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A level Psychology, Social Influence essays
AQA A level Psychology, Social Influence Essay examples. 10 different essays, each for a separate topic in social influence.
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1. Discuss explanations of conformity (16 marks).Conformity refers to how an individual or small group changes their behaviour and/or attitudes
as a result of the influence of a larger group, where there is no direct request for them to do so.
There are numerous explanations of conformity including normative social influence [NSI] and
informational social influence [ISI]. Informational social influence is conforming for knowledge or
due to the belief that someone else is right. This is more likely to happen in ambiguous
situations. Normative social influence is conforming to social norms to fit into a group. This is
often more of a short term change compared to the long term change of ISI.
Sherif’s study using the autokinetic effect gives support for the existence of informational social
influence. Sherif found that when participants were asked to judge how far a spot of light had
moved in a dark room, when answering individually, estimates were relatively stable, but there
was considerable variation between participants (between 2 and 12 inches – 5cm and 30 cm).
However, when they were put into groups of three their judgements converged towards a group
norm.Sherif suggests this is because the task is difficult and therefore the group members are
more likely to look to others to guide them to the right answer therefore supporting the view that
informational influence leads to conformity.
A second strength of NSI is research support from Asch. Asch’s study gives support for the
existence of normative social influence. He found that when participants
were asked to give an answer to an easy task, (judging which out of three lines was the same
as the sample line), but the confederates, who answered first, all gave the same wrong answer,
there was a 32% general conformity rate across critical trials. As the task was easy, this
suggests that participants conformed in order to fit in with the group. This is evidence to support
normative social influence as an explanation for conformity.
A final strength of ISI is research support.Research evidence from Lucus et al (2006). This
asked students mathematical problems and found conformity to incorrect answers was higher
with difficulty. Shows that people conform in situations when they don’t know the answer. This
supports informational social influence as it means people can conform in ambiguous situations,
as suggested by ISI.
One weakness of explanations of conformity is individual differences. People who are less
concerned about being liked are less affected by NSI than those who care more about being
liked (nAffiliator). Afiliators have a greater need for affiliation and are therefore more likely to
conform. Therefore, individual differences result in a lack of generalisation of different
explanations of conformity.
, 2. Outline and evaluate Asch’s research into conformity (16 marks).
Asch studied conformity, with the aim of seeing if participants would feel pressured into
conforming to an obviously wrong answer. Within this, participants were asked to match one
standard with three possibilities, and used 123 American male participants These participants
were tested in groups, with all other members becoming confederates of the experimenter and
were instructed to give the same wrong answers on certain critical trials. This found that 75% of
participants conformed at least once, demonstrating examples of normative social influence.
Asch further researched conformity through situational variables, finding that conformity
increased due to task difficulty, unanimity and the size of the group.
One limitation of Asch’s research is that there are cultural differences in conformity rates around
the world. Smith et al. (2006) investigated cultural differences in conformity through a
meta-analysis and found that on average conformity was 31.2%, however when comparing
collectivist and individualist cultures;key differences were found. Individualist cultures were
found to have a conformity rate of 25% whereas collectivist cultures were found to have a
conformity rate of 37%, nearer to what Ash originally found.This is a problem for Asch’s study as
it shows that we cannot generalise Asch’s findings to other cultures outside the USA, as this
would be an imposed etic. Later research has shown that Asch’s study is not an accurate
representation of conformity rates in all cultures. Therefore one limitation of Asch’s study is that
it is only an indication of conformity rates in the US and cannot be generalised to other cultures.
Another limitation of Asch’s research is that there are ethical issues. The British Psychological
Society outlines six key guidelines all psychology research must follow in order to be considered
ethical, including informed consent, deception, protection from harm, right to withdraw,
debriefing and right to anonymity. In Asch’s study, participants were told they were participating
in an investigation into visual perception, whereas in reality they were being studied on whether
they conformed to the group. This breaks the guidelines of no deception, as participants were
not told the truth, and informed consent, as participants were not informed of the true aim of the
study. Therefore, Asch's study can be considered as limited due to the ethical problems it
exposed participants too.
A final limitation of Asch’s study is that it lacks temporal validity. Perrin and Spencer (1980)
repeated Asch’s study in the UK and found when using students, there was only one conforming
response out of 396 trials. However when they used youths on probation as participants and
probation officers as confederates, they found similar levels of conformity to Asch. This indicates
that the perceived costs of conforming may affect an individual’s likelihood to conform. In the
time which Asch’s study was conducted, McCarthyism was high in America, and there were
therefore risks associated with not conforming to the group, which may explain why Asch’s
conformity rates were so high. Therefore Asch’s study is limited as we cannot apply it to other
time periods than the one it was conducted due to the specific circumstances in which it took
place.
One strength of Asch’s research is its application to real-life situations. For example, research
has shown that in over 95% of cases, the first vote of the jury determines the final verdict. This
is a strength for Asch’s study, as by understanding the situations in which individuals conform,
we can apply this knowledge to a wide range of scenarios.Therefore one strength of Asch’s
study is its application to real-life.
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