AQA Social Influence Pack for AS and A-level Psychology

This is NOT an official resource provided by AQA and should not be considered as an alternative to teaching/essay practice. These notes are designed as comprehensive revision notes for students themselves to base their revision on, per the specification.

The topics covered:

• Types of conformity: internalisation, identification and compliance.
• Explanations for conformity: informational social influence and normative social influence
• Variables affecting conformity including group size, unanimity and task difficulty as investigated by Asch.
• Conformity to social roles as investigated by Zimbardo.
• Explanations for obedience: agentic state and legitimacy of authority
• Situational variables affecting obedience including proximity and location, as investigated by Milgram, and uniform.
• Dispositional explanation for obedience: the Authoritarian Personality.
• Explanations of resistance to social influence, including social support and locus of control.
• Minority influence including reference to consistency, commitment and flexibility.
• The role of social influence processes in social change.