Conformity

Question 1

What is conformity defined as?

Answer 1

A change in a person’s behaviour or opinion due to real or imagined pressure from a person or a group of people.

Question 2

What is conformity a response to?

Answer 2

Real (involving physical presence of others)
Or imagined (involving social norms pressure)

Question 3

What are the three types of conformity?

Answer 3

Compliance, Identification, Internalisation.

Question 4

What is compliance?

Answer 4

A temporary and superficial type of conformity where a person openly goes along with the majority view but privately disagrees with it.

Question 5

Why do people comply?

Answer 5

To gain approval of group or avoid disapproval

Question 6

what is the process of social comparison?

Answer 6

When an individual may concentrate on what other say or do so that they can adjust their own actions to fit in with them.

Question 7

What is identification?

Answer 7

A moderate form of conformity where we conform to the opinions/behaviours of a group because there is something about the group that we value

Question 8

What is internalisation?

Answer 8

A deep type of conformity where a person conforms publicly and privately because they have internalised and accepted the group’s views.

Question 9

When does internalisation occur?

Answer 9

When a person genuinely accepts the groups norms

Question 10

Time wise - How long is internalisation for?

Answer 10

It is permanent.

Question 11

Name the different types of levels in the 3 different types of conformities.

Answer 11

Compliance - Shallow level
Identification - Mid point between shallow and deep level
Internalisation - Deep level

Question 12

What are the two explanations of conformity and who developed this theory?

Answer 12

Deutsch and Gerard (1955) argued the two main reasons that people need to conform are: Informational social influence and Normative social influence

Question 13

What is informational social influence?

Answer 13

When a person conforms because they have a need to be right.

Question 14

When does ISI occur?

Answer 14

When a person is unsure of a situation or lacks knowledge and is associated with internalisation.

Question 15

What was the aim in the experiment conducted by Jenness (1932)?

Answer 15

To investigate the influence of informational social influence on conformity

Question 16

What was the procedure in the experiment conducted by Jenness (1932)?

Answer 16

1) Task was to guess how many jelly beans in a jar
2) Sample of 101 psych students
3) Participants first had to give individual estimate
4) Then, they were divided into groups of three and gave a group estimate
5) After, participants had to give individual estimate again to see if their og answer changed

Question 17

What were the results in the experiment conducted by Jenness (1932)?

Answer 17

Found that nearly all participants changed their original answers when given another opportunity to estimate

Question 18

What was the conclusion in the experiment conducted by Jenness (1932)?

Answer 18

Results suggest conformity in an ambiguous situation are more likely to be the result of ISI
Ppts in the experiment changed their original answer because they believed the group estimate was closer to the correct answer than their own individual estimate

Question 19

What are the evaluation points for the explanations of confomity?

Answer 19

Individual differences
NSI & ISI work together
Research support for ISI
Research support for NSI

Question 20

individual differences eval point

Answer 20

P - Limitation
E - McGhee and Teevan (1967) found that high school students high in need of affiliation (relationships) were more likely to conform
E - This means that, people who are are less concern with not being liked are less impacted by NSI and are therefore less likely to conform in comparison to those who care about being liked.
L - Therefore, this decreases the validity of the explanations into conformity as it does not take into account individual differences like personality.

Question 21

NSI & ISI work together eval point

Answer 21

P - Limitation (of two-process model)
E - For example, In Asch’s experiment conformity was reduced when there was another dissenting participant (someone who also went against the majority)
E - This means that, the dissenter either reduces the power of NSI as they provide social support or reduces the power of ISI as there is another source of information
L - Therefore, NSI and ISI could work together in different scenarios and it is therefore too simplistic to assume that there are separate reasons for conformity.

Question 22

Research support for ISI

Answer 22

P - Strength
E - Lucas et al (2006) asked students to give answers to math problems that were either easy or harder. Findings showed aa higher level of conformity to incorrect answers when the questions were harder.
E - This reinforces the idea that people will show ISI and will conform if there is a source they believe holds more information than them with a different answer.
L - Therefore, this increase the validity of NSI being an explanation for conformity as there is research to support it

Question 23

Who developed the two process theory?

Answer 23

Deutsch and Gerald (1955)