Conformity is changing your behaviour or opinions to match those of a group. The change happens because of real or imagined group pressure.

What did Asch's line judgement study show about conformity?

Asch found that participants gave the same obviously wrong answer as a group of confederates on about a third of critical trials. Roughly three-quarters of participants conformed at least once.

How does locus of control affect conformity?

People with an internal locus of control believe they control their own lives and tend to conform less. People with an external locus of control are more likely to go along with a group.

How might self-esteem affect conformity?

People with low self-esteem are more likely to conform because they fear rejection and doubt their own judgement. Confident people with high self-esteem conform less.

Edexcel GCSE Psychology 1PS0

Development

Topic overview Early brain development Piaget's theory of cognitive development Dweck's mindset theory and Willingham's learning theory The three mountains task and Gunderson's praise study The development of morality

Memory

Topic overview Information processing, duration and capacity Retrograde and anterograde amnesia Bartlett's theory of reconstructive memory The multi-store model, reductionism and holism War of the Ghosts and the Peterson and Peterson study

Psychological Problems

Topic overview Symptoms of depression and addiction Incidence and effects of mental health problems Explaining depression Explaining addiction Treating depression and addiction Key studies and the nature–nurture debate

The Brain and Neuropsychology

Topic overview Lobes of the brain and the effects of damage Lateralisation and Sperry's split-brain study Neurons, synapses and the central nervous system Phineas Gage and how brain research has changed

Social Influence

Topic overview Conformity to majority influence Obedience to authority Bystander intervention Crowd behaviour, society and culture Piliavin's subway study and the Stanford prison study

Criminal PsychologyOptional topic

Topic overview Operant conditioning and social learning explanations of crime Eysenck's criminal personality theory Punishment, recidivism and rehabilitation Bandura's Bobo doll study and Charlton's St Helena study

The SelfOptional topic

Topic overview Self-concept and influences on self-esteem Erikson's identity stages and belief in free will Rogers' and Maslow's humanistic theory Measuring personality and trait theory Vohs and Schooler's cheating study and Van Houtte and Jarvis's pet study

PerceptionOptional topic

Topic overview Depth cues, visual illusions and constancies Gibson's direct theory and Gregory's constructivist theory Perceptual set The Haber and Levin and Carmichael studies

Sleep and DreamingOptional topic

Topic overview Sleep stages and the sleep cycle Influences on sleep and sleep disorders Freud's theory of dreaming and activation synthesis theory Freud's Little Hans and Siffre's cave study

Language, Thought and CommunicationOptional topic

Topic overview Piaget and Vygotsky on language and thought Linguistic relativism and determinism Human and animal communication Non-verbal communication and Darwin's evolutionary theory The Yuki and Boroditsky studies

Research Methods

Topic overview Variables, hypotheses and controls Sampling methods Experiments and experimental designs Interviews, questionnaires and types of data Correlations, case studies and observations Ethical issues in psychological research Evaluating studies and the core areas of psychology Averages, calculations and graphs

Social Influence

Conformity to majority influence

3 things to know
Paper 1

Overview

Conformity and majority influence, Asch's line judgement study, and how locus of control, self-esteem, expertise, group size, a dissenter, task difficulty and privacy affect conforming.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started

Key term

What is conformity?

Key term

What is meant by majority influence?

Key term

Why do people conform to a majority?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1
What is conformity?
Model answer
Conformity is changing your behaviour or opinions to match those of a group. The change happens because of real or imagined group pressure.
2
What is meant by majority influence?
Model answer
Majority influence is the effect a larger group has on the views or actions of an individual. The individual moves towards the position the majority holds.
3
Why do people conform to a majority?
Model answer
People may conform to be liked and accepted by the group, which is called normative influence. People may also conform because they believe the group is right, which is informational influence.
4
What did Asch's line judgement study show about conformity?
Model answer
Asch found that participants gave the same obviously wrong answer as a group of confederates on about a third of critical trials. Roughly three-quarters of participants conformed at least once.
5
How does locus of control affect conformity?
Model answer
People with an internal locus of control believe they control their own lives and tend to conform less. People with an external locus of control are more likely to go along with a group.
6
How might self-esteem affect conformity?
Model answer
People with low self-esteem are more likely to conform because they fear rejection and doubt their own judgement. Confident people with high self-esteem conform less.

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