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Summary A* AQA Psychology- Social Influence essay plans
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The colour coded essay plans including both concise and organised A01 and A03 essential for getting an A* at Alevel
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Conformity: types and explanationsConformity - A change in a person's behaviour or opinions as a result of real or imagined pressure from a P: One strength is that there is research support for ISI.
person or group of people E: Lucas et al found that there was greater conformity amongst students to incorrect
Types of conformity- Kelman: answers when they were difficult rather than when they were easy (especially true for
● Internalisation- students who rated their mathematical abilities as poor)
○ Deepest level of conformity where we take on the majority view because we genuinely E:This is a strength because the study shows that people conform in ambiguous
accept the groups norms as correct situations where they feel they don’t know the answer, which is exactly the outcome
○ Leads to both private and public change of opinions/ behaviour
predicted by the ISI explanation.
○ Change is likely permanent; persists even in the absence of other group members.
L- Thus the theory has explanatory power when trying to explain why people conform.
○ E.g converting to another religion
● Identification-
○ A moderate type of conformity where we act in the same way with the group because
P- One limitation is that there is individual difference in ISI
we identify with them and want to be a part of it.
E- Asch’s line task found that students were less conformist (28%) than other
○ This mean we may publicly change our opinions/behaviour even if we don't privately
participants (37%). Furthermore, Perrin and Spencers’ study. involving science and
agree with everything the group stands for.
engineering students, found very little conformity in comparison to Asch’s original
○ E.g. Relating to feminism when with friends but having some doubts about its beliefs
study.
● Compliance
E- This is a weakness as these findings undermine the central assumption of the ISI
○ Shallowest level of conformity where we outwardly go along with the majority view, but
explanation that we conform in uncertain situations as we desire to be right. Instead,
privately disagree with it.
this principle may vary depending on the individual which may give rise to other
○ Change is temporary- only lasts until the group pressure stops
possible explanations.
○ E.g starting to smoke because of people around you but actually hating it.
L- Therefore the ISI lacks generalisability when explaining the reason for conformity.
Explanations for conformity- Deutsch and Gerard:
● Informational social influence (ISI)- P: One strength is that there is research support for NSI:
○ refers to an individual's desire to be right (cognitive process) E: For example, Schultz et al conducted a field experiment in which hotel guests
○ They agree with the opinion/ behaviour of the majority because they genuinely believe either had a door hanger informing them of the environmental benefits of reusing
it is correct. towels (control) or a message saying ‘75% of our guests choose to reuse their towels
○ May lead to intemalsaton. each day’ (experimental group). It was found that the experimental group reused their
○ Most likely to happen in: towels 25% more than the control.
■ new/ ambiguous situations E- This is a strength because it provides clear evidence for NSI as guests conformed
■ crisis situations where decisions have to be made quickly. to reusing their towels due to their desire to be liked and fit in with the other guests.
■ when one person (or group) is regarded as being more of an expert. Furthermore, the experiment was highly controlled which provides empirical evidence
to support the NSI assumption.
● Normative social influence (NSI)- L- This increased the scientific credibility
○ Refers to an individual's desire to be liked (emotional process).
○ They agree with the opinion/behaviour of the majority because they want to gain social P: One limitation is that there is individual difference in NSI
approval and feel a part of the group. E: For example, McGhee and Teevan found that nAffiliators (who are more concerned
○ This may lead to compliance/ identification with being liked/ in a relationship with others) are more affected by NSI than those
○ NSI is most likely to occur in: who don't care. For example, students
■ situations with strangers where you may feel concerned about rejection. E: This shows that the desire to be liked underlies conformity for some people more
■ with people you know because we are most concerned about the social than others. This undermines the central assumption of the NSI explanation that we
approval of our friends. conform in social situations as we desire social approval from others. Instead, this
■ It may be more pronounced in stressful situations where people have a principle may vary depending on individuals and their personality/ disposition.
greater need for social support L- Therefore the NSI lacks generalisability when explaining the reason for conformity.
