Psychology AS: Social Influence Revision

Explanations of Conformity

Normative Social Influence: The desire to be liked. People change their opinion due to wanting to fit in with the group so they don't appear to be foolish or be left out.

E.g. Michigan's friends all think that pink is the best colour therefore Michigan also says that her favourite colour is pink in order to fit in and be liked.

Informational Social Influence: The desire to be right. People change their opinion to fit in with the group opinion because they are unsure about the situations so they look up to the group because they believe the group  has more information than them.

E.g. Michigan doesn't know an answer to a maths question therefore Michigan copies off her friends' work as she believes their work to be right.

Identification: Occurs when an individual conforms because they admire and identify with the characteristics of a group and want to be like them. Real change of opinion may occur but it is likely to last as long as the individual is a member of the group.

Evaluation of Types and Explanations of Conformity:

A strength of research into types of conformity and explanations is that it has real life applications. For example, Schultz et al (2008) found that hotel guests who were told that 75% of guests recycled towels were more likely to recycle their own towels as well. This demonstrated normative social influence as the hotel guests recycle their towels as they believe that other guests recycle their towels too so they want to fit in. This is a strength as research can be used to make positive changes in society, in this case reducing energy consumption therefore people can be influenced to protect the environment.

Another strength of types and explanations of Conformity is that there is research evidence to support the explanations. For example, in Asch's study* participants were reported to have given the wrong answer to the question as they wanted to fit in with the group as the group had also chosen the wrong answer to the question. This is an example of normative social influence because the participant had the desire to fit in and be liked. Other participants said that they were generally unsure of an answer therefore they agreed with the group. This is an example of informational social influence because the participant had the desire to be right therefore agreed with the group. This is a strength as research evidence supports the types/explanations and gives it more weight therefore the validity of the types of conformity increases.

However, a limitation of explanations of conformity is that it is often difficult to tell if conformity occurs because of informational or normative social influence. For example, on many occasions people conform because they are unsure of an answer/situation (informational social influence)  therefore they conform because they don't want to appear foolish (normative social influence). This means that it is too simplistic to  state that people conform purely due to normative or informational social influence and it is likely that both are present in situations.

Another limitation is that informational social influence is dependent on the nature of the task. People are more likely to conform if there is no clear, objective answer. For example, it is easier to convince an individual that a certain country is fun than convincing them that a country is bigger. This is because there are clear statistics to show whether a country is bigger whereas there is no objective evidence to available to show how 'fun' a country is. Therefore this shows that informational social influence does not occur in all situations.

*Asch's Study: More information below.