conformity

Question 1

define compliance

Answer 1

the person conforms publicly with views or behaviour expressed by others in a group but continues privately to disagree

Question 2

define identification

Answer 2

adopts the views and behaviours of the group publicly and privately bc the individual identifies with the group and feels a sense of group membership

Question 3

define internalisation

Answer 3

true change of private views to match those of the group

Question 4

define normative social influence

Answer 4

the desire to be liked and accepted, often results in compliance only.

Question 5

define informational social influence

Answer 5

the desire to be right and to look for others to give us information on how to behave/ think

Question 6

define conformity

Answer 6

the tendency to change our behaviour/beliefs in response to the influence of others

Question 7

what is the aim of Aschs study on conformity ?

Answer 7

to see if individuals would conform to a majority when presented with an unambiguous task

Question 8

what is the sample in aschs study on conformity ?

Answer 8

recruited 123 male students and asked the to participate in a visual perception task

Question 9

what is the method in aschs’s study on conformity?

Answer 9

one naive genuine participant in a group with 7/9 confederates. shown a card with a test line and then another card with lines of other lengths. participants asked to say aloud which line matched the test line. answer was obvious

Question 10

what did the confederates do in aschs study when asked to answer?

Answer 10

they all gave the same answer

Question 11

what were the findings of aschs study on conformity?

Answer 11

74% participants conformed to the wrong answer at least once

Question 12

what can you conclude from aschs study on conformity?

Answer 12

even when the correct response is obvious there may be strong group pressure to conform

Question 13

what did Asch find on group size?

Answer 13

conformity increased as the number of confederate rose from 1-3 but after this group size made no difference

Question 14

what did other research find into group size?

Answer 14

conformity was similar with groups from 3/7 but conformity was greater with a majority of 8

Question 15

variables affecting conformity other than group size

Answer 15

type of task,
personal preference, more people leads to higher levels of conformity
correct answer increasing majority has little effect on conformity

Question 16

how does unanimity affect conformity

Answer 16

if one confederate disagrees with majority judgement conformity decreases from 37% to 5.5%

Question 17

state a evaluation of conformity on validity.

Answer 17

lab experiment is very artificial and not like real life, lacks ecological validity can’t be generalised to real life
but experimental method can be defended
the artificial setting allowed the power of group pressure to be shown as other variables were controlled

Question 18

state a evaluation of conformity. time

Answer 18

lacks temporal validity as in the 1950 Usa encouraged conformity, findings may only reflect the society asch studied in.
further research when repeating aschs study found little evidence on conformity
but may be due to students self confidence

Question 19

state an evaluation of conformity. ethics

Answer 19

participants mislead as to what study was about but they were debriefed after and able to remove data