1. Social influence
Asch(1951)

2. 3 minutes to present back your experiment on social influences
Presentations
3 minutes to present back your experiment on social influences

3. Page 4 read Sherif (1935) work and create a flashcard on his study
Homework: Monday
Page 4 read Sherif (1935) work and create a flashcard on his study

4. To Start: Fact or Fib?
Decide whether each of the following statements are true or false.

5. To Start: Fact or Fib?
Social influence is when we resist or choose not to follow our peers.

6. To Start: Fact or Fib?
Following fashion is an example of conformity to a majority.

7. To Start: Fact or Fib?
Informational influence is when we conform to be liked

8. To Start: Fact or Fib?
Informational influence tends to lead to internalisation.

9. To Start: Fact or Fib?
Compliance is when we experience an attitude change publicly, but not privately.

10. To Start: Fact or Fib?
Tipping a waiter in a restaurant when you don’t agree with it is an example of compliance resulting from normative influence.

11. Summary
Informational (ISI): If we are uncertain about if something is right or wrong. It’s a cognitive process and if we believe that the majority are correct then we are likely to internalise.
Normative (NSI): Where we conform to the norms of typical behaviour of a social group. It’s an emotional process rather than cognitive. We comply only to prevent rejection.

12. Today we will take this further by considering…
Understand: To describe APFC of Asch’s study on conformity.
Apply: To explain what Asch’s results suggest on conformity.
Evaluate: To discuss strengths and weaknesses of Asch’s study on conformity.

13. Asch (1956) ‘Lines’
Is this an example of normative or informational social influence?
Give a justification for your answer

14. Findings of Asch (1951) study
What were the findings:
Draw on board 10 faces (No. underneath how many trials did they conform to)
10ps all take part in 10 critical trials
How many critical trials did they conform to?
How many instances of conformity were there?
What percentage conformed on every trial

15. Findings of Asch (1951) study
26% of P’s did not conform on any critical trials
37% was the basic conformity rate (total no.of critical trials)
5% of P’s conformed on every critical trial
74% of P’s conformed at least once

16. After interviewing participants he found they conformed for one of three reasons:
Distortion of perception: A small number of participants came to see the lines in the same way as the majority.
Distortion of judgement: They were doubtful/unsure of their own judgement. Doubted own vision
Distortion of Action: Most participants continued to privately think differently from the group, but changed their public answer to avoid disapproval? Didn’t want to look like a fool and be different

17. Evaluation of Asch (1951) study
GRAVE
Mind-map different evaluation points

18. Point 1
Smith and Bond (1996), analysed over 100 studies using an Asch type procedure and found that collectivist cultures conform more than individualist cultures.
Perrin & Spencer (1980), replicated Asch’s study on engineering students and did not find support for the conformity effect. This suggests that...
Reliability

19. Point 2
Asch’ study uses a trivial situation. Judging the length of a line is not something that the majority of people are going to feel very strongly about. Therefore, we might find that…
Validity

20. Point 3
Juries can often be affected by the pressures to conform, which could lead to a miscarriage of justice. Therefore this research could be considered useful because we can…
Application

21. Point 4
Asch used an all male sample in his research. This is a problem because…..
Asch study was conducted in This might mean we cannot ………
Generalisability

22. This study breaks one ethical guideline……..
Point 5
This study breaks one ethical guideline……..
Ethics

23. Describe and Evaluate Asch’s research into conformity (12 marks)
Exam Question
Describe and Evaluate Asch’s research into conformity (12 marks)

24. Task: Just a minute!
Each of you will have just 1 minute to say everything you can remember from today’s lesson.
If you stop, pause, hesitate or get something wrong then we move on to the next person.

25. Factors that affect conformity
Group size
Unanimity
Difficulty of task
Teacher led
Activity:
Group size size (activity) 1 volunteer (stand up: how many maximum conformity (3) Keep standing up. Stop when conformity decreases (15)
Unanimity: students in group find which card from each pack is right
Difficulty of task:

26. Task: What factors influence conformity?
Asch changed a number of conditions in his study to see if conformity levels went up, down or stayed the same.
Look at the different conditions or changes on your worksheet.
Decide for each one – would conformity levels go up, down or stay the same.
Be prepared to justify your answers!

27. Task: What factors influence conformity?
Three main variations/conditions he tested!
The difficulty of the task is increased: the lines were made to look more similar.
The majority (group of people) was increased.
One or more of the confederates were instructed to give the correct answer.

28. Difficulty of task Write your answers down
How many zebras are there in the picture?
1st estimate ______
2nd estimate ______
How many cows are there in the picture?
2nd estimate ______
without conferring, and then after discussion with the group

29. How many zebras are in this picture?

30. How many cows are in this picture?
How many students changed their answer on the second estimate in each condition?
There should be more conformity hence more change in the 2nd condition because the task is harder

31. Asch: Difficulty of the task
Asch made the line lengths closer together and therefore the task harder.
He found conformity to the majority increased.
In addition Lucas et al (2006) found that increasing the task difficulty was influenced by the self efficacy of the individual. Participants were exposed to maths problems in a similar experiment to Asch’s. Those participants who were more confident in their abilities were less likely to conform, even when task difficulty was high.
Majority influence is dependent upon situational factors (task difficulty) and individual differences.

32. Asch: Size of the Majority
There was little conformity when the majority was only one or two people.
However under the pressure of a majority of three conformity increased to 30%.
BUT further increases did not increase the levels of conformity. Size of the majority is important but only up to an optimal point.

33. Asch: Unanimity of the Majority
Originally all the confederates gave the same wrong answer.
So Asch instructed one confederate to give the right answer.
Conformity dropped considerably.
He concluded that breaking the group’s consensus was one of the main influences in conformity.

34. The Big Night Out
Some students are celebrating the end of their exams by having a night out. They have been in the pub all evening and are now discussing which nightclub to go on to. Imogen prefers Rotting Flesh but the majority of the group wants to go to Scar Tissue.
Your Task: Briefly explain how each of the following factors might affect whether or not Imogen conforms to the majority. a) Group Size b) Unanimity