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Conformity and Obedience Question 1 Explain what is meant be the terms Conformity and Obedience Conformity is acting in terms of the accepted behaviour of a social group or a change in the behaviour of the minority to fit the behaviour of the majority. For example Jones study showed that when asked to estimate the number of beans in a bottle people would come up with different results, he then asked them to come up with a group estimate, then a second individual estimate. The second individual estimate was a lot closer to the group estimate than the first. Obedience is submission to another s authority. For example Reverend Jim Jones took 911 people from San Francisco to found his cult, The peoples temple in Jonestown, a town he had them build in Guyana, South America. After a time he told them all to drink a mixture of Cool-aid (a grape flavoured soft drink) and cyanide, as well as various other drugs.
Most obeyed him, and those who didn t told of parents first giving the drink to their children, before themselves. Question 2 Describe one research study that has explored conformity. Asch (1951) wanted to discover if people looking to others for guidance when they were unsure solely caused conformity. To discover this he used the line judgement task as shown below. The participants were given two cards, one showing the above line X (the standard line), one showing the lines A, B, and C (the comparison lines).
They were then asked to judge which comparison line matched the standard line. First he did this experiment with a control group of people, where all pressure was removed. 35 / 37 participants were correct, one made a single mistake, whilst another made two. In the experimental test only one participant and the rest of the group were stooges (confederates), the participant was the last to answer, and the confederates would give the wrong answer. In the controlled group only 0. 7 % of participants judgements were incorrect, this rose to 37 % in the experimental group. Out of 125 participants, in the controlled group 95 % of them were consistently correct, but in the experimental group it was only 25 %. Question 3 Outline two explanations of why people conform to majority influence.
People usually conform for one of two reasons, to be accepted by a given social group (normative social influence), or to be right (informative social influence). These were defined by Into et al. Normative social influence is relatively shallow, as the beliefs you claim to have and the behaviours you display, are not your own, but those of which you feel others will approve. You are going along with the majority to avoid rejection or gain rewards, such as social acceptance or approval.
This kind of conforming behaviour will usually only exist whilst in that social group. A similar theory is Kelmans compliance. Informative social difference is distinctly different to normative, as it is all about the need to be right. This is often displayed by schoolchildren, who will often look to their friends if they cannot answer a question. The views gained by this form of conformity will often be taken upon a person as their own views; Kelman also defines this as internalization.
Another example of this is if a person is told that some of their friends are sending money to a child in the third world to aid with his or her education. They will then view this as a socially acceptable thing to do, and they may even send money themselves. People constantly feel the need to be right; this need is reliant on their own self-confidence and self-perception Question 4 Milgram and Zimbardos studies provoked public outcry partly because of the ethical issues raised To what extent can social influence research studies (i. e. - Milgram + Zimbardos) be justified in terms of the ethical issues they raised? Milgram and Zimbardos studies were both ethically wrong, and would be banned by the BPS (British Psychological Society) and the ASA (American Psychological Society).
Milgram was wrong right from the beginning when he advertised for participants for a memory experiment, which this clearly was not. The code of conduct states that you must receive informed consent, but they were deceived, so the consent was not informed. They did however sign a form of general consent, which means they consented to take part in the experiment, and they knew they might be misinformed. Milgram's participants were also deceived a number of times, as well as the advert. They drew lots for the roles of teacher and learner, these were fixed, as the participant always became the teacher, and the learner was a confederate, this also was unknown to the participants.
They were told that the confederate had a heart problem, which was untrue. They were given a shock of 45 volts, the third shock to be given, and told the learner would be given shocks increasing by 15 volts each question, this was a lie. During the test there was a tape of the confederate screaming and complaining of heart problems, not only was this not coming from the confederate, he was also not in any pain at all. Milgram also did not protect his participants, even when they showed signs of extreme distress, for example nervousness, sweating, nervous laughing fits, and even full blown uncontrollable seizures, he did not stop the experiment. He did not make clear to his participants the right to withdraw, he even put the under obligation NOT to withdraw, and they were bullied into continuing. He did however, state Of course, as in all experiments, the money is yours simply for coming to the laboratory, from this point on, no matter what happens.
His debrief was careful and thorough, and no point was left out. They were told their behaviour was normal and also not to blame themselves, It was clarified that the shocks weren t real, they met the confederate, and his part was clarified. One year on psychiatrists checked them for any adverse affects, and less than 1 % regretted participating in the experiment.
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Research essay sample on Social Influence Ethical Issues
