Summary
Summary AQA A Level Social Influence Year 1 Example Essay Plans
Essay plans for AQA A Level Psychology, Social Influence. Will help students achieve high levels following the plan, particularly with the PEE(L) structure for AO3.
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1. Asch’s baseline procedure (1951) - STUDYAO1: - 131 American male participants tested on the size of lines on two white cards. Card
1: line X (standard line). Card 2: line A,B,C (comparison lines). Trial; decide which
comparison line = same length as standard line. Tested in groups of 6-8, with only one
genuine participant and the rest confederates. Was always seated second to last in the
order.
- Findings: conformity increased with group size to an extent (only needed 3
confederates). Genuine participants conformed 36.8% of the time. 25% never
conformed.
- Confederate that disagreed with the others (dissenter) meant that the participant
conformed less. Non-conformity is more likely when cracks in a unanimous view.
- Making task more difficult = more conformity (ISI)
AO3: - LIMITATION:
- P: Artificial task and situation (contrived). E: Participants may have given demand
characteristics. Susan Fiske (2014); ‘did not resemble groups we experience in
everyday life). E:Cannot be generalised to everyday life.
- P: Limited application. E: only used American men; evidence shows women are more
likely to conform = Neto (1995). The USA is individualistic, only concerned with
themselves E: Tells us little about conformity in women and other cultures.
AO3: - STRENGTH:
- P: lab experiment. E: extraneous variables can be controlled such as age and other
participant variables. E: High validity, better cause and effect relationship
established.
- P: support from other studies for effects of task difficulty. E: Lucas et al (2006) asked
their participants to solve ‘easy’ and ‘hard’ equations. Three contrived questions were
presented to the participants from ‘other participants’. Participants agreed with wrong
answers more often when the question was more difficult to answer. E: shows Asch
was accurate in claiming task difficulty affects conformity.
- COUNTERPOINT^^: Lucas et al suggested conformity was more complex than Asch
thought. More confidence in ability showed less likelihood of conformity; individual
factors can impact conformity due to situational variables.
2. Conformity: types and explanations
AO1: internalisation - deep rooted internal change in behaviour or opinion even when a
group is not present as it is seen as correct.
- Identification - some level of conformity in public with the group due to valuing them
and wanting to be a part of the group, even if privately they do not agree with them.
- Compliance - superficial change, going along with the majority, behaviour changes
once group pressure stops.
+ Informational social influence (ISI): going along with the view of the majority due to
believing it is correct; can lead to internalisation. Likely to occur in situations that are
new that have some ambiguity or in quick crisis situations. Cognitive process.
+ Normative social influence (NSI): follows the majority due to wanting approval and to
be liked, fear of rejection. Likely to happen in situations with strangers or with friends
where there is a need for social approval. Emotional process.
, AO3: - LIMITATION OF ISI: P: individual difference. E: Perrin and Spencer did an Asch
experiment on engineering students, found less levels of conformity. Limitation as those that
are educated are less likely to rely on others for knowledge, showing individual differences to
how people respond to the majority’s influence.
- STRENGTH OF ISI: P: Research evidence to support. E: Lucas et al found a higher
conformity rate to incorrect answers that increases with difficulty as the majority said
it was correct. E: shows conformity when individuals are thought to be less
knowledgeable and believe others are more educated in that situation.
- STRENGTH OF NSI: P: research evidence to support why people conform. E: Asch
(1951) shows that people will conform to avoid standing out or in order to be liked. E:
valid as to why people conform such as for group approval.
- LIMITATION OF NSI: P: individual differences E: evidence McGee and Teevan found
that those that are at a greater need of social relationships were more likely to
conform. E: those that cared more about being liked are more affected by NSI than
those that are not.
3. Conformity to social roles: Zimbardo, Stanford Prison Experiment
(1973)
- AO1: fake prison created under Stanford University. 21 ‘emotionally stable’ male
student volunteers. Randomly allocated as prison guard or prisoner. Being
encouraged to conform to social roles with uniform and its behaviour.
- Purpose: to find whether brutality from guards was a depositional result of their own
personalities or whether it was the situational prison environment.
- Uniforms: the prisoners were given loose smocks and caps to cover hair, identified
by numbers not names. Guards were given uniforms with correct equipment. This
created a sense of de-individualisation, losing personal identity and increasing
likelihood of conformity.
- Instructions about behaviour: further encouragement to engage with social roles e.g.
those that wanted to leave the study had to ‘apply for parole’. Guards were reminded
of their authority over prisoners etc.
- Prisoners: The prisoners were brought in a realistic manner, being arrested in their
own homes. Routine implemented, visiting/ parole board was established.
- Findings: Guards became sadistic in their actions towards prisoners. Prisoners
attempted rebellion which was crushed because of submissive behaviours towards
guards. Prisoners released because of crying fits and rage. Study stopped after 6
days (planned for it to go on for two weeks), post-research interview of volunteers
showed shock at their behaviours.
- Conclusion: participants behaviour was situational, clear conformity to social roles
which were only present as a result of the environment.
-
AO3: - Strength: P: conducted as a laboratory experiment, high degree of control. E:
extraneous variables could be controlled such as the participants used, allocation of roles
etc. E: high internal validity, cause and effect relationships can be established.
- P: harmful treatment of participants led to formal recognition of ethical guidelines. E:
studies must now gain ethical approval before they are conducted. (ethics commit
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