Conformity Flashcards
Define conformity
A change in a persons behaviour or opinions as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or group
Who suggested the idea of types of conformity ?
Herbert Kelham (1958)
What is the shallowest form of conformity?
Compliance - conforming publicly but continuing privately to disagree
What is a moderate form of conformity?
Identification - acting the same as the group because you share values and want to be accepted (often temporary)
What is the deepest form of conformity?
Internalisation - person conforms both publicly and privately because they have internalised and accepted the group views —> most likely when majority has greater knowledge
What are the two main explanations of conformity?
Deutsch and Gerard (1955) suggested Normative social influence and Informational social influence
Define NSI as an explanation for conformity
When a person confirms to be accepted and feel they belong to a group ; occurs w strangers and close friends, associated w compliance and identification
Define ISI as an explanation for conformity
When a person confirms to gain knowledge/because hutue believe someone else is right ; occurs in pre sense of experts & in difficult tasks; associated with internalisation
Give a strength of NSI and ISI as explanations for conformity
+ Research support - Lucas et al (2006) found in a maths test students were more likely to confirm when faced with more difficult questions ; showed students conformed to be right as suggested by NSI
Give a limitation of NSI and ISI as explanations for Conformity
— Individual differences - McGhee and stevan (1967) found not everyone is as easily influenced by NSI; those who care less ant being liked are less affected, suggesting the explanation is not applicable to everyone
Outline Asch’s procedure for his experiment into conformity
- 123 male American undergraduates
- Showed ppts two large white cards, one with a standard line and the other three comparison lines, one the same length as the standard line and the other two substantially different
- Ppts were asked in groups of 6-8 confederates which of the comparison lines matched the standard
- first trials confederates gave correct answers before starting to make errors
What were the findings of Asch’s study into conformity
75% conformed at least once
25% conformed on none of the trials
How did Asch’s three variations affect conformity levels?
Difficulty of task = when line lengths were closer together, answer was more ambiguous and conformity increased
Number of majority = Little conformity when majority was 1/2 ppl, a majority of 3 increased conformity to 30%, but further increased had no effect
Unanimity of majority = when one confederate have the correct answer conformity reduced by 80%
Give strengths for Asch’s study into conformity
+ Research support for effects of tasks difficulty - Lucas et al found in difficult maths questions students conformed to the incorrect answer more —> *however ! * also found those more confident in their maths ability conformed less, shows personality is also a factor
Give some limitations of Asch’s study into conformity
— Artificial tasks/environment = Judging line length in a lab setting is not reflective of real life, low external validity; may not be generalisable to day to day life
— Individual differences = ppts were all American males in the 1950s; cannot be universally applied as only considered certain ppl, also doesn’t account for how time period (temporal validity) may affect validity
