Power, Obedience and Conformity.

1. Power, Obedience and Conformity. Chapter 9: Social Influences on the Individual

2. What is power? ‘An individual’s (or group’s) ability to control or influence the thoughts, feelings or behaviour of another person (or group)’.

3. Types of Power

4. Effects of status and power within groups Status and power are influenced by the role that each individual has in the group A role is the behaviour adopted by an individual or assigned to them that influences the way in which they function or act in different situations and life in general Role expectations have a strong influence on an individual’s behaviour within a group, especially when their role provides considerable power and status. Famous experiment: Zimbardo’s Stanford PrisonExperiment

5. Obedience Obedience occurs when we follow the commands of someone with authority, or the rules or laws of our society Famous experiment: Milgram’s experiments on obedience Three factors that affect obedience: Socialproximity, legitimacy of authority figures and group pressure.

6. Social Proximity Social Proximity refers to the closeness between two or more people including physical distance and closeness of a relationship. Example: Are you more likely to do your work if a teacher is standing right next to you?

7. Legitimacy of authority figures Group Pressure An individual is more likely to be obedient where there is a little or no group support for resisting the authority figure. An individual is more likely to be obedient when the authority figure is perceived as being legitimate and having power.

8. Conformity Famous experiment: Asch’s experiments on conformity The tendency to adjust one’s thoughts, feelings or behaviour in ways that are in agreement with those of a particular individual or group, or with accepted standards about how a person should behave in certain situations.

9. Find definitions for the factors affecting conformity. Factors affecting conformity: group size, unanimity, informational influence, normative influence, culture, social loafing and deindividuation. Pages 396 – 402 in your textbook.