1.1 Types of conformity Flashcards

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1
Q

What is conformity?

A

A change in behaviour or beliefs as a result of real or imagined group pressure

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2
Q

What are the explanations of conformity?

A
  • Normative Social Influence (NSI)

* Informational social Influence (ISI)

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3
Q

What are the types of conformity?

A
  • Compliance
  • Identification
  • Internalisation
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4
Q

Who suggested the types of conformity?

A

Kelman

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5
Q

What is the order of the strengths (starting with weakest) of the types of conformity?

A
  • Compliance
  • Identification
  • Internalisation
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6
Q

What is compliance?

A
  • Individual aligns behaviour w maj in public
  • Does not change beliefs privately
  • Temporary - usually result of NSI
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7
Q

What is identification?

A
  • Individual aligns behaviour and beliefs w maj
  • Only when in presence of maj group - doesn’t actually agree
  • Short-term - usually result of NSI
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8
Q

What is internalisation?

A
  • Individual aligns behaviour and private beliefs w maj publicly and privately
  • Longer lasting effect - usually result of ISI
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9
Q

Who proposed the explanations for conformity?

A

Deutsch and Gerard

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10
Q

What did Deutsch and Gerard propose?

A
  • Two-process theory
  • Two central human needs
  • Normative social influence
  • Informational social influence
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11
Q

What is Normative Social Influence?

A
  • Individual wish to be liked by majority
  • Go along with majority
  • Following the crowd to fit in with the norm
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12
Q

What is Informational Social Influence?

A
  • Individual looks to majority for information

* Majority are thought to be genuinely right

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13
Q

What was Asch’s aim?

A

To investigate the extent to which social pressure form a majority group could affect a person to conform

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14
Q

What was Asch’s procedure?

A
  1. Used a lab experiment to study conformity
  2. Used a line judgement task
  3. Put naïve Pp in a room with 7 confeds
  4. Confeds had to agree in advance what their responses would be when presented with line task
  5. The real Pps did not know and this would lead to believe the other 7 Pps were real
  6. Each person had to say their answers aloud which comparison line more like the target line
  7. Real Pp sat at the end and gave answer last
  8. 18 trials in total - confeds gave 12 wrong answers
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15
Q

What were Asch’s results?

A

Asch measured the no. times each Pp conformed to the majority view

32% of Pps in each trial went along and conformed to the clearly incorrect majority.

75% conformed on at least one trial

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16
Q

What did post-study interviews with the Pps reveal about why they conformed?

A

ISI:
• Distortion of perception (genuinely believed confeds to be correct)
• Distortion of judgement (doubtful/unsure of own judgement)
NSI:
• Distortion of action (correctly answered privately but changed publicly to avoid disapproval)

17
Q

What support is there for explanations of conformity?

A
  • Asch supports NSI - found many Pps went along w majority even on obviously incorrect answer to line judgement task - post-exp intviews Pps said they conformed bc they were afraid of disapproval from group - when Asch repeated but got Pps to write answers instead of say out loud, conf rate dropped to 13.5% - shows importance of NSI in conformity
  • Jenness supports ISI - Pps asked to make independent judgements about no. jelly beans in a jar - then discussed estimates w group - Pps made second priv indiv estimate after discussion - second priv estimate moved towards group estimate (females typically conformed more) - shows ISI occurs in unfamiliar situations as Pps want to be right so gain knowledge from group
18
Q

What reduces support for explanations for conformity?

A
  • Recent research contradicts Asch - Perrin & Spencer conducted Asch-style exp - conf rate of 0.25% - perhaps Asch results lack temporal validity and do not represent modern idea of NSI - but P&S used sample of engineering & maths students - diff to Asch sample - perhaps they were influenced by their knowledge in such tasks
  • Jenness validity issues - Jenness exp lacked ecological validity - giving estimate of beans in jar is mundane task, perhaps we would conform differently in a situation w more social consequences as there are v few in J’s study - may not reflect real-life behav
19
Q

What are the variations of Asch’s original procedure?

A
  • Group size
  • The unanimity of the majority
  • Task difficulty
20
Q

How did Asch investigate the effect of group size on conformity?

A
  • 1 confed = 3% conformity
  • 2 confeds = 12.8% conformity
  • 3 confeds = 30% conformity
  • Increases in size of the majority did not increase conformity after 15 Pps
  • Indicates size of majority is important to a certain point
21
Q

How did Asch investigate the effect of unanimity on conformity?

A
  • 1 confed instructed to give correct answer throughout = 5.5% conformity
  • Even when confed gave diff answer to maj & Pp, conformity = 9%
  • Shows when maj is broken, people more likely to resist pressure to conform as they do not feel alone
22
Q

How did Asch investigate the effect of task difficulty on conformity?

A
  • Asch made length of lines significantly smaller and similar and therefore more difficult to judge
  • Found rate of conformity increased
23
Q

What do Asch’s variations suggest about the reasons for conformity?

A
  • Group size - people more likely to conform w large majority due to NSI
  • Unanimity - people more likely to conform to unanimous maj due to NSI
  • Task difficulty - shows people more likely to conform when task is difficult due to ISI
24
Q

What support is there for factors affecting conformity?

A
  • Asch group size - conf rate w 1 Pp amongst 6-8 confeds = 32% - conf rate w 2 confeds = 12.8% - conf rate w 1 confed = 3% - conf rate remained same at ~32% after 3 confeds - also after 15 confeds conformity rates dropped perhaps bc situations seems bizarre leading to DCs - therefore group size has signif impact on conf rate
  • Asch unanimity - Asch investigated if presence of another non-conforming confed affected conf rate in Pp - when 1 confed gave correct answer conf rate 32% to 5.5% - when 1 confed rebelled against Pp and other confeds conf rate still dropped to 9% - unanimity important
  • Asch task difficulty - in one variation Asch made length of lines more similar - so harder to judge - found conf increased - suggests ISI plays greater role than NSI when task becomes harder as ppl look for guidance - Jenness also supports ISI w task difficulty in his study where blah blah blah