AQA Psychology A-level: Social Influence

These flashcards cover key concepts around social influence, conformity, obedience, and personality traits relevant to AQA Psychology A-level curriculum.

Conformity

A type of social influence where individuals yield to group pressures, resulting in a change in behavior or opinion.

Internalisation

The strongest type of conformity, where an individual adopts the beliefs and values of a group as their own, resulting in a permanent change.

Identification

A temporary change in behavior and beliefs that occurs in the presence of a group; not lasting outside the group context.

Compliance

The act of conforming to group norms to gain approval or avoid disapproval, often involving public agreement while privately disagreeing.

Informational Social Influence (ISI)

When individuals conform because they seek accurate information and look to others in uncertain situations.

Normative Social Influence (NSI)

When individuals conform to be liked or accepted by a group, often leading to compliance.

Agentic State

A mental state in which individuals see themselves as an agent for carrying out another person's wishes, shifting responsibility away from themselves.

Legitimacy of Authority

The perception that an authority figure has the right to issue demands, which affects an individual's obedience.

Locus of Control

A concept that refers to the extent to which individuals believe they have control over events that affect them; it can be internal or external.

Authoritarian Personality

A psychological profile characterized by a high degree of submission to authorities and adherence to conventional norms as proposed by Adorno.

Conformity

A type of social influence where individuals yield to group pressures, resulting in a change in behavior or opinion.

Internalisation

The strongest type of conformity, where an individual adopts the beliefs and values of a group as their own, resulting in a permanent change.

Identification

A temporary change in behavior and beliefs that occurs in the presence of a group; not lasting outside the group context.

Compliance

The act of conforming to group norms to gain approval or avoid disapproval, often involving public agreement while privately disagreeing.

Informational Social Influence (ISI)

When individuals conform because they seek accurate information and look to others in uncertain situations.

Normative Social Influence (NSI)

When individuals conform to be liked or accepted by a group, often leading to compliance.

Agentic State

A mental state in which individuals see themselves as an agent for carrying out another person's wishes, shifting responsibility away from themselves.

Legitimacy of Authority

The perception that an authority figure has the right to issue demands, which affects an individual's obedience.

Locus of Control

A concept that refers to the extent to which individuals believe they have control over events that affect them; it can be internal or external.

Authoritarian Personality

A psychological profile characterized by a high degree of submission to authorities and adherence to conventional norms as proposed by Adorno.

Independent Variable (IV)

The variable that is manipulated by the researcher in an experiment to observe its effect on another variable.

Dependent Variable (DV)

The variable that is measured in an experiment to see if it changes as a result of the independent variable's manipulation.

Experimental Group

The group in an experiment that receives the treatment or manipulation of the independent variable.

Control Group

The group in an experiment that does not receive the treatment or manipulation, serving as a baseline for comparison.

Random Assignment

A procedure in experimental design where participants are allocated to different experimental conditions by chance, ensuring groups are equivalent at the start.

Independent Measures Design

A type of experimental design where different groups of participants are used for each experimental condition.

Repeated Measures Design

A type of experimental design where the same group of participants takes part in all experimental conditions.

Matched Pairs Design

A type of experimental design where participants are paired up based on similar characteristics, and each member of the pair is assigned to a different condition.

Extraneous Variables

Any variables, other than the independent variable, that could potentially affect the dependent variable if not controlled.