conformity Flashcards
what is conformity?
a change in a person’s behaviour or opinions as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people
what was asch’s baseline procedure (1951)?
123 american men, tested in group with confederates and were shown a random line with 3 comparison lines. confederates purposely gave the wrong answer to see if the real participant would conform. they were always seated towards the end of the table, usually groups 6-8 and did not know the others were confederates.
what were the findings of asch’s baseline study (1951)?
on average, participants conformed with the confederate’s incorrect answers 36.8% of the time and 25% of participants never conformed.
what were the variables investigated by asch (1955)?
group size
unanimity
task difficulty
what are the results of the variables asch investigated (1955)?
group size - with 3 confederates conformity rose to 31.8% but it soon levelled off
unanimity - conformity decreased when there was a dissenter in the group
task difficulty - conformity increased when situation is ambiguous
limitation of asch’s research?
artificial task and situation mean that the findings lack ecological validity and are not generalisable to the real-world population as its an ambitious situation where participants will show demand characteristics.
strength of asch’s research?
research support from todd lucas et al. (2006)
- asked participants to solve ‘easy’ and ‘hard’ maths problems and were given 3 other students answers. participants often conformed when the problems were harder, showing task difficulty is a variable that effects conformity.
who suggested the 3 types of conformity?
herbert kerman (1958)
what are the 3 types of conformity?
internalisation, identification, compliance
what is internalisation?
when a person genuinely takes on a group’s norms because they accept it as correct, leads to change in private and public behaviour or opinion, usually permanent.
what is identification?
when a person conforms to a group because they see something as valuable in the group or identify with the group, therefore change public behaviours or opinions to be accepted even if privately we don’t agree.
what is compliance?
when a person conforms to simply go on with the crowd in public but no private behaviour or opinions have changed, so it is a superficial change.
what are the two explanations for conformity?
normative social influence and informational social influence
what is normative social influence?
when someone conforms with the majority because we want social approval and to be liked by the group.
what is informational social influence?
when someone conforms with the majority because we think they are correct and accept this because we also want to be correct.
what is a strength if nsi?
research support (asch 1951) - when interviewing participants after study they showed they conformed out of fear of disapproval from the group, when able to write down answers conformity fell to 12.5% because there was less social pressure.
what is a limitation of nsi?
doesn’t account for individual differences (reductionist) - some people have a greater need to be liked (nAffiliators) and research shows those who are nAffiliators are more likely to conform.
what is a strength for isi?
research support (lucas et al 2006) - when participants had hard maths problems they relied on other’s answers as the situation was ambiguous and wanted to be correct so relied on other’s answers as they deemed them to be correct but when the problems were easy participants knew their own mind.
what is a limitation of isi?
it can be hard to make a distinction between nsi and isi because both are possible and rely on social approval.
who carried out stanford prison experiment?
zimbardo et al. (1973)
what is the stanford prison experiment?
21 american male students at stanford, in basement of university, randomly assigned social roles of prisoners or guard.
prisoners were given smock uniform with a cap and were only ever identified by numbers, guards had their own uniform with wooden clubs, handcuffs and reflective shades.
the uniforms cause deindividuation and encouraged them to conform to social roles.
guards were reminded that they were superior to prisoners and had complete power over them.
study intended to be 14 days long
what were the findings of the stanford prison experiment?
guards became very harsh towards prisoners and prisoners rebelled within 2 days and ripped their uniforms and shouted at guards, guards doused them with fire extinguishers.
guards played prisoners off against each other, they harassed prisoners constantly, conducted frequent headcounts.
after rebellion prisoners became subdued and showed signs of psychological disturbance and 3 were released from the study, one went on hunger strike and was put in a small dark closet.
guards became more aggressive the more they identified with their role and study was ended day 6.
what’s a strength of zimbardo’s prison experiment?
control over variables/internal validity - zimbardo chose emotionally stable participants and ruled out individual personality differences so the change in behaviour is definitely down to the social roles and means we can confidently draw conclusions.
