Social Influence

1. Conformity

Learning Objectives:
● To understand what is meant by conformity

● To identify and explain how social factors affect conformity

● To identify and explain how dispositional factors affect conformity

● To describe and evaluate Asch’s study on conformity

SURVIVAL!

1. Did you find that you would go along with the group even though you didn’t agree?

2. Why? Why not?

3. Did some people take over?

4. Why did you listen to them?

5. Did some people just sit back and let everyone else get involved?
Ethics in Social Psychology:

What is Social Influence?

•How does other people’s behaviour affect yours?

•Do you ever go along with the crowd?

•Why do you obey police officers or authority figures?

•Would you always help a person in need?

 Definition of
social
influence

Definition of
conformity

Synonyms for conformity:

Activity

Do you always make your own decisions?

Look at the table below and fill in the reasons why you think people act in this way.

Situation Why do you act this way? NSI or ISI?

1 You start looking around at

your friends at the dinner
table because you don’t
know which knife and fork
to use.

2 You start laughing at a joke

that you don’t find funny or
understand just because
everyone else is laughing.

3 You wait until last to

answer a class vote because
you don’t want to give the
wrong answer.
 4 You start buying the latest
fashion because all your
friends are wearing it.

There are two reasons why people conform to the behaviour of others. These are:

Normative social influence:

Informational social influence:

Key Stud: Asch (1951)

Aim: To find out if an individual would conform to the group even if they knew the group
was wrong.

Method: (You must write how they conducted the experiment including an explanation of
how the lines of different lengths were used).

Results:

Conclusion:

Evaluation Activity
 1. Unambiguous task/insignificant task. How would this affect the level of conformity?

2. Lacks ecological validity – artificial situation. How would this affect the outcome?

3. Deception – was it necessary? Does it make the experiment unethical?

4. Lack of informed consent - was it necessary? Does it make the experiment unethical?

5. Generalisation – can the results be generalised? Justify your answer.

6. Protection from harm. How might the participants have felt?

Evaluation

Point One strength of Asch’s study is that there was an obvious correct answer and
therefore it was clear when the participants conformed or not.

Evidence/ Asch deliberately devised the experiment so that there was an obvious answer to the
example
line judgement task. If the participant gave an incorrect answer, it would be clear that
this was due to group pressure.

Explain
 Link

Point One weakness of this research is that the task and the situation are rather
artificial.
Evidence/
example

Explain The results might not reflect everyday behaviour and real-life situations where the
consequences of conformity are probably more important and the people influencing
us are often our friends.

Link

Point Another weakness is that Asch’s research was carried out using all-male,
American participants.
Evidence/ Cross-cultural research has found differing levels of conformity. Individualistic
example
cultures that place emphasis on individual needs (such as the UK and the US), show
lower levels of conformity than collectivist cultures that place greater emphasis on
meeting the needs of the group (such as China).

Explain
 Link

Read the following:

Samuel has just started work in an office. On his second day there, his colleagues had a
discussion about asylum seekers coming to the UK. His colleagues thought that they received
favourable treatment from the government and that this should stop. Samuel doesn’t agree
with this view, but when he was asked what he thought, he said that his colleagues were right.

Which type of conformity is this and why?

Exam Practice

Describe and evaluate one study on conformity. Include the method, results, conclusion and
one evaluation point. (6 marks)