1. Paper 1: Introductory Topics to Psychology
Social Influence
Paper 1: Introductory Topics to Psychology

2. Objectives:
To understand what social influence is and produce a clear definition (Grade E)
To be able to explain why it is important to study social influence and put this into a historical/ social context (Grade D)
To understand the definitions of conformity and correctly link them to hypothetical scenarios (Grade C upwards)

3. Social Influence DEFINITION ‘Social Influence is the process by which
our thoughts, feelings and behaviours
are influenced by the people around us and the social roles in which people are placed’
But before you all get writing lets stop and think about what social roles actually are.
After all there is no point writing something down that doesn’t make sense!
Get this down in your notes it’s a very handy definition

4. Why do people conform?

5. What factors affect this decision?
What would you do?
What factors affect this decision?

6. Conformity (Majority Influence)
DEFINITION
‘Conformity is the tendency to change
what we do, think or say in response
to the influence of real or imagined
pressure from a majority group’.
What are the key parts of this definition? Give examples.
Behaviour includes things we think and say as well as what we do
Pressure can be imagined – eg peer pressure (unlike obedience)
Majority group – not in hierarchy, these are peers

7. Kelman (1958) There are different types of conformity: Compliance
Identification
Internalisation
Shallow Level
Don’t need to know about identification! Not on 2014 spec
Deep Level

8. Compliance Conforms publicly Disagrees privately Shallow
A person might laugh at the joke that others are laughing at while privately not finding it very funny

9. Identification Conforms publicly Conforms privately
a sense of group membership
temporary
A person might support a new football team every time they move to a new town

10. Internalisation Conform publicly Conform privately
Internalised and accepted the views
deepest
A person may become a vegetarian after sharing a flat with a group of vegetarians at university

11. Task
Are the following examples describing compliance or internalisation?
Doesn’t include identification as not on spec 2014
Alternatively, Q8 June 11

12. Deciding that smoking is wrong
internalisation

13. Laughing at a joke you don’t find funny
compliance

14. Becoming a vegetarian after sharing a flat with a vegetarian
internalisation

15. Cooking vegetarian food while living with a vegetarian flatmate
compliance

16. Why do people conform?
People want to be right Informational social influence
People want to be liked
Normative social influence
They look to other people to find the answer – assume others probably know something they don’t. Informational social influence. EG Looking to see what other people are doing in a lesson when you realise you haven’t heard an instruction. Also looking to see what people do
They want to fit in to the group and not be laughed at or a social outcast

17. This is known as the Deutsch and Gerrad duel process model

19. Have a go at the past questions on your worksheet
Task
Have a go at the past questions on your worksheet
Question from Jan 11 paper (students have paper copy to write on)

21. Conformity (Majority Influence) https://www. youtube. com/watch
Solomon Asch came up with a method to test conformity in the 1950s, asking people to do a simple test where the answer was obvious. He used confederates to provide the majority. Click centre image for link to youtube footage. – first couple of minutes most relevant.

22. Use your handout and the video to find the following:
Procedure
Findings
Conclusion
Evaluation
What did they do?
Raw results
Percentages
What does this mean?
Ethics and problems?

23. Procedure Findings Conclusion Evaluation
123 male students (“visual perception task”)
groups of 7-9 judge line length – answer obvious
1 naïve Ps, rest confederates
18 trials per Ps,
Ps answered last-but-one.
5% conformed on every trial,
75% conformed at least once
26% never conformed,
37% overall conformity
Conformity due to:
‘I must be wrong’
‘I don’t want to be laughed at’
Didn’t notice the answer was wrong
Validity – costs of conformity, type of task
Lacks ecological validity – artificial
Highly controlled – cause and effect well established
Generalisability – specific to time/place/Ps?
Ethics:
Deception
Lack of informed consent
Protection from harm
Confidentiality
We will look at the reasons for conformity later
Use notes/table to construct Gimme 5 hands? DFC+-

24. Go to https://srosocialscience. wordpress
Go to type conformity into the search box and make notes on Arch’s findings in your book
Making notes rather than just reading will have a significant impact on your ability to remember it. As you’ll see when we look at memory later on in the year

25. Tweet about what you learnt this lesson:
@Asch found most people conformed back in the day #childofitstime
Arghh – no idea what’s going on, just gonna copy everyone else #informational
Tweet about what you learnt this lesson:
140 characters to make your point
#hashtag – key concepts
@name – key researchers
RT – This is a good point, I want to retweet it
Plenary idea – students write on post-it notes and then add pass around to be retweeted (ie students evaluate it and add RT if it is a god one and more words or # if they want) – the best are shared and then go on the wall – good starting point for next lesson.
found most people conform #achildofitstime?
OR Arghh – no idea what’s going on, what’s everyone else doing? #informational

26. Remember this?
Prompt to get students recapping Asch’s study

27. Lower 9% Higher 33% Lower 5.5% Lower Higher Play your cards right
Did these variations give higher or lower levels of conformity than Asch’s original study?
Size of majority
Unanimity of majority
Difficulty of task
Another dissenter
Lower 9%
A majority of only 3 confederates?
Social support
Higher
33%
Lower
5.5%
A majority of 15 confederates?
Lower
A more difficult task?
Higher
Social support = someone who agrees with them
Another dissenter = someone who disagrees with Ps and confederates ie breaks unanimity
If no % given – it is not known!
Therefore – factors affecting conformity are…
Jot down notes on 3 factors using variations as supporting evidence

28. What factors affect conformity?
Name of study
Variation in procedure
Key finding
Explanation
Use worksheet with table to force conciseness
Feedback – jot key ideas on board?
Highlight factors affecting conformity – also linked to factors that help people to resist conformity
challenge class to come up with way of remembering it, eg mnemonic

29. Replicating Asch’s study
Asch’s own variations- looking at size of majority and effect of taking away the need to say the answer out loud. Also the effect of breaking unanimity
Stang Conformity seems to be at it maximum with a 3-5 person majority.
Latane and Wolf adding more numbers to the majority can increase conformity but in ever decreasing amounts.
Campbell and Fairey Group size has different effects depending upon the difficulty of the task.
What do these replications tell us about factors affecting conformity?
Asch is v easy to replicate and many have done it (including him) to investigate factors affecting conformity – first look at Asch’s variations

32. Independent behaviour
DEFINITION
‘Independent behaviour refers to behaviour that is not altered despite pressures to conform or obey’.
Link to – ie NOT conforming and NOT obeying – what factors help people to resist conformity?

33. How can people resist conformity?
Circumstances of the situation Characteristics of the individual
Situation – includes culture, face-to-face or not, being able to find an ally, collectivist or individualist etc
Individual – includes confidence, prior knowledge, desire to be individual, locus of control
Also – CHIPFLUTS – Confidence, History, Individualist, Prior Commitment, Face to face, Locus of control, Unanimity, Task, Size of majority

34. CHIPFLUTS
CHIPFLUTS – Confidence, History, Individualist, Prior Commitment, Face to face, Locus of control, Unanimity, Task, Size of majority

35. Have a go at the past questions on your worksheet
Task
Have a go at the past questions on your worksheet
Question from Jan 12 paper

36. Discuss research into conformity (12 marks)
Task: Plan an answer
Discuss research into conformity (12 marks)

37. Discuss research into conformity (12 marks)
AO1
Asch’s study:
Procedures, findings, conclusions (you could also mention variations here)
AO2
Evaluating Asch’s study:
Limited sample
‘A child of its time’
Ethical issues

38. Homework
Design a poster to show at least 3 factors affecting levels of conformity.
This counts as a start to revision – just pick three of the ones learnt and use images and words to link factors to research and explanations!