SAMPLE. 1. Would you describe in your own words your experiences during this experiment?

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1 RM Application Worksheet: Social Key Study: Asch (1956) Asch (1956) conducted research to examine the extent to which social pressure from a majority, affects conformity. Using a line judgement task, he found that on average the real participants conformed to incorrect answers on 32% of the critical trials. 74% of the participants conformed on at least one critical trial and 26% of the participants never conformed. Asch interviewed his participants after the experiment to find out why they conformed, a selection of the questions can be found below. Although the questions were planned in advance, the interviewers modified the questions to explore interesting answers further: 1. Would you describe in your own words your experiences during this experiment? 6a. Did you ever answer as the other did, against your own first choice? (Yes, No ). 8. While you were comparing the lines, what did you think our purpose was in this experiment? (Asch, 1956, p. 25) RM Application Questions: 1. Identify which of the questions from 1, 6a and 8 are open? Give one advantage of using an open question. (3 marks) 2. Interviews are one type of self-report technique. Identify another self-report technique and explain one strength of your chosen technique, in comparison to interviews. (3 marks) 3. Asch noted that some of the questions (e.g. question 8) called for free replies and that the interviewer made notes to these questions, as the participant was speaking. Outline one issue with how Asch chose to record the participants responses during the interview. (2 marks) 4. Once the interviews were completed all of the interviewer notes were analysed. Explain how content analysis could be used to analyse the interview notes. (3 marks) 5. At the end of the interview Asch debriefed each of his participants. Write a debrief that Asch could read out the participants. (6 marks) 6. Asch s research has been replicated many times, however other researchers (e.g. Perrin and Spencer, 1980) have not always found the similar results. Outline what is meant by replication and explain why replication is an important part of the scientific process. (3 marks)

2 RM Application Questions Suggested Answers 1. Identify which of the questions from 1, 6a and 8 are open? Give one advantage of using an open question. (3 marks) Questions 1 and 8 are open questions. One advantage of using an open question is that the participant is able to provide more depth/detail in their response making the information more meaningful, as the participant is able to justify their answers. 2. Interviews are one type of self-report technique. Identify another self-report technique and explain one strength of your chosen technique, in comparison to interviews. (3 marks). Questionnaires are another type of self-report technique. Questionnaires are typically less time consuming and costly to administer, because once the questionnaire is designed it can be administered by anyone, whereas an interview requires a trained psychologist to administer them. [Furthermore, interviews can typically only be administered one at a time, whereas a questionnaire can be given to multiple participants at once, making questionnaires more time efficient to administer]. 3. Asch noted that some of the questions (e.g. question 8) called for free replies and that the interviewer made notes to these questions, as the participant was speaking. Outline one issue with how Asch chose to record the participants responses during the interview. (2 marks) One issue with the way in which Asch chose to record the responses is that the interviewer might be unable to record all of the information or might deliberately (consciously or unconsciously) only record information which supports the aim of the experiment. This could make the data collection less valid, as key information may be left out. 4. Once the interviews were completed all of the interviewer notes were analysed. Explain how content analysis could be used to analyse the interview notes. (3 marks) The psychologist would need to identify a number of categories or themes that apply to the interview notes. Such themes might include: how they felt when disagreeing with the majority and/or what they thought about the experimenter. The psychologist could then re-read the responses and count the number of responses to provide quantitative data for each category. For example, the psychologist might find that 24 of the participants felt stressed/anxious when disagreeing with the majority. 5. At the end of the interview Asch debriefed each of his participants. Write a debrief that Asch could read out the participants. (6 marks) [Note: If the question asks you to write a debrief that could be read out, then you need to write it in verbatim format, which means exactly how you would say it, for example ] Thank you for taking part in my study. The aim of this study was to investigate how social pressure from a majority, affects conformity. In the experiment, you were the

