Social influence revision
Social groups
Groups of two or more people who interact with each other, share common interests and
have a shared identity
Social norms and roles
In social groups there are unwritten rules about what people are expected to behave are
called social norms which everyone is expected to follow in a social group
There are distinct roles in a social groups and behaviours and beliefs expected of a person
with a particular position in a social group is called social roles
Conformity
Minorities and majorities
When a group is split into two or more sub groups, the biggest is called the majority and
the smallest group is called the minority
Private and public attitudes
A person's genuine beliefs or feelings about something is their private attitude. A public
attitude is what a person tells other people they believe or feel
- Public and private attitudes sometimes match whilst sometimes they dont match
Conformity
If a person is in a minority group and they match their public attitudes to the majority they
have been influenced by the majority and they have conformed
- Sometimes their private attitude may change to match the majority as they have
been influenced by the majority and conformed
- Even when a person hasn't formed an attitude yet they can still be influenced by
the majority and conform
, - So when a person's public or private attitude is influenced by the majority they
have conformed
- If a person holds the same public attitude to the majority but they have not been
influenced by the majority, they have not conformed
Compliance
Compliance is a type of conformity where a person conforms publicly but not privately to
be accepted by a group and avoid social rejection and the influence of the majority is
short lived (goes away when the majority is not present)
- Weakest form of conformity
Identification
When people change their behaviours and attitudes to imitate a social role or role model
that they admire they are identifying with the role model or social role. It is a type of
conformity
- When people conform by identification their private and public attitudes match
- Their attitudes are not long lasting, they depend on believing that the role model or
social role is desirable to imitate or belong to
- Medium form of conformity
Internalisation
When a person conforms to an attitude and believes its correct it is called internalisation
- They conform privately and publicly
- Their attitudes and behaviours that they adopt really matters to them and they
persuaded that those attitudes are correct
- Their new attitudes and behaviours are long lasting and hard to change
- Strongest form of conformity
Prison and guard experiment Zimbardo
The aim of Zimbardo experiment was to investigate if prison brutality happens because of
the personality of guards and prisoners because they are conforming to social roles
- 21 males participated in the study and were randomly divided into the role of
prisoner or guard
, - Prisoners were arrested, finger printed and put into a prisoner uniform while guards
had uniforms and sunglasses with handcuffs and bats
- He put the participants in a controlled environment in an overt observation
- At first the prisoners started to rebel but the guards acted forcefully to stop it
- The guards then became more aggressive to the prisoners and many of the
prisoners suffered nervous breakdowns and were released
- These normal average men changed dramatically after their situation and social
role changed
- Therefore prisoner violence is caused by people conforming to social roles of
prisoners and guards as the violence was not seen in these men before the
experiment and when men were given social role that gave them more power and
encouraged violence behaviour, they became brutal
Zimbardo's study has been criticised for being unethical. Firstly, the participants were
psychologically harmed during the experiment and the participants did not know what
they were consenting to and so they could not give informed consent. He responded by
saying he recruited psychological healthy people and didn't know the study would turn out
so violent. Also he stopped the experiment before it got worse (he lacked awareness of
how it would turn out).
- Did not follow the protection from harm ethical guideline
The results lack generalizability as it consisted of White middle class men. Psychologists
don't know how the results would be for people from different backgrounds and ages. He
responded by saying the study shows real world examples of prison violence and
therefore can be generalisable.
- Also shows Beta bias
The study lacks ecological validity. The participants knew it was not real and so didn't
behave like they would in the real world. Zimbardo pointed out that the participants acted
like it was real as they had strong emotional reactions and 90% of conversations in the
prison was about prison life suggesting they were taking it seriously
A criticism of Zimbardo's experiment is that there were investigator effects. He played the
role of the prison warden in the experiment. He may have influenced some of the
behaviour in the experiment. If he was not present then the guards may have acted
differently.
