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Psychology Paper 1
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CHETAN SINGH AQA PSYCHOLOGY NOTESA LEVEL
PAPER 1: Introductory Topics in Psychology
Social Influence
Memory
Attachment
Psychopathology
2 hours
96 marks
PAPER 2: Psychology in Context
Approaches
Biopsychology
Research Methods
1h30
96 marks
PAPER 3: Issues and Options in Psychology
1h30
96 marks
,PAPER 1
1. SOCIAL INFLUENCE:
Conformity
Conformity is a type of social influence defined as a change in belief or behaviour in response to real or
imagined social pressure. It is also known as majority influence.
Types of Conformity
Internalisation: DEEPEST
o Genuinely accepting group norms
o Publicly and privately agreeing
o Permanent
Identification
o Valuing the group
o Publicly and privately agreeing
o We identify with the group as we want to be a part of it
o E.G Zimbado
Compliance
o Superficial agreement with group norms
o Publicly agreeing, privately disagreeing
o Conformity stops as soon as group pressure stops
o E.G Asch
Explanations for Conformity
Informational social influence (ISI): Internalisation, Posh restaurant
o Agreeing with the majority because we believe they know better
o Happens in ambiguous situations
o One person is more of an expert
Normative social influence (NSI): Compliance
o Agreeing with the majority because we want to be liked
o Happens in situations with strangers
o We desire social approval of friends
Evaluation of Explanations for Conformity
Point Evidence Explanation Link
FOR Asch’s study: Line perception The task was ambiguous, yet Increased validity of
Support for a third still stated the wrong NSI
NSI answer
The control group who did the
task alone had an error rate of
1%
When asked they said they
were afraid of disapproval
AGAINST McGhee and Teevan Over simplistic to assume that NSI is not a
NSI doesn’t nAffiliators have a strong people always conform out of comprehensive
affect desire for social approval NSI explanation
everyone in Students are more likely to Underlies conformity for some - Individual
the same way be an affiliators more than others differences
FOR Higher conformity to incorrect Increased validity of
Research Lucas et al: asked students to answers when questions were ISI
support for ISI give answers to math hard Others must now
problems Most true for student who rate better
themselves with low math
capabilties
Engineering student Original participants must It is actually a
NSI and ISI Had lower conformity rates have in part conformed ISI- combination of both
can co-occur: than Asch, 1/396 Confirmed in post-experiment
Deutch & interviews
Gerrad’s Two o Genuinely believed they
Process Model were wrong
,AGAINST Perrin and Spencer Engineering students have a Conformity is
Cannot be Engineering students strong believe in their own susceptible to
used to explain One student conformed in abilities individual differences
all types of 396 trials May not look to others
conformity
Example Essay:
Describe and evaluate the types and explanations of conformity
[16 marks]
There are three types of conformity: internalisation, identification and compliance. Internalisation is when
someone publicly and privately agrees to group norms; conformity occurs even when group pressure stops,
so it is permanent. Identification is when someone genuinely accepts group norms because they value the
group and believe that they have more knowledge. This is because we want to be a part of the group.
Compliance is superficial agreement with group norms – conformity tends to stop when group pressure
stops as the individual publicly agrees but privately disagrees. There are two explanations for conformity:
informational social influence (ISI) and normative social influence (NSI). ISI is conforming when we
genuinely believe that the other person is right, and we are wrong. It usually happens in situations when we
perceive someone to have more knowledge than ourselves. NSI is the need to be liked, which usually
happens in situations with strangers as we value social approval and are afraid of rejection.
There is research support for NSI. Asch conducted a study involving confederates in a group with a naïve
participant. Each person in the group was asked to state aloud which line was the longest out of three. The
confederates were all asked to give the same wrong answer and a third of the participants conformed. This
supports NSI as the answer was very obvious, as proved by the 1% error rate in the control group, but the
students still said the wrong answer. Thus, this presents NSI as a valid explanation for conformity.
However, it can be argued that NSI cannot be a universal explanation for conformity. The participants in
Asch’s study were all students, and students are known to be affiliators, people who have a high desire for
social approval. It is therefore over simplistic to assume that everyone would conform simply out of NSI, as
everyone is different so NSI may be the main explanation for some, but not others. Thus, while NSI is a
valid explanation, it is not the only explanation for conformity.
There is also research support for ISI. Sherif tested the autokinetic effect on participants, asking them to
state how far the light in the room was moving and in which direction. All the participants gave different
answers when tested alone, but their answers all converged when they were put into groups of three. This
supports ISI as the task was ambiguous, so the participants must have conformed out of ISI as they
believed that the other people in the group were correct and they were wrong. Thus, this presents ISI as
another valid explanation for conformity.
Asch’s study also provides evidence for NSI and ISI working together in situations where people conform. It
was confirmed in interviews after the study that some people conformed because they genuinely believed
they were wrong. It is therefore over simplistic to assume that it is only NSI or only ISI acting upon
someone to get them to conform in certain situations. Thus, NSI and ISI work together.
Although, NSI and ISI cannot always explain why people conform. A variation of Asch’s study was
conducted upon engineering students in the UK, where only 1 student conformed out of 396 trials. This
may be because engineering students are confident in their own abilities, so they have less of a desire for
social approval. Thus, conformity is susceptible to individual differences.
, Asch’s Research
Original study
123 male undergraduate students
Each group was presented with a standard line and three comparison lines.
Participants had to say aloud which comparison line matched the standard line in length. In each
group there was only one true participant the remaining 6 were confederates.
The confederates were told to give the incorrect answer on 12 out of 18 trails.
Mistakenly agreed with confederate majority 32% of the time, mostly normative social influence.
Only 25% never conformed
Variations
Group size
o Started with one or two confederates
o Began to increase the size
o Conformity increased by 30% in group of 3
o Further increases after three confederates had no effect
Unanimity
o Confederate said the correct answer throughout
o Then, confederate gave different wrong answers
o Asch found that presence of just 1 confederate that goes against the majority choice can
reduce conformity as much as 80%.
Task difficulty
o Made the line lengths more similar
o Conformity increased (ISI)
Evaluation of Asch’s Study
Point Evidence Explanation Link
Would have been
Extraneous Participants could have discovered
difficult for the
variables could the true nature of the experiment Asch’s study lacks
confederates to act
have affected
convincingly Would not have acted how they internal validity
the experiment usually would
Answer was so clear
Study was carried out
Has been The results are not consistent across
in the 1950s
described as ‘a all situations and time periods Study lacks historical
Society was very
child of its Conformity may be different validity
time’ conformist due to the
nowadays
Cold War
Study was only
carried out on
Collectivist cultures may have higher Has limited
Findings only Americans
conformity rates applications and the
apply to America is an
Americans Social group is deemed more results are not
individualistic culture
important generalisable
Independence is
deemed important
Asch’s study The study doesn’t reflect real life
Line judging is Lacks ecological
was a lab Findings cannot be generalised to validity
artificial and trivial
experiment everyday situations
Did not make an informed decision to
Participants were
take part Ethical issues don’t
Unethical deceived
However, has increased out challenge the findings
knowledge of conformity
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