Conformity

Question 1

What is conformity

Answer 1

The tendency to change what we do or think in response to the influence of real or imagined pressure from others.

Question 2

What are the 3 types of conformity

Answer 2

• compliance
• internalisation
• identification

Question 3

What is compliance

Answer 3

• agrees publicly but disagrees privately
• shallowest type of conformity (temporary)
• eg pretending to like politics cause the people in your uni room do

Question 4

What is internalisation

Answer 4

• agree publicly and privately
• takes on the view/ opinion of others as their own
• deepest type of conformity (permanent)
• eg becoming actually interested in politics

Question 5

What is identification

Answer 5

-elements of compliant and internalisation
-They first take on the views and opinions of others to fit in but over time they actually begin to internalise the views and opinions as their own.
-but they only conform whilst they identify with the group
-eg when Ben leaves uni he realises he didn’t actually have An interest in politics

Question 6

What are the two explanations for conformity

Answer 6

Information social influence
Normative social influence

Question 7

What is informational social influence

Answer 7

• conform because they want to be right
• genuinely believe that others are right and have superior knowledge
• so leads to change in private opinion (internalisation)
• ambiguous situations

Question 8

What is normative social influence

Answer 8

• they conform to fit in and be accepted by the group
• fear of rejection
• doesn’t led to private change of opinion (compliance)
• unambiguous settings ( when answer is clear)

Question 9

Sherif - study supporting informational social influence

Answer 9

White dot on black screen doesn’t move but appears to move

• ask people there estimates of the movement (personal norm)
• then put people in groups and asked for an estimate (group norm)
• they were influenced by the estimates of others and agreed because they thought the others were right.
• ambiguous task (no clear answer) - informational social influence

Question 10

Outline ASCHS study

Answer 10

• on normative social influence
• 123 male students - lab experiment
• one card with one line one card with 3 lines
• asked what one of the 3 lines is the same length as the singular line
• one participant put into group of confederates who were asked to say the wrong answer
• 37% conformity rate
• 75% conformed at least once
• 25% didn’t conform at all
• interviews after and said they conformed to fit it and not be rejected (support normative social influence)

Question 11

Evaluation of Aschs study

Answer 11

• lacks ecological validity- as its an artificial task in controlled environment hard to apply to outside world.
• lacks temporal validity- done during the Cold War where people could be arrested for acting outside the norm or standing out so may have conformed in fear of being different.
• ethically questionable- no Informed consent cause lied about purpose of study- however may have had to do so there was no demand characteristics.

Question 12

Aschs variations- what are the 3 factors effecting conformity

Answer 12

• group size
• task difficulty
• unanimity

Question 13

How does Group size effect conformity

Answer 13

• conformity increases as group size increases
• 1 confederate = 3% conformity
• 3 confederates = 33% conformity

Bond and smith meta analysis found conformity peaks with 4-5 confederates

Question 14

How does unanimity effect conformity

Answer 14

The less people who agree with each other the lower conformity

• non-conformist confederate added to group - conformity dropped from 5.5% from 37%
• conformity drops when unanimity of the group is broken

Question 15

How does task difficulty effect conformity

Answer 15

When the task is more difficult conformity increases
- situation becomes ambiguous
- supports informational social influence
Aschs study when lines were more similar conformity increased