Psychology Revision - Social Psychology
Majority influence - Conformity This is when a person or small group of people change their attitudes / behaviour to fit in with the behaviour / attitudes of a larger group of people.
Two Main Reasons that People Conform: • The desire to be right - Informational Influence (Usually in ambiguous situations) • The desire to be liked - Normative Influence (Usually in unambiguous situations)
Asch's Study of Conformity in the APFCE format
Aims: To see if people would conform in an unambiguous situation when put under pressure to do so.
Procedure: • A naive participant is sat in a room with 6 confederates. • They are all told that they will be taking part in an experiment on perception and are ask to choose which line out of a possible three matches / is the same length as a line on another card. • The right answer is always obvious • On critical trials all confederates gave the same wrong answer. • The participant is usually last or second to last to answer. • The test is to see if participants conform to an obviously wrong answer.
Findings: • 37% of incorrect responses were recorded across trials • 5% of participants conformed all of the time • 75% conformed at least once.
Conclusions: • People do feel pressure to conform even when an answer is obviously wrong. • HOWEVER Asch's study shows there were individual differences as 25% of the participants were able to resist the pressure to conform.
Evaluation: • It took place in the 1950's so may not still be reliable, as in the 1950's 'doing your own thing' was seen as socially unacceptable • Asch had a bias sample as all his participants were male American students, therefore the external validity would be questionable as the results cannot be generalised worldwide and neither to women. • It is a very trivial situation; no one's beliefs or principles were tested.
Positive Evaluations • Other studies support Asch's results • The experiment allows a cause and effect relationship to be established.
Minority Influence This is when a person or small group of people change the behaviour / attitudes / opinions of a larger group of people in the absence of sanctioned authority.
Theories of Minority Influence The Dissociation Theory - The view of the minority gradually filters through into the majority but the majority do not want to be associated with the negative image that the minority have. So they 'forget' where the view came from and take it as their own. This is known as 'Social Crypto amnesia'
The Dual Process Theory - Mosconei believed that majority and minority influence were two different processes. He argued that minority influence was more important as it brings about social change as individuals internalise the views and beliefs. Whereas Majority influence results in public compliance but not a change in opinions.
Certain Factors that make the Minority more Successful are: • Consistency and Flexibility - Consistency without flexibility leads to the minority appearing unrealistic. • Relevance - It needs to be relevant to society in that time. E.g. Hitler - the population were ready to take on fascist views, where as when Moseley tried the same thing it didn't succeed, as the population were not ready to take on those views. • Commitment - Committed minorities will have more influence. Sacrifice demonstrates this commitment. E.g. Gandhi and his hunger strikes.
Moscovici's Study of Minority Influence in the APFCE format
Aims: To determine whether a minority can influence a majority of naïve participants. Moscovici aimed to determine the conditions necessary for this to occur, in particular the importance of consistency in the influence of the minority.
