders.
Stanley Milgram
“Obedience is as basic an element in the structure of social life as one can point to. Some system of authority is a requirement of all communal living.”
In August 1944, Adolf Eichmann reported to Heinrich Himmler that his unit had overseen the deaths of approximately 4 million Jews in death camps, and that 2 million had been killed by mobile units. Milgram wanted to investigate what was different about the German disposition to explain this behaviour.
What is fascism?
A governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasising an aggressive nationalism and often racism.
Why is this an issue? What else could also play a part? Think of an example.
Is this a strength or limitation of Adorno’s theory? What can be a more realistic explanation? Use Page 29 of GHG to help.
Is this a strength or limitation of Adorno’s theory? Why?
Can you think of other examples of social changes that have occurred within the last 100 years? These could be just in the UK or worldwide.
Consistency
Commitment
Flexibility
How does the snowball effect (Van Avermaet, 1996) help to change the minority opinion into the majority?
What is social cryptoamnesia (Perez, 1995)?
obey
psychological
internal
flexibility
snowball
majority
consistency
crypto-amnesia
minority
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