Social Influence

• Define types of conformity

  • Compliance - individual goes along with the group in order to gain approval or avoid disapproval
  • Internalisation - Individual foes along with the group because they have accepted their POV
  • Identification - Adopt an attitude or behaviour because they want to be associated with a particular group or person
• NSI and ISI

  NSI - an individual conforms with the majority in order to gain approval or avoid disapproval

  ISI - desire to be right, looking to others as a way of gaining evidence about reality
• Assumptions for each type of influence

  NSI - assumption that humans need to be liked

  ISI - assumption that humans need to be right
• When does ISI occur?

  • Ambiguous situation
  • Believe experts 
  • There is a crisis
• Evaluation of explanation of conformity (ISI)

  • Research support for ISI
  • Lucas et al - greater conformity to incorrect answers when questions were difficult rather then easier
  • This is the predicted outcome as they cannot measure objectivity
  • Found that influence of task difficulty on conformity is moderated by the self-efficacy
• Evaluation of conformity (NSI)

  • NSI also is supported by research evidence.
  • Asch asked participants why they conformed to incorrect answers in his lines study, they said that they felt self-conscious giving the right answer and were afraid of disapproval.
  • In a variation where participants wrote their answers down, conformity rates dropped to 12%.
  • However, there may be individual differences. This displays how the desire to be liked may effect some more than others. 
• Asch Experiment (1951): Procedure

  • Pts shown two white cards. One standard and 3 comparison cards
  • Pts were asked to match line with 6-8 other confeds
  • Pts would be seated either last or next to last
• Asch (1951): Findings

  • Pts gave wrong answer 37% of the time
  • 25% of pts didn't conform
  • 75% of pts conformed at least once
• What are the variables affecting conformity?

  • Group size - if group gets too big may suggest collusion
  • Unanimity - if there is a deviant? reduces conformity
  • Task difficulty - ambiguous situation, conformity increased
• Evaluation of Asch experiment. (TV)

  • Only relevent for time period (child of its time)
  • Perin and Spencer (1980) - They found only 1 out of 396 trials conformed.
  • Participants were confident to measure the lines and not act conformist.
  • These contradicting findings may be due to Asch's study being conducted in the 1950's, a time when conformity rates were high in society in America.
  • Asch's results may therefore reflect that time period not a consistent human behaviour. 
• Evaluation of Asch evaluation. (AS)

  • Results may be invalid due to artificial situation.
  • Confeds must have been convincing.
  • Participants knew they were in a study so may have just responded to demand characteristics.
  • Mori and Arai (2010) - over came this by getting pts to wear special glasses.
  • Only 1 pts saw stimuli differently.
  • Results were similar to Asch so results were valid.
• Evaluation of Asch experiment. (GB)

  • Asch's study was affected by gender bias due to only studying men.
  • Neto suggested that women may be more conformist because they are known to be more concerned about social relationships.
  • Results may therefore only apply to men.
  • Subject to cultural bias due to only using Americans
  • USA has an individualist culture in which people are more concerned with themselves, this may have made them less likely to conform. 
  • Conformity rates are sometimes even higher than what Asch found.
• Procedure of Stanford Prison Experiment

  • Zimbardo set up a mock prison in the basement of Stanford University.
  • Students willing to volunteer who were deemed emotionally stable.
  • Randomly assigned to roles of guards/prisoners.
  • Follow 16 rules which prisoners were expected to obey and guards expected to enforce
• SPE: Findings

  • Guards took up roles w/ enthusiasm. Became a threat to prisoners psychological health + physical
  • After 2 days the prisoners rebelled - ripped uniforms, swore at guards. Guards retaliated w/ extinguishers and employed 'divide and rule' tactics.
  • Prisoners fell into a submissive role that feared and respected the guards
  • Guards began to enjoy their power and aggression and harrassment steadily increased.
• Evaluation of conformity to social roles. (IV)

  • Control over variables so high degree of internal validity
  • The participants were tested to be emotionally stable
  • Randomly allocated into the roles of guard and prisoner
  • Increases the study's internal validity.
  • Not due to extraneous variables
• Evaluation of conformity to social roles. (R)

  • Limitation is that there is a lack of realism.
  • Banuazizi + Mohavedi (1975) suggests the participants were play-acting.
  • Some guards based their roles on film characters, whilst some prisoners rioted because they thought that's what real prisoners do. 
  • Zimbardo argued that the data showed 90% of conversations between prisoners were about prison life.
  • Increases the study's internal validity. 
• Evaluation of conformity to social roles. (E)

  • Zimbardo's study also suffers ethical issues.
  • Zimbardo's superintendent role conflicted with his role as researcher.
  • His involvement stopped him from protecting the participants from harm
  • Pts were only removed from the study once they showed signs of severe suffering.
  • Participants have the right to take part in psychological investigations without suffering any physical or mental harm, as well as the right to withdraw at any point. 
  • Ethical factors were not carried out comprehensively
• Procedure of Milgrams experiment

  • He took 40 men who thought they were taking part in a 'memory test'
  • Participants were 'randomly' allocated as the role of the teacher, whilst a confederate was given the role of learner.
  • Participants were told by the authoritive experimenter to give shocks every time the learner got a question wrong,increasing the voltage each time up to a deadly 450V.
• Findings in Milgrams experiment

  • No participants asked to stop the study below 300V. 
  • 5 stopped at 300V. 
  • 65% continued to 450V. 
  • Participants showed signs of extreme stress.
• Evaluate Milgram's research. (IV)

