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Summary AQA A-level Psychology detailed notes $13.54   Add to cart

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Summary AQA A-level Psychology detailed notes

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  • July 27, 2023
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Social influence
Types of and explanations for conformity:
Conformity = is a change in a person’s behaviour or opinions as a result of real or imagined
pressure from a person or group of people

Kelman (1958) suggested three levels of conformity:
 Compliance (shallow)
 Identification (intermediate)
 Internalisation (deep)

Compliance – agreeing with the group but keeping personal opinions. Results in a temporary
change in behaviour

Identification – we value membership of a group so we will conform to their behaviour or ideas
to be a part of the groups, even if we don’t fully agree

Internalisation – deepest level of conformity. Personal opinions genuinely change to match the
groups. This is a permanent change in beliefs

There are two explanations for conformity:
 Informational social influence (ISI)
 Normative social influence (NSI)

Information social influence (ISI):
- In situations when the correct behaviour is uncertain, we look to the majority for
guidance on how to behave because we want to be correct
- ISI often results in internalisation, permanently adopting views of the majority

Normative social influence (NSI):
- In situations when the individual wants to appear normal and be one of the majority, so
they are approved and not rejected.
- NSI often results in compliance, or a superficial change in behaviour

,Evaluative Research:

Supporting evidence for NSI from Asch,
 When given an unambiguous line length test pps would choose incorrect answers when
the incorrect answer was selected by confederates.
 When interviewed afterwards pps said they conformed to avoid rejection by others.
 This shows that people will show compliant behaviour in order to fit in and be approved
by the majority
However:
- The task in Asch’s line experiment was unusual and not like a task performed in day-to-
day life therefore lacks mundane realism
- It could be argued that conformity would act differently in real life

Supporting evidence for ISI by Jenness 1932…
 Who asked pps first alone, then in groups, then make a second guess alone, the number
of jelly beans in a jar.
 This is an ambiguous task, there is no obvious correct answer.
 Jenness found that the individuals second guess would move closer to the groups guess
demonstrating ISI with women conforming more
However,
- The task in jenness’s experiment was unusual and not like a task performed in day-to-
day life, therefore lacks mundane realism.
- It could be argued that conformity would act differently in real world situations




Evaluation A03

, Strength of NSI is that there is research support
 Asch (1951) found many pps conformed rather than give the correct answer because
they were afraid of disapproval
 When pps wrote down answers (no normative pressure), conformity fell to 12.5%
 This shows that at least some conformity is due to a desire not to be rejected by the
group for disagreeing with them

Limitation is individual differences in NSI
- Some people are concerned about being liked by others – nAfiliators have a strong need
for ‘affiliation’ (need to relate to other people)
- McGhee and Teevan (1967) found that students who were nAfifiliatord were more likely
to conform
- This shows NSI underlies conformity for some people more than for others – an
individual difference not explained by a theory of situational pressures

Strength is research support for ISI
 Lucas et al (2006) found pps conformed more to incorrect answers when maths
problems were difficult
 For hard problems, the situation was ambiguous so they relied on the answers they were
given
 This supports ISI because the results are what ISI would predict
However..
- It is unclear if NSI or ISI operate studies and real life. A dissenter may reduce the power
of NSI (social support) or reduce the power of ISI
- Therefore ISI and NSI are hard to separate and operate together in most real-world
situations




Variables affecting conformity - Asch

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