Paper 1- Social Influence

Question 1

Types of conformity

Answer 1

• compliance - going along with others in public, but privately not changing our personal opinions and behaviours. This results in a superficial change. A particular behaviour stops when the group pressure stops.
• internalisation- when a person genuinely agrees with the group norms, there is a change in public and private behaviours and opinions. This change is more likely to be permanent because the attitudes have become internalised. This means the change persists even in the absence of the group members
• Identification - when a person agrees with a group because they want to fulfil and social role in society. At the beginning they go along with the group because they want to fit in, but then they agree with the groups attitudes and behaviours. This is a moderate type of conformity because the change only lasts whilst they are part of the group.

Question 2

Reasons for conformity

Answer 2

• ISI - desire to be right. People evaluate their ideas and attitudes to check if they are accurate. Therefore if they are unsure of what the correct answer is they will conform to the majority in order to be right. This results in internalisation. Which is a change in private and public behaviours and attitudes. This is a cognitive process
• NSI- desire to be accepted. Make a good impression on others. Individuals go along with others and conform to a majority due to a desire to fit in and avoid being ridiculed. This results in compliance where public opinions change but privately not changing opinions and attitudes. This is an emotional process where the individual conforms with the majority as a result of the way they feel not the way they think.

Question 3

Supportive research

Answer 3

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Question 4

Aschs study

Answer 4

• to investigate the extent to which individuals would conform to a majority who gave obvious wrong answers
• 123 A.M.S.V
• told it was a study of visual perception( ethical issues, deception)
• participants were placed in a group of 8/9 others who were confederates
• they were asked to identify the comparison line that was the same as the stimulus line in 18 different tasks
• 12 of these were critical trials where the confederates gave the wrong answer deliberately
• a control group of 36 were tested individually on 20 different trials to test how accurate individual judgement was.
• The group had an error rate of 3/720 trials which showed how obvious the right answers were
• there was a 36.8% conformity rate in the critical trials
  -75% conformed at least once
  -5% conformed in every single trial
• post experiments
  ❎knowledge of their participation
  ❎child of its time

Question 5

Resistance to social influence

Answer 5

• social support- another person present to help resist the pressures of the group. Gives them courage to rebel and stand up against the authority figure. Individual doesn’t have to agree with the person providing social support. It is enough that the individual is breaking the agreement of the majority group. So it allows the individual to be free to voice their own opinion
• personality characteristic called the LOC
  ✅ supportive research by Holland to support the link between the LOC and resistance to social influence
  ✅ supportive research to support the role of dissenting peers in resistance to conformity- Allen and Levine (1971)

Question 6

Zimbardos study

Answer 6

• investigate the extent to which individuals would conform to social roles of prisoner or guard in a simulation of prison life
• to test the dispositional vs situational hypothesis of prison violence.
• 25 American male uni students responded to a newspaper advert
• zimbardo was the superintendent of the prison
• zimbardo chose students who had no record of criminality and violence
• the dispositional hypothesis blames violence on the nature of the people involved
• the situational hypothesis sees violence as the product of the environment/ situation
• zimbardo set up a mock prison in the basement of the psychology department in Stanford university. He placed an ad in the newspaper for students who were willing to volunteer. He selected students who had been deemed emotionally stable after extensive psychological testing. To heighten the realism, the ‘prisoners’ were arrested in their homes by the local police and were blindfolded strip-searched and issued a number. The guards to underline their role were given a club handcuffs keys and a uniform. They were told they had complete control or power over the prisoners lives. Their lives were heavily regulated and they were referred to by their numbers. After a slow start the guards picked up their roles with enthusiasm. Their behaviour became a threat to the prisoners mental and physical health. The study ended after 6 days rather than the intended 14 days. After 2 days they rebelled against their harsh treatment.