Lecture Notes: Social Influence and Psychology Revision

Overview

• Daily Patreon live streams until Paper 2, with additional sessions before Paper 3.
• 20 hours of revision sessions available to all sign-up levels.
• Use 2022 AS and AEV pass papers from AQA’s website.
• Revision videos summarize social influence content.
• Use longer videos for full explanations if needed.
• Psych Boost app available for testing knowledge via flashcards.
• Access tutorial support videos and principal resources on Patreon.

Key Topics Covered

Conformity

• Types of Conformity
  • Compliance: External agreement, internal disagreement, temporary behavior change.
  • Identification: Behavior change aligns with group when membership is valued.
  • Internalization: Genuine opinion change to match the group, permanent change.
• Explanations
  • Normative Social Influence (NSI): Desire to be liked, leads to temporary behavior change.
  • Informational Social Influence (ISI): Desire to be correct, look to the majority for guidance.

Asch's Studies on Conformity

• 1951 study on line judgment to measure conformity.
• Results: 32% conformity rate; 75% conformed at least once.
• Variations in group size and task difficulty affected conformity.
• Evaluation: Asch’s work supports NSI and ISI explanations.

Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment

• Fake prison experiment with role assignment of guards and prisoners.
• Demonstrated the influence of social roles on behavior.
• Evaluation: Ethical concerns and impact of situational factors.

Obedience

• Milgram’s Study on Obedience
  • Destructive obedience to authority figures.
  • Agentic State: Responsibility shifted to authority figure.
  • Legitimacy of Authority: Social structures influence obedience.
• Results: High obedience rates even with distress.
• Variations: Distance, location, and uniform affected obedience.
• Evaluation: Methodological and ethical criticisms, but supported by field studies.

Authoritarian Personality

• Explanation for obedience as a dispositional trait.
• Influenced by strict parenting and authority respect.
• Evaluation: Critiqued for potential stereotyping and methodological flaws.

Resistance to Social Influence

• Social Support
  • Reduces pressure to obey or conform.
  • Examples: Milgram study variations and Asch’s experiments.
• Locus of Control
  • Internal vs. external control impacts resistance.
  • Higher internal locus correlates with greater resistance.

Minority Influence and Social Change

• Factors Influencing Minority Impact
  • Consistency, Commitment, Flexibility encourage influence.
  • The Snowball Effect: Gradual acceptance and majority view shift.
• Real-world examples: Civil Rights, LGBTQ+ rights movements.

Conclusion

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