Summary
Summary Paper 1 : AQA : Social Influence
- Module
- Social Influence
- Institution
- AQA
Providing an in depth resume for : Paper 1 Psychology AQA A- level social Influence
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PsychologyA-Levels
Assessment:
Paper 1 33.3% + Paper 2 33.3% + Paper 3 33.3%
Paper 1 : Topic 1 : Social influence
1.1 CONFORMITY
Definition:
Conformity refers to a change in a person’s behaviour or opinions because of real or imagined
pressure from a group or individual.
Types of Conformity
Compliance: Publicly agreeing, privately disagreeing (e.g., laughing at a joke you don’t find
funny to fit in).
Identification: Conforming to the role or group you value (e.g., adopting a sports team’s
attitudes while you’re on it).
Internalisation: Genuinely accepting the group’s beliefs both publicly and privately (e.g.,
adopting a friend’s political stance after being convinced it’s correct).
, Explanations for Conformity
Normative Social Influence (NSI): People conform to be liked or accepted by the group. The
emotional need for approval drives them to match the group’s actions or beliefs.
Informational Social Influence (ISI): When a situation is ambiguous or we lack knowledge, we
conform because we believe the majority is more informed. This is driven by a cognitive need
to be correct.
Key Research: Asch’s Conformity Experiments (1951)
Aim: Solomon Asch wanted to test whether people would yield to a majority giving obviously
incorrect answers in a line-judgment task.
Method: Participants were seated with “confederates” (actors working for the experimenter).
All were asked to match a standard line to one of three comparison lines. Confederates
deliberately gave the wrong answer in some trials.
Group Size: Conformity increased with up to 3 confederates but plateaued beyond this.
Unanimity: When one confederate gave a different answer, conformity dropped to 5%.
Task Difficulty: Increasing task difficulty (e.g., closer line lengths) led to higher conformity,
showing the role of Informational Social Influence (ISI).
Findings: About 32% of the trials resulted in conformity to the incorrect majority. Seventy-five
percent of participants conformed at least once.
Conclusions: People can be strongly influenced by group pressure, even when the correct
answer is clear.
Evaluation: Asch’s work, though pioneering, may lack ecological validity because matching line
lengths is not a typical real-world task. Additionally, the study was conducted in 1950s
America, a time known for a strong culture of conformity (McCarthyism). Subsequent
replications in different eras/cultures have found varying levels of conformity.
New Evidence: Perrin and Spencer (1980): Replicated Asch’s study in the UK with engineering
students and found much lower conformity rates. Suggests cultural and temporal factors
influence conformity.
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