Social Influence: Psychology

• What does conformity mean? Conformity is a form of majority influence where the attitudes beliefs and behaviour of people in a particular group are adopted in response to real or imagined group pressure.
• What are the 3 types of conformity? Compliance. Identification. Internalisation.
• What does compliance mean? Compliance is publicly conforming to the behaviour or views of others in a group to be accepted or to avoid disapproval but privately maintaining your own viewsThis is a temporary change in behaviour it only lasts as long as the group pressure is presentMost shallow form of conformity
• State an example of compliance. Supporting a footbal team because your friends do and you want to be accepted by them but privately you have no interest in football.
• What does identification mean? When individuals adjust their behaviour and opinions to those of a group because they identify with that group and want to become part of it. Membership of that group is desirable and the members of that group are seen as role models so they try to be like them. Public and private acceptance.Temporary as it is not maintained once the group broken.
• Give an example of identification In the army you may adopt the behaviour and beliefs of fellow soldiers but on leaving the army for civilian life new behaviours and opinions will be adopted because of lack of role models.
• What is internalisation? Permanent conversion of private views to match those of the group.The behaviour or belief of the majority is accepted by the individual and becomes part of their own belief system.The most permanent form of conformity as it usually lasts even if the majority is no longer present. Deepest level of conformity
• Give an example of internalisation A student who becomes a vegetarian while sharing a flat with animal rights activists at university may keep those views and continue to be a vegetarian for the rest of their life.
• What is the difference between identification and internalisation Identification When individuals adjust their behaviour and opinions to those of a group because they identify with that group.Temporary--not maintained when individuals leave the groupSuperficial level of conformityWHEREAS Internalisation Conversion of private views to match those of the groupMost permanent form of conformity- lasts even if the majority is no longer presentDeepest level of conformity
• Who developed it and what does the dual-process model argue? Deutsch & Gerard (1955) developed a dual-process model.The dual-process model argues that there are two main reasons WHY people conform.They distinguished between Normative Social Influence (NSI) and Informational Social Influence (ISI).They are based on two central human needs: the need to be liked (NSI) and the need to be right (ISI).
• What is Normative Social Influence? Desire to be liked - following the crowd.People conform because they desire to be liked by the other members of the group and also want to avoid being rejected.There is a need for acceptance and social approval from the group.It is associated compliance.
• Think of an example of Normative Social Influence? Listening to a certain type of music because your friends do so & you don't want to be left out. But when you are not with them you don't listen to this music.
• What is Informational Social Influence? Desire to be right - accepting the majority's viewpoint.Turn to others who we believe to be correct.Done in an attempt to gain information about how to act.Done in ambiguous situations where there is no clear answer.Common when people are uncertain about their own opinions and therefore must rely on others for guidance.Leads to internalisation.
• What is an example of Informational Social Influence? You're in class and you don't know the answer to a question so you go with the same answer with the majority of the class because you think they're probably correct.
• Briefly list the 4 Evaluation of explanation for conformity? - Evidence to support Normative Social Influence (Asch). STRENGTH. - Evidence to support Informational Social Influence (Lucas et al). STRENGTH

  - Individual differences are ignored. LIMITATION -Not always possible to distinguish between ISI & NSI. LIMITATION
• What is Evidence to Support Normative Social Influence? On study that supports normative social influence is Asch's (1951) Line Experiment.In the experiment there was an obvious answer Asch found a 37% conformity rate to wrong answers with 75% of participants conforming to at least one wrong answer.Asch interviewed participants after the experiment and asked why they agreed with the wrong answer.They were afraid of disapproval.This supports NSI because despite knowing that the answer was incorrect participants conformed in order to be accepted and have approval from the group-they all had a desire to be liked.When asked to write their answers down conformity rates fell to 12.5%.As most participants performed publicly but not privately it suggests they were motivated by NSI.
• What is Evidence to support Informational Social Influence? Lucas et al (2006) asked maths problems that were either easy or difficult. The findings showed that these was greater conformity to incorrect answers with the more difficult questions .Especially people who have a poor maths ability Therefore this supports the idea that people conform in situation where they unsure about a clear answer & follow those who they think are right - ISI - desire to be right.
• What is meant by the evaluation that Individual differences are ignored? A limitation of ISI and NSI explanations of Conformity is that they do not affect everyone's behaviour in the same way and therefore it fails to account for individual differences.For example in terms of ISI Asch (1955) found that students were less conformist than other participants.For example when Perrin and Spencer replicated Asch's original study with engineering students in the UK they also found less conformity.It may be that they felt more confident in their precision of measuring lines.This suggests people who are more knowledgeable and/or more confident are less influenced by the apparently 'right' view of the majority.This is a limitation because there are differences in how individuals respond to ISI and these must to be taken into account in order to gain a full picture into explanations for conformity.
