Conformity Flashcards
What are the 3 types of conformity ?
Internalisation
Identification
Compliance
What is internalisation ?
This is where you take something away to try and end up enjoying or agreeing with it so you internalise e.g. making it one of your beliefs. It is usually permanent and occurs in private and public settings.
What is identification ?
When we identify with something when we are in a specific group but when we leave the group we no longer do it or agree with it. This is a temporary change and happens privately.
What iis compliance ?
When we follow the majority and agree with what they say solely to get people to like you since you agree with them. This is a temporary change and happens publicly.
What are the two explanations for conformity ?
Normative social influence (NSI)
Informational social influence (ISI)
What is normative social influence ?
NSI is about norms, a desire to behave like others and not look foolish. NSI concerns what is ‘normal’ behaviour for a social group. Norms regulate regulate the behaviours of groups and individuals. NSI is an emotional rather than cognitive process. NSI occurs in unfamiliar situations and this is because you look for others to see the social norms
What is informational social influence ?
ISI is about information , the desire to behave like others right. Often we are uncertain about what behaviours are right or wrong.
What was Asch’s research ?
Asch devised a procedure to measure the extent to which that people conformed to the opinion of others , even in a situation where the other’s answers were wrong
How did Asch research this ?
Asch showed participants two cards. One card was the original line and the the other showed the comparison lines. He asked them to match the original line to the comparison line that are the same length. This was repeated 17 times. On every trial the right answer was obvious. But only one participant was naive to the experiment the rest were confederates. The researchers told the confederates what answers to give and usually the naive participant was last or second to last. The confederates answer the first two right to not make it obvious then after that they answer incorrectly.
What did Asch find ?
His was a measure of conformity. Overall, there was a 32% conformity rate. Only 25% didn’t conform. 75% conformed at least once. The only reason for this level of conformity is due to the incorrect answer being given before. The participants knew they were wrong but they just wanted to fit in with the group (NSI).
What are Asch’s 3 variables that affect conformity ?
Group size
Task difficulty
Unanimity
How did Asch experiment with group size as a variable ?
Asch varied the number of confederates in the group from 1 to 15. The relationship between group size and level of conformity is curvilinear. If there was two confederates , conformity to the wrong answer was 13.6%. When. When there was 3 confederates , conformity rose to 31.8%. Over three confederates, the conformity rate levelled out.
How did Asch experiment with unanimity as a variable ?
Procedure - Asch introduced a dissenting confederates - sometimes they gave the correct answer and sometimes a different wrong answer (but always disagreed with the rest of the group)
Findings - In the presence of a dissenter , conformity decreased on average to less than a quarter of the level it was when the majority was unanimous. Conformity reduced if dissenter gave the right or wrong answer.
Explanation - Having a dissenter enabled the naive participant to behave more independently.
How did Asch experiment with task difficulty as a variable ?
Procedure - Asch made the line-judging task harder by making stimulus lies and comparison lines more similar in length. Thus it was difficult to see differences between the lines.
Finding - conformity increased
Explanation - The situation is more ambiguous , so we are more likely to look to others for guidance and to assume they are right and we are wrong. This is informational social influence - it plays a greater roe when the tasks become harder.
