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Social influence, Conformity, Obedience - Coggle Diagram

- - - - obedience reduced from 60% to 42% when experimenter wasn't in the room
    - - When study was done in a run-down office obedience dropped to 47.5%
    - - Participants obeyed more when experimenter was in a lab coat, when in ordinary clothes obedience dropped to 20%
    - - Reduction to 10% when seeing someone else disobey
- - - - In groups of 6 with 5 confeds and one real participant
      - 123 male undergrad student participants
    - - Given four lines, 3 comparison lines and 1 standard line.
        
        Participants asked which line is the same as the standard line.
        
        Real participant always answered last or second to last.
        
        Confeds gave same wrong answer on 12/ 18 trials.
    - - 36.8% conformed
        
        25% never conformed
        
        75% conformed at least once
    - - Strengths:
        
        High external validity because of strict control of extraneous variables which suggests a valid 'cause and effect' relationship can be established.
        
        Lab experiment so can very easily be replicated.
        
        Supports NSI with participants reporting that they only conformed to fit in.
      - Weakness:
        
        Lacks ecological validity as it cant be generalised to real life due to it life being much more complex than just a line study.
        
        Ethical issues because of deception as the participants did not know they were involved in the study or that they were surrounded by confeds. ~ could cause psychological harm.
        
        Lacks population validity as only involved American male students ~ not representative
        
        Lacks temporal validity as study was in a anti-communist period where people were scared to be different.
- - - - There are two types of consistency:
        • Diachronic consistency is when the group remains consistent over time – they do not change their views over time.
        • Synchronic consistency is when the group is consistent between all the members of the group ~ everyone has same views and so agree and support each other.
  - - - Participants Randomly selected participants and confederates
    - - Lab experiment
        
        Participants were in a group where there were two confederates (minority) and four participants (majority)
        
        Everyone was shown 36 blue slides, each with a different shade of blue
        
        Each asked whether it was blue or green
        
        Confederates deliberately said they were green on two-thirds of the trials ~ consistent minority
        
        he number of times that the real participants reported that the slide was green was observed
        
        Control group with no confeds
    - - Findings When the confederates were consistent in their answers about 8% of slides were green.
        
        Inconsistent minority - 1% of participants said the slides were green.
        
        Shows consistent minority in crucial for maximum influence
- - - - Changing from an autonomous state - one where you think that you are responsible for your own actions to an agentic state,
- - - - 24 American male undergrad students
    - - 24 male undergrad American students
        
        Advertised in a newspaper ~ a paid volunteer
        
        Randomly issued role of prisoner or guard
        
        Both prisoners and guards had to wear uniforms.
        
        Guards were given props like handcuffs and sunglasses (to make eye contact with prisoners impossible and to reinforce the boundaries between the two social roles)
        
        No one was allowed to leave the simulated prison.
        
        Guards worked eight hour shifts, while the others remained on call.
        
        No physical violence was permitted, in line with ethical guidelines
        
        The behaviour of the participants was observed
    - - Identification occurred very fast, as both the prisoners and guards adopted their new roles and played their part in a short amount of time.
        
        Guards began to harass and torment prisoners in harsh and relished in their new-found power and control.
        
        Prisoners would only talk about prison issues (forgetting about their previous real life), and snitch on other prisoners to the guards to please them. ~~~ This is significant evidence to suggest that the prisoners believed that the prison was real, and were not acting simply due to demand characteristics.
        
        The guards became more demanding of obedience and assertiveness towards the prisoners while the prisoners become more submissive. This suggests that the respective social roles became increasingly internalised.
    - - Weaknesses
        
        Lacks ecological validity ~ Demand characteristics could explain why some people conformed -> knew they were being observed.
        
        They also knew it was not real causing them to act. -- Specifically one guard who claimed he was playing the role of a stereotypical guard from films he had watched
        
        Lacks population validity ~ All participants were white american male students.
        
        Volunteer sampling also leads to a similar type of people being involved in the study
        
        Ethical issues ~ Participants were not fully informed
      - Strengths
        
        Following the study a full debrief took place which decreased the bad ethical issues (Particularly because the bps ethical guidelines had been breached)
        
        The amount of ethical issues lead to the BPS guidelines being fully recognised which made later studies way safer.
        
        Real world application ~ Reformed how US prisons were run such as cells always being under surveillance or young inmates never being with old inmates