Summary AQA Psychology - A/A* Social Influences 16 marker essays
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Social influences
Institution
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AQA Psychology for A Level Year 1 & AS - Student Book
This clearly laid out document helped me achieve an A* for psychology A-level. It includes everything you need to know for the social influence part of the AQA psychology exam.
AQA Psychology AS/A Level - Topic 1: Social Influence
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AQA A-Level Psychology | A* Student Notes | Social Influence
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SOCIAL INFLUENCES
TYPES OF CONFORMITY
SOCIAL INFLUENCE: The process by which individuals and groups change
each other’s attitudes and behaviours. Includes conformity, obedience and
minority influence.
CONFORMITY: A change in a person’s behaviour or opinion due to the real
or imagined pressure from a person or group of people.
There are 3 types of conformity: -
COMPLIANCE: The most superficial level of conformity. It is a
temporary type of conformity where we outwardly go along with the
majority view on order to gain approval and avoid disapproval. The
change in the individual’s behaviours and opinions only last as long
as the group is monitoring him/her. This is because the individual
privately disagrees with the majority view.
IDENTIFICATION: A deep level of conformity. It is a moderate type of
conformity where we act in the same way as the group as we want
to be apart of it and be associated with it. However, we don’t
necessarily believe in everything the majority believes in. s deeper
than compliance but weaker than internalisation.
INTERNALISATION: The deepest level of conformity. We take on the
majority view because we believe it is true so we accept it as
correct. It leads to a far-reaching and permanent change in our
behaviours, even when the group is absent. Internalistatiojn is likely
to happen when the group is generally trustworthy in their views
and the individual has gone along with them in previous occasions.
EXPLANATIONS FOR CONFORMITY
NORMATIVE SOCIAL INFLUENCE: As humans are social
species, we have the fundamental need for social
companionship and a fear of rejection. This is the basis that
forms normative social influence. When we agree with the
opinion of the majority because we want to be accepted,
liked and gain social approval. E.g. smoking to fit in as it
looks like the ‘norm’ (likely to happen around strangers and
lead to compliance)
INFORMATIONAL SOCIAL INFLUENCE: Humans often like to
feel confident in knowing that our perceptions and beliefs are
correct. This may lead to informational social influence,
where we agree with the opinion of the majority, as we
believe it as correct. Therefore we accept it, as we want to be
correct as well. ISI is more likely to happen in an ambiguous
situation or when we are around knowledgeable people. E.g.
you may agree with a student in your math class as you don’t
know the answer but you feel they will as they always get top
grades in math. (It is most likely to occur around people you
know well and lead to internalistation)
A03: RESEARCH SUPPORT FOR NSI: In 1951, Asch’s study was
research support that showed how ppts went along with the
, obviously wrong answers to gain social approval and prevent
rejection. To prove that it was normative social influence that
caused this, Asch replicated his study but this time asked ppts to
write down their answers (complete answers privately). The
conformity rate fell down to 12.5%. By not having to say their
answers out loud, they didn’t fear rejection as much allowing them
to go with their own opinions. This increases the validity of the
explanation of NSI as Asch demonstrated how we often go along
with the majority to fit when we have to voice our opinion publically
in front of others.
A03: INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCE FOR NSI: Some Research shows how
NSI does not affect everyone’s behaviour in the same way. For
example, McGhee and Teevan, found that students high in need of
affiliation (a need for being in a relationship with others) are more
likely to conform. This means that people less likely to be affected
by NSI are those who are less concerned about being liked by
others. This shows that the desire to be liked underlies conformity
for some people more than others. This decreases the validity of the
explanation, as we can’t generalize this explanation of conformity to
everyone.
A03: RESEARCH SUPPORT FOR ISI: Lucas et al, provided research
support for informational social influence. He gave student
mathematical problems that were easy or difficult. When the
mathematical problem was difficult there was higher rates of
conformity. This was particularly true for those who rated their
mathematical abilities as poor. This study shows how people are
more likely to conform in situations where they don’t know the
answer, which is the outcome predicted by the ISI explanation. We
look to others believing that they know the answer as we also want
to be correct. Therefore this research increases the validity of the
explanation.
A03: INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCE IN ISI: Some research support shows
how ISI does not affect everyone’s behaviour in the same way.
Perrin and spencer (1980), replicated Asch’s study with engineering
students and only 1 student conformed in a total of 369 trails. This
maybe due to the fact that engineering student were a lot more
confident at the task at hand and felt less need to look to others for
the correct answer. This is a limitation to the explanation as it
decreases the validity. This critic also therefore suggests how this
explanation for conformity can’t be generalised to everyone.
ASCH’S STUDY (1958): CONFORMITY
PROCEDURE: Asch gathered male student volunteers to take part in a
laboratory experiment for what they believed to be a test of vision.
Participants were shown a standard line (on one card) and then three
comparison lines known as A, B or C (on another card). They were asked
one by one to say out loud, which of the 3 of the comparison lines shown
from A, B or C matched the original standard line they were shown. All
, except one student were confederates, which were primed to give the
same incorrect responses. The real participant always answered last or
second to last, in their group of around 6-8, whom responded after having
observed the confederates answer. In total 123 American students were
tested in 18 trails but only 12 were critical trails.
FINDINGS: In criticaltrials over one third (37%) of real participants
conformed to themajority groups incorrect answer. Only 25% of ppts
didn’t conform in any of the trails meaning 75% of the real participants
also conformed at least once in the experiments. Normative Social
influence was the reason given by most participants as the reason for
conforming to the majority’s incorrect view. This was confirmed in an
interview with ppts after the experiment that said they conformed, as they
feared rejection.
A03: A CHILD OF IT’S TIME: A limitation to Asch’s study was that it took
place in a very conformist time period in America. In 1980, Perrin and
Spencer replicated Asch’s study with engineering students. Only 1 student
conformed in a total of 369 trails. This may be due to the fact that
engineering students were more confident at the task. However, its most
likely to be the fact that society has changed since the 1950s and people
are less conformist today. This is a criticism to Asch’s study as conformity
may vary according to era, questioning the temporal validity of NSI.
A03: CULTURAL BIAS: Research suggests that ppts behaviour in Asch’s
task may be culturally limited. For instance, Bond and Smith reported a
meta-analysis of cross-cultural studies of conformity using Asch’s
experimental design. They found that 58% of Indian teachers conformed
to the wrong answers whilst only 14% conformed to the wrong answer
among Belgian students. This means it will be hard to replicate the same
results from Asch’s study across different cultures as the findings from
Bond and Smith suggests that levels of conformity vary considerably from
culture to culture.
A03: ARTIFICAL SUTUATION AND TASK: A limitation to Asch’s study is that
the task and situation was artificial, meaning there could have been
demand characteristics. For example, the task lacks mundane realism,
meaning the trivial task could have led to demand characteristics, as they
ppts knew they were just in a research study. Also the trivial task led ppts
with no reason not to conform, as it wasn’t as if the task resembled a
group in everyday life were the consequences of conformity may be more
important. Therefore this is a limitation due to the demand characteristic
that questions the validity of the study and the fact that the study lacks
mundane realism.
A03: FINDINGS ONLY APPLY TO CERTAIN SITUATIONS: The fact that ppts
had to answer out loud and were with strangers who they wanted to
impress might mean that conformity was higher than usual. On the other
hand, William and Sogon found conformity were actually higher amongst
groups of friends rather than strangers. This may be due to that fact that
we know our friends better and may have gone along with them in
previous situations so we feel confident to look to them. Thus, conformity
may be highly sensitive to the type of relationship that the ppt has with
the majority, and we need to be very careful in making conclusions about
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