Key term
AQA AS-Level Psychology 7182
Social Influence
Memory
Attachment
Topic overviewCaregiver-infant interactions: reciprocity and interactional synchronySchaffer's stages of attachmentMultiple attachments and the role of the fatherAnimal studies of attachmentExplanations of attachmentAinsworth's Strange Situation and types of attachmentBowlby's theory of maternal deprivation and effects of institutionalisationInfluence of early attachment on relationshipsCultural variations in attachment
Approaches in Psychology
Biopsychology
Clinical Psychology and Mental Health
Research Methods
Scientific Processes
Quantitative and Qualitative Data
Topic overviewQuantitative and qualitative data; the distinction between qualitative and quantitative data collection techniquesPrimary and secondary data, including meta-analysisDescriptive statistics: measures of central tendency and measures of dispersionPresentation and display of quantitative data: graphs, tables, scattergrams, bar chartsDistributions: normal and skewed distributionsIntroduction to statistical testing; the sign test
Social Influence
- 6 subtopics
- 26 things to know
- Paper 1
What Social Influence covers
Social Influence is the first topic of Paper 1. It covers the types of conformity and the reasons people conform, the explanations and situational variables behind obedience to authority, the factors that allow people to resist social pressure, and the process by which a minority changes the view of a majority.
The 6 subtopics
Each one has its own page. AQA AS Psychology students sit this topic in the first year.
- Types of conformity and explanations for conformityInternalisation, identification and compliance as the three types of conformity, explained by informational social influence and normative social influence.Open →
- Conformity to social roles: Zimbardo's prison studySocial roles in Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiment: how guards and prisoners were selected and given their roles, how their behaviour changed over six days, and the criticisms of its realism, its ethics and its claim that the situation overwhelms personality.Open →
- Explanations for obedienceThe agentic state and legitimacy of authority as explanations for obedience, the situational variables that raise or lower it, and the obedience rates from Milgram's baseline study and its variations.Open →
- Resistance to social influenceSocial support and locus of control as the two factors that help people resist conformity and obedience, with the figures that show each one working.Open →
- Minority influenceHow a consistent, committed and flexible minority shifts majority opinion, including the two forms of consistency and the augmentation principle.Open →
- Social influence and social changeHow minority influence brings about social change through drawing attention, consistency, deeper processing, the augmentation principle, the snowball effect and social cryptomnesia, how majority influence and obedience research explain change, and the limits of social norms interventions.Open →
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
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Key term
Define compliance as a type of conformity.
Key term
What is informational social influence?
Key term
Define normative social influence.
Study
Describe Asch's conformity experiment and the variables that changed conformity.
Evaluation
How did Banuazizi and Movahedi criticise the realism of Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiment?
Process
How were participants selected and allocated to roles in Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiment?
Process
How did the prisoners respond in Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiment?
Process
Explain the agentic state as an explanation for obedience.
Key term
What is meant by legitimacy of authority?
Key term
Name the three situational variables that affect obedience.
Numbers
Give the obedience rates from Milgram's baseline study and its variations.
Who and when
What did Adorno propose about personality and obedience?
Evaluation
How do situational and dispositional explanations for obedience differ?
Key term
How does social support help people resist conformity and obedience?
Who and when
What is locus of control and how does it affect resistance?
Numbers
Give the conformity and obedience figures that show social support working.
Key term
What is minority influence?
Key term
Distinguish the two forms of consistency shown by an influential minority.
Key term
What is the augmentation principle in minority influence?
Key term
Which quality stops a persuasive minority being dismissed as rigid?
Process
Describe how a minority gradually converts the majority.
Process
Name the steps by which minority influence can lead to social change.
Key term
What is social cryptomnesia?
Process
Why may research into minority influence tell us little about real social change?
Study
What did Bickman's research show about uniform and obedience?
Take Social Influence further
The same content, four other ways.
Commonly confused
Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.
Internalisation vs Compliance
Internalisation: genuine private acceptance of a group's view that lasts. Compliance: public agreement that stops once the group is gone.
Informational social influence vs Normative social influence
Informational social influence: conforming out of a desire to be correct. Normative social influence: conforming out of a desire to be liked.
Agentic state vs Legitimacy of authority
Agentic state: seeing oneself as an instrument carrying out another's wishes. Legitimacy of authority: social power granted by an accepted position in a hierarchy.
Questions from this topic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
What is internalisation as a type of conformity?
Model answer
Internalisation is when an individual genuinely accepts the group's views and adopts them as their own, both publicly and privately.
- 2
How long-lasting is the change in behaviour and beliefs that results from internalisation?
Model answer
Internalisation represents a permanent change that persists even when the group is no longer present.
- 3
Define compliance as a type of conformity.
Model answer
Compliance is when an individual publicly conforms to the group's behaviour or views but privately maintains their own beliefs.
- 4
Why is compliance considered a superficial form of conformity?
Model answer
Compliance is temporary and only occurs in the presence of the group; the individual does not genuinely change their private beliefs.
- 5
What is the key distinction between internalisation and compliance?
Model answer
In internalisation, the individual's private beliefs change to match the group's views; in compliance, private beliefs remain unchanged despite public conformity.
- 6
What is informational social influence?
Model answer
Informational social influence occurs when an individual conforms because they believe the group possesses more knowledge or information than they do, leading them to accept the group's view as correct.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Social Influence revision questions
- Is Social Influence examined at AS in AQA Psychology?
- Yes. It sits in Paper 1, which you take in the first year, so it is on the AS paper as well as counting towards the full A level.
- What does Social Influence cover in AQA AS-Level Psychology?
- 6 subtopics: types of conformity and explanations for conformity, conformity to social roles: zimbardo's prison study, explanations for obedience, resistance to social influence, minority influence and social influence and social change. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
- How is Social Influence organised?
- By the AQA 7182 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.
Every question in Social Influence, on a schedule.
Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.
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