3 only real participant and were seated with seven confederates, who were actors. The confederates were instructed to give an incorrect answer on 12 of the 18 trials to see if you would conform and go along with the majority or remain independent. Unfortunately, we had to deceive you about the aim of the experiment, because if we had told you this before the experiment, it is unlikely that we would have gained an accurate response. You have the right to withdraw from the experiment until the data is published and should you wish to discuss any concerns you have in relation to this experiment or the way you responded, please contact me on: Asch s research has been replicated many times, however other researchers (e.g. Perrin and Spencer, 1980) have not always found the similar results. Outline what is meant by replication and explain why replication is an important part of the scientific process. (3 marks) The term replication refers to the process of repeating a study in order to test reliability/validity. Replication allows researchers to check and verify scientific information. Replication is an important part of the scientific process because if we wish to draw conclusions from the Asch study then the procedures and findings should be repeated, either to increase confidence in the results or to strengthen the theory. However, because other researchers (e.g. Perrin and Spencer) have been unable to replicate the Asch study, this allows psychologists to propose alternate explanations/theories.

4 RM Key Study Application Worksheet: Social Influence Topic: Conformity to social roles (Zimbardo, 1973) In one of the most infamous studies of all time, Dr Philip Zimbardo asked for volunteers to take part in a study of prison life. Volunteers would be paid $15 each day that they took part. From the volunteers, Zimbardo and his colleagues selected 24 males to stay in his mock prison at Stanford University. Zimbardo randomly allocated half of the participants to the role of prisoner, and the other half the role of prison guard. The prisoners were arrested a day earlier than agreed, by real police officers. Once housed in the jail the prisoners were deloused, given smocks and were addressed only by number, rather than name. Zimbardo himself acted as the prison warden, and he told the guards that no physical violence was permitted but that they must maintain order. After only one night the prisoners rebelled against their lack of status, with the guards responding strongly and a prisoner being placed in solitary confinement. From then on the guards became oppressive and authoritarian, depriving the prisoners of sleep and forcing them to clean toilets with their bare hands. The study was planned to last 14 days but after only six days fellow psychologist Dr Christina Maslach (Zimbardo s girlfriend at the time, now wife) begged Zimbardo to end the experiment due to the extreme distress the participants were suffering. RM Application Questions: 1. Discuss the validity of Zimbardo s research. (4 marks) 2. Zimbardo paid his participants $15 per day. Explain why this could present an ethical issue in this study. (2 marks) 3. Identify one other ethical issue with this study. (2 marks) 4. Explain how Zimbardo could have dealt with this ethical issue. (2 marks) 5. Explain how Zimbardo could have randomly allocated which volunteers were guards and which were prisoners. (2 marks) 6. Zimbardo took on the role of a prison warden. How might this have affected the objectivity of his research? (3 marks) tutor2 AQA A Level Psychology RM Application Worksheet (Edition 1)

5 RM Application Questions Suggested Answers 1. Discuss the validity of Zimbardo s research. (4 marks). On the one hand, the ecological validity could be deemed as being poor due to the fact participants knew they were being studied and it took place in an artificial prison, rather than a real prison. On the other hand, Zimbardo went some way to improving the ecological validity by having a realistic setting, having a real arrest from real police officers and recreating aspects of real prison life, like delousing and prisoners wearing smocks. 2. Zimbardo paid his participants $15 per day. Explain why this could present an ethical issue in this study.(2 marks) This presents an ethical problem because the financial inducement may persuade participants to carry on with the study when they might have otherwise withdrawn. Participants may suffer just to earn more money. 3. Identify one other ethical issue with this study. (2 marks) This may vary from deception (arresting early) to physical harm (sleep deprivation) or psychological harm (stress). 4. Explain how Zimbardo could have dealt with this ethical issue. (2 marks) Zimbardo could have prevented the deception by informing them that they would be arrested. He could have avoided the physical and psychological harm by asking an independent researcher to act as an ethical advisor and instructing them to stop the study as soon as any harm appeared likely. 5. Explain how Zimbardo could have randomly allocated which volunteers were guards and which were prisoners. (2 marks) This could be done by the toss of a coin. If it lands on heads, then that participant will be a prisoner. If it lands on tails, then they would be a guard. Names could also be drawn from a hat. 6. How might Zimbardo playing the role of prison warden have affected the objectivity of his research? (3 marks) Because Zimbardo was involved in the study himself, it means he cannot look upon the results totally free from bias. An objective stance is one that is free totally from bias. In this case, Zimbardo was too involved and was on the same side as the guards, meaning his interpretation of results may have become biased and subjective, meaning the validity of his results can be questioned. tutor2 AQA A Level Psychology RM Application Worksheet (Edition 1)

