conforimity: types and explanations

Question 1

conformity

Answer 1

when people change their behaviour or beliefs due to the real or imagined pressure from others (the majority)

Question 2

types of conformity

Answer 2

compliance
identification
internalisation

Question 3

compliance

Answer 3

person goes along with others publicly to not look different or feel embarrassed but privately disagree
- superficial change and temporary
- behaviour changes when group pressure stops
- usually out of fear and social rejection

Question 4

identification

Answer 4

person conforms publicly because they have identified with the group
- feel a sense of group membership and want to be accepted even if they don’t agree with what the group stands for (conform to a social role)
- changes internal thoughts in the presence of the group
- short-term change

Question 5

internalisation

Answer 5

person genuinely conforms publicly and privately because they’ve internalised and accepted the views of the group
- likely to be permanent even when the group isn’t there

Question 6

Deutsch and Gerard (1955)

Answer 6

developed a two-process theory where they identified 2 reasons why people conform based on 2 central human needs:
1. informational social influence - need to be right
- internalisation (change private opinion)
2. normative social influence - need to be liked
- compliance/identification (doesn’t change private opinion)

Question 7

informational social influence

Answer 7

about who has correct information
- people conform to the majority to be right based on the information available from the rest of the group
- cognitive process because you are thinking about the information presented to you
- conformity is a permanent change in behaviour in the form of internalisation
- more likely to happen in new situations

Question 8

normative social influence

Answer 8

people conform because they want social approval, avoid rejection and ridicule, fit in with the group and appear normal
- emotional response as the person is fearful of being rejected
- temporary change in the form of either compliance or identification

Question 9

Jenness (1932) - support for ISI

Answer 9

• one of the first psychologists to study conformity
• his experiment used an ambiguous situation involving a glass bottle filled with beans
• asked participants individually to estimate how many beans the bottle contained
• put the group in a room with the bottle, and asked them to provide a group estimate through discussion
• interviewed the participants individually again, and asked if they would like to change their original estimates, or stay with the group’s estimate
• nearly all participants changed their original answer when they were provided with another opportunity to estimate the number of beans in the glass bottle to be closer to the group estimate

Question 10

Schultz (2008) - support for NSI

Answer 10

when hotel guests read posters that said ‘the majority of guests reuse their towels’, they were more likely to reuse their towel compared to a control group which did not refer to other people

Question 11

Lucas et al (2006) - support for ISI

Answer 11

gave students maths questions and found that conformity to incorrect answers was higher when the questions were difficult

Question 12

reductionist - weakness

Answer 12

individual differences can affect whether or not a person will conform
people with a stronger character may be less likely to conform as they are less inclined to change in order to fit in

Question 13

supporting evidence - strength

Answer 13

Jenness, Schultz and Lucas et al