Social Psychology (PSYC 220) Conformity, Obedience, and Groupthink Exam Review
University of California, Irvine
Social Psychology (PSYC 220) | Exam Review

Overview
A high-yield review of why people conform, why obedience happens, and how group decision-making can fail, with experiment-style prompts and classic study takeaways.

Key topics
•normative vs informational influence
•Asch-style conformity drivers
•Milgram obedience situation factors
•Stanford prison debate framing
•groupthink symptoms and prevention

Suggested study tasks
•classify scenarios as normative or informational influence
•predict how one variable changes conformity rates
•explain one obedience outcome using situational forces
•identify groupthink symptoms in a case
•write a short answer on how to prevent groupthink in teams

Common pitfalls
•explaining behavior only with personality
•mixing up conformity with compliance
•ignoring situation design in classic studies
•using groupthink as a vague label without symptoms