conformity Flashcards
define conformity
a change in a persons behavior or opinion as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or a group of people
what are the three types of conformity
compliance, identification, internalisation
what is the weakest form of conformity and define it
compliance: this is when you go along with another person publicly but privately you disagree with their views
what is the next weakest
identification: this is when you privately and publicly agree with the behavior to fit in with the group but it is probably temporary
the strongest level
internalisation: the beliefs of a group are taken on and become a permanent part of that person’s view - it could be seen as conversion
why do people conform
normative social influence and informational social influence
what is NSI
normative social influence refers wanting to be liked or to fit in with the social norm.
what is ISI
informative social influence refers to wanting to be right so we look to the majority for the information that we are unsure about
Jenness (1932)
- asked students to guess the number of jelly beans
- they then are put into groups to discuss and give group estimate
- they are asked to give another individual estimate
findings: found that individuals tended to change their answers to make it more like the group estimate : both NSI and ISI
Asch’s procedure
- tested conformity by showing participants two large white cards with three lines on one and one standard line on the other.
- out of the three lines one line was the same length as the line on the other card and the two other lines were clearly wrong
- participants were asked to match the three lines to the standard line
procedure details
123 american male undergraduate students
- each participants were tested individually with a group between 6 to 8 confederates
findings
36.8% gave wrong answer
- 25% did not conform -75% conformed at least once
the term Asch effect has been used to describe the result - the extent to which participant conform even when the situation is umabiguous
- when they were interviewed after most said they conformed to avoid social rejection
what are the three variations
unanimity, group size and task difficulty
describe unanimity
in Asch’s original experiment, the confederates gave all the same incorrect answer on the trials. but in the variations, one of the confederates were instructed to give the correct answer. this dropped conformity rates to 5%. this suggests that the participants has support to their belief and feels less pressured to conform.
describe group size
these variations ranged from one confederate to 15 confederates, and the level of conformity varied dramatically. when the group size increased to two confederates they confirmed 12.8% from 9% with one confederate. when there were three confederates it was 32% the same percentage. this demonstrates that conformity reaches its highest level at 3 people
task difficulty
the correct answer was always obvious in the main experiment. in one of the variations he made the task more difficult by making the difference between the line lengths smaller and therefore appear closer together making it harder, this increased rate of conformity
