Applied Psychology: Social Approach Unit 1

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What is conformity?
Going along with a group of people because of a real or imagined pressure to do so.
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What is an example of conformity?
Wearing certain brands of clothes because this is what friends are doing.
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What are the two explanations for conformity?
Normative social influence: conforming to fit in with a group
Informational social influence: conforming because you want to do 'the right thing'
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Who's key study supports the different explanations of conformity?
Asch's (1951) line study.
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What was the aim of Asch's study?
To investigate whether people will conform to an incorrect answer given by a group because they want to fit in.
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What was the procedure of Asch's line study?
Groups of 6 people (1 naive participant and the rest confederates) were shown lines and asked to match an example line which was the same length. the confederates got it wrong and the conformity of the real participant to this incorrect answer was measure
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What were the findings of Asch's line study?
The average conformity rate was 37%
75% of participants conformed at least once.
In interviews, participants said they didn't want to stand out.
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What were the conclusions of Asch's study?
People will conform to a group because of normative social influence. They want to fit in with the group and so will go along with what they know to be incorrect behaviour.
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What is one strength of Asch's study?
Asch had a high level of control. Extraneous variables were already controlled and the task was standardised for every participant meaning it has high internal validity.
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What is a weakness of Asch's study?
He only used male undergraduate participants meaning his findings don't tell us much about conformity in women.
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What is a strength of the two-process model? (NSI and ISI)
It's supported by Aschs line study task. Participants conformed because they wanted to fit in (NSI) then when the task was made more difficult they conformed more because they believed the confederates to be right (ISI)
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What is a weakness of the two process model of conformity? (NSI & ISI)
Gerard and Deutsch (1955) said that everyone has a need to be accepted by the group so is influenced by NSI but there are individual differences found. Not everyone does seek approval from others.
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What is internalisation?
when both public and private beliefs are influenced by a group. The individual genuinely believes what they are doing is the right thing to do.
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Give an example of internalisation
changing your diet to vegetarian after friends tell you about the meat industry, believing this to be the right thing to do.
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Normative social influence usually leads to internalisation. True or False?
False: it leads to compliance because they are
only doing the behaviour to fit in.
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What is compliance?
going along with the majority but not changing your private beliefs
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Give an example of compliance
Saying you like a certain type of music whilst with a group of people despite not really enjoying it at all.
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Informational social influence leads to compliance: True or false?
False: ISI is when people look to others for the 'right' way to behave because they don't know, meaning they internalise the behaviour
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What is identification with a group?
We value a group of people and see ourselves as similar to them and so change more of our behaviours to be the same as that group
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What is a strength of the 3 different types of conformity?
The is evidence for all 3:
Asch supported compliance because participants knew they were wrong.
Asch supported internalisation because the difficulty of the task made participants believe the others
Haney supported identification because guards took on th
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What is a weakness of the 3 different types of conformity?
The evidence supporting it is flawed, using only men and lacking external validity
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What key concept does Haney's (1973) study support?
Types of conformity (identification with social roles)
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What was the aim of Haney et als (1973) study?
To investigate whether the situation or personality of the individual creates brutality in prisons
OR
To investigate whether people will conform to given social roles
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What was the procedure of Haney et als (1973) study?
Mock prison in the basement of Stanford University. Male emotionally stable volunteers were randomly assigned the role of prisoner or guard. Prisoners were arrested and given uniforms. They lived in the prison 24/7. Guards also had uniforms and sunglasses
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What were the findings of the key study by Haney et al. (1973)?
Guards identified very quickly with their role. They became aggressive very quickly and punished the prisoners.
Prisoners initially rebelled but became subdued and anxious. Some became emotionally disturbed. It had to end early because of the mental ill-
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What is the conclusion of Haney's study?
People will identify with their social roles. The situation has a powerful effect on peoples behaviour.
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What is a strength of Haney et al's (1973) study?
The high level of control such as making sure emotional stability of participants was good. This meant ill health wasn't causing their change of behaviour rather than the situation.
