Social Influence

Question 1

What is conformity?

Answer 1

A change in a person’s opinion/ behaviour as a response to a real or imagined group pressure.

Question 2

What are the 3 types of conformity?

Answer 2

-Internalisation
-Identification
-Compliance

Question 3

What is internalisation?

Answer 3

A deep type of conformity involving a genuine change of private views to match those of the group.
- this change is usually permanent because attitudes have been internalised e.g becomes part of the way the person thinks.
- the change in opinion/ behaviour persists even in the absence of other group members.
E.g. a conversion to a new religion. Someone beleive the views and adopts them as there own, the belief is added to thir own belief system.

Question 4

What is identification?

Answer 4

A moderate type of conformity involving changing our behaviour and opinions to those of a group because there is something about the group we value, and we want to be part of it.
- we change our behaviour to be part of the group, even if we don’t agree with everything the group stands for. The behaviour is not done in private (when alone)

Question 5

What I compliance?

Answer 5

A superficial/ weak type of conformity. Publicly going along or conforming to the group, whilst privately not changing your own behaviour or opinion.
-the behaviour or opinion stops as soon as the group pressure stops.
-usually occurs when we are around strangers, we change our behaviour so we don’t feel awkward (e.g. crossing the road when green man is not on because everyone else does)

Question 6

What are the two explanations for why people conform?

Answer 6

-NSI (normative social influence)
-ISI (informational social influence)

Question 7

What is NSI?

Answer 7

• the explanations about the ‘norms’ or typical behaviour for a social group. People comply with social norms because they want to be liked and gain approval.
• likely to occur in situations with strangers where you may feel concerned about rejection. May also occur with people you know because we are most concerned about gaining approval of our friends.
• often results in compliance, where people comply publicly but personally disagree ( don’t change their own opinions)

Question 8

What is ISI?

Answer 8

• we change our behaviour or ideas due to the desire to be right.
• when uncertain, we seek guidance from the group as we want to be right.
• likely to occur in a new or ambiguous situation where the correct answer or behaviour is unclear.
• usually results in a genuine long-lasting change in private and public ideas, internalisation.

Question 9

Compare NSI and ISI

Answer 9

NSI:
-desire to be liked. Following others to fit in.
-emotion process. Involves how we feel.
- involves compliance. Humans are a social species seeking approval.

ISI:
- desire to be right. Looking up to/ following others believing they are right.
-cognitive process. Involves thinking.
-involves internalisation. Change in our own ideas as we want them to be/ beleive they are ‘right’.

Question 10

What is supporting evidence for ISI?

Answer 10

Lucas et Al (2006) asked students to solve maths problems that were either difficult or easy.
They found more people conformed to the incorrect answer when the question was difficult.
Particularly true in students who saw themselves as poor at maths.
Supports ISI and the view that people conform to be right.

Question 11

What is supporting evidence for NSI?

Answer 11

In aschs experiment, the majority of participants went along with the incorrect answer at least once, even though the correct answer was obvious.
When asked why, some said that they felt self-concious of giving the correct answer and where afraid of disapproval.
This is a strength because it supports NSI and the view that people conform to fit in.

Question 12

What is a weakness of NSI?

Answer 12

May ignore individual differences.
It appears to affect some people more that others, some people may have a greater desire to be liked, and so are more affected by NSI.
This is supported by McGhee and Teevan (1967) who found that students with a greater desire to be liked are more likely to conform.
This shows that the desire to be liked underlines conformity for some people more than others. Therefore, individual differences can be a part of the way people respond in a group situation.

Question 13

What was the aim of aschs study?

Answer 13

To see if participants would conform to majority social influence and give incorrect answers even in a situation where the correct answer is always obvious.

Question 14

Outline the procedure of aschs study.

Answer 14

• Asch told the participants that they were taking part in a study on the perception of line length.
• The sample consisted of 123 American male college students who had volunteered to take part.
• Participants, in groups of 6 or 7, were seated about a table and asked to look at lines of 3 different lengths. They took turns to call which line they thought was the same length of the ‘standard line’
• only one of the participants was a genuine participant. The others were confederates.
  -the real participant always answered second to last.
• confederates gave unanimous wrong answers on 12 out of the 18 trails. These were called critical trials.

Question 15

What is a confederates?

Answer 15

Someone who knows the true aims of the experiment and acts on behalf of the experimental. The real participants do not know they are acting (believe they are real participants)

Question 16

What are the findings of aschs experiment?

