Conformity Flashcards
Define conformity
A change in a person’s behaviour or opinions due to real or imagined behaviour from a person or group
Outline Sherif’s experiment
-Participants were put into a darkened room with no visible objects and were asked to focus on a single spot of light
-They were asked how far the light had moved and in what direction which was an ambiguous task
-There was a dramatic variation in response when done individually
-Repeated the experiment in groups of 3
-Individuals changed their individual views and agreed with others in the group
-The group norm was formed
Who came up with the three types of conformity and what are they?
Kelman
-Internalisation
-Identification
-Compliance
Define internalisation and give an example
It is the deepest level of conformity and is where a person changes their public behaviour and private views to the majority view. Occurs even when the group is absent
Having people who are vegetarian around you and then permanently becoming a vegetarian
Define identification and give an example
The middle level of conformity and is where people publicly change their behaviour because they identify with the group and want to be part of it. Privately they don’t change their behaviour
People say they’re Taylor fans so you say you are too but secretly you’re not
Define compliance and give an example
The lowest level of conformity and is where a person goes along with others in line with the majority view but privately disagrees
Claiming to like a food in a group of people you don’t identify with because they’re all saying it too
What is Deutsch and Gerard’s two-process theory?
That we conform because of either Informational or normative social influence
What is informational social influence?
When we look to the majority group for information as we are unsure about the way in which to behave. A person will conform because they genuinely believe the majority to be right as we look to them for the right answer. Generally occurs in ambiguous situations
What is normative social influence?
When we wish to be liked by the majority group, so we go along with them even though we may not agree with them. It is really just following the crowd in order to fit in with the norm and be liked by the group. Most likely to occur in situations where you know the people well OR in stressful situations where you feel you need social support
What was Jenness’ research?
-Aim was to investigate whether individual judgements of jellybeans in a jar was influenced by a discussion in groups
-Findings were that individuals second private estimate tended to move towards group estimates
-More women seemed to conform
Is supportive evidence of informative social influence because the group didn’t know what their initial answer was as their guess was private
What did McGee and Teevan find?
Individual differences- students in high need of affiliation were more likely to conform but is a limitation because some people won’t feel the need to conform
How is ISI and NSI potentially working together a limitation of the dual-process explanation of conformity?
It is hard to separate them and work out which one explains conformity. The example of a dissenter in Asch’s study may suggest distinguishing between the two is not very useful
What real life application does NSI have?
Schulz et al were able to change the energy consumption of hotel guests, particularly through messages that said other hotel guests were re-using their bath towels
Outline the procedure of Asch’s research
-Tested conformity in unambiguous situations
-123 American men with 5 confederates
-After the 3 trials the confederates gave wrong answers to which line matches which
-The dependant variable is how often the participants conform and also give an incorrect answer
What were the findings of this study?
-Participants conformed 36.8% of the time
-75% of the participants conformed at least once
-To make sure it wasn’t a difficult task, Asch conducted a control trial with no confederates and found that people only made mistakes 1% of the time
What relationship did Asch find between group size and conformity?
-A curvilinear relationship
-Conformity rates were low with 1 or 2 confederates, but jumped to 31.8% when there were 3
-Not much increase in conformity after this
-Conformity decreased when there were more than 7 confederates because it got unrealistic
-NSI is the best explanation but ISI played a role
What did Asch find when he investigated unanimity?
-To see if the presence of a dissenter would reduce conformity rates
-Found conformity decreased by 75%
-Regardless of whether the dissenter was giving a correct answer or different incorrect answer to the rest of the confederates
-NSI is involved
How did Asch study task difficulty and what did he find?
-Increased task difficulty by making the differences between the lines smaller
-Conformity significantly increased
-ISI can explain conformity as when we are unsure we look to other people for the correct answers
How may it be a limitation that Asch tested in a lab study?
Demand characteristics as they may guess the aim as it’s in a lab. However this may be a strength as it means it’s controlled
How could we criticise the sample Asch used?
Only tested American men, so it isn’t representative of society as a whole
-Americas are individualist culture, meaning a person is socialised to prioritise their own wants and needs above the group
-He should’ve also tested on other cultures such as Chinese because they’re collectivist culture, meaning a person is socialised to prioritise the group’s success
How did Lucas et al’s study both support and refute Asch’s findings?
Difficulty levels can explain conformity as we’re more likely to use informative as we think they’re right. However they also found confidence in maths ability played a large role in conformity so it’s more complex than Asch thought
What are potential ethical issues in Asch’s study
-No fully informed consent
-Protection from harm as they may be embarrassed if they thought everyone could see something they couldn’t
–Cost benefit analysis however may mean that it was worth it for the potential positive real life impact of this research
Define social roles
The parts we play as members of social groups. We have expectations about what appropriate behaviour is for each role
-How many participants were in Zimbardo’s study?
-How were they chosen and why?
-24 men were chosen to take part of the 70 that signed up
-They tested for the most psychologically healthy to see if they still had a psychological breakdown
Outline the procedure of Zimbardo’s study
-The men were assigned to either the role of a prisoner or a prison guard in the basement of Stanford University in a mock prison
-Zimbardo told them to act how they imagine their roles would act in real life
-The guards mistreated the prisoners
-Zimbardo studied whether they actually confirmed to their roles
What were the two main methods used to encourage conformity towards social roles?
Uniform: prisoners has smock, numbers instead of names and caps to cover their hair. Guards had uniform, club, sunglasses and handcuffs
Instructions: encouraged to act in the way their role would be assumed to act
Define de-individualisation
Where you don’t see yourself as your own person and instead another role
What happened initially in the first two days of the study?
The guards mistreated the prisoners and the prisoners protested and rebelled against it by ripping outfits, shouting and swearing. The guards used the divide and rule tactic to play prisoners off against each other, harass the prisoners and remind them of their powerlessness
What happened after the rebellion was squashed?
The prisoners conformed to their roles and acted powerless in comparison to the guards
Why did the study have to end early?
Multiple people had psychological breakdowns so he shut it down after 6 days. His girlfriend also came in and told him to stop
What conclusions did Zimbardo make about conformity to social roles?
-Guards conformed to their roles
-Prisoners rebelled to their roles for the first two days and then conformed
Conclusion was that conformity to social roles was very high and taken on easily and even prison chaplain conformed
What ethical issues were present in this study?
Lack of protection from harm because participants became very anxious and depressed. They also felt they were losing their sense of self-identity
What happened in Abu Ghraib and how does this support Zimbardo’s findings?
It shows how people can behave in an awful manner through conforming to social roles, so therefore Zimbardo has real-life application as it can be used to educate people of the power of conformity in social rules
What research did Jean Orlando conduct?
He selected staff at a psychiatric ward for one week that they would normally look after. After two days several participants experienced symptoms of psychological disturbance and became very anxious and depressed
Why might the study lack external validity?
It was conducted in the basement of a university so participants knew it was a study. Banuazizi and Mohavedi found one participant based his character on a brutal character from the film Cool Hand Luke and so accuses the participants of play-acting the stereotypes of the roles, rather than conforming to the social rules themselves
How may Zimbardo have exaggerated his findings?
He claimed there were high levels of conformity, but only 1/3 of the guards actually behaved brutally, 1/3 tried to be very fair when applying the rules and 1/3 actively sympathised and tried to help the prisoners by offering them cigarettes and privileges that had been taken away from the prisoners
How did Zimbardo’s study have good internal validity?
The way he selected participants had very high levels of control as they were deemed emotionally stable through extensive testing and randomly assigned to the conditions of the IV. this rules out the extraneous variable of individual differences, meaning it has high internal validity
