Conformity Flashcards
What is conformity?
A form of social influence that results from exposure to the majority position, when an individual’s behaviour, beliefs or values are influenced by other members of a reference group.
What are the types of conformity?
Compliance, Identification, Internalisation
Explanations for conformity:
Normative and Informational Social Influence
Variables affecting conformity:
Group size, Unanimity, Task difficulty (as investigated by Asch)
Conformity to social roles:
Zimbardo (1973)
Research into conformity:
Asch (1955)
What are the three types of conformity?
Compliance
Identification
Internalisation
What is compliance?
This occurs when individuals adjust their behaviour and opinions to those of a group publicly but not privately.
Individuals comply with the beliefs and behaviour of those around them in order to be accepted or avoid disapproval/rejection, based on a desire to fit in.
It is a fairly weak and temporary form of conformity.
It is usually dependent on the presence of the group.
What are some examples of compliance?
Smoking in the presence of your friends, but privately disliking it.
What is Identification?
Individuals adjust their behaviour and opinions to those of a group, because membership of that group is desirable.
This involves private and public acceptance.
BUT it is usually temporary and not maintained when individuals leave the group.
It involves elements of both compliance and internalisation.
The individual accepts the attitudes and behaviours as right and true, but is doing so for the purpose of being accepted into the group.
What are some examples of identification?
Becoming a vegetarian whilst at university, because you identify with the views of your vegetarian flat mates, but then eating meat again when you leave university
What is internalisation?
This is also known as ‘true conformity’ – it is the deepest type of conformity.
It occurs when individuals genuinely take on/adopt the beliefs/opinions and behaviour of others as their own.
Internalisation involves both public and private acceptance of the group’s behaviour and opinions – it results in permanent acceptance.
It is not dependent on the presence of the group.
What are some examples of internalisation?
Converting to a different religion
There are two main explanations for conformity:
- Normative Social Influence (NSI)
- Informational Social Influence (ISI)
What is the dual process model?
Deutsch and Gerard (1955) proposed that there are two reasons WHY people conform: normative and informational social influence
What is Normative Social Influence (NSI)?
This is the desire to be liked.This is what forms the basis of NSI, we are motivated by our need to gain acceptance and approval, as well as a desire to avoid disapproval.
For NSI to take place, an individual must feel that they are under surveillance by the group, therefore they will conform publicly, but not necessarily privately.
What is Informational Social Influence (ISI)?
This is the desire to be right. It involves a change in an individual’s point of view so that it is in line with others. Therefore, there is a change in both public and private attitudes (internalisation) – taking on others’ beliefs and behaviour as one’s own.
Evaluating Explanations of Conformity. P: Normative social influence can explain the results of conformity studies in unambiguous situations e.g. Asch.
E: After interviewing his participants, Asch concluded that some participants felt compelled to accept the mistaken majority’s norms to avoid being rejected. They therefore showed distortion of action, agreeing publicly, but not privately with the group.
Asch also suggested that normative social influence is moderated by the size of the group. As the size of the majority increases, there appears to be a heightened pressure to ‘fit in’ and be accepted as conformity increases.
C: However, Asch’s study may tell us little about why people conform in everyday life, due to the artificial nature of the task and unrealistic situation.
Evaluating explanations of conformity. P: Informational social influence can explain conformity in ambiguous situations in which both public and private agreement occurs e.g. Jenness, Asch.
E: For example, in the ‘task difficulty’ variation of Asch’s research the differences between the comparison line lengths were made much smaller, so they were more similar in length. The ‘correct’ answer was therefore less obvious. Asch found that conformity increased.
C: This suggests that in instances of uncertainty, individuals will look to others for guidance as to how to behave.
Evaluating explanations of conformity. P: However it can be difficult to measure and/or distinguish between the two explanations.
E: Normative and informational social influence may not be separate and independent explanations as Deutsch and Gerard argued.
It has been suggested that NSI and ISI often complement each other, working together to influence levels of conformity. Both NSI and ISI can explain conformity in Asch’s study and the variations. In post-experimental interviews, participants claimed that they conformed due to the risk of being ridiculed (NSI). They also thought that their perception of the lines must have been inaccurate (ISI).
Moreover, it isn’t always possible to be sure whether NSI or ISI is at work in laboratory studies or in real-life conformity situations.
C: Furthermore, alternative explanations for conformity e.g. dispositional factors (leadership/intelligence) have been put forward.
What was Jenness (1932) study?
Participants had to guess the number of jellybeans in the jar.
They gave their estimates individually.
They then discussed their estimates as a group. After discussion, group estimates were generated.
Finally, they gave a second individual estimate.
It was found that the second private estimate tended to converge/move towards the group estimate.
What did Jenness conclude?
Jenness concluded that the judgements of individuals are affected by majority opinions, especially in ambiguous or unfamiliar situations.
What conformity was Jenness?
INTERNALISATION
The conformity produced was motivated by informational social influence (ISI), where individuals in uncertain situations look to others for guidance as to how to behave.
Asch argued that the study tells us little, if anything, about majority influence (conformity) in non-ambiguous situations.
How did difficulty of task affect conformity?
The differences between the comparison line lengths were made much smaller, so they were more similar in length.
The ‘correct’ answer was therefore
less obvious.