Majority Influence - Plantsbrook School

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Social Influences ....... Starter: Give examples of how people influence your behaviour

Compliance, Internalisation or Identification? • Elements of both compliance (need to be accepted) and internalisation (adopting other’s viewpoints) • Engage in a validation process; examines own belief • Public compliance with little or no private attitude change • Engage in the process of social comparison • Accepts viewpoint because of desire to be liked • Acceptance of views both publicly and privately • Accepts the majority viewpoint to be consistent with your own • To gain approval or avoid disapproval • Adopts attitudes to be part of the group

Compliance, Internalisation or Identification? • Elements of both compliance (need to be accepted) and internalisation (adopting other’s viewpoints) • Engage in a validation process; examines own belief • Public compliance with little or no private attitude change • Engage in the process of social comparison • Accepts viewpoint because of desire to be liked • Acceptance of views both publicly and privately • Accepts the majority viewpoint to be consistent with your own • To gain approval or avoid disapproval • Adopts attitudes to be part of the group

Compliance, Internalisation or Identification? • Elements of both compliance (need to be accepted) and internalisation (adopting other’s viewpoints) • Engage in a validation process; examines own belief • Public compliance with little or no private attitude Write your own change • Engage in the process of social comparison definition for each • Accepts viewpoint because wordof desire to be liked • Acceptance of views both publicly and privately • Accepts the majority viewpoint to be consistent with your own • To gain approval or avoid disapproval • Adopts attitudes to be part of the group

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Starter: Odd One out

Compliance

Validation

Internalisation

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Compliance •

Odd One out Validation

Internalisation

Compliance is the odd one out because you do not validate the opinions of others when you comply, you only go along with the majority influence. You do not change your private attitudes. Internalisation is a validation of others opinions; private as well as a public change of attitude.

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Odd One out

Social comparison

Compliance

Private opinion

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Odd One out

Social comparison •

Compliance

Private opinion

Private opinion is the odd one put because when you comply you do not change your private opinion you only change your public opinion. When you comply you make a social comparison, concentrating on the actions and fitting in with the opinions of the majority. You change your public opinion when you internalise and when you identify.

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Odd One out

Desire to be liked Avoid disapproval Identification

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Odd One out

Desire to be liked Avoid disapproval Identification •

Avoid disapproval is the odd one out because it describes the behaviour associated with compliance and not identification. Identification means that the person adopts the behaviour of the majority because they have a desire to be liked and to build relationships.

What is the difference between compliance and internalisation?

What is the difference between compliance and internalisation? • When a person complies they only accept the options/behaviour of others on a superficial level; their public attitude changes. They simply ‘go along with the majority’. When a person internalises they accept the opinions/behaviour of others on both a public and private level. They change their private opinion accepting that the group is correct.

Starter: Exam Question What is meant by compliance in the context of conformity research? (3 marks)

Read Asch’s research on Majority influence Research the following: • Hypothesis – states the expected direction of the research • Dependent variable – data that is being collected . What is being measured(effect) • Independent variables – something that the researcher can change (cause) • Ethical issues – What is acceptable • Validity – how true or legitimate something is

Read Asch’s research on Majority influence • Hypothesis – a lone participant is more likely to conform when faced with the majority influence than when there is no influence • Dependent variable – Number of times the lone participant agrees with the confederates • Independent variables – 12 out of 18 critical trials, confederates unanimously gave the incorrect answer • Ethical issues – informed consent and deception • Validity - Insignificant test (Int) and population validity (Ex)

Exam Q: In Asch’s study of students in 1956 he found that the participants conform to majority influence. Give one or more reasons why people conform (4 marks)

Why did Asch carry out variations to his research? Give examples of each research experiment, including variables tested and findings For example: The difficulty of the task.....this tested the variable....the findings were....

Evaluation of research..... • Criticisms – ‘child of our time’ • Cultural variations/individual differences With reference to psychological research, discuss the view that people will not always conform to others in group situations (12 marks)