Lecture Notes: Social Influence in A-Level Psychology

Introduction

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• 20 hours total, accessible to sign-up level and above.
• Importance of downloading 2022 AS and A2 past papers from AQA's website.
• Content from social influence videos summarized into this revision video.
• Utilize psych boost app for active learning with flashcards.

Conformity

• Asch (1958) Levels of Conformity: Compliance (Shallow), Identification (Intermediate), Internalization (Deep).
• Types of Conformity:
  • Compliance: External agreement, internal disagreement. Temporary behavior change.
  • Identification: Behavior and personal values change when with the group.
  • Internalization: Genuine change in opinion, permanent.
• Explanations:
  • Normative Social Influence (NSI): Driven by desire for approval.
  • Informational Social Influence (ISI): Driven by desire to be correct.
• Asch's Experiment (1951):
  • Deception with confederates in line judgment task.
  • Conformity rate: 32%; influenced by group size, unanimity, and task difficulty.
  • NSI supported as task simplicity led to conformity due to social pressure.
  • Variations showed reduced conformity with private responses and task difficulty.

Conformity and Social Roles

• Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment
  • Simulated prison environment; random allocation of roles.
  • Rapid adaptation to roles demonstrating situational power.
  • Evaluation indicates role of social roles in behavior change.

Obedience

• Milgram's Experiment
  • Authority figures induce destructive obedience.
  • Agentic state and legitimacy of authority influence obedience.
  • Variations show decreased obedience with distance, authority symbolism, and location change.
  • Criticized for ecological validity and ethical concerns.
• Other studies: Hofling (nurses obedience), Sheridan & King (real shocks to puppy), Bickman (uniform effects).

Authoritarian Personality

• Dispositional explanation for obedience; identified by F-scale.
• Suggested differences in obedience may be due to personality traits.
• Criticized for potential stereotyping and acquiescence bias.

Resistance to Social Influence

• Social Support: Role models decrease conformity and obedience.
• Locus of Control (Rotter 1966): Internal locus linked to resistance.
  • Holland (1967) and Specter (1983) studies support this link.
• Evaluation: Correlational nature limits conclusions.

Minority Influence and Social Change

• Processes: Consistency, commitment, and flexibility.
• Snowball Effect: Gradual conversion of majority.
• Studies: Moscovici (1969), Nemeth (1986).
• Evaluation: Real-life applications and ethical considerations.

Social Change

• Use of consistency, commitment, flexibility in social movements (e.g., Civil Rights, LGBTQ+ rights).
• Social Crypto Amnesia: Forgotten contributions of minorities once changes are mainstream.

Conclusion

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