Social influence
• Types of conformity: internalisation, identification and compliance. Explanations for conformity:
informational social influence and normative social influence, and variables affecting conformity
including group size, unanimity and task difficulty as investigated by Asch.
• Conformity to social roles as investigated by Zimbardo.
• Explanations for obedience: agentic state and legitimacy of authority, and situational variables
affecting obedience including proximity and location, as investigated by Milgram, and uniform.
Dispositional explanation for obedience: the Authoritarian Personality.
• Explanations of resistance to social influence, including social support and locus of control.
• Minority influence including reference to consistency, commitment and flexibility.
• The role of social influence processes in social change.
Types of conformity – asked as short questions (e.g. what is meant by compliance (3 marks))
Compliance is when a person changes their behaviour publicly, due to the presence of the reference group.
It is a temporary change, when the reference group are no longer present, nor is the change of behaviour, as the
person’s internal beliefs remain unchanged.
An example is wearing black clothes when with friends but colourful when alone.
Normative social influence.
Identification is when a person changes their public behaviour and private beliefs, but only temporarily.
This occurs when their beliefs are in line, but then change when in another setting.
An example is a person may act differently (more professional) when at work in their office than when at home.
Normative social influence.
Internalisation is when a person changes their public behaviour and private beliefs permanently.
An example is when a person is influenced by a group of Buddhists and converts to this faith; their beliefs change in
the long term and their new religious way of life will continue without the presence of the group
Informational social influence
, Why people conform – Explanations of conformity
AO1 – normative social influence AO3 – evidence (Asch) / AO3 – issues with this evidence / replication –
Perrin and Spencer
Define, give example, link to compliance.
Describe the findings, explain how this links to conformity, then
NSI is when a person changes their
discuss the research – does it really show NSI and why? Then
behaviour to fit in with the group’s norms.
compare with the other study by Perrin and Spencer
They conform because it is socially
Findings:
rewarding and to avoid social rejection.
In Asch’s line experiment, real participants conformed on 32% of the
An example is a person starting to smoke critical trials, and 74% conformed on at least one critical trial.
because their friends all smoke to fit in
with them. This shows NSI, as participants reported that they knew their answers
were incorrect but conformed to fit in with the group.
This occurs alongside compliance and
identification, when a person conforms in Issues:
the short-term to fit in with the majority. Lacks historical validity / individual differences
• Study conducted in 1951 → conformity levels were higher due
to American conservatism (anti-Communist period; people
were scared to be more different)
Perrin & Spencer (1980, more modern version) showed significantly
lower levels of conformity using maths & engineering students
Lacks population validity
• Biased sample - 123 male students from colleges in America
→ Unable to conclude whether it would apply to female students /
people from other cultures
Lacks ecological validity
• Task is artificial → lacks mundane realism
Findings cannot be generalised to real life situations → does not
reflect the complexity of real-life conformity
AO1 – informational social influence AO3 – evidence (Jenness) / AO3 – issues with this evidence
Define, give example, link to Describe the findings, explain how this links to conformity, then
internalisation discuss the research – does it really show ISI?
ISI is when a person lacks knowledge Findings:
about a situation and looks to the group
In Jenness’s experiment, nearly all participants changed their original
for guidance / because they believe that
estimate after group discussions. The range of the whole group
someone else is ‘right’.
decreased by 75%.
• Types of conformity: internalisation, identification and compliance. Explanations for conformity:
informational social influence and normative social influence, and variables affecting conformity
including group size, unanimity and task difficulty as investigated by Asch.
• Conformity to social roles as investigated by Zimbardo.
• Explanations for obedience: agentic state and legitimacy of authority, and situational variables
affecting obedience including proximity and location, as investigated by Milgram, and uniform.
Dispositional explanation for obedience: the Authoritarian Personality.
• Explanations of resistance to social influence, including social support and locus of control.
• Minority influence including reference to consistency, commitment and flexibility.
• The role of social influence processes in social change.
Types of conformity – asked as short questions (e.g. what is meant by compliance (3 marks))
Compliance is when a person changes their behaviour publicly, due to the presence of the reference group.
It is a temporary change, when the reference group are no longer present, nor is the change of behaviour, as the
person’s internal beliefs remain unchanged.
An example is wearing black clothes when with friends but colourful when alone.
Normative social influence.
Identification is when a person changes their public behaviour and private beliefs, but only temporarily.
This occurs when their beliefs are in line, but then change when in another setting.
An example is a person may act differently (more professional) when at work in their office than when at home.
Normative social influence.
Internalisation is when a person changes their public behaviour and private beliefs permanently.
An example is when a person is influenced by a group of Buddhists and converts to this faith; their beliefs change in
the long term and their new religious way of life will continue without the presence of the group
Informational social influence
, Why people conform – Explanations of conformity
AO1 – normative social influence AO3 – evidence (Asch) / AO3 – issues with this evidence / replication –
Perrin and Spencer
Define, give example, link to compliance.
Describe the findings, explain how this links to conformity, then
NSI is when a person changes their
discuss the research – does it really show NSI and why? Then
behaviour to fit in with the group’s norms.
compare with the other study by Perrin and Spencer
They conform because it is socially
Findings:
rewarding and to avoid social rejection.
In Asch’s line experiment, real participants conformed on 32% of the
An example is a person starting to smoke critical trials, and 74% conformed on at least one critical trial.
because their friends all smoke to fit in
with them. This shows NSI, as participants reported that they knew their answers
were incorrect but conformed to fit in with the group.
This occurs alongside compliance and
identification, when a person conforms in Issues:
the short-term to fit in with the majority. Lacks historical validity / individual differences
• Study conducted in 1951 → conformity levels were higher due
to American conservatism (anti-Communist period; people
were scared to be more different)
Perrin & Spencer (1980, more modern version) showed significantly
lower levels of conformity using maths & engineering students
Lacks population validity
• Biased sample - 123 male students from colleges in America
→ Unable to conclude whether it would apply to female students /
people from other cultures
Lacks ecological validity
• Task is artificial → lacks mundane realism
Findings cannot be generalised to real life situations → does not
reflect the complexity of real-life conformity
AO1 – informational social influence AO3 – evidence (Jenness) / AO3 – issues with this evidence
Define, give example, link to Describe the findings, explain how this links to conformity, then
internalisation discuss the research – does it really show ISI?
ISI is when a person lacks knowledge Findings:
about a situation and looks to the group
In Jenness’s experiment, nearly all participants changed their original
for guidance / because they believe that
estimate after group discussions. The range of the whole group
someone else is ‘right’.
decreased by 75%.
