Conformity Flashcards
What does compliance mean?
Publicly conforming to the behaviour of others in a group to be accepted or avoid disproval but privately maintaining one’s own views
What does identification mean?
Individuals adjust their behaviour and opinions to those of a group because they identify with that group and want to become apart of it
What does internalisation mean?
A conversion of private views to match those of the groups
What is the difference between identification and internalisation
Identification is when individuals adjust their behaviour to match those of the group because they IDENTIFY with that group whereas internalisation is a change of private views to match those of the group
What is normative social influence as an explanation for conformity?
The desire to be liked
Associated with compliance
What is informational social influence as an explanation for conformity?
Desire to be right
Associated with internalisation
What is the evidence to support NSI
Asch’s line experiment
In the experiment there was an obvious answer- found the judgement of individuals affected by majority even when they were wrong.
37% conformed to wrong answers
75% conformed to atleast one wrong answer
When interviewed, participants said they were afraid of disproval (DESIRE TO BE LIKED)
Evidence to support ISI
Lucas et al- asked students to give answers to maths problems that were either easy or difficult
Found there was a greater conformity to incorrect answers with more difficult questions
Supports the idea that people conform in situations where they feel they don’t know the answer so look to others for the desire to be right
What is a limitation of NSI and ISI?
Fails to account for individual differences.
In terms of ISI, asch found that students were less conformist than other participants. Eg- Perrin and Spencer replicated aschs study with engineering students and found less conformity
Suggests people who are more knowledgeable and confident are less influenced by the right view .
What is another limitation of both explanations?
They suggest that behaviour is either due to NSI OR ISI
However, often both processes are involved
Eg- conformity is reduced when there is another dissenting participant in aschs study . The dissenter may reduce the power of NSI it could easily also reduce the power of ISI
Demonstrates that it’s not always possible to be sure which one is at work
