AQA A Level Psychology Social Influence
Exam Questions And Answers (Verified And
Updated)
State the definition of conformity
An individual is said to be conforming if they choose a course of action that is favoured by the
majority of the group members.
State and explain the three types of conformity
Compliance - Individuals follow what the group is doing in order to be accepted or to fit in, even if
there personal views may differ to the one they are portraying. This will not chance their underlying
attitude towards something. (Asch)
Internalisation - This involves both public and private attitudes and is where the individual may
believe that the groups view, after close inspection, is correct and theirs is wrong. This leads them to
changing their public and private view towards something in order to be correct. This is the deepest
level of conformity and becomes a permanent attitude. (Sherif's Autokinetic)
Identification - The individuals attitudes both private and publicly will change but in this case only for
a temporary amount of time and also is in order to fit in and be liked, essentially it is a mix of
compliance and internalisation. (Zimbardo)
There are two explanations for conformity, outline and explain them
Normative Social Influence - This is where people go along with a majority in order to feel that they fit
in and not be ridiculed for having a different opinion to everyone else.
Informational Social Influence - Occurs when an individual accepts information from the majority as
they see them as experts or someone with more understanding of a particular subject. This is done in
order to be correct.
Outline and evaluate a study into informational social influence
Jenness setup an ambiguous situation where participants were asked individually to estimate how
many beans were in a glass bottle they were shown. This was recorded and participants were then
put in a room with a group of people and asked as a group to come to an estimate. Again they were
asked individually if they would like to change their original estimate, and nearly all of them decided
they would like to change. This shows that most of them went through informational social influence
where they conformed with a group in order to be correct.
:) - Unlike other research into conformity there is no deceiving so it is ethically sound
:( - Doesn't give us any insight into non ambiguous situations where conformity occurs
Outline and evaluate a study into Normative social influence
Asch conducted a lab experiment where 50 male students where individually the participants were
put in a room with 7 confederates and took part in a 'vision test'. The confederates were told before
hand to answer wrongly for every task. They were shown a line and then followed 3 lines on a
separate card, named A, B and C. They had to match which from A, B and C matched with the original
line they were shown. Asch measure the times that participants conformed with the majority and
found that around 1/3rd conformed. Over the 12 critical trials 75% conformed at least once,
compared to less than 1% in the control group. When interviewed after and asked why they
conformed they stated that they wanted to fit in and not be ridiculed by the group.
, :( - Asch used a biased sample of only males, of which all were students, meaning it lacks population
validity and in turn the findings into normative social influence cant be easily generalised to the
population
:( - Asch used a task where the participants had to judge line lengths but realistically when do we
naturally come across a situation like this. This means that the study lacks ecological validity and
cannot be generalised to other situations
State and explain each factor that affects levels of conformity
Asch conducted his research with many different variations and found which affected conformity.
Group Size - Asch found that when the majority consisted of just one or two confederates then there
was very little conformity. However when there was three then the conforming responses jumped up
to around 30%. Further increases did not make a difference in levels of conformity, thus Campbell
suggested that group size may have a different effect based on what type of conformity is occurring.
For example if there is no correct answer and the individual wants to fit in then the larger the majority
the more likely to be swayed whereas when there is a correct answer and the individual wants to be
correct than just one or two will be sufficient.
Unanimity - When one confederate was told to give the right answer Asch found that conformity
dropped considerably from 30% t0 5.5%. Even when one confederate was told to give a different
wrong answer to the majority, breaking unanimity, the conformity dropped from 30% down to 9%.
Difficulty - Asch found that when making the lines a much more similar size that conformity increased
a large amount as many people had less confidence in the answer they thought was correct.
Culture - Smith et al. conducted Asch type research across many different cultures and found that in
individualistic cultures conformity was at around 25% where as in collectivist cultures it was much
higher at 37%.
Outline a study done into conformity to social roles
Explanation of Zimbardo's SPE.
Evaluate the standford prison experiment
:( - Demand characteristics could explain the extreme behaviour of both the guards and the prisoners,
afterwards in interviews the guards simply stated that they were acting. This lowers the value of the
findings into conformity to social roles and thus makes it hard to generalise.
:) - There is in fact a lot of evidence that proves that the guards and prisoners were reacting to the
situation as if it were real and not just acting. Zimbardo monitored all conversation that was held and
found that 90% of the guards conversation was about the prisoners/other things to do with prison.
The guards also rarely ever exchanged their real personal information when on their 'relaxation
breaks'.
:(/:) - There are many ethical guidelines being broken in the such as deception and at risk of harm.
However this can be seen as a benefit because of the fact that this is what ethical guidelines were
then based upon and were created because of.
Define Obedience
Obedience refers to a type of social influence where someone acts in response to a direct order from
a figure of authority.