6 RM Key Study Application Worksheet: Social Influence Topic: Obedience (Milgram, 1963) Would you give a lethal electric shock to a stranger, just because a man in a lab coat told you to? Stanley Milgram was a social psychologist who wanted to investigate obedience. To do this, he invited male participants to his Yale University laboratory to take part in a study on memory. The study was in fact about obedience. The participants met another participant (really an actor) and drew lots to decide who was the teacher and who would be the learner. They then saw them strapped up to a shock generator in a separate room and were instructed to give them shocks every time they got an answer wrong. These shocks were increased by 15V for each wrong answer, going up to 450V. Despite hearing the learner scream and beg to be released (actually a tape recording - the learner received no shocks), all participants continued to shock past 300V. When they asked to leave, the experimenter (an actor in a grey lab coat) instructed them that the experiment must go on. 68% of participants shocked all the way to 450V. Milgram suggested that humans are highly obedient to what is perceived as a legitimate authority and that by allowing for an agentic shift (where blame is removed from the participant and responsibility is taken by the authority figure), obedience will increase. RM Application Questions: 1. Some participants were not debriefed until 11 months after the experiment. Why this is an ethical issue. (2 marks) 2. Explain why Milgram chose to use a recording of the screams, rather than ask the actor to act these out each time. (2 marks) 3. An important part of science is theory construction. This can take place using induction or deduction. Milgram conducted his research and then developed a theory after studying his results. Is this induction or deduction? Explain your answer. (2 marks) 4. An important part of theory construction is hypothesis testing. How could Milgram use hypothesis testing to test his theory about a legitimate authority being necessary for obedience? (2 marks) 5. A good scientific theory should be able to be falsified. Explain what this means, with reference to Milgram s study. (4 marks)

7 RM Application Questions Suggested Answers 1. Some participants were not debriefed until 11 months after the experiment. Explain the ethical issues with this. (2 marks) This could potentially have caused psychological harm through feelings of guilt. The participants may have felt guilty about what they may have done to the learner. One participant was reported as saying he had checked the obituaries and death notices in the local papers every day since the experiment as he was convinced he had killed the learner. 2. Explain why Milgram chose to use a recording of the screams, rather than ask the actor to act these out each time. (2 marks) This use of a recording means that each participant received standardised responses, rather than relying on an actor whose responses may differ slightly. This means the study is more controlled and reliability is likely to be higher. 3. An important part of science is theory construction. This can take place using induction or deduction. Milgram conducted his research and then developed a theory after studying his results. Is this induction or deduction? Explain your answer. (2 marks) This is an example of induction as the observations and testing occurs first, followed by a theory being produced following the experiments and observations. Deduction would have produced the theory of legitimate authority and agentic shift first. 4. An important part of theory construction is hypothesis testing. How could Milgram use hypothesis testing to test his theory about a legitimate authority being necessary for obedience? (2 marks) Milgram could have conducted another study where he compared obedience from a legitimate authority (an experimenter at Yale University) to an illegitimate authority (in a rundown office in Bridgeport). His hypothesis would be that obedience levels would be higher at Yale than in the rundown office. If he found this, then it supports his theory. 5. A good scientific theory should be able to be falsified. Explain what this means, with reference to Milgram s study. (4 marks) It is important for a theory to have the ability to be falsified, where a psychologist attempts to show that their hypothesis is incorrect. If there a theory is not falsifiable, then there is no way of saying whether the theory is correct or incorrect. Milgram s legitimate authority could be disproven by finding higher levels of obedience in an illegitimate authority setting; therefore, it follows the scientific method. A theory like Freud s cannot be disproven because there is very little empirical data to test; therefore, it cannot be deemed scientific.

