1. Social Influences Flashcards
Conformity definition
Also known as majority influence, conformity is yielding to group pressure.
What are the 3 types of conformity?
- Compliance
- Identification
- Internalisation
What is compliance conformity?
When a person goes along with other people’s behaviour or attitudes but does NOT believe them to be correct.
→ It is a short term conformity often used to avoid conflict.
What is identification conformity?
Individuals adjust their behaviour and opinions to those of a group as membership of the group is desirable.
→ A temporary response, views may change when the person leaves the group.
What is internalisation conformity?
The individual accepts the view and believes the view to be right.
→ A long term response and a permeant change conforming to others’ beliefs.
What are 2 of the reasons we conform?
- Informational Social Influence
- Normative Social Influence
What is informational social influence?
People have a need to be seen to be “in the right”. We look to others for information about how to behave because we believe that others have more knowledge. This results in public and private agreement with the group.
What is normative social influence?
People need to fit in with the norms of the group. People will conform then for social approval. This results in public agreement but is not likely to change private opinion.
Aim of Asch’s experiment?
Solomon Asch wanted to see how group pressure affects group tasks with an obvious answer.
Method of Asch’s experiment
8 male students were sat along a table. Only one of them however was a real participant the others were confederates of the researchers. The real participant sat in the penultimate place.
The task was to identify which of the lines was the same length as the test line.
They answered out loud in turn and the confederates were all told to answer the same incorrect letter. Asch recorded whether the actual participant conformed.
Why was the actual participant seated where he was?
The real participant was placed in his position because it would give him a chance to see what the other participants’ answers were, but not right at the end as he may become suspicious.
Key results from Asch’s experiment?
- 75% of the participants conformed on at least one critical trial.
- 25% of the participants never conformed.
Conclusion of Asch’s experiment?
Even in an unambiguous situation there is a strong group pressure to conform, especially if there is a unanimous majority.
Strengths of Asch’s experiment?
Asch’s research is reliable. His procedure was controlled - standardised instructions, same behaviour from the confederates and researchers, unambiguous task means that they aren’t accidentally testing something else. It could easily be replicated in the same way today.
Limitations of Asch’s experiment?
→ It has low generalisability. All the participants were male students who all belonged to the same age group.
→ This means that the study has low ecological validity - the experiment used an artificial task to measure conformity – judging line lengths, so cannot be generalised to real-life situations of conformity.
→ High levels of conformity found by Asch could be a reflection of American, 1950’s culture, America was very conservative, involved in an anti-communist witch-hunt against anyone who was thought to hold sympathetic left-wing views.
What factors did Asch conclude effect conformity in a group?
- Group size
- Unanimity
- Task difficulty
How does group size effect conformity?
The bigger the group, the more likely we are to conform. However, when the group gets too large (more than 12 people) conformity decreases again.
How does unanimity effect conformity?
If the whole group agrees we are more likely to conform.
How does task difficulty effect conformity?
On a more difficult task, people are more likely to conform.
How does gender effect conformity?
- Women are more likely to conform than men.
Other factors that could effect conformity?
- Gender
- Mood
- Culture
Evidence that proves how gender effects conformity?
→ Eagly et al (1981): females focus on quality of relationships.
→ Jenness (1932): women conformed more.
How does mood effect conformity?
We are more likely to conform when we are in a good mood.
Evidence that proves how mood effects conformity?
→ Tong er al. (2008): participants conform to wrong answers on maths questions given by confederated when in a positive mood rather than a neutral mood.
How does culture effect conformity?
If you come from a collectivist culture you are more likely to conform than someone from and individualist culture.
Evidence that proves how culture effects conformity?
→ Smith & Bond (1993): average conformity rate in collectivist cultures is 25-58%, in individualistic cultures it is only 14-39%.
What does Zimbardo’s experiment study?
This experiment studies conformity to a social role rather than conformity in general.
What was the aim of Zimbardo’s experiment?
Zimbardo was interested in finding out whether the brutality reported among guards in American prisons was due to the sadistic personalities of the guards (i.e., dispositional) or had more to do with the prison environment
When did Zimbardo conduct his experiment?
In 1971 - but published finding in 1973.
How were the prisoners screened?
They took personality tests, background test (they weren’t allowed to be ex criminals, or have a history of drug or alcohol abuse), anyone with existing mental health issues or disabilities.
What was Zimbardo’s role in the experiment?
Superintendent of the prison – this never should have happened as he got too involved in the experiment.
How were prisoners treated by the guards after the first day?
They were treated more harshly than normal prisoners – they were deprived of food and were made to do push ups if they didn’t comply.
What happened on the second morning of the experiment?
The prisoners removed their numbers and barricaded themselves into their cells.
How did the guards respond to the rebellion?
The ringleaders of the prisoner rebellion were placed into solitary confinement. After this, the guards generally began to harass and intimidate the prisoners.
Privileged prisoners also got to eat special food in the presence of the other prisoners who had temporarily lost the privilege of eating. The effect was to break the solidarity among prisoners.
What happened to prisoner 8612?
Less than 36 hours into the experiment, Prisoner #8612 began suffering from acute emotional disturbance, disorganized thinking, uncontrollable crying, and rage.
After a meeting with the guards where they told him he was weak, but offered him “informant” status, #8612 returned to the other prisoners and said “You can”t leave. You can’t quit.”
Soon #8612 “began to act ‘crazy,’ to scream, to curse, to go into a rage that seemed out of control.” It wasn’t until this point that the psychologists realized they had to let him out.
