Confirmity

Question 1

What are the three types of conformity?

Answer 1

• Internalisation
• Identification
• Compliance

Question 2

What is internalisation?

Answer 2

A private and public change in opinion/behaviour which is permanent. The person genuinely accepts the group norms

Question 3

What is identification?

Answer 3

Conforming to a groups opinions/behaviour because we want to be part of a group, even if we don’t privately agree with it.

Question 4

What is compliance?

Answer 4

Simply “going along with others” in public, but privately not changing personal opinions/behaviour. This behaviour stops as soon as group pressure stops.

Question 5

What are the two explanations for conformity?

Answer 5

• Informational social influence (ISI)

* Normative social influence (NSI)

Question 6

What is Informational Social Influence?

Answer 6

The desire to be right. It is most likely to occur in situations that are new to a person or when a person is regarded as being more of an expert on a subject.

Question 7

What is Normative Social Influence?

Answer 7

The desire to be liked. It is most likely to occur in situations where you may feel concerned about rejection, or where you want social approval.

Question 8

Give research support for ISI

Answer 8

• Lucas et al (2006)
• Students were asked to give answers to mathematical questions
• There was a greater conformity to incorrect answers when they were more difficult
• This study shows that people conform in situations where they feel they don’t know the answer.

Question 9

Give individual differences in NSI

Answer 9

• nAffiliators- people who have a greater need for a relationship with others
• McGhee and Teevan (1967) found that students high in need for affiliation were more likely to conform
• This shows that the desire to be liked underlies conformity for some people more than others, meaning there are individual differences in the way people respond.

Question 10

Give an example of NSI and ISI working together

Answer 10

• In Asch’s experiment, conformity is reduced when there is one other dissenting participant
• This means it either reduces the power of NSI (as there is social support), or it may reduce the power of ISI (because there is a different source of information)

Question 11

Give individual differences in ISI

Answer 11

• Asch (1955) found that students were lest conformist (28%) than other participants (34%).

Question 12

Give research support for NSI

Answer 12

• Asch (1951) found that many of his participants went along with a clearly wrong answer because they felt self-conscious giving the correct answer and they were afraid of disapproval
• When Asch repeated his study, but got the participants to write their answer down instead of saying then out loud, conformity rates fell 12.5%

Question 13

What is conformity?

Answer 13

A change in a persons behaviour or opinions as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people.