• What is meant by the evaluation that it's Not always possible to distinguish between ISI & NSI? A limitation of Deutsch and Gerard's 'Two-process' approach is that they suggest that behaviour is either due to NSI or ISI.However both process might be involved.For example = Conformity is reduced when there is one other dissenting participant in the Asch experimentThis dissenter may reduce the power of NSI (due to dissenter providing social support) it could equally reduce the power of ISI (because there is an alternative source of information).This therefore demostrates that it is not always possible to be sure whether NSI or ISI is at work.This casts serious doubt over the view of ISI and NSI as two processes operating independently in conformity behaviour.
• State an example of research into conformity. Normative Social Influence : ASCH (1951) The Line Experiment
• What is the aim of Asch's (1951) Line Experiment? To investigate the degree to which individuals would conform to a majority who gave obviously wrong answers.
• What are the procedures of Asch's (1951) Line Experiment? 123 Male US undergraduated took part in a laboratory experiment.Told the study was on a visual perception.7-9 people sat looking at a display and had to say out loud which one of 3 lines A B or C was the same as a given stimulus line.The correct answer was always obvious (unambiguous).All the participants except for 1 were confederates (accomplices) who were working for Asch and gave same incorrect answer on 12/18 critical trials.
• What is the findings of Asch's (1951) Line Experiment? 37% of the critical trials were conformed on.75% of the participants conformed to at least one wrong answer leaving 25% of participants who never gave a wrong answer.5% of the participants conformed to all wrong answers.
• What are the conclusions of Asch's (1951) Line Experiment? When interviewed they said that they conformed publicly to avoid rejection and disapproval but privately they continued to trust their own judgements.As most participants perfomed publicly but not privately it suggests that they were motivated by NSI.Demostrates a strong tendency to conform to group pressures in a situation even when the answer is clear. However in roughly 63% of these trials the participants stuck to their original judgements also demostrating a tendency for participants to stick to what they believed to be correct.
• What are the 3 of Asch's situational variables affecting conformity? Task DifficultyGroup SizeUnanimity
• Explain the variation : task difficulty Conformity increases when task difficulty increases as the right answer becomes less obvious therefore confidence in our own judgement tends to drop.
• What is the procedure for task difficulty? Asch increased the task difficulty by making the stimulus line and the comparison lines similar to each other in lengths so the correct answer was less obvious.
• What was the conformity rate for task difficulty? When the task was more difficult participants were more likely to conform to the wrong answer.
• Why did the task difficulty influence conformity? ISI plays a greater role when the task is more difficult.This is because the situation is more ambiguous so we are more likely to look to other people more for guidance and assume they are right about the correct response.
• What is the general outcome for the variation: group size. Conformity rates increase as the size of a majority influence increased but only to a certain point.
• Explain the procedure for the variation group size. Asch investigated group size by varying the number of confederates (1-15)
• What are the conformity rates for group size? One real participant + 1 confederate = conformity was low at 3%2 confederates = 13%3 confederates = 32%Adding confederates up to 15 = had no further effect on overall conformity
• Why did group size influence on conformity? Due to NSI the task is unambiguous and the only reason participants may conform to the majority would be to avoid disapproval of the group.However increasing the size of the majority beyond three did not increase the levels of conformity found.Brown and Bryne (1997) suggest that people might suspect collusion if the majority rises beyond three or four.
• Explain the variation: unanimity Unanimity means that all members are in agreement with each other.Conformity rates have been found to decline when majority influence is not unanimous (majority does not agree with each other).
• Explain the procedure for unanimity. Asch wanted to know if the presence of another non-conforming person would affect the naive participants conformity.Asch introduced a confederates who disagreed with the others. Sometimes the new confederate gave the correct answer and sometimes the wrong answer (but different to the majority).
• What are the conformity rates for unanimity? Correct answers being said by the confederate ally = conformity to wrong answers dropped to 5.5%Lone dissenter giving wrong answer (different from the majority's answer & the true answer) = conformity dropped to 9%The influence of the majority depends of the group being unanimous.
• Why did unanimity influence conformity? Breaking the groups unanimity was the majority factor in conformity reduction.The presence of a dissenter enables the naive participant to behave more independently.
• Briefly state 4 Evaluation of Asch's Research into Conformity. Methodology STRENGTH + mundane realism LIMITATION'a child of its time' LIMITATIONCultural bias LIMITATIONEthical Issues LIMITATION
• Explain why is methodology a strength as an evaluation of Asch's research into conformity. A strength of Asch's methodology = he conducted a controlled laboratory experiment.This meant that Asch could control his variables completely.For example = he could manipulate the group size and where the naive participant sat.Having such control over variables is a STRENGTH = the level of conformity is likely to be a result of the manipulation of these variables demostrating cause and effect.Increasing the internal validity.
• Explain why Asch's research representing 'a child of its time' a limitation as an evaluation of Asch's research into conformity. Asch's research may represent 'a child of its time' It is possible that these findings are unique because the research took place in a particular period of history in the USA when conformity was high.Therefore it made sense to conform to established social norms. People might be less likely to conform in subsequent decades.Perrin & Spencer replicated Asch's study in England in the 1980's with science and engineering students.Found only one student conformed on 396 trials.However the fact that these engineering students they may have felt more confident about their ability to estimate line length than Asch's original sample.This is a limitation though because it questions the temporal validity of Asch's research into conformity.