conformity

Question 1

three types of conformity

Answer 1

compliance
identification
internalisation

Question 2

compliance

Answer 2

-NSI > gain approval and avoid rejection
- temporary form of conformity ( weak)
- public not private
- only with the group

Question 3

identification

Answer 3

-NSI
- cause you want to be a part of the group
- permanent in the group but only with them ( do beleive it with them )
-public soemtimes private if you think highly of groip

Question 4

internalisation

Answer 4

-ISI ( genuinly accept normals because you think they are correct/ source of accurate info )
- permanent change (strong)
- group presence not required because opinion is constantly maintained

Question 5

NSI (normative social influence)

Answer 5

reason for conformity which is to gain acceptance and avoid rejection

Question 6

ISI ( informative social influence)

Answer 6

permanent change that happens because you think that it’s an accurate source of info and they are correct and you want to be correct

Question 7

Asch’s study other situational variations

Answer 7

1. group sizes
2. unanimity
3. difficulty

Question 8

Aschs study: group sizes statistics and result

Answer 8

• 1 actor = 3% conformity
• 2 actors = 12.8% conformity
• 3 actors = 32% conformity
• 15 actors = 29%

group size increases, conformity increases

Question 9

Aschs study: unanimity statistics and results

Answer 9

• 1 actor give correct answer = 5% conformity
  -1 actor give random incorrect answer = 9% conformity

shows if people go against the grain then the participants will aswell
more unanimity = more conformity

Question 10

Asch’s study difficulty statistics and findings

Answer 10

increased difficulty = increased conformity

Question 11

Deutsch and Gerared

Answer 11

found ISI and NSI

NSI = when you fear rejection and need social support so do it to gain acceptance. Don’t necessarily beleive the thing.
anywhere that social rejection can be feared

ISI = more likely to be when we think other are ‘experts’ and must be correct. Believe others OPINONS are more accurate to correct answer/truth.
when task is ambiguous

Question 12

Jenness (1932)

Answer 12

jelly bean study, where you had to guess number of jelly beans in the jar, some spoke to one another some didn’t. It is ISI because you cannot be rejected/accepted

females conformed more than males ( BETA BIAS OF ASCHS STUDY - underestimating differences between males and females ) a fault of aschs study as it was a biased study
The sample had bias = reduced population validity > cannot be generalised to population

Question 13

Conclusions of ASCH STUDY

Answer 13

75% conformed at least once
Without confederates only 1% gave from answer (control group)
It was NSI in the original study cause of post study interview participants said they didnt wanna be rejected

Question 14

Perrin and Spencer (198)

Answer 14

(1980) - replication of aschs study with engineering students and found only 1/400 conformed
indicates aschs study might’ve been a result of ISI ( conforming to be correct ) not NSI ( conforming to be liked )
Shows that aschs study may lack temporal validity, population validity, external validity

Question 15

Pros/cons of aschs study
Cons ( 7)
Pros (3)

Answer 15

PROS:
- replicable ( Perrin and Spencer ) were able to replicate study
Control group+ experimental group = controlled study allows for obvious comparison, control = 1% conform, exp. = 75%
Found other factors that affect conformity- adds to the reliability of study to back up research about conformity

CONS:
lacks mundane realism ( task isnt reflective of everyday tasks ) cause of un ambiguous task , unrepresentative, artificial situation
Lacks a controlled empirical objective experiment > low ecological validity as it was a lab experiment. There couldve been extraneous variables eg: intelligence, confidence, career types
Influences validity of outcomes > demand characteristics that alter the level of conformity.
low external validity.
Low population validity ( all white american males )
Low temporal validity ( Perrin and Spencer then found diff results )
Gender bias : all male population: beta bias: underestimate diff between fe/male
Cultural bias: ethnocentric studies all western based. Only individualist society also means only those cultures can be considered,

Question 16

Zimbardo - what was his study
What did he want to investigate
Aim of study
And results

Answer 16

Wanted to investigate conformity TO SOCIAL ROLES
Because of reports of guards demonstrating brutality in America in late 1960’s, Zimbardo wanted to answer the question: do prison guards behave violently because they are sadistic or is it the situational that creates such behaviour?

Stanford prison experiment (1973) AIM: To see if a persons role influences their behaviour (power conduct/conforming to role)

Results:
2 days: prisoners reblledagainst harsh treatment , harassment, exclusion, three released by fourth day, one on hunger strike…
1/3 of guards were extremely sadistic behaviour

Shows there are strong situational influence on how peopl;,e behave

Question 17

Reicher and Haslam

Answer 17

Replication of SPE Reicher and Haslam

Randomly assigned 15 men to different roles
In this application the participants didnt conform automatically
Guards didnt identify with status and prisoners ran over guards

Question 18

Evaluation of Stanford prison experiment
3p
5c

Answer 18

Evaluation :

Pros
control variables were strong: participants were checked to be ‘emotionally stable’ before the experiment and then assigned to random roles.
Rules out researcher bias, increases inter-researcher reliability
Reduced extraneous variables as the certain personality/mental extraneous variables of the participants.
Increases internal validity of the study

Cons
lacks mundane realism: participants were merely play acting rather than conforming to a role cause none of them would ever need to be that role. Their behaviour was biased on stereotypes rather than expectations. One of the guards even said he’d based his behaviour on a TV character (VOLUNTEER SAMPLE = DEMAND CHARACTERISTICS ) . This howeeer is combatted by Zimbardo who beleived the situation was very real to the participants cause 90% of the conversations was about prison life. > one participant said they felt it was a real prison run by psychologists not gov, and so increases internal validity.
However there is lack of temporal and external validity: Reicher and Haslam: fifteen men to diff roles. But nobody conformed t any social roles (2006)

Zimbardo exaggerated the results: 1/3 of the guards behaved brutally, the rest were actively kind to them and tried to help and support them, shows that zimbardos conclusion may be an over exaggeration of the amount of sever behaviour
Beta bias: all male sample means the conclusions cannot be outwardly generalised to all female and males