Social influence

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infoWhy this? Conformity, obedience, bystander behaviour, and crowd behaviour reveal how our actions depend on both social situations and individual characteristics. Studying these influences helps us question assumptions about responsibility, explain helpful and harmful collective behaviour, and evaluate evidence about everyday social pressures.

scheduleWhy now? Following Psychological Problems, this unit broadens our earlier consideration of peer influence into a systematic comparison of social and dispositional explanations of behaviour. We can now draw on research-methods knowledge and experience of evaluating competing accounts to examine the validity, ethics, and real-world relevance of social influence studies.

Asch's study of conformity
Social factors (group size, anonymity and task difficulty) and dispositional factors (personality, expertise) affect conformity to majority influence
Milgram's agency theory of social factors affecting obedience
Explanation of dispositional factors affecting obedience including Adorno's theory of Authoritarian personality
Bystander behaviour and how social and dispositional factors affect bystander intervention
Piliavin's "Subway study"
Prosocial and antisocial behaviour in crowds – how social factors (social loafing, deindividuation and culture) and dispositional factors (personality and morality) affect collective behaviour

rocket_launchYou must be able to

Demonstrate knowledge of key studies and theories related to social influence, including conformity and obedience
Apply theories of social influence to real-life scenarios, explaining how social and dispositional factors influence behaviour
Analyse and evaluate research studies in social influence, discussing strengths and limitations, as well as implications for understanding human behaviour
Compare and contrast different explanations of conformity and obedience, considering the role of situational vs. dispositional factors.

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