8 RM Application Worksheet: Social Influence Topic: Elms and Milgram (1966) Milgram s groundbreaking obedience study showed that people would obey a legitimate authority to follow extreme orders. Milgram then wanted to test why people behaved in this way. After varying the study to test the legitimate authority and agentic shift explanations, Milgram planned one more study. To test the theory that obedience varies due to personality factors, Milgram and Elms used the F-scale questionnaire to measure participants views on fascism (with the idea that a fascist person is more authoritarian). The participants scores were then correlated with the voltage shocks that they delivered in the standard obedience paradigm. Milgram and Elms found that the higher a participant s F-scale score, the longer they shocked in the obedience study, concluding that some people are more obedient than others because they had an authoritarian personality. RM Application Questions: 1. Outline one issue with measuring the level of authoritarianism using a self-report questionnaire? (2 marks) 2. The questionnaires were given to the participants before they were informed about the aim of the study. If the participants had been informed about the aim of the study before completing the questionnaire, how might this have affected the validity of the findings? (2 marks) 3. Evaluate whether this study is likely to have good temporal validity. (4 marks) 4. Explain what Milgram and Elms would have included in an introduction section of their journal article. (2 marks) 5. A discussion section evaluates the quality of the study and suggests ideas for further research. Suggest one idea for further research that Milgram and Elms may have discussed. (3 marks) 6. Milgram and Elms finished their journal article with a references section. Explain why this references section is important. (3 marks) tutor2u AQA A Level Psychology RM Key Study Application Worksheet (Edition 1)

9 RM Application Questions Suggested Answers: 1. Outline one issue with measuring the level of authoritarianism using a self-report questionnaire? (2 marks) Self-report measures are prone to demand characteristics, such as social desirability bias. The participants may change their answers so that they do not seem as authoritarian as they are, meaning the validity of the study is compromised. 2. The questionnaires were given to the participants before they were informed about the aim of the study. If the participants had been informed about the aim of the study before completing the questionnaire, how might this have affected the validity of the findings? (2 marks) This may have led to a problem with demand characteristics. The questionnaire may have prompted the participants to think that the study was actually about their personality characteristics, meaning that the study could lack internal validity as Elms and Milgram would not have been measuring what they set out to measure. 3. Evaluate whether or not this study is likely to have good temporal validity. (4 marks) Temporal validity is the extent to which the results will generalise over time. On the one hand, it could be argued that the study will generalise over time as society s attitudes to fascism and authority haven t changed drastically in America in the past 50 years. On the other hand, it is more likely that these results would not generalise over time as society in 1960s America may have reacted more strongly against fascism as the Second World War was still a conscious memory for more people and, as such, fewer people are likely to score high on the questionnaire. 4. Explain what Milgram and Elms would have included in an introduction section of their journal article. (2 marks) The introduction section of a report outlines the aims, hypotheses and justifications for the study. Elms and Milgram will have explained what they predict will happen and will explain why they were interested in the topic of authoritarian personalities, including links to previous research on the subject. 5. A discussion section evaluates the quality of the study and suggests ideas for further research. Suggest one idea for further research that Milgram and Elms may have discussed. (3 marks) One possible idea for further investigation might be to find a different way of measuring whether someone has an authoritarian personality, without using a self-report questionnaire. This could involve choosing people from authoritarian jobs or doing observations of people in authoritarian situations before the study. Other ideas might include broadening the population validity by researching other cultures and other samples. 6. Milgram and Elms finished their journal article with a references section. Explain why this references section is important. (3 marks) The references section is important so that the work can be checked for accuracy and plagiarism. Furthermore, if someone was reading the article and became more interested in the topic and wanted to investigate it more, the references section would tutor2u AQA A Level Psychology RM Key Study Application Worksheet (Edition 1)

