SACE Stage 2 Psychology deep dive: Social Influence and The Psychology of Learning for the 2026 exam
Revision deep dive for the two examined topics of SACE Stage 2 Psychology: obedience, conformity, attitudes, persuasion, prejudice and self-presentation (Topic 4), and classical conditioning, operant conditioning and observational learning (Topic 5), using the subject outline's terms, with applied examples and links to the matching dot points.
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Why these two topics
The SACE Stage 2 Psychology exam examines only Topic 4 (Social Influence) and Topic 5 (The Psychology of Learning), plus inquiry skills. This deep dive covers both, using the terms the subject outline uses, and links the site's dot points. For format and technique, see the exam strategy guide.
Topic 4: Social Influence
Obedience
Dot point: conformity and obedience.
Obedience is following a direct order, usually from an authority figure. Factors that increase it include the legitimacy and proximity of the authority, distance from the victim, gradual escalation of demands, and the absence of peers who disobey.
- Milgram's experiments manipulated variables such as the proximity of the learner and of the experimenter, and measured the maximum shock level given. Because an independent variable was deliberately manipulated and its effect on a dependent variable measured, they were experiments.
- Zimbardo's prison experiment randomly assigned participants to the role of guard or prisoner (the independent variable) and observed the behaviour that followed.
- Both were heavily criticised on ethical grounds: deception, distress, pressure not to withdraw, and in Zimbardo's case the researcher's dual role as prison superintendent.
Conformity
Conformity is yielding to group pressure. Normative social influence is conforming to be liked or accepted; informational social influence is conforming because you believe the group is right, especially in ambiguous situations. The three types are compliance (public agreement only), identification (adopting the behaviour to belong) and internalisation (genuine acceptance). Individual characteristics such as self-esteem, and cultural context (individualistic versus collectivist), also affect conformity.
Experimental design: the researcher manipulates an independent variable and controls other variables, so cause and effect can be inferred; but settings can be artificial.
Observational design: the researcher records behaviour as it occurs, without manipulation, so behaviour is natural; but causes cannot be confirmed, and observer bias, including ethnocentric bias when observing minority communities, can distort the data.
A study that counts how many shoppers return trolleys when others nearby do is observational; a study that plants confederates to model returning trolleys and compares return rates is experimental.
Attitudes and persuasion
Dot point: attitudes and attribution.
An attitude has emotional, belief and behavioural components. Persuasion depends on the source (credibility, attractiveness), the message (one-sided or two-sided, fear appeals), the audience (age, mood, prior attitude) and the route: the central route relies on careful processing of arguments and produces lasting change; the peripheral route relies on cues such as celebrity or repetition and produces weaker change.
| Strategy | How it works | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Norm of reciprocity | We feel obliged to return a favour | A free sample before a sales pitch |
| Foot-in-the-door | A small request, then a larger related one | Sign a petition, then donate |
| Door-in-the-face | A large request that is refused, then a smaller one | Volunteer every week? No. How about one afternoon? |
The attitude-behaviour link runs both ways and is not always consistent: strong, accessible and specific attitudes predict behaviour better, while situational pressures and self-monitoring can override attitudes. Attitudes can be measured by self-reports (easy but open to social desirability bias), behavioural counts (objective but may not reveal the attitude behind them) and the Implicit Association Test (taps automatic associations but is contested as a predictor of behaviour).
Prejudice and discrimination
Dot point: prejudice and discrimination.
Prejudice is an attitude; stereotyping is the belief component and discrimination is the behaviour. Causes include unintentional biases such as confirmation bias, limited exposure to other groups, and learning. Effects include social stigma, internalisation of others' evaluations and stereotype threat. Subtle forms include reluctance to help, tokenism and reverse discrimination. Strategies to reduce prejudice include increased equal-status contact, working towards shared goals, and education that challenges stereotypes.
Self-presentation and social media
Self-presentation (impression management) is shaping how others see us. Social media allows more control than face-to-face contact (curated images, editing), so high self-monitors tend to use it more. Schemata, primacy, recency and distinctive information all affect the impressions formed.
Topic 5: The Psychology of Learning
Classical conditioning
Dot point: classical conditioning.
A neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) until it becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS) that produces a conditioned response (CR). Pavlov showed this in dogs; Watson and Rayner showed it in humans (Little Albert). Key ideas: contiguity and contingency, stimulus generalisation and discrimination, extinction, the difference between acquisition (learning the association) and performance (showing it), and biological preparedness.
Some cancer patients feel nauseous on arriving at the clinic, before any treatment. The chemotherapy drug (UCS) causes nausea (UCR). The clinic's sights and smells (initially neutral) are repeatedly paired with the drug and become a CS, producing anticipatory nausea (CR). Systematic desensitisation, which pairs the feared stimulus with relaxation in gradual steps, uses the same principles to reduce phobias.
Operant conditioning
Dot point: operant conditioning.
Behaviour is shaped by its consequences.
- Positive reinforcement adds something pleasant; negative reinforcement removes something unpleasant. Both strengthen behaviour.
- Aversive punishment adds something unpleasant; response cost removes something valued. Both weaken behaviour.
- Schedules: continuous reinforcement gives fast learning but fast extinction; partial schedules (fixed or variable ratio, fixed or variable interval) are more resistant to extinction, with variable ratio the most resistant (as in gambling).
- Shaping reinforces successive approximations; behaviour modification applies these principles systematically, for example with token economies.
- Immediate consequences are more powerful than delayed ones, which is why smoking is hard to give up and exercise regimes are hard to keep.
Observational learning
Dot point: observational learning.
Bandura treats observational learning as a cognitive process with four steps: attention, retention, reproduction and motivation. Models who are similar, high in status or rewarded are imitated more. Unlike operant conditioning, the learner need not perform the behaviour or be reinforced directly: seeing a model rewarded (vicarious reinforcement) is enough. Mirror neurons, which fire both when acting and when watching the same action, are proposed as a neural basis. The Bobo doll studies used behavioural counts of aggressive acts, an objective measure.
Common mistakes
- Using "negative reinforcement" to mean punishment.
- Confusing door-in-the-face (large request first) with foot-in-the-door (small request first).
- Evaluating Milgram's study only on ethics, with no comment on its method or validity.
- Describing observational learning without all four processes.
- Listing named studies with no link to the scenario in the question.
Check your knowledge
- A student agrees with the class's view in discussion but privately disagrees. Which type of conformity is this? (Answer: compliance.)
- Losing driving privileges for missing curfew is an example of what? (Answer: response cost.)
- Why is a one-off episode of food poisoning often enough to create a lasting taste aversion? (Answer: biological preparedness.)
Then try the Topics 4 and 5 quiz.
Sources & how we know this
- Stage 2 Psychology Subject Outline — SACE Board of South Australia
- Psychology: external assessment — SACE Board of South Australia
- Stage 2 Psychology subject outline (2025 onwards) — SACE Board
- psychology
- sace
- sace-psychology
- social-influence
- obedience
- conformity
- persuasion
- prejudice
- conditioning
- observational-learning
- year-12
- 2026