100% satisfaction guarantee Immediately available after payment Both online and in PDF No strings attached
logo-home
Previously searched by you
Previously searched by you
logo
Summary Social Influence Psychology A-level Notes | AQA $7.12
Add to cart
Quickly navigate to
Preview
  2.  
  3. AQA
  4.  
  5. Psychology
  6.  
  7. Social Influence

Summary

Summary Social Influence Psychology A-level Notes | AQA
 0 purchase
  • Course
  • Social Influence
  • Institution
  • AQA
  • Book
  • AQA Psychology for A Level Year 1 & AS - Student Book

Detailed, concise, and yet easy-to-understand notes for the 'social influence' topic in Psychology A-level. These notes cover everything you need in the topic for the exams and have some extra details to reach the A* grades. They have both AO1 information (explanations) and AO3 (evaluations) a...

[Show more]

Preview 3 out of 20  pages

Document information

  • No
  • Chapter 1
  • April 21, 2021
  • 20
  • 2019/2020
  • Summary

Subjects

  • social influence aqa
  • social in
  • social influence psychology a level notes
  • social influence psychology notes
  • social influence psych alevel
  • social influence psych alevel notes
  • social influence exam notes

Connected book

book image

Book Title:

Author(s):

  • Edition:
  • ISBN:
  • Edition:

Written for

  • A/AS Level
  • AQA
  • Psychology
  • Social Influence
All documents for this subject (610)

Seller

avatar-seller
Tiphanienina

Content preview

Social influence notes

Conformity: Types and explanations:
-> A change in person’s behaviour as a result of real/ imagined pressure from a person/ group


- Kelman suggested there are 3 ways on which people conform to opinion of majority:
- 1. Internalisation: Occurs when person accepts group norms
- Results in private and public change of opinions/ behaviour
- Likely to be permanent change as attitudes have been internalised
- Change persists even in absence of group members

- 2. Identification: Conforming because there is something about group we value
- We identify w/ group so want to = part of it
- We publicly change opinions/ behaviour to achieve goal (may privately disagree w/ some things
group stands for)

- 3. Compliance: Going along w/ others in public but privately disagreeing
- Compliance results in superficial change
- Particular opinion/ behaviour stops as soon as group pressure stops

Explanations for conformity:
- Deutsch + Gerrard developed 2-process theory arguing there = 2 main reasons people
conform
- Based on 2 central human needs: the need to be right (ISI) + need to be liked (NSI)

Informational social influence (ISI):
- Often we = uncertain about behaviours/ if beliefs = right or wrong
- Individuals will follow the behaviour of group (majority) because
they want to be right
- ISI = cognitive process because it is to do w/ what you think
- ISI = likely to happen in situations new to person (don’t know
whats right) or when there is ambiguity
- Also typical in crisis situations where decisions need to be made
quickly and when someone in group is regarded as expert


Normative social influence (NSI):
- People don’t like to appear foolish and prefer to gain social approval than be rejected by group
- NSI = emotional process rather than cognitive
- Likely to occur in situations w/ strangers when people feel concerned about rejection
- Also occurs w/ people you know as we are most concerned about approval of friends
- May be more pronounced in stressful situations where people have greater need for social
support




1 of 20

, Social influence notes

Evaluation of types and explanations of conformity:

(+) Research support for ISI:
- Lucas et al asked students to answer maths problems that were easy or more
difficult
- More conformity to incorrect answers when they were difficult rather than easy
- Especially true for students who rated mathematical ability as poor
- Shows people conform when they feel they don’t know answer
(-) Individual differences in NSI:
- NSI doesn’t affect everyone’s behaviour in same way
- e.g. people who are less concerned about being liked = less affected by NSI
- People who have greater need to be liked = described as nAffiliators
- e.g. McGhee + Teevan found students high in need of affiliation = more likely to conform



(+) Research support for NSI:
- Asch found many ppts went along w/ clearly wrong answers just because others did
- Some of ppts said it was because they felt self-conscious giving correct answer and were
afraid of disapproval
- When Asch got ppts to write answers down, conformity rates fell to 12.5%
(-) Individual differences in ISI:
- As w/ NSI, ISI doesn’t affect everyone’s behaviour in same way
- e.g. Asch found students = less conformist (28%) than other ppts (37%)
- Perrin + Spencer did study involving science + engineering students and found
very little conformity




(+) ISI + NSI work together:
- Deutsch + Gerrard’s 2-process approach that behaviour = either due to NSI or ISI = wrong
- Both processes = involved
- e.g. conformity = reduced when there is another dissenting ppt in Asch’e experiment
- This dissenter may reduce power of NSI as dissenter provides social support or may reduce
power of ISI as there is alternative source of information
- Shows it isn’t always possible to know if NSI or ISI is at work especially in real life situations




2 of 20

, Social influence notes

Asch’s study:

Procedure: - Asch tested conformity by showing ppts 2 large
white cards at a time
- One w/ standard line and other w/ 3 comparison
lines. 1/3 was same length as standard and 2
others = substantially different
- Ppt asked which of 3 lines matched standard
- Ppts used = 123 American male undergrads
- Each naive ppt was tested individually w/ group
(between 6 - 8 confederates)
- On first few trials all confederates gave right
answer but then started making mistakes
- All confederates gave same wrong answer
- Each ppt took part in 18 trials and on 12 critical
trials confederates gave wrong answer

Findings: - Naive ppt gave wrong answer 36.8% of time
- 25% of ppts never conformed
- 75% conformed at least once
- When interviewed after, most said they
conformed to avoid rejection (NSI)

Asch’s variations: Group size - w/ 3 confederates conformity to wrong answer
fell to 31.8%
- Addition of further confederates made little
difference
- Suggests small majority = insufficient for
influence to be exerted
- Also, there is no need for majority larger than 3
Asch’s variations: Unanimity - To test if non-conforming confederate would
affect ppt’s conformity, Asch introduced a
confederate who disagreed w/ others (sometimes
gave correct answer and sometimes wrong)
- Presence of dissenting confederate meant
conformity was reduced by a quarter from when
majority was unanimous
- Presence of dissenter enabled ppt to behave
more independently
Asch’s variations: Task difficulty - Asch made line-judging harder by making
stimulus line and comparison lines more similar in
length
- Conformity increased under these conditions
- Suggests ISI plays greater role when task gets
harder as situ = more ambiguous




3 of 20

The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:

Guaranteed quality through customer reviews

Guaranteed quality through customer reviews

Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.

Quick and easy check-out

Quick and easy check-out

You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.

Focus on what matters

Focus on what matters

Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!

Frequently asked questions

What do I get when I buy this document?

You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.

Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?

Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.

Who am I buying these notes from?

Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller Tiphanienina. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.

Will I be stuck with a subscription?

No, you only buy these notes for $7.12. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.

Can Stuvia be trusted?

4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)

67479 documents were sold in the last 30 days

Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy study notes for 15 years now

Start selling
$7.12
  • (0)
Add to cart
Added