Variables that affect conformity
1. Group size
Social groups
Groups of two or more people who interact with each other, share common interests and
have a shared identity
Social norms and roles
In social groups there are unwritten rules about what people are expected to behave are
called social norms which everyone is expected to follow in a social group
There are distinct roles in a social groups and behaviours and beliefs expected of a person
with a particular position in a social group is called social roles
Conformity
Minorities and majorities
When a group is split into two or more sub groups, the biggest is called the majority and
the smallest group is called the minority
Private and public attitudes
A person's genuine beliefs or feelings about something is their private attitude. A public
attitude is what a person tells other people they believe or feel
- Public and private attitudes sometimes match whilst sometimes they dont match
Conformity
If a person is in a minority group and they match their public attitudes to the majority they
have been influenced by the majority and they have conformed
- Sometimes their private attitude may change to match the majority as they have
been influenced by the majority and conformed
- Even when a person hasn't formed an attitude yet they can still be influenced by
the majority and conform
, - So when a person's public or private attitude is influenced by the majority they
have conformed
- If a person holds the same public attitude to the majority but they have not been
influenced by the majority, they have not conformed
Compliance
Compliance is a type of conformity where a person conforms publicly but not privately to
be accepted by a group and avoid social rejection and the influence of the majority is
short lived (goes away when the majority is not present)
- Weakest form of conformity
Identification
When people change their behaviours and attitudes to imitate a social role or role model
that they admire they are identifying with the role model or social role. It is a type of
conformity
- When people conform by identification their private and public attitudes match
- Their attitudes are not long lasting, they depend on believing that the role model or
social role is desirable to imitate or belong to
- Medium form of conformity
Internalisation
When a person conforms to an attitude and believes its correct it is called internalisation
- They conform privately and publicly
- Their attitudes and behaviours that they adopt really matters to them and they
persuaded that those attitudes are correct
- Their new attitudes and behaviours are long lasting and hard to change
- Strongest form of conformity
Prison and guard experiment Zimbardo
The aim of Zimbardo experiment was to investigate if prison brutality happens because of
the personality of guards and prisoners because they are conforming to social roles
- 21 males participated in the study and were randomly divided into the role of
prisoner or guard
, - Prisoners were arrested, finger printed and put into a prisoner uniform while guards
had uniforms and sunglasses with handcuffs and bats
- He put the participants in a controlled environment in an overt observation
- At first the prisoners started to rebel but the guards acted forcefully to stop it
- The guards then became more aggressive to the prisoners and many of the
prisoners suffered nervous breakdowns and were released
- These normal average men changed dramatically after their situation and social
role changed
- Therefore prisoner violence is caused by people conforming to social roles of
prisoners and guards as the violence was not seen in these men before the
experiment and when men were given social role that gave them more power and
encouraged violence behaviour, they became brutal
Zimbardo's study has been criticised for being unethical. Firstly, the participants were
psychologically harmed during the experiment and the participants did not know what
they were consenting to and so they could not give informed consent. He responded by
saying he recruited psychological healthy people and didn't know the study would turn out
so violent. Also he stopped the experiment before it got worse (he lacked awareness of
how it would turn out).
- Did not follow the protection from harm ethical guideline
The results lack generalizability as it consisted of White middle class men. Psychologists
don't know how the results would be for people from different backgrounds and ages. He
responded by saying the study shows real world examples of prison violence and
therefore can be generalisable.
- Also shows Beta bias
The study lacks ecological validity. The participants knew it was not real and so didn't
behave like they would in the real world. Zimbardo pointed out that the participants acted
like it was real as they had strong emotional reactions and 90% of conversations in the
prison was about prison life suggesting they were taking it seriously
A criticism of Zimbardo's experiment is that there were investigator effects. He played the
role of the prison warden in the experiment. He may have influenced some of the
behaviour in the experiment. If he was not present then the guards may have acted
differently.
Variables that affect conformity
1. Group size