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What is a weakness of Haney et al's (1973) study?
The procedure lacked realism. Participants knew they were in a study and may have been subject to demand characteristics. One of the guards said he based his behaviour on a character in a film. This means it may not tell us about real life identification.
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If a study has generalisability, what does this mean?
That the sample in the study is representative of people outside of it. It represents different genders, ages and backgrounds.
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What does internal validity mean?
It means that what is intended to be measured in a study, is done and it is not affected by extraneous variables such as demand characteristics.
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What is social categorisation?
Putting people into groups based on characteristics they share.
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What is an example of a social category?
Gender
Age
Race/Ethnicity
Job type
Education level
Clothing
Language
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What does social categorisation generally lead to?
Stereotyping
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What is a stereotype?
A fixed view about someone based on their perceived membership of a social group.
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Where do we learn stereotypes from?
We can learn them from other peoples attitudes. We may also learn them from TV and media which reinforce stereotypical behaviour.
Not being able to know the people we are stereotyping will also mean we never realise these fixed views are incorrect
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What is a positive effect of stereotypes?
It reduces our cognitive load because we can make quick judgements about people based on our cognitive shortcuts.
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What is a negative effect of stereotypes?
It can lead to discrimination. Treating people negatively based on having a unfavourable view of the stereotype.
OR
Our expectations of people may be be completely incorrect meaning we believe they behave in a certain way when they don't
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What did Allport & Postmans (1947) study find?
When presented with a picture of a black man being threatened by a white man holding a razor, people's memory of the picture was distorted by their stereotypes. They remembered the black man holding the weapon.
It showed that stereotypes can distort memor
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What is a weakness of the key concept of stereotypes?
Not everybody is influenced by their stereotypes. They may be aware that they hold them and consciously try and stop them from affecting their interactions with people. This means they don't always result in prejudice/discrimination.
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Which of the following did Chartard study?
Effects of stereotypes on maths/art ability of males/females
Effects of stereotypes on memory of a white and black male
Effects of stereotypes on aggression
Effects of stereotypes on maths/art ability of males/females
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What was the aim of Chartard (2007)
To see if being reminded of a stereotype that girls are better at art and boys are better at maths would effect the memory of a participants own performance in these subjects.
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What was the procedure of Chartard's (2007) study?
French students were reminded of stereotypical views by answering questions about the ability of men and women in different subjects.
Then they rated their own abilities.
They were then asked to recall their own results for Math's and Art.
Control group:
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What were the findings of Chartard's (2007) study?
In the experimental group, boys overestimated their maths ability and girls overestimated their art ability as well as inflated their results. Girls also underestimated their maths ability and recalled lower results. This did not happen in the control gro
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What were the conclusions of Chartards (2007) study?
Activation of gender stereotypes can distort people's memories of events.
This could effect the types of careers boys and girls go into.
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What is a strength of Chartards (2007) study?
It has real-life application.
Knowing how gender stereotypes can influence people's memory and therefore, their behaviour, can be used to encourage the women into maths/science related fields.
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What is a weakness of Chartards (2007) study?
It may have been affected by demand characteristics. Participants completed both questionannires, one after the other, and then recalled their results straight after. They may have then guessed the aims and changed their behaviour resulting in low interna
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What concepts from the social approach are used to expain aggression?
conformity to social norms (gender/culture)
Stereotypes
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What concepts of the social approach are used to explain consumer behaviour?
Conformity to social norms/NSI
ISI/Social Proof
The bandwagon effect
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What concepts of the social approach are used to explain gender?
Normative social influence
Informational social influence
Peer influences
Conformity to gender roles
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What are two assumptions of the social approach?
We should understand and study behaviour in a social context because people are influenced by those around them.
Culture and society has a large impact on people's behaviour.
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Card 2

Front

What is an example of conformity?

Back

Wearing certain brands of clothes because this is what friends are doing.

Card 3

Front

What are the two explanations for conformity?

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

Who's key study supports the different explanations of conformity?

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

What was the aim of Asch's study?

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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