Basic of Social Influence

Definition of Conformity + Types of Conformity

Changes in an induvidual’s behaviour or beliefs as a result of real or imagined pressure.

Internalisation

Compliance

AO1 Compliance

Most superficial + least permanent

Individuals publicly change their beliefs + behaviours to be in line with group but privately revert back.

AO1 Internalisation

Deepest + most permanent

Induviduals publicly + privately change their beliefs and behavior to fit with a group because we accept their attitudes to our own cognition

Normative Social Influence AO1

Driven by our desire to be liked.

Go along with the group to avoid being ridiculed + to gain accept - Is an emotional process

Leads to compliance - publically change views but privately revert back.

Informational Social Influence

Driven by our desire to be right

Individual unsure how to behave and conform as they are seeing info. from group + assume it’s right - Is a cognitive process

Leads to internalisation - both publically + privately change views

ISI AO3 - RTS (+)

Jennes - pps asked to individually estimate the no. of jelly beans in jar - then decide group estimate - finally then do last private individual guess. Jennes found that pps 2nd final guess was closer to groups estimate than their own estimate.

Therefore supports ISI BECAUSE the task was ambiguous and pps were unsure of answer so seeked helped from group - changed estimate privately + publically.

ISI AO3 - RTS (-)

RTS (Jennes) lacks ecological validity - took place in an artificial env.

Therefore diff. to generalize findings to real life examples of ISI as ppl may be less or more likely to conform when there are consequences to their actions - unlike lab setting.

Thus, external validity is reduced

NSI AO3 - RTS (+)

Asch - asked pps to state which line a,b,c is closest in length to stimulus line ‘x‘. Confederates gc an incorrect answer first + Asch found pps gv the same wrong answer 37% of the time.

Supporting NSI BECAUSE the task was unambiguous + later the pps stated they knew the answer but conformed in order to avoid ridicule which is what NSI suggests.

NSI AO3 - RTS (-)

RTS (Asch) lacks ecological validity - took place in an artificial env.

Therefore diff. to generalize findings to real life examples of NSI as ppl may be less or more likely to conform when there are consequences to their actions - unlike lab setting.

Thus, external validity is reduced