Social Influence Flashcards
Conformity
When an individual has a change in belief or behaviour in order to fit in with a group due to real or imagined pressure.
Identification
When an individual temporarily adopts the behaviour of a role model or group or conform to the demands of a social role (police officers, politicians)
Compliance
When an individual is conforming to a group publicly, even though they disagree with them privately.
(NSI)
Internalisation
When an individual is exposed to the different views of the other members of the other group and both accept them make them their own both publicly and privately.
(ISI)
Main reason for conforming?
People conform to group pressure because they are dependent on the group for satisfying the two important desires of being accepted (NSI) and being right (ISI).
Example of compliance
Smoking with a group of friends
Example of in identification
A police officer being commanding and serious when they work but opposite when at home.
Example of internalisation
Becoming religious because you’re living with a religious family.
Normative Social Influence
When the individual wants to fit in with the group and not be rejected by them so accepts the group’s behaviour to gain social approval. (Usually linked with compliance)
Informational Social Influence
When the individual is unsure and lacks knowledge about a situation and so looks to the group for guidance, as they want to do what’s right in that situation. Also happens when a decision needs to be made quickly and we assume the group is correct. (Usually linked with internalisation)
Research supporting ISI
Lucas et al- participants conformed more when the maths problems were difficult compared to when maths problems were considered easier (task difficulty) due to students being unsure as to the answer and not wanting to appear wrong.
Research supporting NSI
Asch- in a post-interview participants claimed they gave the wrong answer even when they knew it was wrong as they felt self-conscious and did not want to go against the group and gain disapproval.
AO3 evaluation of explanations
*Difficult to establish if it’s NSI or ISI in a real life or lab studies so shows it’s difficult to separate them and that they both work together rather than singularly.
*doesn’t explain why some people refuse to conform.
- doesn’t take into account individual differences
Describe/Outline Asch’s experiment
AO1 (6 marks)
1) sample of 50 American men
2) ppts placed in groups of 6-8
3) each group had only 1 ppt and rest were confederates
4) shown a standard line and 3 comparison lines
5) they’d been told they were taking part in a vision test
6) ppts had to say aloud their answer
Asch’s findings
*On average participants agreed with confederates’ incorrect answers roughly a third of the time.
*75% of the sample conformed at least once.
*25% of the ppts never conformed, which shows there were individual differences