10 point them in the direction of where they could read more about the research in that field. tutor2u AQA A Level Psychology RM Key Study Application Worksheet (Edition 1)

11 RM Application Worksheet: Social Influence Topic: Oliver and Oliver (1998) Why did some people resist the Nazis terror whilst some obeyed? Psychologists have sought to answer the question of why some people manage to resist obedience, and some do not. One theory suggested that a person s locus of control could predict whether they resisted or not. This dispositional variance tells us how much someone attributes their behaviour to themselves (an internal locus of control) or whether they attribute blame elsewhere (an external locus of control). Oliver and Oliver used a sample of 532 non-jewish survivors of WWII. Their locus of control was measured using a questionnaire, and then they were interviewed about whether they were a protector of Jews or not in the War. Their locus of control and whether or not they were protectors was then analysed. It was found that those with an internal locus of control were significantly more likely to be protectors than those with an external locus of control. RM Application Questions: 1. This study had no control and studied a pre-existing difference between groups (locus of control and whether they were protectors or not). Which experimental method is this? Justify your answer. (2 marks) 2. Outline one ethical issue which would need to be considered by the researchers of this study. (2 marks) 3. Outline one issue with the sample examined in this study. (2 marks) 4. Evaluate the use of the self-report techniques (interviews and questionnaires) used in this study. (4 marks) 5. The participants were split into internal/external and protector/non-protector. Which statistical test should be used to analyse the significance of the difference between the groups? Justify your choice. (3 marks) marks) 6. The term protector is hard to define. Explain why it is important that the researchers operationalised what is meant by the term protector in this study. (4

12 RM Application Questions Suggested Answers 1. This study had no control and studied a pre-existing difference between groups (locus of control and whether they were protectors or not). Which experimental method is this? Justify your answer. (2 marks) This is a quasi-study as the difference is pre-existing and has not been manipulated by a researcher. 2. Outline one ethical issue which would need to be considered by the researchers of this study. (2 marks) The most likely ethical issue to arise in this study is the risk of psychological harm. The memories of WWII are likely to be traumatic both for the protectors who fought to look after Jewish people as well as possibly causing guilt for those who were not protectors. This could have been resolved with a good debrief and access to further counselling, where required. 3. Outline one issue with the sample examined in this study. (2 marks) The sample is likely to be very unrepresentative. All the participants will be of an older age and have had a traumatic period in their life. It could mean that their locus of control has been affected by their experiences and so this isn t a valid way of measuring the effect of locus of control on resisting obedience. We cannot generalise these findings to younger people with different life experiences. 4. Evaluate the use of the self-report techniques (interviews and questionnaires) used in this study. (4 marks) This is quite a sensitive topic, and so the participants may answer differently because of social desirability bias. Their locus of control rating may reflect this or they may change their answers in the interviews. Furthermore, because the interviews will have taken place a significant amount of time after WWII, it is likely that memories may not be truly accurate. 5. The participants were split into internal/external and protector/non-protector. Which statistical test should be used to analyse the significance of the difference between the groups? Justify your choice. (3 marks) The Chi-squared test would be used here as it is a test of difference at the nominal level of data, using an independent groups design. 6. The term protector is hard to define. Explain why it is important that the researchers operationalised what is meant by the term protector in this study. (4 marks) This term must be operationalised, so it is clear what is meant by the term protector. All researchers must agree on what classes as being a protector, so they are all grouping participant behaviour using the same guidelines. If they differ in their classifications, then it may mean one person is incorrectly labelled a protector when they weren t, meaning the results cannot be fully trusted. One way of doing this might be only counting them as a protector if they housed a Jewish person in WWII.

