Conformity

Question 0

Name some strategies for resisting social pressure/conformity.

Answer 0

Rebellion-Gamson found that a very high percentage of groups will show dissent and around 50% will completely rebel o unfair requests from authority figures if they are given time to discuss and express their dissent.

Group cohesiveness- if a group is highly cohesive its individual members are tightly linked and support eachother.

Question 1

Describe conformity.

Answer 1

Conformity is the compliance with standards, rules or laws. It is a type of social influence involving a change in belief or behaviour in order to fit in a group. Conformity can be affected by a persons personality. It can also be argued that it can be affected by ones upbringing and way they socialised.

Question 2

Name some factors which affect conformity.

Answer 2

Group size- the bigger the group size, the higher the levels of conformity to the group.

Task difficulty- Ambiguity and familiarity with task.

Gender- Men are less likely to conform.

Question 3

Describe Mori and Arais study.

Aim
Sample
Procedure
Results
Conclusion

Answer 3

Aim- Mori and Arai wanted to recreate Aschs experiment but with no actors, real people only involved. Conducted in JAPAN.

Sample: 104 people.

Procedure: Groups of 4 would wear special glasses and would say which lines matched the original line, like Aschs experiment. However, one of the participants was wearing different glasses from the others, and their reaction was recorded.

Results: Women were often swayed by majority view, males rarely swayed by majority view.

Conclusion: Women more likely to conform, men nah.

Evaluation:

Strength: Conformity among friends and people you know is more common in a real life scenario than conforming with strangers.

Weakness: Done in Japan so results may differ in UK

Being friends may alter results.