Paper 1- Social Influence Flashcards
What is meant by conformity?
The tendency for an individual to align their attitudes, beliefs and behaviours with those of the people around them.
How many types of conformity is there?
3
What is compliance?
This is the shallowest level of conformity. Here a person only changes their public belief to fit in with a group.
What is identification?
This is the middle level of conformity. Here a person changes their public behaviour and their private beliefs, but only while present with the group.
What is Internalisation?
This is the deepest level of conformity. Here a person changes their public and private beliefs in front of everyone.
What is normative social influence?
Where a person conforms in order to be accepted and belong to a group.
What is informational social influence?
Where a person conforms to gain knowledge, or because they believe that someone else is right.
What was the name of the psychologist that explored conformity using a line study?
Asch
What was the name of the phycologist that explored conformity using beans in a jar?
Jenness
What was the aim of asch’s line judgement experiment?
To examine the extent to which social pressure from a majority, could affect a person to conform.
What method was used in asch’s line judgement experiment?
- Participants and confederates were presented with 4 lines; 3
comparison lines and 1 standard line - They asked to state which of three lines was the same length as a
stimulus line - The real participant always answered last or second to last
- Confederates would give the same incorrect answer for 12 out of 18
trials - Asch observed how often the participant would give the same
incorrect answer as the confederates versus the correct answer
What sample was used
123 male American undergraduates in groups of 6; consisting of 1 true
participant and 5 confederates (actors/people in on the experiment)
What were the findings?
Asch found that:
36.8% conformed
25% never conformed
75% conformed at least once
In a control trial, only 1% of responses given by participants were
incorrect (which eliminates eyesight/perception as an extraneous
variable, thus increasing the validity of the conclusions drawn)
Which explanation of conformity can asch be used to support?
Normative social influence
Evaluate the explanations for conformity.
Some research shows that NSI(normative social influence) does not affect everyone’s behaviour in the same way. For example, people who are less concerned with being liked are less affected by NSI than those people who do care about being liked. This suggests that,
