Conformity A03

Question 1

+ support of normative and informational social influence

Answer 1

P- Asch interviewed ppts to find why the conformed, most said they knew the answers were incorrect but wanted to fit in
E- Lucas et al (2006) found in a maths test, students were more likely to conform on difficult questions
E- This shows that people are likely to conform when faced with diesires to be liked or right
L- This supports the normative and informational explanations of conformity

Question 2

+ Linken and Perkins’s (2003) study

Answer 2

P- A strength of the identification explanation of conformity is Linken and Perkins’s study on adolescents
E- They found adolescents were less likely to take up smoking if they were exposed to the message ‘most teenagers didn’t smoke’
E- This shows that when identifying with a group, people will accept the majority influence in order to gain group acceptance
L- This increases external validity theories of normative social influence and identification

Question 3

• Individual differences

Answer 3

P- Individual differences affect the generalisability of social conformity theories
E- ISI doesn’t affect everyone’s behavior in the same way. Asch (1955) found varying levels of conformity and Perrin and Spencer’s (1980) study on engineering students found little conformity
E- This shows that conformity has limited generalizability to varying personalities
L- This limits the generalizability of ISI and shows it has a varying effect