1. AQA A-level psychology social influence key content part 1

what is social influence

the process where someone’s attitudes, beliefs or behaviours are modified by the Prescence or actions of others

what is conformity

th e process of yielding / giving in to majority influence

what did Myers (1999) define conformity as

a change in the behaviour /belief as a result of real or imagined group pressure

what did Zimbardo suggest

when we are evaluating our position we go along with those who we compare ourselves to

what did Jenness (1932) conduct

conformity experiment - jellybeans

what were the 3 conditions on Jenness’s experiment

own estimation, group estimation, post group estimation

what happened concerning pts second private estimate

tended to converge towards group estimate

what are the 2 explanations of conformity

informational and normative social influence

what is informational social influence (ISI)

conforming because you have the desire to be right

what are the characteristics of informational social influence (ISI)

• look to others we believe are right on things e.g. how to behave- especially in novel situations or ambiguous

• when rapid action is required and believe others are experts

• could result in a genuine long lasting belief or attitude

• internalisation / private compliance

what is normative social influence (NSI)

conforming to the group because of the desire to be liked

what are the characteristics of normative social influence (NSI)

• want to be liked by others (public compliance)

• privately hold own views

what did Deutsch and Gerard (1955) state

NSI and ISI is called the dual dependency model i.e. two separate reasons for conformity and work independently

what the evaluation for the dual dependency model

others argue this is incorrect and that they work together

what is the advantage of ISI

there is research to support the idea of conforming in order to be correct

what is the advantage of NSI