4.1.1 - Conformity Flashcards
What is conformity
· Also known as majority influence
· conformity is yielding to group pressure
- our behaviours and beliefs are influenced by larger groups of people.
What are the 3 types of conformity
- compliance
- identification
- internalisation
What is compliance
when a person goes along with others behavioural attitudes but doesn’t believe them to be correct
- they comply publicly but their private opinion doesn’t change
- they do along with beliefs/ behaviour to keep peace and to gain approval
- it is only a temporary change when in the presence of the group
What is identification
when individuals adjust their their behaviour and opinions to those in a group as a membership of the group is desirable
- changes of beliefs are both public and private, however are often temporary
Internalisation
When an individual accepts the groups view and believes that view to be correct
- they are conforming with the genuine belief that the groups beliefs/behaviour is correct
- these changes in behaviour are often permanent
What are the explanations for conformity
- informal social influence (ISI)
- normative social influence (NSI)
Who carried out research on the explanations of conformity and what did they say about NSI and ISI
- Deutsch + Gerrard (1955)
They stated that everyone can be affected by both explanations, however they do not occur simultaneously
What is informal social influence
- humans change due to their need for certainty
- when uncertain they for the approval of others
- ISI happens in uncertain or unfamiliar situations
What is normative social influence
- humans have a need to be liked by social groups
- agreeing with the majority group view because they want to be liked and accepted in order to gain social approval
- occurs when you feel rejection from the group or by strangers
Explanations A03 - research support
Jenness(1932)
- used 101 psychology students
- conducted a study with a jaw of white beams
- Individual estimates moved towards the estimates of others
- shows you genuinely (privately believed these estimates
- demonstrates Internalisation
Changing answers is likely to be due to ISI
Lucas et al(2006)
- asked students to give answers to mathematical
problems that were easy or more difficult
- there was a greater conformity to incorrect answers
When the questions were more difficult
- this was true for students who believed their
mathematical ability to be poor
↳ shows more people conform when they are not
confident in their answer, therefore supports the
ISI explanation,
Increases validity and providing explanatory power
Explanations A03- nAffiliators
Strength
- research shows that NSI doesn’t affect everyone in the same way
- those who are more concerned about the opinions of others are more likely to be affected by NSI
- these people are referred to as “nAffiliators” as they need affiliation more.
Explanations A03 - ISI isn’t seen in everyone
Limitation
- ISI doesn’t affect everyone’s behaviour in the same way
- Asch found that students were less conformist that other ppts
- Perrin et al conducted a study involving scientists and engineers and conformity was low
Decreases generalisability so decreases validity
Explanations A03 - support from Asch
- many ppts went along with the clearly wrong answer just because other people did
- when he asked then why they did it, the ppts said that they felt self conscious and didn’t want to stick out/ receive disproval
- Asch repeated his study and asked ppts to write their answers down instead of saying them aloud. Conformity rates fell to 12.5%
What were the aims of Asch
He wanted to examine the extent to which social pressure from a majority, could affect a person to conform.
What variations of the study did asch investigate
- group size
- unanimity ( level of agreement btwn confederates)
- task difficulty
What relationship did Asch find between conformity and group size?
Conformity to the wrong answer increases with the group size, until there is a group size of 3 people where conformity levels plateau
What was the relationship found by Asch between conformity and task difficulty?
ISI plays a greater role as the task gets harder, conformity increases with the difficulty of a task
How did Asch make the task harder
Made the stimulus line and the comparison lines closer in length
What was the name of the confederate that disagreed with the rest of the group
Dissenter
What was the maximum group size that Asch tested
15 ppts
What was conformity for Asch’s study web there were 3 confederated
32%
How did asch use dissenters in his study
One dissenter was instructed to give the correct answer whilst the other confederates continues to giv wrong answers
- in this situation conformity to the group dropped to 5%
Asch evaluation - ecological validity
- highly controlled lab study so isn’t representative of a real life situation
- the task isn’t important or relevant to peoples lives so ppts were more likely to conform
- demand characteristics could have occurred
- the ‘group’ were strangers to the ppt, so don’t represent a group that is experienced in everyday life
Asch evaluation - temporal validity
- McCarthyism was present in the usa in the 1950s, so there was a strong anti-communist period where many citizens were afraid to go against the majority (so people will be more likely to conform)
- Perrin and Spencer(1980) : they repeated Aschs study in the uk. Found that only 1/390 students conformed
- limitation effect isn’t consistent across time
Asch evaluation - individual variables
- the qualities of an individual can influence their levels of conformity
- they can interact with situational variables such as:
- gender
- mood
- culture
How does gender affect conformity
Women were found to conform more
- they are socialised into more submissive roles
- eagly et al (1981) found that females focus on quality of a relationship, so are more likely to be affected by normative social influence.
- the male gender roles. Stereotypically demand more independence
- could be due to evolution: women are more nurturing.
- Jenness (1932) found that women conformed more than men.
How does mood affect conformity
Humans conform more when they are in a good mood
-This is because when we are happy, we are more amenable to agreeing with others. We also conform more when moving from a fearful to relayed mood.
- tong et al (2008) found that ppts conform to wrong answers on maths questions given by confederates in a positive rather than neutral mood.
How does culture affect conformity
The conformity between individualistic and collectivist cultures vary
- Pervine spencer (1980), found conformity levels of 0.25% in yorkshire science students which suggests low conformity levels in Britain however science students should be more independent as they have to create original ideas
-> Smith & Bond (1993) found the average conformity levels In collectivist cultures of 25%-28%, compared to Individualistic cultures having conformity levels of 14% -39%
Asch study - low generalisability
Asch didn’t use any women in his studies
- research suggests that conformity levels varies between males and females therefore his sample isn’t representative
- decreases external validity
