AO1:
Compliance: Identification: Interna
● Publically conforming to opinions of the ● When people adjust their behaviour and ● A co
majority opinions to those of a group as role models
● The
● temporary change and only exists when ● temporary and is not maintained the acce
the group is present moment the individual leaves the group inter
● e.g. laughing at a joke that you do not find ● e.g. conforming to the dress sense of the ● perm
funny because the group are laughing group influ
2 Process Theory
Normative social influence: Informational social influence
● The desire to be liked – following the crowd ● The desire to be right – accep
● It is the desire to be liked by other people and avoidance of being ● Is it the desire to be right be
left out especially in ambiguous situa
● Is an emotional process ● Is a cognitive process
● Approval is sought and is associated with compliance ● It is common with people un
believing others have superio
● e.g. when a joke is made and everyone laughs, however you,
yourself may not find the joke funny but laugh anyways ● It is associated with internal
AO2/AO3:
😃 Research support for ISI 😃 Research support for NSI ❌ Individual differences are
P One strength of ISI as an P One strength of NSI as an ignored
explanation of conformity is explanation of conformity is P A limitation of NSI is that it f
that there is RS. that there is RS. to consider individual
E For example, Lucas et al. E For example, Asch found that differences in conformity
asked students to give on 12 critical trials, there was a E For example, people who are
answers to mathematical 37% conformity rate to wrong less concerned with being lik
problems that were easy or answers. Participants are less affected by NSI than
difficult. Students were more conformed to incorrect those who care more about
likely to give the wrong responses given by being liked. People like this a
answer when the questions confederates even when the nAffiliators who have a great
were difficult rather than correct answer was obvious need for affiliation.
when they were easy. E Participants conformed as a E Thus, the problem with the 2
E Participants looked to others desire to be liked. Also they process theory is that it belie
for answers as they had a wanted to avoid being rejected that everyone reacts to
desire to be right and in this by the group for disagreeing conformity in the same way.
ambiguous situation they with them but when These personality factors can
didn’t know the answers participants wrote their answer affect conforming and can v
themselves. privately conformity fell to between individuals.
L Therefore, this supports the 12.5% due to no normative L Therefore, individual differen
role of ISI in conformity. group pressure. are not accounted for, rende
Thus, increasing the validity L Therefore, this supports the role the NSI explanation incompl
of this explanation. of NSI in conformity. Thus, and reducing its validity.
increasing the validity of this
explanation.
, ASCH’S LINE EXPERIMENT
AO1:
Aim: To investigate the extent to which social pressure from a majority group could affect a person to con
Procedure: Findings: Conclus
● 123 American male undergraduates took ● Naïve participant gave the wrong answer ● Answ
part in a lab study and were told it was of 36.8% of the time opin
visual perception.
● 25% did not conform on any trials ● Mos
● Each naïve participant was tested with a but
group of 7 confederates and were shown a ● 75% conformed at least once were
series of lines; the standard line and three influ
comparison lines, one of which was the ● Asch found that participants conformed
same length as a standard line. even when the answer was unambiguous
● Confederates were instructed to give the
same incorrect answer on 12 out of the 18
critical trials. The true participant was
always the last one to answer.
Aschs’s Variations: Asch carried out variations of his original study to find what has a gr
Group size: Unanimity: Task di
● Conformity increased with group size only ● Presence of another non-conforming person ● Line-j
up to 3 had affected the naïve participants
conformity ● Confo
● 3 confederates 🡪 conformity to the wrong ambig
answer went up to 31.8% right a
● A dissenter decreased conformity
● Suggests that most people are sensitive to ● Sugge
● Suggests that the influence of majority
other people's opinions need t
depends on it being unanimous
● Non conformity occurs when majority view is
not unanimous
😃 😃 ❌
AO2/AO3:
Scientific methodology Research support for task Lacks population validity
P A strength of Asch’s research is difficulty P A limitation of Asch’s researc
that it employed scientific P One strength of Asch’s is that it lacks population
methodology. research is that it has RS. validity.
E Asch had control over all E For example, Lucas et al. E Asch used only males and
variables in his study such as asked students to give women are more concerned
the number of confederates in answers to mathematical about social relationships an
the room and images used. problems that were easy or being accepted than men
Since control level is high, this difficult. Students were more (Neto). Also Asch never
allows for standardised likely to give the wrong answer conducted research in
procedures, which allows when the questions were collectivist cultures. Despite
replicability to test the difficult rather than when they them tending to have higher
reliability of findings. were easy ones. This was true levels of conformity as they
E Furthermore, it also allows for for students who rated their focus on the needs of the
the control of extraneous mathematical ability as poor. group than individuality
variables helping us infer E This supports Asch’s findings (Smith and Bond).
strong cause and effect by providing further evidence. E Asch may have got different
relationships in this L This therefore increases the conformity results if he used
experiment. validity of Asch’s research. female participants as well, a
L Therefore, it allows us to be women are potentially more
confident in the findings. conformist than males.
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