Social Influence

• what is conformity?


  a change in a persons behaviour or opinions due to real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people
• what was Sherif's experiment?


  -participants were put In a dark room with no visible objects and asked to follow a single spot of light

  -they were asked how far the light had moved and in what direction - ambiguous task

  -dramatic variation in response when done individually

  -repeated experiment in groups of 3

  -individuals changed their individual views and converged or agreed with others within the group

  -group norm was formed
• who came up with the three types of conformity?

  Kelman
• what are the three types of conformity?

  -internalisation

  -identification

  -compliance
• what is internalisation?


  the deepest level of conformity. Here a person changes their public behaviour and their private beliefs to the majority view. Occurs even when the group is absent
• what is identification?


  the middle level of conformity. People publicly change their behaviour in line with the group because they identify with the group and want to be part of it. Privately they do not change their behaviour
• what is compliance?


  the lowest and superficial level of conformity. Here a person 'goes along with others' in line with the majority view, but privately disagrees
• what is Deutsch and Bernard's (1950) two process theory?

  -informational = the need to be right

  -normative = the need to be liked
• what is informational social influence?

  this occurs when we look at the majority group for information as we are unsure about the way in which to behave. A person will conform because they genuinely believe the majority is right as we look to them for the right answer ad this gives them a feeling of control

  -a cognitive process as it is to do with how/ what you think about the group and the situation

  -generally occurs in ambiguous or new situations / crisis situations
• what is normative social influence?


  this occurs when we wish to be liked by the majority group, so we go along with them even though we may not agree with them. This is really just following the crowd in order to fit in with the 'norm' and be liked by the group

  -an emotional process as people do not like to feel foolish or rejected by the in-group

  -most likely to occur in situations where you know the people well or in stressful situations where you feel you need social support
• what type of conformity is informational social influence most likely to lead to?

  internalisation because all behaviour has changed because you think it is right
• what type of conformity is normative social influence most likely to lead to?

  compliance and identification because you don't agree with the beliefs but just publicly do so the group accepts and likes you
• what was the Jenness study?

  Aim- to investigate whether individual judgements of jelly beans in a jar was influenced by a discussion in groups

  Findings- individuals second private estimate tended to move towards group estimates. More women were also seen to conform

  Supports ISI because they want to be right about what number is in the jar
• what are strengths of the dual-process explanation of conformity?

  -Asch's research = provides support for both ISI and NSI

  -real life application = Schulz et al q=were able to change the energy consumption of gate guests, particularly through messages that said hotel guests were re-using their bath towels
• what are limitations of the dual-process explanation of conformity?

  -individual differences = McGee and Teevan students high in need of affiliation were more likely to conform, Affiliators. But, what about the people who do not have the need to affiliate?

  -ISI and NSI work together, not alone. It's hard to separate them and work out which one explains conformity
• what was the procedure of Asch's research?

  -testing conformity in unambiguous situations

  -123 American men tested with 6 confederates

  -after 3 trials the confederates give false answers

  -DV = how often the participants conform and give an incorrect answer
• what were the findings of Asch's baseline research?

  -participants conformed 36.8% of the time

  -75% of participants conform at least once

  -to make sure the line test wasn't difficult, Asch's conducted a control trial with no confederates. He found that people only made mistakes 1% of the time
• what were the three variations of Asch's research?

  -group size

  -task difficulty

  -animinity
• how does group size affect conformity in Asch's research?

  -found a curvilinear relationship between group size and conformity

  -conformity rates were low with 1 or 2 confederates, but jumped to 31.8% when there were three confederate

  -there was not much increase in conformity after this - it levelled off

  -conformity actually decreased when there were more than 7 confederates

  -NSI best explanation but ISI could also play a role
• how did Asch investigate the variable unanimity?

  added a dissenter to see if the presence would decrease conformity rates
• how does unanimity affect conformity according to Asch's research?

  -see if the presence of a dissenter would reduce conformity rates

  -found conformity decreased by 75%

  -this is regardless of whether the dissenter was giving a correct answer or a different incorrect answer to the rest of the confederates

  -suggests NSI is involved
• how does task difficulty affect conformity according to Asch's research?

  -increased the task difficulty by making the differences between the lines smaller

  -found conformity significantly increased

  -shows that informational social influence can explain conformity as when we are unsure we look to other people for the right answers
• how did Asch research the affect task difficulty has on conformity?

  increased the task difficulty by making the differences between lines smaller
• what are limitations of Asch's research?

  -was done using a lab study

  -small sample size

  -ethical issues

  -more complex that Asch thought
• how is Asch's research being more complex than he thought a limitation?

  Lucas et al (2006) found that confidence in maths ability played a large role in conformity
• how is Asch's research having ethical issues a limitation?

  - they deceived participants which could cause them psychological harm
• how is Asch's research having a small sample size a limitation?

  only tested men and women may be more conformist (Neto 1995) , only tested Americans (individualist culture) - Bond and Smith (1995) found conformity as much higher in China (collectivist)
• how is Asch's research being done using a lab study a limitation?

  so it may have shown demand characteristics due to the artificial situation , the groups do not resemble everyday life , cannot generalise to real life situations
• what are strengths of Asch's research?

  -Lucas et al (2006) found participants conformed much more to hard vs easy maths questions - shows research support for task difficulty and the ISI explanation for conformity , increases the validity of Asch's research
• What are social roles?

  The 'parts' we play as members of social groups. We have expectations about what is appropriate behaviour for each role
• how many participants were in Zimbardo's study?

  there was 24 male participants

  12 prisoners and 12 guards (allocated randomly)
• how were participants chosen in Zimbardo's study?

  they advertised for people willing to volunteer, and selected those who were deemed 'emotionally stable' after extensive psychological testing
• how were the 'prisoner' participants taken to the Zimbardo study?

  they were arrested in their homes by the local police and then delivered to the 'prison'

  they were handcuffed, strip searched and then given uniform to make the study feel as real as possible
• where was Zimbardo's study conducted?

  a mock prison in the basement of the psychology department at Stanford university
• what were the two main methods used to encourage conformity towards social roles in Zimbardo's study?

  -uniform - guards had uniform, club, sunglasses and handcuffs to make them feel power wheres the raisers had smock, numbers

  -encouraged to act In the way their role would expect them to
• what is de-individualisation?


  when a person experiences a personal identity loss
• what happened initially in the Zimbardo study?

  -prisoners rebelled against the guards harsh treatment by ripping their uniforms and shouting and swearing

  -the guards employed a 'divide-and-rule' tactics by playing prisoners off against each other, harassing the prisoners and reminding them they have no power
• what two roles did Zimbardo take on?

  -experimenter and superintendent

  -he could not think impartially and prevent the participants from harm - he got caught up in his social role too well
• why did the Zimbardo study end early?

  the guards behaviour became a threat to the prisoners physical and psychological health - ethical issues
• what conclusions did Zimbardo make about conformity to social roles?

  social roles have a strong influence on behaviour and are easily taken on even when you know the scenario is not real