Answer 16

On the 12 critical trials the mean average conformity rate was 33%
75% conformed at least once. Huge individual differences as 25% did not conform at all.
To confirm that the task was unambiguous, Asch conducted a control group, without confederates. With this he found that participants made mistakes 1% of the time, suggesting that the answer was clear.

Question 17

What is the conclusion of aschs experiment?

Answer 17

A majority can influence a minority even in an unambiguous situation in which the answer is obvious. Thus, demonstrating NSI.

Question 18

What is an ethical issue in the procedure of aschs study?

Answer 18

Asch misinformed the participants of the studies tried aims. This is deception.
This also meant that the participants couldn’t give informed consent as they didn’t know what they were signing up for.

Question 19

What variables did Asch conduct for his study?

Answer 19

-group size
-the unanimity of the majority
-the difficulty of the task

Question 20

Outline the group size variable of aschs study.
Include conformity levels.

Answer 20

Condition 1- 1 real participant with 1 confederate.
Conformity: 3%

Condition 2- 1 real participant with 2 confederates.
Conformity: 13%

Condition 3- 1 real participant with 3 confederates.
Conformity: 32%

Further increases in group size did not lead to any further increases in Conformity, suggesting the size of the majority is important but only up to a point.

Question 21

Outline the unamity of the majority variable of aschs study.

Answer 21

In this variation, Asch broke up the unanimity of the group by introducing a confederate who gave a different answer.

when one of the confederates gave a correct answer on all trials, conformity rates dropped to 5%
When one of the confederates gave a different answer to the majority, but not the correct one (different from majority and true answer), conformity rates dropped to 9%

This left Asch to conclude that it was breaking the groups unanimous position that was the major factor in conformity reduction. (The dissenter is acting as social support for the participants)

Question 22

Outline the difficulty of the task variation of aschs study.

Answer 22

Asch made the differences between the line lengths much smaller, making the correct answer less obvious. Under these circumstances, the level of conformity increased.
This suggests that when the situation is unambiguous we are more likely to conform due to ISI.

Question 23

What are weaknesses of aschs research?

Answer 23

• child of its time
• methodological issues
• lacks mundane realism
• lacks validity
• limited application of findings

Question 24

Why is aschs experiment a ‘child of its time’?

Answer 24

It is possible that aschs findings are unique because the research took place in a particular period of the US history when conformity was high.
For example, perrin and Spencer repeated aschs study in the UK in the 1980s using engineering students. They found one conforming response out of 396 trials.
The change in time suggests that people no longer feel like they need to fit in.

This is a limitation as it means that his research lacks temoral of historical validity. (Not consistent across time)

Question 25

Why does aschs study have methodological issues?

Answer 25

Demand characteristics. Participants may guess the true aims of the study and act differently to please Asch or to mess up the results.
This is a problem as it would lower the studies’ internal validity.

Question 26

What ate demand characteristics?

Answer 26

Cues in the environment which mag cause the participant to change their behaviour.
Participants may find out the true aims of the study and so behave unnaturally.

Question 27

Why does aschs study lack mundane realism?

Answer 27

A task of identifying lines is trivial, and therefore, there was no real reason not to conform. Furthermore, the groups did not really resemble groups that occur in real life. This task is unlikely to happen in real life, so it lacks external validity.

Artificiality of the situation and task are a limitation of aschs research as it suggests that the findings can not be generalised to everyday situations of conformity.

Question 28

Why does aschs study lack validity?

Answer 28

It’s not likely to happen in real life.
It was only done on student males from america. All people are different so I is limited in explaining Al humans behaviour.

Question 29

Why is there limited application of aschs findings?

Answer 29

Asch used an all male sample. Other research suggests that women might be more conformists, possibly because they are more concerned about social relationship than men (Neto, 1995)

Another issue is that the men in the study were all from the US.
Conformity studies conducted in China, where the social group is very important, found much higher conformity rates.

This suggests that aschs findings may only apply to American men because he did not take gender and cultural differences into account.

Question 30

What is a strength of aschs study?
Use the strength that the study was done in a lavatory setting, and answer in the form of a peel paragraph.

Answer 30

P: one strength of aschs research is the use of a labatory experiment I his methodology.
E: labatory settings are highly controlled meaning that extraneous variable can be controlled for,
E: for example, Asch was able to control the lines used in the study, and where each real (naive) participants was sitting.
L: this is a strength of aschs research because the study measured what is intended to measure (conformity), giving the findings high internal validity. Asch can also establish a cause and effect as he has controlled the other variable so they have less of an effect on the dv.