Social Influence L2

Question 1

Which two researchers developed a two-process theory/two reasons for conformity?

Answer 1

Deutsch & Gerard (1955)

Question 2

What are the two reasons & definitions for conformity?

Answer 2

1. Informational social influence (ISI) — the need to be right
2. Normative social influence (NSI) — the need to be liked/accepted

Question 3

Informational social influence (ISI) definition

Answer 3

People conform because they are unsure of the correct answer/how to correctly behave, so they copy others who they think are right and look to them for information so that they don’t stand out.

This occurs in ambiguous situations.

Question 4

What type of conformity does informational social influence (ISI) lead to & why?

Answer 4

Internalisation because people look to others for information as they want to be right which changes their behaviour/views both privately and publicly forever

Question 5

Normative social influence definition (NSI)

Answer 5

People copy other people’s behaviour in order to ‘fit in’ and be liked by a group by avoiding behaviour that will make others reject/ridicule them.

Question 6

What type of conformity does normative social influence (NSI) lead to?

Answer 6

Compliance because people don’t want to be ridiculed, so they try to fit in with others by changing their behaviour in public, but their private views don’t change

Question 7

What is a strength for both informational and normative social influence (NSI & ISI)?

Answer 7

There is research support for both of them.

ISI — Lucas et al (2006) — When students were unsure of the answer to the maths problems (especially those poor at maths) they looked to others for support as they felt they had better mathematical skills as they had the desire to be right.

NSI — Asch (1951) — He found that many of his participants went along with a CLEARLY wrong answer to questions that were not ambiguous or difficult because other people did as they feared rejection & had the desire to be liked

Question 8

Weaknesses for both normative & informational social influence (NSI & ISI) — 3 weaknesses

Answer 8

1. There are individual differences (not everyone is the same) in NSI & ISI.

NSI — McGhee & Teevan (1967) — Individuals who are not concerned about being liked are less affected by NSI, but those who are concerned about being liked are described as affiliators. They found that students high in need of affiliation were more likely to conform, so NSI may lack population validity (it doesn’t apply to everyone).

ISI — Asch (1955) — He found that students were not as conformist (28%) compared to other participants such as people working in offices (37%), suggesting that even if the situation is ambiguous we don’t always look to others for support and will not always conform.

2. ISI and NSI may work together in explaining conformity rather than separately.

Asch (1955) — Conformity was reduced when there was one dissenting participant (i.e. when another participant disagrees with the majority) which may reduce the power of NSI or ISI

3. Many supporting studies for NSI and ISI as explanations for conformity are lab studies which lack ecological validity.

Asch (1955) — In his study, participants were asked to judge the length of lines. However in the real world, people rarely judge lines so the task given in lab settings is not true to real life. Therefore we cannot be sure that people will behave in the same way as a real life situation, so explanations of conformity may not be relevant to everyday occurrences

Question 9

Confederate definition

Answer 9

A fake participant in a study

Question 10

Demand characteristics definition

Answer 10

Acting in a certain way after guessing what a study is about and therefore creating bias

Question 11

Ecological validity definition

Answer 11

A measure of how well a study mirrors the behaviour of a real world setting