AQA A Level Psychology Paper 1
4.1 Introductory topics in Psychology
Topic: Social Influence
All 16 marker topic essays
1) Discuss factors that can affect conformity. Refer to variations of
Asch’s experiment in your answer. (16)
There are three main factors that affect whether a person conforms: group
size, task difficulty and unanimity. Firstly, it’s logical to assume that a larger
group will increase the rate of conformity, because the size of social pressure
increases. However, research by Asch has found that the effect of group size
is not so straightforward. In Asch’s original experiment, one real participant
was placed among 6 to 8 confederates. Asch found that the average
conformity rate was 32%, and when there was only one confederate
conformity dropped to just 3%, and when there were two, conformity dropped
to 13%. However, with three confederates, conformity remained the same at
around 32%. When Asch increased the size of the majority to 15 confederates
he found that conformity started to drop. This may be because the situation is
seen as bizarre and the participants started to become suspicious, leading to
demand characteristics. Thus, these results show that group size has a
significant impact on conformity and that when a group has three or more
people, conformity reaches its highest level at 32%.
Unanimity is also a factor that affects conformity, which is the extent to which
the majority agrees in their views or behaviour. If a majority is unanimous in
their opinion, then they are more likely to have a significant impact. Asch
examined the impact of unanimity in a variation where one of the confederates
was instructed to give the correct answer throughout. Here, the average
conformity dropped to just 5%. This shows that when a majority is broken,
people are more likely to resist the pressure to conform. This is because they
do not feel as if they are alone and so don’t have to go along with the rest of
the group.
Task difficulty also affects the rate of conformity. In the original Asch
experiment, the correct answer was always obvious; therefore the participants
were conforming due to normative social influence and a desire to fit in.
4.1 Introductory topics in Psychology
Topic: Social Influence
All 16 marker topic essays
1) Discuss factors that can affect conformity. Refer to variations of
Asch’s experiment in your answer. (16)
There are three main factors that affect whether a person conforms: group
size, task difficulty and unanimity. Firstly, it’s logical to assume that a larger
group will increase the rate of conformity, because the size of social pressure
increases. However, research by Asch has found that the effect of group size
is not so straightforward. In Asch’s original experiment, one real participant
was placed among 6 to 8 confederates. Asch found that the average
conformity rate was 32%, and when there was only one confederate
conformity dropped to just 3%, and when there were two, conformity dropped
to 13%. However, with three confederates, conformity remained the same at
around 32%. When Asch increased the size of the majority to 15 confederates
he found that conformity started to drop. This may be because the situation is
seen as bizarre and the participants started to become suspicious, leading to
demand characteristics. Thus, these results show that group size has a
significant impact on conformity and that when a group has three or more
people, conformity reaches its highest level at 32%.
Unanimity is also a factor that affects conformity, which is the extent to which
the majority agrees in their views or behaviour. If a majority is unanimous in
their opinion, then they are more likely to have a significant impact. Asch
examined the impact of unanimity in a variation where one of the confederates
was instructed to give the correct answer throughout. Here, the average
conformity dropped to just 5%. This shows that when a majority is broken,
people are more likely to resist the pressure to conform. This is because they
do not feel as if they are alone and so don’t have to go along with the rest of
the group.
Task difficulty also affects the rate of conformity. In the original Asch
experiment, the correct answer was always obvious; therefore the participants
were conforming due to normative social influence and a desire to fit in.
