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ISU PSYCH 280 - Social Influence
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PSYCH 280 1nd Edition Lecture 15 Outline of Last Lecture I. Social Psychology versus the LawII. Assumptions of the legal systemIII. Memorya. Eyewitness TestimoniesIV. Better Line-UpsOutline of Current Lecture I. Social influence and MotivesII. Conformitya. Two types of conformityb. When do people conform?c. When do people not conform?III. Obediencea. Milgram’s Obedience StudyCurrent LectureI. Social Influence and MotivesSocial influence is defined as the efforts of one or more individuals to try and change the attitudes and/or behaviors of one other person or a group of people. There are a few types of social influence: conformity, where a person acts differently than they normally would because of social influence, obedience, where a person acts the way they do because of the power of an authority figure, and compliance, where a person can manipulate another person to do something that the manipulator wants them to do.There are two motivations for social influence:b. Informational Social Influence: this type of social influence occurs because a person is unsure how to act, so they look to others for guidance.c. Normative Social Influence: this types of social influence occurs because a person is afraid of the negative consequences of appearing deviant from the group (i.e. peer pressure).II. ConformityThese notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.Conformity is defined as a change in cognition (perceptions, opinions) or behaviors in ways that are consistent with group norms. A social norm is defined as either an implicit or explicit rules for how someone should act in a given context (i.e. being quiet in a library).There are two types of conformity:a. Private Acceptance: a person conforms because they truly believe that what others are doing is right (i.e. taking shoes off and using a yoga mat during a yoga class). This is normally a result of informative social influence.b. Public Compliance: a person conforms to the group behavior, but doesn’t truly believe that what the group is doing is right (i.e. friends ask you to go to a party on Friday night, even though you know you should be studying or doing homework). This is usually a result of normative social influence.When we look at why people conform, we can see two distinct reasons:a. When the situation is ambiguous and a person doesn’t know what to do and is looking for guidance, they will look towards other people for the answers. This includes looking towards an expert, since most of the time, an expert will good information about what to do in the situation. This results in people conforming to informational social influenceand private acceptance. This can be seen in Sherif’s study in 1937. Sherif used the autokinetic effect and tested to see if participants would change their estimates of whether or not a dot of light moved in a dark room if there were others present in the room. Results from this study implied that since the situation was ambiguous, participants looked towards others for information regarding the “movement” of the light and therefore, the participant’s estimates became similar.b. When the situation is not ambiguous, but people are afraid of being a deviant, normative social influence and the need to fit in will push people to conform, resulting in public compliance. This is evident in Asch’s 1955 study with the line length comparison study. Participants (there was only one actual participant and the rest were confederates) were shown a target stimulus (card with a line on it) and then shown another card with three different lines. The correct line was obvious, however, each of the confederates answered the same wrong answer. Even though it was easy to see which comparison was the closest to the target stimulus line, most of the actual participants answered the same answer as the confederates did—even though it was wrong.Although people do conform to social influence, it is not “all-powerful.” So, when do people not conform?a. Group size: people tend not to conform when the group is composed of 2 or more people. It’s easy to ignore one or two people, but it’s hard to ignore the behavior of three people.b. Private v. Public Judgments: It’s easier to disregard social influence when making a private judgment than a public judgment.c. Allies: it’s easier to stick to your answer/behavior when there is an ally in the group—someone that agrees with you.d. Reactance theory: When social or normative influence is low, people may engage in the behavior they were told not to do because they don’t like to feel as if their control is threatened.III. ObedienceObedience is defined as an influence of behavior due to the direct commands of an authority figure (an example of an authority figure is a police officer, college professor, parents, etc…).a. Milgram’s Obedience Study: In 1963, Milgram performed a study on obedience. His idea was that in America, people wouldn’t obey the commands of an authority figure while Germans would obey the commands. However, this was not the case—the Americans DID obey the commands of the authority figure (the experimenter). Milgram’s study included a “teacher” (participant), a “student” (confederate), and the experimenter. The teacher was supposed to shock the student every time he forgot a word he was supposed to have memorized. The goal of the study was to see how far people go in shocking the student, even when the student showed discomfort and agony, but when the experimenter told the teacher to continue. [The rest of the study will be discussed during Thursday’s


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ISU PSYCH 280 - Social Influence

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