13 RM Application Worksheet: Social Influence Topic: Resisting conformity (Spector, 1983) Spector s study wanted to investigate whether personality traits affected whether people conformed or not. In a very simple study, 157 University students took Rotter s locus of control questionnaire and then took part in a conformity task. Their locus of control score was then viewed alongside their performance in the conformity task. It was found that the higher the students internal locus of control, the less likely they were to conform due to normative social influence (no effect was found in the informational social influence variation). Spector concluded that having an internal locus of control means people are more likely to resist conforming due to a desire to be liked. RM Application Questions 1. Which type of validity does the use of university students compromise? (2 marks) 2. Explain the importance of having a large sample size, such as in Spector s study. (3 marks) 3. This study could have found a correlation between locus of control score and a conformity score given using a fixed scale. In this scenario, which statistical test would be used to determine if there was a significant relationship between the two variables? Justify your choice. (2 marks) 4. Which type of graph is best used to plot relationships? (1 mark) marks) 5. In this study, there was a negative correlation between locus of control score and conformity score. What is the correlation coefficient of a perfectly negative correlation? (1 mark) 6. Explain the problems with deriving conclusions from correlational research. (4

14 RM Application Questions Suggested Answers 1. Which type of validity does the use of university students compromise? (2 marks) Population validity is when the results of a study cannot be generalised to other people. This is compromised in this study as students are not representative of the general population, as they are young and have an above average IQ. The same results may not be found in other people. 2. Explain the importance of having a large sample size, such as in Spector s study. A large sample size ensures that conclusions are more trustworthy. If a small sample size is used, then individual differences and anomalies are exaggerated when calculating averages, whereas a larger sample size ensures any anomalies or individual differences are less likely to have an effect on the true outcome of the study. 3. This study could have found a correlation between locus of control score and a conformity score given using a fixed scale. In this scenario, which statistical test would be used to determine if there was a significant relationship between the two variables? Pearson s product moment would be used to test the significance of a correlation between data at an interval level. 4. Which type of graph is best used to plot relationships? (1 mark) A scattergraph would be used here. 5. In this study, there was a negative correlation between locus of control score and conformity score. What is the correlation coefficient of a perfectly negative correlation? (1 mark) Explain the problems deriving conclusions from correlational research. Correlational research indicates where there is a relationship between variables, but it does not necessarily mean there is a causal relationship. It could be by chance that two variables correlate, known as a spurious correlation (Facebook users and e-cigarette sales are positively correlated); or it could also not take into account a third variable that is causing a change in both variables (ice cream sales and shark attacks positively correlate, but this is down to temperature). In this study, an internal locus of control may not cause a resistance to conformity; instead, they may both be caused by a third variable.

15 RM Key Study Application Worksheet: Social Influence Topic: Maas et al. (1982) Maas and colleagues wanted to investigate whether group membership affected whether or not a minority could influence a majority. In a very simple study, a minority (who was an actor) was given the job of trying to change heterosexual men s opinions on gay rights matters. It was found that the minority was significantly more effective when they were also heterosexual men, in comparison with the minority group being homosexual men. This suggests that a minority is more persuasive when they are seen as members of the same group as those they are trying to persuade. RM Application Questions 1. Explain how this study could have collected quantitative data. (2 marks) 2. Explain how this study could have collected qualitative data. (2 marks) 3. The participants in this study were deceived, as they did not know that the study involved an actor. Justify why deception was necessary for this study. (3 marks) 4. Outline two ways in which the researchers could have dealt with the issue of deception. (4 marks) 5. Outline one issue with the same used in this study. (3 marks) 6. Discuss the temporal validity of this study. (3 marks)

