Conformity

Question 1

Conformity

Answer 1

A change in behaviour due to real or imaginary pressure from other people

Question 2

Compliance

Answer 2

Superficial agreement with the group - going along with it publicly but holding a different view privately

Question 3

Identification

Answer 3

Conforming to the group because we value it - prepared to change views to be part of it

Question 4

Internalisation

Answer 4

Conforming to the group because you accept its norms -You agree privately as well as publicly

Question 5

Who identified the three ways that people conform?

Answer 5

Herbert Kerman (1958)

Question 6

What are the three ways that people conform

Answer 6

Compliance, identification, internalisation

Question 7

Unanimity

Answer 7

The extent to which all members of the group agree

Question 8

Who study conformity with lines?

Answer 8

Solomon Asch (1951)

Question 9

Asch’s baseline procedure

Answer 9

• 123 American men Whitworth were tested
• each were in a group with other fake participants
• they sat two large white cards one card had a standard line
• the other card had three comparison lines where one was clearly the same length as the original
• the other lines were substantially different
• the participants had to say out loud which of the comparison lines was the same as the original line
• the participants were tested in groups of 6 to 8
• only one was a genuine participant
• the participant was always stated last in the group or next-to-last
• all other were Confederates of ash and gave the same incorrect answer every time

Question 10

Asch’s baseline procedure findings

Answer 10

• on average participants agreed with the confederate incorrect answers 36.7% of the time
• 25% of participants never conformed, never gave the wrong answer

Question 11

Asch’s study aim

Answer 11

To assess the extent to which people will conform to the opinions of others, even in a situation where the answer is certain

Question 12

What were the variables investigated by Asch?

Answer 12

1. Group size
2. Unanimity
3. Task difficulty

Question 13

Group size aim

Answer 13

To find out whether the size of the grimy o would be more important than agreement of the group

Question 14

Group size investigation

Answer 14

Asch varied the number of confederates from one to 15

Question 15

Group size findings

Answer 15

• Asch found a curvilinear relationship between group size and conformity rate
• conformity increased with group size, but only to a point
• which three confederates, conformity rose to 31.8%
• but more confederates made little difference - the conformity rate levelled of

Question 16

Group size conclusions

Answer 16

Most people were very sensitive to the views of others, as one or two confederates could swat their opinion

Question 17

Unanimity aim

Answer 17

To find out if the presence of a non-conforming person would affect the participants conformity

Question 18

Unanimity investigation

Answer 18

• Asch introduced a confederate who disagreed with eh other confederates
  In one variation this person gave the correct answer
• another variation he gave a wrong answer

Question 19

Unanimity findings

Answer 19

• the genuine participants conformed less often in the presence of a dissenter
• the rate decreased to less than a quarter of the level it was when the majority was unanimous
• this happened even when the dissenter disagreed with the genuine participant

Question 20

Unanimity conclusions

Answer 20

• the influence over the participant depends largely on the others being unanimous
• non-conformity is more likely when the majority is not unanimous

Question 21

Task difficulty aim

Answer 21

To find out whether making the task harder would affect the degree of conformity

Question 22

Task difficult investigation

Answer 22

• Asch increased the difficulty by making the original line and the comparison line more similar to each other in length
• because of this it because harder for the genuine participants to see the difference between the lines

Question 23

Task difficulty findings

Answer 23

• conformity increased when the task was harder
• this is because it is unclear to the participants what the right answer is
• it is normal to assume that the majority re right and you are wrong
• informational social influence

Question 24

One limitation of Asch’s reserach

Answer 24

• the situations and tasks were artificial
• participants knew they were in a research study so may have done what was expected
• demand characteristics
• there was no reason not to conform
• they also did not resemble groups that we experience in everyday life
• we cannot generalise these findings to real-world situations, especially where there are important consequences of conformity

Question 25

Another limitation of Asch’s research

Answer 25

• participants were American men
• other research suggests that women may be more conformist
• the US is an individualist culture - people are more concerned about themselves rather than their social group
• other studies were conducted in collectivist cultures such as china, and conformity rates were higher
• therefore, Asch’s findings don’t tell us much about conformity in women and people from some cultures

Question 26

One strength of Asch’s reserach

Answer 26

• it is supported from other studies for the effects of task difficulty
• e.g. Todd Lucas
• this study shows that Asch was correct, task difficulty is and variable that affects conformity

Question 27

Todd Lucas (2006)

Answer 27

• Participants solved easy or hard maths problems

- they were given fake answers from other students

Question 28

Lucas findings and conclusions

Answer 28

• the participants conformed more often when the problems were harder
• this shows that Asch was correct when he claimed that task difficulty affects conformity

Question 29

Limitation of Asch research - Lucas

Answer 29

• conformity is more complex than Asch suggested
  
  • participants with high confidence in their maths ability conform on hard tasks more than those with low confidence
  • this shows that an individual-level factor can influence conformity
  • Asch did not research individual factors

Question 30

Ethical issues with Asch’s reserach

Answer 30

The participants were deceived