Conformity Flashcards
Conformity
Yielding to group pressure
Compliance
Publicly not privately going along with majority influence
Identification
Publicly and privately acceptance of majority
Usually temporary
E.g. In the army
Internalisation
Public and private acceptance
Genuinely adjusts their behaviour and opinions
ISI
Informative social influence - motivational force to look for others in order to be correct
NSI
Motivational force to be liked and accepted
Cognitive dissonance
Unpleasant feelin of anxiety created by holding two contradictory ideas
Confederates
Individuals who pretend to be participants
Situational variables
Features of an environment that affect conformity
Individual variables
Personal characteristics that affect the degree to which individuals yield to group pressures
Social roles
Parts individuals play as members of a social group
De individualisation
Where individuals have lower self awareness and a weaker sense of personal responsibility
Dehumanisation
Degrading people by lessening of human qualities
STUDY FOR COMFORMITY
ASCH 1951
Aim of asch
whether people would conform to a majority incorrect answer in an unambiguous task
method of asch
groups of 8 judged line lengths and said aloud which comparison line matched it
each group had 1 real participant and the rest confederates
real participant went last
12/18 of tasks confederates gave wrong answer
control group
results of asch
control trials wrong answer 0.7%
critical trials wrong answer 37%
conformed at least once 75%
conclusion of asch
they conformed due to NSI
evaluation of asch
laboratory so good control of variables
lacked ecological validity
ethics as participants were decieved
Zimbardo aim
mock prison to see if people would conform to assigned role
method of zimbardo
male students recruited as guards or prisoners
guards wore uniforms and prisoners also
initially guards asserted authority/prisoners resisted
prisoners then became more passive and obedient
experiment abandoned early cos of stress
conclusion of Zimbardo
guards n prisoners adopted roles quickly
evaluation of Zimbardo
control of variables
results can’t be generalised as it was artifical
observer bias as Zimbardo himself ran the prison
