conforimity: types and explanations Flashcards
conformity
when people change their behaviour or beliefs due to the real or imagined pressure from others (the majority)
types of conformity
compliance
identification
internalisation
compliance
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
identification
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
internalisation
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
Deutsch and Gerard (1955)
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)
informational social influence
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
normative social influence
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
Jenness (1932) - support for ISI
- 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
Schultz (2008) - support for NSI
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
Lucas et al (2006) - support for ISI
gave students maths questions and found that conformity to incorrect answers was higher when the questions were difficult
reductionist - weakness
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
supporting evidence - strength
Jenness, Schultz and Lucas et al