Social Influence Conformity
- Types and Explanations
Internalisation (AO1)
- Occurs when a person publicly and privately accepts a groups norms
Identification (AO1)
- We act in the same way as a group to be valued, even with a different private belief
Compliance (AO1)
- Going along with others in public, but not changing a private opinion
Informational Social Influence (ISI) (AO1)
- Cognitive process where we follow the group in an ambiguous situation (such as Asch’s
experiment)
Normative Social Influence (NSI) (AO1)
- Emotional process where a person conform to be accepted with a group’s norms
Research Support for NSI (Strength) (AO3)
- Supports an explanation for conformity
- For example, Asch’s participants said they conformed because they were self-conscious
- But when participants wrote their answers down, conformity fell to 12.5% as there was less
NSI
- This shows NSI is evidently an explanation for conformity which develops our understanding
Research Support for ISI (Strength) (AO3)
- Research support from Lucas et al (2006)
- He found that participants conformed more to incorrect answers they were given for hard
maths problems
- Because when the problems were easy the participants ‘knew their own minds’
- This shows ISI occurs in ambiguous situations as people want to conform more
Limitation of ISI and NSI (AO3)
- It is unclear weather ISI or NSI are at work in studies or life
- For example, a dissenter in Asch’s study may reduce ISI or NSI for the genuine participant
- Therefore, it is hard to separate ISI and NSI processes in many real-world situations to
compare them
Individual differences in NSI (Limitation) (AO3)
- NSI may not predict conformity in every case
- Some people have a strong need for affiliation, McGhee and Teevan (1967) found that these
type of students were more likely to conform
- This shows that NSI underlies conformity for people more than others, so there are individual
differences in NSI that cannot be explained by 1 situation
- Types and Explanations
Internalisation (AO1)
- Occurs when a person publicly and privately accepts a groups norms
Identification (AO1)
- We act in the same way as a group to be valued, even with a different private belief
Compliance (AO1)
- Going along with others in public, but not changing a private opinion
Informational Social Influence (ISI) (AO1)
- Cognitive process where we follow the group in an ambiguous situation (such as Asch’s
experiment)
Normative Social Influence (NSI) (AO1)
- Emotional process where a person conform to be accepted with a group’s norms
Research Support for NSI (Strength) (AO3)
- Supports an explanation for conformity
- For example, Asch’s participants said they conformed because they were self-conscious
- But when participants wrote their answers down, conformity fell to 12.5% as there was less
NSI
- This shows NSI is evidently an explanation for conformity which develops our understanding
Research Support for ISI (Strength) (AO3)
- Research support from Lucas et al (2006)
- He found that participants conformed more to incorrect answers they were given for hard
maths problems
- Because when the problems were easy the participants ‘knew their own minds’
- This shows ISI occurs in ambiguous situations as people want to conform more
Limitation of ISI and NSI (AO3)
- It is unclear weather ISI or NSI are at work in studies or life
- For example, a dissenter in Asch’s study may reduce ISI or NSI for the genuine participant
- Therefore, it is hard to separate ISI and NSI processes in many real-world situations to
compare them
Individual differences in NSI (Limitation) (AO3)
- NSI may not predict conformity in every case
- Some people have a strong need for affiliation, McGhee and Teevan (1967) found that these
type of students were more likely to conform
- This shows that NSI underlies conformity for people more than others, so there are individual
differences in NSI that cannot be explained by 1 situation
