conformity Flashcards
NSI
Normative Social Influence; when you conform to be accepted by the group
ISI?
Informational Social Influence; looking for guidance from the group for the right answer / way to act
What is conforming?
Yielding to group pressure
Kelman’s 3 types of conformity?
Internationalisation
Compliance
Identification
What is Kelman’s internationalisation?
Have the view forever, even once you’ve left the group
What is Kelman’s compliance?
Agreeing publicly but not privately
What is Kelman’s identification?
Agreeing both publicly and privately but not at all once leaving the group
Jenesse’s aim?
To investigate whether and individuals opinion changes after discussion
Jenesse’s method? (3)
1) RPS wrote their own estimates to how many jell beans were in a jar
2) discussion as a group took place to create a group estimate
3) RPS then wrote new estimate privately
Jenesse’s findings? (3)
Second estimates converged to the groups
Women’s estiamtes converged more than men
When people are uncertain they allow the group to shape their opinions (ISI)
Jenesse’s evaluation? (4)
No informed consent before hand
NSI could be present when a group estimate was made
Only tells us about ambiguous situations
Lab = ecological validity, mundane realism, artificial setting
Asch’s aim?
to investigate conformity to a majority in an unambigious setting
Asch’s method? (4)
1) 123 male uni students were told they were taking part in an experiment about perception
2) Each RPS put with 7-9 confederates and was always sat second to last
3) They were then asked to identify the line that is the same as the stimulus line
4) There was 18 different trails in 6 of them there was confederates gave the correct answers the other 12 the confederates gave the wrong answer
Asch’s findings? (3)
Control group error rate = 0.04% where as critical trails = 32% to wrong answer at least once
Asch asked RPS in post interviews why they conformed and they said “to avoid ridicule” and “the light made them doubt themselves”
Individual judgements are affected by the group even when answers are obviously wrong (NSI)
Asch’s evaluation? (4)
Androcentric = males only can’t be generalised
Lab = lack of mundane realism and ecological validity
Deception = lack of conformed consent
Confederates weren’t trained actors and RPS may have guessed what the experiment was about.
Mori and Arai’s aim?
To reproduce Asch’s study without confederates
Mori and Arai’s method? (5)
1) 104 Japanese students were put into same sex groups of 4
2) They sat at a table saying which line matches tge stimulus line and RPS all has to wear sunglasses
3) The third RPS in each proud had their sunglasses altered therefore changing how they see things
4) After they were gave questions asking if they were influenced by others
5) There was a control group who wore no sunglasses
Mori and Arai’s findings? (7)
Control group made errors 2.8% of the time with no gender difference
26 people who wore sunglasses made errors 19.6% of the time
Women made errors 28.6% of the time similar to Asch’s study
Men made errors 5% of the time
Women conform more than men could be because of gender/cultural/historical reasons
No one laughed at wrong answers therefore there was no NSI
In larger groups there was more conformity
Mori and Arai’s evaluation? (4)
Lack of confederate makes it ethical
Lack of informed consent makes it unethical
Greater external validity
Lab = mundane realism
What two variables affect conformity?
Situational variables
Individual Variables
What are the three situational variables?
Size of the group
Unanimity
Task difficulty
What are the three individual variables?
Gender
Mood
Culture
How does the size of group affect conformity?
Asch found that the bigger the group the more people conformed = one RPS with two confederates conformity dropped from 32% to 13%
How does unanimity affect conformity?
If others decent in the group conformity drops eg Asch with one confederate giving the correct answer when everyone else gave the wrong answer conformity dropped from 32% to 5%
How does task difficulty affect conformity?
the more difficult the task the higher conformity; Asch changed the length of the lines so it was harder and conformity increased massively
How does gender affect conformity?
Women conform more than men; Egelely et Al says it’s because women are more socialised therefore NSI
How does mood affect conformity?
The happier you are the more you conform; Tong et Al experimented on maths students those who agreed with the wrong answer were happy
How does culture affect conformity?
Bond et Al cultures that are more collectionlist (focus on everyone) have higher rates of conformity compared to cultures which are more focused on individuals
