Summary A Level Psychology - A* Essay Plans for every unit of Social Influence
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Course
Social Influence
Institution
AQA
Book
The Complete Companions for AQA A Level Psychology 5th Edition
Having achieved an A* in Psychology A Level as well as in all my social influence end of unit assessments, i provide the exact essay plans I used and revised in order to achieve these grades .
They are easy, concise and detailed, and will definitely secure you top grades.
They contain both A01 a...
Describe and evaluate ISI + NSI as explanations for conformity (12 marks):
Paragraph 1- AO1- Explain NSI
- Need to be liked (EMOTIONAL)- compliance
- Unambiguous situations
- Agreeing with social norms to gain social approval + avoid rejection
- Under surveillance
Paragraph 2- A01- Explain ISI
- Need to be right (COGNITIVE)- internalisation
- Usually make objective check against reality but when uncertain about behaviours/ ambiguous
situations
- Agree with group’s opinions as we accept it to be correct as well
Paragraph 3- A03- Pro
- P- Research support (Schultz et al)
- E- Hotel guests exposed to normative messages that 75% reused towels each day so 25% reduced
usage daily
- E- or majority adolescents don’t smoke, so subsequently their peers do not smoke
- L- People change behaviour outside of desire to fit in with reference group- compliance
Paragraph 4- A03- Con
- P- NSI may not always be detected (Nolan et al) Don’t actually recognise behaviour of others as a
causal factor of their own behaviour
- E- Investigated whether people detected the influence of social norms on energy conservation.
- E- People thought neighbours had least impact on conservation but had the most
- L- People rely on beliefs about what should motivate behaviour, underestimates power of NSI
Paragraph 5- A03- Pro
- P- Research support (Whittenbrink + Henley 1996)
- E- ppts exposed to negative behaviour towards AA (led to believe view of majority) reported more
negative attitudes towards black individuals- exposure to negative beliefs shapes social stereotypes
- E- This suggests that exposure to majority’s beliefs influence social stereotypes + Fein- ppts
- L- Importance of ISI shaping social behaviour- concept has validity
Paragraph 6- A03- Con
- P- Individual differences in people- people are affected by NSI + ISI differently (Perrin + Spencer)
- E- Conducted the Asch experiment on engineering students and found very little conformity. Only 1/396
students conformed
- E- Perhaps this was a result of their occupation and how confident they are in measuring lines- biased
samples and therefore do not turn to others? But McGhee- naffailiators- high conformity + NSI
, - L-Suggests that not all findings on investigating ISI can be generalised as some people don’t display
conformity to ISI + NSI as clearly as others- idiographic approach
- Aim- extent to which social pressure from a majority group will affect a person to conform
- Procedures- 1 naive ppt among 6-8 confederates. Have to match one comparison to standard. Comparison
3 standard 1. 12 critical trials where confeds deliberately said the wrong answer. Naive ppt must answer
second to last/last
- Findings- 75% ppts conformed at least once meaning 25% didn’t conform at all. 37% ppts gave wrong
answer
- Conclusion- Ppts said they conformed to avoid rejection/ gain social approval- NSI
Paragraph 2- A01- Factors affecting conformity
- Group size- as confeds increase so did conformity rates- up to certain number (⅘)
- Unanimity- If a confed dissented from majority conformity rates decreased (-80% (30-5.5%)
- Task difficulty- If line lengths became more similar, task became more ambiguous, increasing conformity
rates- ISI-look to others for confirmation
- Answers in private- when answered in private, conformity rates decreased- NSI
Paragraph 3- A03- Evaluation- Pro
- P- High internal validity
- E- Lab experiment ensures strict control over variables- strong causal relationship between variables
- E- Easily replicable and repeatable- therefore reliable and so trends of conformity in diff cultures eg can be
logged over time
- L- Establishes clear predictions and a strong causal relationship between variables
Paragraph 4- A03- Evaluation- Con
- P- Child of its time
- E- Asch conducted his experiment in the 1950s- anti-communist, conformist time in America
- E- However society has changed since then- Perrin + Spencer 1980. Only 1/396 conformed. But bias
sample
- L- Limitation of findings as they aren’t consistent across time and situation- lacks historical validity-
conforming is more likely if the perceived costs of not conforming is high
Paragraph 5- A03- Evaluation- Pro
- P- Supports explanations for conformity (NSI + ISI)
- E- NSI support as conclusion was that ppts conformed as wanted social approval/ not appear foolish.
- E- ISI from factors- task difficulty. As task became ambiguous, ppt turned to group for answer
- L- Findings give high explanatory power for explanations of conformity
Paragraph 6- A03- Evaluation- Con
- P- Limited applicability across culture/gender- biased sample
- E- Asch only used male white men. But conformity might be different for women, more likely to conform due to
social relationships + don’t like conflict- social roles.
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