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Psychology 16 Mark Plans (Paper 1)
Psychology 16 Mark Plans (Paper 1)
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Psychology 16Mark Plans
1
,Paper 1
Social Influence
Question: Outline and evaluate explanations for conformity.
AO1: • Definition of conformity --> form of social influence that results
6 from exposure to the majority position and leads to compliance
with that position.
• Kelman (1958)’s three types of conformity:
- Compliance --> individuals go along with the group to gain
approval/ avoid their disapproval (views are only public, doesn’t
change their underlying attitude)
- Internalisation --> individuals go along with the group because
they accept their views, they engage in a validation process,
examining their own beliefs to see if they or others are right
(public and private views > short term)
- Identification --> individual might accept the influence because
they want to be associated with another person or group, they
adopt to the group's attitudes and behaviours (public and private
views > long term)
• Explanations for conformity:
- Normative social influence --> go along with the majority without
accepting their point of view (compliance), humans need social
companionship and have a fear of censure and rejection, they use
NSI to gain approval and acceptance, to avoid censure and
disapproval. The individual must believe they are under
surveillance by the group.
- Informational social influence --> an individual accepts
information from others as evidence about reality & having a need
to be accepted. Individuals rely on the opinions of others; ISI is
more likely if the situation is ambiguous or where others are
experts. The individual complies in behaviour and changes their
behaviour in line with the group position (internalisation).
AO3: • Difficulties in distinguishing between compliance and
10 internalisation
- Relationship between compliance and internalisation is complicated
by how we define and measure it. Ex: person who publicly agrees
with a majority yet disagrees with them in private is
demonstrating compliance. However, possible that acceptance has
occurred in public yet dissipates later when in private, because
they have forgotten information from the group or received new
information.
• Research support for normative social influence by Asch (1951)
- Many participants went along with the (obviously) wrong answers of
the other group members. In post-interviews, the participants said
they changed their answer to avoid disapproval from the rest of
the group, shows compliance had occurred as the participants
conformed to ‘fit in’.
• Supporting evidence for informational social influence by Jenness
(1932)
- Participants asked to make independent judgements about number of
beans that were in a jar and then discuss their estimates with a
group, then made a second private estimate. Jenness found the
second private estimate was closer to group estimate because they
believe the others were right, especially in an unfamiliar,
ambiguous task.
2
,• Conformity can help abandon bad habits
- Ex: always arriving late for a meeting/ event, then the peer
pressure placed by the group can help make changes in life to stop
this issue and make positive changes to behaviours. Shows
conformity is used in the real world, good external validity.
3
, Question: Describe and evaluate Asch’s research into conformity.
AO1: • Aim of study --> conducted a “line study” on 50 male college
6 students to see the effect group pressure from the majority, had
on conformity.
• Procedure --> each group: 6 confederates & 1 participants. Shown
picture of line, each were asked to match it to another, aloud,
from a choice of three (answer was obvious). Confederates gave
answer wrong 12 out of 18 times).
• Results --> conformity rate of 32%, compared to 1% in control
group (no confederates).
• Variations of the study:
- Size of majority --> found three confederates was ideal, anymore
had no additional benefit. (1 confederate = 3%, 2 confederates =
12.8%). Shows conformity reaches its highest level with just three
confederates.
- Unanimity --> one of confederates gave correct answer so
conformity dropped to 5%. Real participant had social support for
their belief, so more likely to resist pressure to conform.
- Task Difficulty --> made the task more difficult by making the
difference between the line lengths smaller. Conformity increased
(Asch didn’t report %). Likely the result of informational social
influence, as individuals look for guidance when completing the
task, as they believe others are right, especially in ambiguous
tasks.
AO3: • Control over extraneous variables (lab study)
10 - Such as timing of the task and type of task used. Participants
also took part in another test prior to see if they knew the right
answer, removing the cofounding variable of lack of knowledge,
minimising participant effects. Suggests results are valid and
reliable.
• Gender + Culture bias
- Asch’s sample consisted of male, American college students. Lacks
population validity. Study is biased towards western cultures;
evidence shows difference in conformity rates between cultures.
(Collectivist more conformist, as they emphasise the needs of the
group -> imposed ETIC).
• Cannot generalise to real life
- Study conducted in a lab and therefore uses artificial stimuli,
doesn’t reflect the complexity of conformity in everyday
situations. This indicates a lack of ecological validity for the
explanation.
• Practical applications
- Findings demonstrate the extent to which humans ‘follow the herd’
which is a valuable psychological insight that has many practical
applications, such as why people conform in everyday situations
4
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