, Conformity: Asch’s Research
AIM: to investigate the extent in which social pressure from a majority could lead to conformity P- One limitation of Asch’s research into conformity is that it is considered to be a ‘child
of its time’.
Procedure: E- For example, Perrin and Spencer repeated Asch's original study in the 1980s with
● Participants were 123 American male undergraduates. engineering students in the UK. They found that only one student conformed in a total of
● Each naive ppt was tested individually with a group of 6-8 confederates. 396 trials.
● The participant was asked to identify which of the 3 comparison lines matched the standard E- This is a limitation of Asch’s research as it suggests its findings are unique to the
one.
McCarthy period of time (50s) as this was a very conformist period of time due to
● Participant took part in 18 trials
anti-communist movements in which people were afraid of going against the majority.
○ on 12 "critical trials" - the confederates gave the wrong answer,
L- Thus, Asch’s research can be considered to lack temporal validity when explaining
Findings:. conformity.
● 75% of participants conformed at least once.
● The naive participant gave a wrong answer 36.8% of the time
● the Asch effect - the term used to describe the conformity of the ppts even in an unambiguous P- one limitation is that Asch’s research used artificial tasks to investigate conformity.
situation. E- For example, Fiske argues Asch's groups were not very groupy as they didn’t
● Interview: resemble groups in everyday life.The lab experiment was highly controlled and used the
○ Majority of naive ppts most said they didn’t believe the conforming answer but trivial task of identifying lines and participants knew they were in a research study E- This
conformed to avoid rejection (NSI) is a limitation because the artificial nature of the experiment meant there was no reason
not to conform, thus participants may have only conformed due to demand
Asch's variations characteristics. The situation doesn’t reflect everyday situations as conformity is a
Group size complex human behaviour impacted by emotional and social pressures, relationships etc
● Aim: whether the size of the group would be more important than the agreement of the group which were not present in the experiment.
● Procedure: number of confederates varied between 1-15 L- Therefore, Asch’s research lacks ecological validity when explaining conformity.
● Findings: little conformity with 1-2 confederates but rose to ~30% with 3.
○ the addition of further confederates made little difference. P- One limitation of Asch’s research is that it suffers from cultural bias.
● Conclusion: a small majority is not sufficient to influence conformity but that there is no need E- For example, Smith et al found that conformity rates for individualist cultures such as
for a majority of more than 3. Europe and the US were lower (25%) than that of collectivist cultures such as countries
in Asia and Africa (75%).
Unanimity E- This is a limitation as Asch’s research is an example of ethnocentrism as he assumed
● Aim: if the presence of another, non-conforming person would affect the naive participants’ his American sample is superior and could therefore also be applied to other collectivist
conformity. cultures. However, in reality Asch’s findings may only be confined to explaining
● Procedure: introduced a dissenter who disagreed with the other confederates (sometimes conformity within individualistic western cultures.
gave the correct answer and sometimes gave the wrong answer) L- Therefore, Asch’s research lacks universality when attempting to explain conformity.
● Findings: reduced conformity by ¼
● Conclusion: the presence of a dissenter provided social support and enabled the naive P- One strength of Asch’s research is the control in his study
participant to behave more independently. E- For example, the lab experiment used standardised instructions and conditions such
○ Suggests majority may depend on the group being unanimous as the same number of confederates, the question/cards used as well as the same time
Task difficulty interval to provide a response.
● Aim: whether the difficulty of the task effects confomity E- This is a strength as Asch was able to control potential extraneous variables such as
● Procedure: made task more difficult by making the standard line and the comparison lines the length of time before providing an answer. Therefore, any change in the rate of
more similar in length. conformity (dependant variable) is due to the pressure of the majority (independent
● Findings: conformity increased under these conditions variable) which allows a direct cause and effect relationship to be established.
● Conclusion: suggests that informational social influence plays a greater role in this variation L- Thus, this increases th internal validity of Asch’s research into conformity.
because the situation is more ambiguous, so we are more likely to look to other people for
guidance and assume that they are right and we are wrong.
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