conformity Flashcards
what is conformity?
-yielding to group pressure (majority influence)
-generally has positive outcomes, though can be a negative force
-3 types of conformity
what are the three types of conformity? who identified them?
-kelman 1958
-compliance
-identification
-internalisation
what is compliance?
-adjusting your behaviours publicly but not privately, to be accepted/avoid disapproval
-fairly weak and temporary
-eg supporting a football team with your friends but actually having no interest in football
what is identification?
-public and private conformity to gain acceptance (membership in the group is desirable)
-generally temporary, stops if an individual leaves the group
-eg in the army adopting military beliefs, but losing them once you leave
what is internalisation?
-‘true conformity’
-public and private conformity, adopting the groups beliefs if they are seen as correct
-isn’t dependent on the group for maintenance
-eg joining a religion
what are the 2 explanations of conformity? who identified them?
-ISI (informational social influence)
-NSI (normative social influence)
-deutsch and gerard 1955
what is ISI?
-informational social influence
-people feel uncertain about something, so they turn to others around them to see what to do
-generally occurs in unfamiliar situations or ambiguous situations
-generally leads to internalisation
-jenness 1932 study
-may have an evolutionary basis (looking to others has a survival value)
what is NSI?
-normative social influence
-wanting others to accept/respect them, so they agree with others
-Asch 1955 study
-likely to result in compliance or identification
research on NSI and ISI
-ISI-abrams et al 1990 - we’re only influenced by others that we share characteristics with, so more likely to internalise the opinions of friends and family than strangers
-NSI- Asch
what is cognitive dissonance?
-an unpleasant feeling of anxiety created by simultaneously holding two contradictory ideas
-festinger - altering these cognitions will reduce cognitive dissonance, which is best achieved through conforming
-support = some examples of conformity cannot be explained by NSI or ISI, only through cognitive dissonance
what are situational variables? what are the 3 studied?
-features of an environment that affect the degree to which people yield to group pressures
-group size
-unanimity
-task difficulty
how does group size affect conformity?
-the bigger the group, the more likely someone will conform, but there is a point where further increase doesn’t effect conformity
-Asch 1956 variation - 1 p + 1 confederate had low conformity, 2 cs had 13% conformity, 3 had 32%, adding extra (up to 15) had no further effect
-gerard et al 1968 found that it did still increase the more you added, but the rate of increase got smaller as more were added
how does unanimity affect conformity?
-conformity rates decline when majority influence isn’t unanimous
-asch 1956 variation - if there was one confederate that goes against majority, conformity dropped from 32% to 5.5%, if the rebel went against majority AND the participant, it dropped to 9%
how does task difficulty affect conformity?
-more conformity in difficult tasks, as the right answer becomes less obvious
-people look to others for the answer, so ISI is the driving force
-Asch 1956 variation - made the lines more similar, made ps more likely to conform
what are the 3 individual variables affecting conformity?
-gender
-mood
-culture
how does gender affect conformity?
-females conform more
-could be bcs they’re socialised to conform more, eagly et al 1981 - females learn to focus on quality of relationship and take greater care in maintaining them (NSI), while males are taught to be dominant
-could be biologically programmed to be conformist, taylor 2000 - tend and befriend instead of fight or flight
-most studies were conducted on men in male-type tasks, creating ISI for women - sistrunk + mcdavid 1971 - tasks with male bias made women conform more
how does mood affect conformity?
-research suggests we conform more if we’re in a good mood, or when moving from fear to relaxation
-tong et al 2008 - more likely to conform to wrong math answers when in a positive mood rather than neutral or negative
how does culture affect conformity?
-collectivist cultures more likely to conform because it’s socialised and expected
-smith + bond 1993 - conformity in collectivist cultures was 25-58%, but 14-39% in individualist cultures
what are social roles and social norms?
-roles = the part a person plays in a social group, which meets expectations
-norms = expected ways of behaving, varying in situations
how do social roles and norms lead to conformity?
-teach people how to behave
-learned social roles become internal mental scripts
-involves identification, not internalisation, as people may behave differently in private than public
-useful for predicting social behaviour
-zimbardo
