Conformity

Question 1

what is conformity

Answer 1

the tendency to change behaviour or opinions in response to real or imagined pressure

Question 2

3 types of conformity

Answer 2

compliance
identification
internalisation

Question 3

compliance

Answer 3

A superficial and temporary type of conformity where publicly go along with the majority view, but privately do not change our opinions and behaviour.=a particular behaviour stops when the group pressure stops

Question 4

indentification

Answer 4

a moderate form of conformity where we behave in the same way as a group because we value,identify and want to be apart of the group.=we may publicly change our opinions and behaviour in order to identify and be accepted by the group even though we don’t privately agree with everything the group stands for. E.g political views,religious views.

Question 5

internalisation

Answer 5

A deep form of conformity where we take on the majority view because we genuinely accept it as correct.This results in a far-reaching and permanent private change opinions as the attitudes have been internalised and have become part of the way the person thinks.The change is persistent even when the group is absent

Question 6

explanations for conformity

Answer 6

informational social influence (isi)
normative social influence (nsi)
(this is a two process theory )

Question 7

informational social influence(isi)

Answer 7

an explanation of conformity that says we agree with the majority when we are unsure about the correct ways to behave.a person will conform because they genuinely believe the majority is correct and they also want to correct.
this leads to internalisation
-this is a cognitive process(what you think)

Question 8

when is informational social influence more likely to occur

Answer 8

most likely to occur in situations that are new to a person or situations where there is some ambiguity,where decisions need to be made quickly,when one person is regarded an expert

Question 9

Normative social influence

Answer 9

an explanation of conformity that say we agree with the opinion of the majority and the norms of a social group because we want to be accepted and gain social approval rather than rejection which may lead to compliance = that NSI is an emotional rather than a cognitive process.as well as this, NSI is likely to occur in situations with strangers in order to avoid rejection,with friends,in order to have social approval and when people have greater need for social support

Question 10

when is normative social influence most common

Answer 10

-in situations with strangers where you feel concerned about rejection
-with people we know (most concerned about social approval of friends)
-stressful situations

Question 11

strength of ISI -research support

Answer 11

-Lucas et al asked students to give answers to mathematical problems that were either easy or extremely difficult.
-researchers found out that there was great conformity to incorrect answers when the questions were difficult.
-this was extremely apparent for students who rated their maths ability as poor
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