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AQA A Level Psychology Paper 1: Social Influence | A* Revision Notes | All A03 You Need To Know £7.96
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AQA A Level Psychology Paper 1: Social Influence | A* Revision Notes | All A03 You Need To Know
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This document consists of all the A03 knowledge needed for the Social Influence section of AQA psychology Paper 1. It covers the possible 16 mark questions that may be asked on the exam; including conformity, Asch's investigation and variations into conformity, Zimbardo's investigation into conform...

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  • April 2, 2024
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  • 2023/2024
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Psychology
Social Influence (A03)

Describe and evaluate information social influence and normative social influence as explanations of conformity.

AO3:
Point - One strength for explanations of conformity is the supporting research.
Evidence - Jenness carried out a study into conformity where participants were asked to guess how many beans were in a jar; each had to make an individual
estimate with one jar and then a group estimate with a different jar. He found that with the individual estimates, the results varied largely but in the group estimate,
the results were roughly the same value.
Explain and link - An individual's behaviour being influenced by a group where the result is ambiguous leads to them looking to the majority for the answer and
demonstrating the study being successful in showing informational social influence.
Link - this shows the explanations for conformity are reliable, as they are shown in real life situations, increasing their external validity.

Point - There is also further supporting evidence for explanations of conformity in informational social influence.
Evidence - In Asch’s conformity experiment on perception of line length, participants were asked to choose which of the three lines in front of them matched the
example. 75% of the 123 participants conformed with the rest of the group at least once to an answer that was clearly incorrect.
Explain - In the debrief, Asch asked the reasons behind conforming and some said they felt self-conscious into giving the correct answer and were afraid of
disapproval.
Link - This research supports the idea of normative social influence, where people conform to fit in, therefore, increasing the study’s reliability.

Point - However, normative social influence is shown to affect more people than others.
Evidence - Mcghee and Teevan found some people have a greater need to be liked so are more affected by NSI; others are less concerned with being liked so are
therefore less affected; Nolan also found the energy of the group had a leading impact on someone’s own energy and this makes people more of less likely to
conform.
Explain - The lack of cause and effect between the intended motive and actual motive suggest NSI is not a conscious form of conformity.
Link - This shows there are confounding variables into whether someone conforms or not and NSI is not applicable to all situations, reducing the study’s internal
validity.
Counter - However, it can be argued by Asch that although NSI isn’t applied to every situation where someone has the opportunity to conform, in times where
someone does conform, it is most likely due to the want to be liked and accepted by the group.




Describe and evaluate Asch’s research into conformity.

Point - high in control as Asch
Evidence - asch’s studied each variable one at a time in a lab environment
Explain - this means that the study can be seen to be replicable and have high internal validity as extraneous variables can be easily controlled
Counter - however, there are multiple issues with the use of a lab experiment. Firstly, it creates cues in the environment that may make the participants realise the

, true aim of the study and act in an unnatural way, leading to either the please-u effect (participants act in a way that would be beneficial towards the study to
please Asch) or the screw-u effect (the participants act in a way that ruins the study). Secondly, the use of artificial tasks doesn’t reflect how someone would
conform in everyday life. The task of identifying line lengths isn't as complex as conformity in real life situations, where someone’s decision to conform may be
affected by multiple variables whereas in this study, participants have no real reason not to conform, showing the study lacks mundane realism.
Link - although the intention of using a lab experiment to create accurate results was present, it ultimately decreases the internal validity of the study as it may not
measure what it intends to as well as the external validity as the findings can’t be generalised to everyday life.

Point - lacks population validity
Evidence - the sample in asch’s experiment consisted of 123 white, american males. Neto found that women are more concerned about a social relationship than
men so higher conformity rates would be expected. Conformity studies in China found social groups are very important and also have much higher conformity
rates.
Explain - this makes asch’s research limited as other genders and cultures were not taken into account when accumulating the sample for this experiment and the
generalised the results of a small number of people to a much larger population.
Link - this means his results can be seen to lack internal validity as the choice of target population is both androcentric and ethnocentric.
Counter - however, both evidence regarding other genders and cultures can see higher conformity rates, meaning Asch’s conclusions can still be seen as reliable.

Point - however, this is not the case in more recent studies.
Evidence and explanation - it is possible Asch’s findings are unique as they took place in the 1950s, a particular period of US history where conformity was high.
Perrin and Spencer repeated Asch’s study in the UK, 20 years after the original experiment and found only 1 conforming response out of 396 trials. It was
suggested Asch’s research was a child of its time, and recent social change has created reduced importance on conformity.
Link - therefore, although asch’s research is consistent with other genders and cultures around the time it was conducted, it is inconsistent with more recent
replications, meaning it lacks temporal historical validity.




Describe and evaluate Zimbardo’s research into conformity.

Point - supporting evidence
Evidence - the conformity to social role effect was evident in Abu Ghraib, a military prison in Iraq, where US guards were sadistic towards prisoners.
Explain - Zimbardo believed the sadistic guards were victims of situational factors, such as lack of training, unrelenting boredom and no
accountability to higher authority that were present in both the prison experiment and Abu Ghraib that made the abuse more likely. Zimbardo
claimed the prisoner abuse in both prisons stemmed from the misuse of power of being assigned the role of a ‘guard’, meaning people become
sadistic because the unthinkingly conform to roles that authorities prescribe without the need for specific orders and guard brutality was a natural
consequence for the role assigned and the power it holds.
Link - increases external validity of Zimbardo’s findings as it can be applied to other situations to make his conclusions deemed more reliable.

Point - contradictory evidence
Evidence - Reicher and Haslam conducted a modern-day replication of the original study but in the UK. They separated participants into groups of
3 with 1 as the guard and 2 as the prisoners.
Explain - It was found that the findings of this study were drastically different. There were not the same levels of guard brutality and found the
guards didn’t want to enforce any form of power on the prisoners. Instead, prisoners took control of the mock prison and subjected the guards to a
campaign out of harassment and disobedience.
Link - This shows the guards behave in a way that they choose rather than Zimbardo’s claim that it was because they were conforming to social

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