  • Lacks internal validity
  • Orne and Holland suggested participants guessed the electric shocks were fake.
  • Pts were skeptical (collusion)
  • Reducing the validity.
  • Milgram himself stated that a review after the study showed 70% of participants believed the shocks were genuine. 
• Evaluate Milgrams research. (EV)

  • Good external validity.
  • Lab-based relationship between experimenter and participant reflected wider real-life authority relationships,providing high external validity.
  • Hofling et al who found that by pretending to be a doctor over the phone, he could persuade real nurses in a hospital to carry out unjustified demands, such as giving a patient an abnormal dosage. 
  • 21 out of the 22 nurses obeyed, despite rules telling them not to take over-the-phone orders
  • Generalised to more real-life situations. 
• Evaluation of Milgrams research. (E)

  • Ethical breaches
  • Participants believed they were randomly allocated to roles and were deceived into believing the shocks were real.
  • This damages the reputation of the psychologists and their research.
  • Participants showed high levels of distress, such as by having seizures, meaning they experienced psychological harm. 
  • Right not to experience this.
• What are the problems in obedience research?

  • Deception and informed consent
  • Right to withdraw
  • Protection from psychological and physical harm
• What are the explanations for obedience?

  • Agentic state
  • Legitamacy of authority
• Agentic state

  • In an agentic state a person feels no personal responsibility for their actions, they are acting on behalf of another person.
  • The shift from autonomy to being an 'agent' is called the agentic shift and happens when we perceive someone else as a authority figure and we respect their orders.
• Evaluate agentic state. (CE)

  • Some research findings that it cannot explain.
  • A third of pts didn't obey
  • Humans are social animals and are all in social hierarchies, meaning in theory we should all obey
  • In Hofling's study, the nurses should have shown anxiety whilst giving responsibility to the doctor, because they understood their role in a destructive process but this was not the case.
  • Agentic shift may only account for some situations of obedience. 
• Legitimacy of authority. 

  • People in certain positions hold authority over the rest of us e.g teachers, police officers etc. 
  • The authority they have is legitimate in the sense that it is agreed by society. 
• Evaluation of legitimate authority.

  • Research support for legitimate authority in obedience
  • Blass and Schmitt (2001) - students who watched film of Milgrams study felt experimenter was responsible for harm
  • Percieved as legitimate authority
  • Supported by a variation of Milgram where obedience dropped dramatically when repeated without a lab coat
• Situational factors in obedience

  • Proximity
  • Location
  • Uniform
• Evaluate research of situational variables on obedience. (U)

  • Research support for the influence of uniform
  • Bushman female assistant dressed in police uniform, obedience rates were 72% whereas lowered to 48% when dressed as a business women
  • Visual signs of authority increase obedience supports Milgrams findings
  • Support that situational variables affect obedience.
• Evaluation of situational variables in obedience. (IV)

  • Lack of internal validity
  • Orne and Holland suggested that the extra experimental manipulation made the scenario even more unlike real life.
  • Meaning the pts were even more likely to realise the procedure was fake.
  • In the variation where the experimenter was replaced by a member of the public, even Milgram recognised how unconvincing it was.
  • Results may reflect demand characteristics due to participants seeing the deception, rather than real-life obedience. 
• Evaluate research of situational variables on obedience. (CB)

  • Milgram's research only uses American participants 
  • Results may only reflect behaviours relevant to western societies.
  • Obedience to authority is argued to be something that is stressed more in some cultures more than others.
  • This means that Milgram's findings may not apply to and represent human behaviour worldwide, due to its cultural bias. 
• Definition of authoritarian personality


  People with an Authoritarian personality have an exaggerated respect for authority and a submissiveness to it, express contempt for people of inferior social status, and have conventional attitudes towards race and gender.
• Adornal et al concluded that people with authoritarian personality are.....


  • Submissive to authority
  • Contempt for people who have inferior social status
  • Conventional attitudes towards sex,race and gender
  • Believed to be found in our childhood
• Evaluate the authoritarian personality. (RS)

  • Research supports the link between obedience and authoritarian personality
  • Elms and Milgram took 20 obedient pts and 20 defiant pts and asked them to complete f-scale and other personality tests
  • Fully obedient pts scored highly on f-scale
  • Obedient pts reported less close to parents + regarded experimenter more important than learner
  • However, other factors such as education that contributes to obedience.
• Evaluate the authoritarian personality. (PB)

  • Politically biased.
  • Jahoda suggested the f-scale aims to measure the tendency towards extreme right-wing ideology.
  • However, right-wing and left-wing authoritarianism both insist on complete obedience to political authority. 
  • Adorno's theory is therefore not a comprehensive dispositional explanation of obedience because it does not consider left-wing authoritarianism. 
• Evaluate the authoritarian personality. (FM)

  • F-scale has also been criticised for a flawed methodology.
  • Greenstein called it 'a comedy of methodological errors'.
  • Items are worded in the same 'direction' so the scale just measures the tendency to agree with everything. 
  • Researchers knew the participants' test results when they interviewed them, so they knew who was authoritarian. 
  • This makes biased results very likely.
• Explanations of resistance to social influence

  • Social support groups power is reduced by presence of a dissenter
  • Locus of control individuals believe they can control events in their lives
• Define internal and external locus of control


  • Internal - outcomes of actions are dependent on what they do
  • External - outcomes of their actions are dependent on events outside their personal control
• People with internal LOC are believed to have a no. of characteristics such as:

  • Take responsibility for actions
  • Self-confident and are achievement orientated
  • Less need for social support