Socio
cultural

Explanation

It was created in the 1960s by Albert Bandura. The theory aimed to explain how individuals learn behaviours through observing others perform them and the consequence that follow. This occurs to varying degrees, depending on five conditions: attention, retention, motivation, mobility and self-efficacy.

According to Bandura, the model being observed has an intrinsic impact on whether or not the behaviour would be learned. If the model is of e.g. same sex and background, the observer is significantly more likely to allocate attention to said model; however, if the opposite, attention is significantly lost. Additionally, Bandura argued, motivation relied on additional key factors: outcome expectancy and consistency.

Outcome expectancy is influenced by vicarious reinforcement/punishment. If the model receives positive/negative reinforcement for exhibiting the behaviour, the observer indirectly (vicariously) learns to expect a positive/negative outcome. Lastly, if the model's behaviour and reinforcement are consistent, the observers motivation to replicate the behaviour increases/decreases

Abrams et al. (1990)

The aim of the study was to determine if in-group identity would affect one's willingness to conform.

The sample consisted of 50 undergraduate students who were enrolled in an introductory psychology course. All participants were from a prestigious university.

The research method used was an independent research design. Additionally, a 2x2 factorial design was employed, manipulating two independent variables:

The procedure went as follows:
At the beginning of the experiment, confederates were introduced as either first-year psychology students (in-group) or ancient history students (out-group). Participants and confederates were seated in a row facing a monitor displaying a stimulus line and three comparison lines. Using the Asch paradigm, participants were asked to determine which of the three lines matched the stimulus line. There were 18 trials in total: In nine of these trials, confederates provided the correct answer. In the remaining nine trials, confederates gave unanimous incorrect responses. In the public condition, all participants, including the real participant, stated their answers aloud, and the experimenter recorded the responses. In the private condition, the experimenter asked one of the participants to record responses instead of stating them aloud. The real participant, who was conveniently placed nearest, recorded responses privately while the confederates still stated their responses aloud.

The results were as follows:

• 77% of participants conformed at least once to the incorrect confederate responses
• 32% of total responses were conforming, with 138 out of 432 trials showing conformity
• The highest level of conformity was observed in the in-group public condition, with a mean of 5.23 conforming responses
• The lowest level of conformity was recorded in the out-group public condition, with a mean of 0.75
• The in-group private and out-group private conditions showed no significant difference, with means of 3.00 and 2.33, respectively

The findings suggest, social categorisation plays a significant role in public conformity and show that participants are more likely to conform to in-group members than out-group members when their responses were public. Lastly, the findings support the idea that social identity influences conformity levels