Conformity Flashcards
what is the definition for conformity?
a type of social influence involving a change in belief or behavior in order to fit in with the group.
what are the three types of conformity?
compliance, identification and internalization.
what is compliance?
going along with a group in order to fit in with them, even if you disagree with them.
you conform publicly but privately disagree.
what is identification?
adopting an attitude/behavior because you want to be associated with a particular person-group.
you show public compliance and private acceptance, but it is temporary views that is not maintained.
what is internationalization?
going along with the group because you accept their views.
you show public compliance and private acceptance, this is permanent even without the group.
what is ISI and NSI?
two explanations for conformity: Informational social influence and Normative social influence.
what is the explanation for internalization?
ISI, we conform because we want to be right. If they are perceived to have an expert. We internalize their opinion as our own, as we think they are right and our opinion becomes theirs.
what is the explanation for compliance?
NSI, we conform because we want to be liked and to fit in. We go along with the group publicly but don’t agree privately. It is usually temporary.
outline Jenness (1932) research into ISI…
hypo: the individual judgement of how many beans in a jar was influenced by discussion with another person in an unclear task.
participants tend to converge towards the group estimate, shows that we look for others for guidance in an ambiguous situation.
outline Asch (1951) research into NSI…
hypo: conform to a majority who gave obviously wrong answers for an unambiguous task.
123 male students from Swathmore College participant in what they thought was a vision test, with 6 confederates and 1 participant. 18 critical trials conducted, 12 confederate gave the wrong answer.
32% of critical tasks were conformed on
over 12 of the trails, 74% conformed at least once.
evaluating research into conformity…
Both have demand characteristics, lack internal validity.
Asch, low ecological validity, unethical, temporal validity.
further research support for NSI?
Linkenbach and Perkins
found that teenagers were less likely to smoke if they were exposed to a simple message saying that the majority of their peers did not smoke.
further research support for ISI?
Fein et al
participants was the reaction of their fellow participants on screen during US presidential debate, therefore produced large shift in judgement of the candidates performance.
Sherif with the autokinetic effect
where a small spot of light was projected in a dark room that appears to move even though it didn’t.
the group converged to a common estimate, due to the unambiguous task they looked for others for guidance.
what is the definition for social roles?
the part we play as members of a social group, with each social role you adopt, your behavior changes to fit the expectations.
outline Zimbardos research into social roles…
the extent of which people would conform to the social role of a guard or prisoner in a role play prison stimulation.
24 male university students volunteered and were randomly assigned.
had to release 5 due to emotional depression.
the guards grew tyrannical and abusive towards the prisoners.
it was terminated after 6 days.
we conform to the role demanded in a situation, even when it overrides individual beliefs.
evaluation into Zimbardo’s study…
observer bias, real world applications, ethical issues, internal validity, sample bias, the role of dis-positional factors.
what is the definition for obedience?
a type of social influence where someone acts in response to a direct order from a figure of authority.
what is an authority figure?
a person who has authority that we often follow orders from authority figures.
outline Milgram’s research into obedience…
40 voluntary males from Yale university, thought they were taking part in an experiment about the effects of punishment on learning.
the learner, a confederate, was strapped into a chair with electrodes in the next room and deliberately answer the teachers questions wrong.
the teacher has to administrate increasing volts each time by 15 volts each time to 450 volts.
100% of the participants shocked up to 300 volts.
65% of the participants wen to 450 volts.
evaluation into Milgram’s study…
unethical, lacks internal validity, controlled experiment, lack external validity, supported in more realistic settings.
name the three key situational variables on why we obey…
uniform, proximity and location.
outline Bickman’s research into explanations for obedience…
found that people are 76% likely to obey the guard compared to 30% likely to obey the civilian because of their uniform.
name the statistics of Milgram’s obedience meter…
original, 65% different location variation, 48% proximity variation, 40% touch proximity variation, 30% experimenter absent variation, 21% uniform variation, 20% two peers rebel variation, 10% teachers discretion variation, 2.5%
what is the agentic state?
Milgram proposed that people operate on 2 levels, as an autonomous individual or on an agentic level. When in the agentic state, people are most likely to obey.
what is the agentic shift?
when someone gives us an order, we experience a agentic shift. It means we shift responsibility for our actions from ourselves to the person who gave us the order. We believe we don’t have to face consequences of our actions.
evaluation into the agentic state…
research support, real life applications, opposing arguments, theory limitations, social sensitivity.
what does it mean by legitimacy of authority?
it refers to the degree to which individuals are seen as justified in having power over others
four points on how legitimacy of authority affect obedience…
feel pressure to obey when we perceive the person giving the order has the right to do so.
we assume they know best and have no right to question them.
we use cues from the environment to help us judge their legitimacy.
we learn acceptance of legitimacy of authority from our childhood.