Exam Questions And Answers (Verified And
Updated)
State the definition of conformity
An individual is said to be conforming if they choose a course of action that is favoured by the
majority of the group members.
State and explain the three types of conformity
Compliance - Individuals follow what the group is doing in order to be accepted or to fit in, even if
there personal views may differ to the one they are portraying. This will not chance their underlying
attitude towards something. (Asch)
Internalisation - This involves both public and private attitudes and is where the individual may
believe that the groups view, after close inspection, is correct and theirs is wrong. This leads them to
changing their public and private view towards something in order to be correct. This is the deepest
level of conformity and becomes a permanent attitude. (Sherif's Autokinetic)
Identification - The individuals attitudes both private and publicly will change but in this case only for
a temporary amount of time and also is in order to fit in and be liked, essentially it is a mix of
compliance and internalisation. (Zimbardo)
There are two explanations for conformity, outline and explain them
Normative Social Influence - This is where people go along with a majority in order to feel that they fit
in and not be ridiculed for having a different opinion to everyone else.
Informational Social Influence - Occurs when an individual accepts information from the majority as
they see them as experts or someone with more understanding of a particular subject. This is done in
order to be correct.
Outline and evaluate a study into informational social influence
Jenness setup an ambiguous situation where participants were asked individually to estimate how
many beans were in a glass bottle they were shown. This was recorded and participants were then
put in a room with a group of people and asked as a group to come to an estimate. Again they were
asked individually if they would like to change their original estimate, and nearly all of them decided
they would like to change. This shows that most of them went through informational social influence
where they conformed with a group in order to be correct.
:) - Unlike other research into conformity there is no deceiving so it is ethically sound
:( - Doesn't give us any insight into non ambiguous situations where conformity occurs
Outline and evaluate a study into Normative social influence
Asch conducted a lab experiment where 50 male students where individually the participants were
put in a room with 7 confederates and took part in a 'vision test'. The confederates were told before
hand to answer wrongly for every task. They were shown a line and then followed 3 lines on a
separate card, named A, B and C. They had to match which from A, B and C matched with the original
line they were shown. Asch measure the times that participants conformed with the majority and
found that around 1/3rd conformed. Over the 12 critical trials 75% conformed at least once,
compared to less than 1% in the control group. When interviewed after and asked why they
conformed they stated that they wanted to fit in and not be ridiculed by the group.
, :( - Asch used a biased sample of only males, of which all were students, meaning it lacks population
validity and in turn the findings into normative social influence cant be easily generalised to the
population
:( - Asch used a task where the participants had to judge line lengths but realistically when do we
naturally come across a situation like this. This means that the study lacks ecological validity and
cannot be generalised to other situations
State and explain each factor that affects levels of conformity
Asch conducted his research with many different variations and found which affected conformity.
Group Size - Asch found that when the majority consisted of just one or two confederates then there
was very little conformity. However when there was three then the conforming responses jumped up
to around 30%. Further increases did not make a difference in levels of conformity, thus Campbell
suggested that group size may have a different effect based on what type of conformity is occurring.
For example if there is no correct answer and the individual wants to fit in then the larger the majority
the more likely to be swayed whereas when there is a correct answer and the individual wants to be
correct than just one or two will be sufficient.
Unanimity - When one confederate was told to give the right answer Asch found that conformity
dropped considerably from 30% t0 5.5%. Even when one confederate was told to give a different
wrong answer to the majority, breaking unanimity, the conformity dropped from 30% down to 9%.
Difficulty - Asch found that when making the lines a much more similar size that conformity increased
a large amount as many people had less confidence in the answer they thought was correct.
Culture - Smith et al. conducted Asch type research across many different cultures and found that in
individualistic cultures conformity was at around 25% where as in collectivist cultures it was much
higher at 37%.
Outline a study done into conformity to social roles
Explanation of Zimbardo's SPE.
Evaluate the standford prison experiment
:( - Demand characteristics could explain the extreme behaviour of both the guards and the prisoners,
afterwards in interviews the guards simply stated that they were acting. This lowers the value of the
findings into conformity to social roles and thus makes it hard to generalise.
:) - There is in fact a lot of evidence that proves that the guards and prisoners were reacting to the
situation as if it were real and not just acting. Zimbardo monitored all conversation that was held and
found that 90% of the guards conversation was about the prisoners/other things to do with prison.
The guards also rarely ever exchanged their real personal information when on their 'relaxation
breaks'.
:(/:) - There are many ethical guidelines being broken in the such as deception and at risk of harm.
However this can be seen as a benefit because of the fact that this is what ethical guidelines were
then based upon and were created because of.
Define Obedience
Obedience refers to a type of social influence where someone acts in response to a direct order from
a figure of authority.
