1. Social Influence

2. What is important? Knowledge (obviously).
Key terminology is essential here. otherwise answers can seem casual.
Reference to relevant research.
Understanding the questions.
Linking explanations and factors to research.
Remember the variations of Milgram and Asch

3. Q2 – Explain how social influence research helps us understand social change (4)
Social change occurs when a whole society adopts a new belief or behaviour which then becomes widely accepted as the 'norm'. An example of social change is the acceptance of same sex marriages in England. Social influence research helps us understand social change by a process on minority influence. When a minority are flexible, consistent in their message and are committed to their cause they can slowly change the views of the majority. Research by Moscovici found that a consistent minority was more influential on the majority than an inconsistent minority when participants were deciding what colour a slide was. A minority that consistently stated the slide was green (even though it was blue) were more successful in changing the views of the minority. In society views and beliefs change slowly and this slow change is known as the snowball effect and is when a small group of people begin to influence the majority and as they gather momentum more people in society adopt their views. As the views of the minority become the ‘norm’ people forget where the views originated and simply adopt the views by a process of internalisation. This is known as social cryptoamnesia.

4. Q3 – Explain how a minority can bring about social change (4)

5. Q4 – Briefly outline and evaluate normative social influence as an explanation conformity (4)
Normative social influence is the process where people adopt the behaviour and views of the majority in order to be liked. It is a superficial change to avoid rejection by the group. Normative social influence tends to lead to compliance where people publicly agree but privately retain their own opinions.
Evidence to support normative social influence comes from Asch. After his conformity study he inteviewed participants to see they went along with the incorrect majority. Many of them said they felt pressure to go along with the group even though they knew they were wrong. They said they wanted avoid being rejected by the majority.
One problem with this explanation of conformity is that it does not consider social identity. This is the fact that people tend to only want to fit in with people they identify with and may not feel the pressure to conform to a majority that are very unlike them, for example, in age, social status or political beliefs.

6. Q6 – Many people have criticised Zimbardo’s prison study
Q6 – Many people have criticised Zimbardo’s prison study. Identify and briefly discuss TWO reasons why people have criticised Zimbardo’s prison study. (6)
One criticism of Zimbardo’s study is ethical issues. It can be argued that the participants experiences psychological harm during the experiment, particularly the prisoners. All participants were screened for mental illness and gave their informed consent but it can be argued that the level of hostility and distress should have been anticipated by Zimbardo and dealt with sooner than he did.
Another criticism is that Zimbardo took part in the experiment and was a participant observer. This meant his own behaviour could have affected the way the experiment developed and therefore the validity of the experiment could be questioned. This is because Zimbardo’s behaviour could have affected the way the guards and prisoners behaved leading to demand charactersitcs which would affect the internal validity.

7. Q7 Questions like this are focused on AO2 – application
Conformity is when a minority or small group of people go along with the majority. This can be a superficial and temporary change. Minority influence is when a small group of people influence the behaviour and attitudes of the majority – often leading to a permanent change in behaviour and beliefs (internalisation).
In the item the small group of environmentally aware students are the minority and the rest of the student body are the majority. In order to successfully influence the majority, the small group of students must listen and take on board what the majority have to say (flexibility), they should agree with each other and remain consistent in their view and also they should be seen to be working not out of self interest but for the good of the school as a whole (committed). Slowly they may change the views of the majority by gathering momentum as more people adopt their behaviour and view (the snowball effect)

8. Q8 – What is meant by compliance
A type of conformity where people go along with the group publicly but retain a different view privately.
(b)
One factor is how bit the majority is. If the majority is large, it will be more likely that Lisa and Sean will conform.
Another factor is how they see the rest of the students. If they have high status and Lisa and Sean want to be accepted by this group they are more likely to conform.

9. Q9 Outline two explanations for obedience (6)
One explanation of obedience is legitimate authority. This is when the authority figure is seen as justified in their role as they hold higher status. For example, a teacher in a school has a legitimate authority and is more likely to be obeyed by a student whilst in school but not outside the school gates.
A further explanation of obedience is agentic state. This is when a person moves from an autonomous state - where they take responsibility for their actions, to an agentic state - where they no longer feel responsible for their actions. This agentic shift occurs because they are acting on the orders of an authority figure.

10. Q9 b
There is evidence to accept legitimate authority as an explanation of obedience. In the study by Bickman, a confederate dressed either as a guard, a milkman or simply in casual clothes. He made requests from people on the street such as to lend another person money for a parking metre. It was found that when the confederate wore the guards uniform he was more likely to be obeyed. This is because the uniform suggested he was in authority and participants saw him as having a social role that enabled him to give orders.

11. Q10
One ethical issue was right to withdraw. The participants were told they could withdraw at the beginning of the study. However, when they refused to go on they were given prods. These prods such as ‘The experiment requires you continue’ made it very difficult for the participants to withdraw from the experiment.
One methodological issue with Milgram’s study was a lack of internal validity. This experiment required the participant to believe the shocks they were giving were real. Some researchers have criticised this an pointed out that the participants would not have believed they were giving real electric shocks and therefore were purely going along with the what they thought they were supposed to do. This means Milgram was not studying what he thought he was studying and so lacks internal valditiy.

12. Q11 – Identify two issues that have been shown to affect obedience to authority. Briefly discuss how each of these factors affects obedience to authority (6)
One factor is uniform. An authority figure who wears a uniform can be seen as more legitimate than one that does not. In Milgram’s experiment the white lab coat gave the experimenter more social status and so was seen as a legitimate authority. This increases obedience levels.
Another factor is the proximity of the authority figure. If the authority is giving orders whilst close you are more likely to obey them than if they are giving orders remotely. In Milgram’s research when the authority figure gave the orders by phone it reduced the obedience rate of the participants.

13. Evaluate with research into LOC and obedience and evaluation point.
Q12 – Two explanations of resistance to social linfluence refer to views of Jack and sarah
AO1 – 6
AO2 – 4
AO3 – 6
Explain the difference between dispositional and situational factos and link to scenario.
Personality – Locus of Control – explain interanal and external and who is more likely to obey.
Link to what Jack said.
Evaluate with research into LOC and obedience and evaluation point.
Social support and the presence of disobedient others.
Relate to Sarah
Provide evidence and evaluation