16 RM Application Questions Suggested Answers 1. Explain how this study could have collected quantitative data. (2 marks) Quantitative data is numbers. This could have been collected by asking how many heterosexual men now agreed with civil ceremonies for gay men, after speaking with the minority. 2. Explain how this study could have collected qualitative data. (2 marks) Qualitative data is non-numerical. This could have been collected by asking the heterosexual men their opinions on gay rights following their time with the minority. 3. The participants in this study were deceived, as they did not know that the study involved an actor. Justify why deception was necessary for this study. (3 marks) Deception was necessary to ascertain a valid measure of conformity. If the participants had known the minority was an actor, then demand characteristics would have affected their behaviour, and this would mean their responses were not trustworthy. Furthermore, the risk of harm was minimal so the researchers may argue that the benefits of the deception outweigh the possible costs. 4. Outline two ways in which the researchers could have dealt with the issue of deception. (4 marks) The researchers will have had their proposal checked by an ethics board at the University, to ensure there are no risks they have missed in their planning. Furthermore, they will ensure each participant is debriefed as to the true aim of the study and offer them the right to withdraw their results and ask further questions or have counselling. One way of dealing with the problem of lacking informed consent would be to seek presumptive consent, where the researchers ask people similar to the participants if they would be happy to take part in a study involving such deception. If they agree then the study is likely to be worthy of the deception and can proceed. 5. Outline one issue with the same used in this study. (3 marks) One problem with the study is that it only used heterosexual men. This is a problem because we do not know whether the results are generalisable to homosexual men or women. We do not know whether it is all group membership that increases social change, or just this particular group. On the other hand, if the results are just to be generalised to gay rights then this sample is reasonable, and the population validity is high as heterosexual men are the actual target population. 6. Discuss the temporal validity of this study. (3 marks) Temporal validity is the extent to which results are generalisable over time. This study was done in the 1980s when gay rights were very different to what they are now, and public perception of homosexuals was also very different. It may mean that the results cannot be applied to modern day.

17 RM Application Worksheet: Social Influence Topic: Minority influence (Moscovici, 1969) How does a minority exert influence on a majority? Moscovici wanted to investigate why some minorities can influence people, while some minorities can t. To do this, he set up a simple study on conformity. 172 female participants were placed in groups of 6, with four real participants and two confederates in each group. The participants were shown 36 blue slides and had to state whether they were blue or green. The confederates were either consistent in their incorrect answers (saying green on all 36 slides) or were inconsistent ( green 24 times and blue 12 times). Moscovici found that a minority can have a small influence on a majority, especially if they were consistent. The participants conformed to the inconsistent minority 1.25% of the time and conformed to the consistent minority 8.2% of the time. RM Application Questions 1. Evaluate the use of a laboratory study to investigate minority influence. (4 marks) 2. Describe how this study broke ethical guidelines. (2 marks) 3. Outline which experimental design was used in this study. (2 marks) 4. Explain the problem with using only females in this investigation. (2 marks) 5. If each participant was ranked on how often they conformed, which statistical test could be used to investigate the difference between the consistent group and the inconsistent group. (2 marks) 6. Explain how the researchers could make a type 2 error in their statistical analysis of their results. (2 marks)

18 RM Application Questions Suggested Answers 1. Evaluate the use of a laboratory study to investigate minority influence. (4 marks) A laboratory study is appropriate for this investigation as it means the experiment is more easily be replicated in a controlled environment. Furthermore, potential extraneous variables like noise and temperature can be controlled. However, a problem with this experimental method, however, is that it is not a realistic task and the conformity task may not generalise to real-life conformity outside of the laboratory. 2. Describe how this study broke ethical guidelines. (2 marks) The participants were deceived about the true aim of the study in this experiment as they believed it was about the perception of colours, but instead, it was about minority influence and conformity. This means that the participants have not given their full informed consent. 3. Outline which experimental design was used in this study. (2 marks) Participants were either in the consistent or inconsistent condition, meaning that this was an independent groups design. Each participant took part in one condition. 4. Explain the problem with using only females in this investigation. (2 marks) An investigation which only uses female participants cannot be generalised to men. The results may be very different if tested using men as they are qualitatively different to women. Their conformity levels may be dramatically different. A wholly female sample is known as a gynocentric sample. 5. If each participant was ranked on how often they conformed, which statistical test could be used to investigate the difference between the consistent group and the inconsistent group. (2 marks) A Mann-Whitney U test would be used for a test of difference of ordinal data, using an independent groups design. 6. Explain how the researchers could make a type 2 error in their statistical analysis of their results. (2 marks) A type 2 error is when a null hypothesis is falsely accepted when it should have been rejected. This may occur if a researcher set too strict a significance level in their statistical test, such as using the 0.01 level rather than 0.05.

