OxfordAQA IGCSE Psychology: Conformity and Obedience (9218)

This guide covers the conformity and obedience content of 3.2.2 Social Influence, from OxfordAQA International GCSE Psychology (9218), Version 1.1, for International GCSE exams May/June 2025 onwards. Section 3.2.2 is a single, flat block of content in the specification rather than a set of numbered sub-headings.

Scope of this guide

3.2.2 Social Influence covers four strands: conformity to majority influence, obedience, bystander intervention, and prosocial/antisocial behaviour in crowds. This resource focuses on the first two strands — conformity and obedience — since each carries enough named research and theory to need proper depth. Bystander intervention (Piliavin, Latane and Darley, Levine) and collective crowd behaviour are left for a separate resource.

Syllabus coverage

OXFORDAQA INTERNATIONAL GCSE PSYCHOLOGY (9218) — 3.2.2 SOCIAL INFLUENCE (CONFORMITY AND OBEDIENCE)

• Identification and explanation of how social factors (group size, anonymity and task difficulty) and dispositional factors (personality, expertise) affect conformity to majority influence
• Conformity as investigated by Asch
• Obedience as investigated by Milgram
• Milgram’s Agency theory of social factors affecting obedience: agency, authority, culture and proximity
• Explanation of dispositional factors affecting obedience
• Adorno’s theory of the Authoritarian Personality

Asch’s conformity research

Asch used a line-judgement task: a naive participant sat with a group of confederates (accomplices posing as fellow participants) and, in turn, publicly said aloud which of three comparison lines matched a standard line in length — an easy, unambiguous judgement. On certain critical trials, the confederates unanimously gave the same wrong answer before the real participant responded. Averaged across the critical trials, participants conformed to the incorrect majority on around 37% of trials, and around 75% of participants conformed at least once during the study. Conformity was strongly affected by group size: it rose sharply as the number of opposing confederates increased from one to three, then levelled off, with little further increase in conformity once the majority grew beyond three.

Milgram’s obedience research

Milgram had participants believe they were administering increasingly severe electric shocks to another “participant” (a confederate) whenever that person answered a learning task incorrectly, under instruction from an experimenter using a standard set of verbal prods; no real shocks were given. Around 65% of participants obeyed to the maximum voltage level, despite showing visible signs of distress — a far higher rate of obedience than had been predicted beforehand.

How to approach it

Keep conformity and obedience conceptually distinct even though they are often taught together: conformity is changing behaviour to match a group’s norms, typically without direct instruction, while obedience is changing behaviour in direct response to an order from a figure of authority. Asch’s research is the reference study for conformity; Milgram’s is the reference study for obedience — be able to describe the basic procedure of each and at least one key finding, since questions frequently ask for a named study rather than a general description of the phenomenon.

For obedience, keep the social and dispositional explanations clearly separated. Agency theory (social/situational) explains obedience through the agentic state — the idea that a person passes moral responsibility to the authority figure they believe is directing them — alongside factors like proximity to the victim and legitimacy of the authority. Adorno’s Authoritarian Personality theory (dispositional) instead explains obedience through an individual’s personality traits, often linked to a strict upbringing. A common exam question asks candidates to compare a situational and a dispositional explanation of the same behaviour, so preparing this contrast explicitly pays off.

Task difficulty and anonymity are the other two social factors named in the specification alongside group size. Task difficulty affects conformity because ambiguous or difficult tasks make individuals less confident in their own judgement, increasing reliance on the group’s answer; anonymity tends to reduce conformity, because being identifiable increases the social pressure to publicly agree with the majority even when privately disagreeing. Keep these three social factors — group size, task difficulty and anonymity — ready as a set, since a question may ask for any one of them specifically.

Worked example: social vs dispositional factors in conformity

A question asks candidates to explain how one social factor and one dispositional factor affect conformity to majority influence.

Social factor:         group size — conformity tends to increase as the
                        size of the majority group increases, up to a
                        point, because a larger unanimous group creates
                        stronger normative pressure to agree
Dispositional factor:  personality — individuals with lower
                        self-esteem or a higher need for social
                        approval are more likely to conform, because
                        they are more sensitive to the social
                        consequences of disagreeing with the majority

Answering with one clearly labelled social factor and one clearly labelled dispositional factor, each with a brief explanation of the mechanism, is exactly the structure this content is assessed against.

Common mistakes

Treating conformity and obedience as the same phenomenon rather than distinguishing normative group pressure from direct authority. Naming Asch or Milgram without being able to describe what their research actually involved. Confusing Agency theory (a social/situational explanation) with the Authoritarian Personality (a dispositional explanation) when asked to compare explanation types. Listing factors affecting conformity or obedience without explaining the mechanism by which each factor has its effect.

Key terms to define precisely

Conformity — a change in behaviour or belief as a result of real or imagined group pressure, without a direct order to do so. Obedience — a change in behaviour in response to a direct command from a perceived authority figure. Agentic state — the psychological state, central to Milgram’s Agency theory, in which a person sees themselves as an instrument carrying out another person’s wishes and so no longer feels personally responsible for their actions. Legitimate authority — an authority figure whose right to give instructions is accepted because of their recognised social position, such as a scientist, teacher or police officer, which increases obedience compared to an authority figure without recognised legitimacy.

Being able to give a precise, one-sentence definition of each of these terms — rather than a vague paraphrase — is often what separates a mid-band answer from a top-band one, since exam mark schemes frequently reward accurate use of specification-specific vocabulary over general description.

Quick revision checklist

• Learn the basic procedure and one key finding of Asch’s conformity research and Milgram’s obedience research.
• Separate social/situational factors from dispositional/personality factors for both conformity and obedience.
• Know the four elements of Milgram’s Agency theory: agency, authority, culture and proximity.
• Be able to summarise Adorno’s Authoritarian Personality theory as a dispositional explanation of obedience.
• Practise answers that name one social and one dispositional factor side by side, as this comparison structure is commonly tested.

Related resources

• Conformity and Obedience revision notes
• Conformity and Obedience practice questions

Official syllabus

OxfordAQA International GCSE Psychology (9218) specification, Version 1.1 — oxfordaqa.com/9218.