19 RM Application Worksheet: Social Influence Topic: Minority influence (Nemeth, 1986) Nemeth s study wanted to investigate why some minorities had influence but some didn t. The study chose to investigate the impact of flexibility. The participants were placed into groups of 4, with one confederate, and were given the task of deciding how much compensation to give to a victim of a ski-lift accident. They were either in groups where: a) The minority refused to change their position (inflexible), or b) The minority was willing to compromise (flexible) It was found that the participants in the second condition (flexible) were significantly more likely to change their agreed compensation to be in line with the minority, suggesting that a flexible minority had more influence than an inflexible one. This challenges Moscovici s views about a consistent message being powerful in minority influence. RM Application Questions 1. Write a null hypothesis for this study. (3 marks) 2. Would Nemeth have accepted this null hypothesis? Explain your answer. (2 marks) 3. Nemeth used a pilot study when planning his investigation. Explain the purpose of a pilot study in this investigation. (3 marks) 4. Outline one ethical issue in this study. (2 marks) 5. Explain how Nemeth could have justified the ethics of their study. (2 marks. 6. Each group were given the same scenario, and the confederate was given the same instructions in each condition. Explain the importance of standardisation in psychological investigations, referring to Nemeth s study in your answer. (4 marks)

20 RM Application Questions Suggested Answers 1. Write a null hypothesis for this study. (3 marks) There will be no significant difference between the inflexible minority and the flexible minority, in terms of how much they changed their compensation decision (in s). 2. Would Nemeth have accepted this null hypothesis? Explain your answer. (2 marks) No. As the second group (flexible minority) changed their answers significantly more, in line with the minority, then the null hypothesis would have been rejected, and the alternate hypothesis would have been accepted. 3. Nemeth used a pilot study when planning his investigation. Explain the purpose of a pilot study in this investigation. (3 marks) Pilot studies are used to check the methodology and ethics of a study. In this instance, a pilot study will have been able to check that the participants understood their instructions about giving compensation, or to check whether there were any unexpected ethical issues caused by the study, which may need preventative measures being put in place to protect future participants. 4. Outline one ethical issue in this study. (2 marks) The main ethical issue with this study is the element of deception caused by the use of a confederate playing the part of a minority influence. This compromises their ability to give informed consent, as they are not informed about this aspect of the study. 5. Explain how Nemeth could have justified the ethics of their study. (2 marks) Nemeth would have justified this deception by maintaining that it is essential to avoid demand characteristics. If the participants knew that the fourth group member was an actor, then they would not be behaving normally, and this would then compromise the internal validity of the study. 6. Each group were given the same scenario, and the confederate was given the same instructions in each condition. Explain the importance of standardisation in psychological investigations, referring to Nemeth s study in your answer. (4 marks) Standardisation is important in psychological studies so that the research has a high level of control and that each participant has the same experience. This makes studies fair tests and means we can trust that conclusions aren t down to extraneous variables. For instance, in this study, the Confederate would have had to behave in the same way in each replication of the study so that the independent variable (flexibility) was isolated and the dependent variable (conformity) was not affected by a change in the behaviour of the confederate each time.