Conformity, Asch and Zimbardo

Question 1

What was Asch’s sample?

Answer 1

123 American male undergraduates.
-The groups contained one real participant and six confederates.
-Each group had the same seating arrangement.

Question 2

Who suggested the types of conformity?

Answer 2

Kelman (1958)

Question 3

Asch’s aim?

Answer 3

To investigate the extent to which social pressure from a majority group could affect a person to conform.

Question 4

What was Asch’s baseline procedure?

Answer 4

Two cards were shown. One had the standard line and the other had three comparison lines.
-Participants were asked which line matched the standard line.
-On the first few trials, all confederates gave the correct answer, but on the third trials the confederates gave the wrong answer. In 12 of the 18 trials the wrong answer was given

Question 5

What were the baseline findings?

Answer 5

-36.8% of the time the participants gave the wrong answer.
-Overall, 25% did not conform on any of the trials.
-So 75% conformed at least once.
-When interviewed most said they gave the wrong answer to avoid rejection (NSI).

Question 6

What situational variables were tested?

Answer 6

Group size, unanimity, task difficulty.

Question 7

group size?

Answer 7

-Varied the number of confederates from 1 to 15.
-He found a curvilinear relationship between group size and conformity rate. The conformity rate increased up to a point then after this point of 3 confederates, the number had little effect.
-Showing that two to three confederates is enough to sway opinion.

Question 8

Unanimity?

Answer 8

-Tested the presence of a non-conforming person, by introducing a confederate that disagreed with the other confederates.
-The genuine participant conformed less, the rate decreasing to less than a quarter of the baseline level.
-This suggests that the level of conformity depends majorly on unanimity.

Question 9

Task difficulty?

Answer 9

-He increased the difficulty of the line judging task by making the comparison lines more similar.
-He found that conformity increased, which may be because the situation is more ambiguous when the task is harder. Participants believed the confederates were right. This shows ISI.

Question 10

Evaluation: temporal validity?

Answer 10

Conducted at the end of the 1950s when America was experiencing ‘McCarthyism’ which was assumed conformity due to the threats of communism. Findings may not be relevant today because independent behaviour is more prominent.

Question 11

Evaluation: artificial setting?

Answer 11

Could lead to demand characteristics therefore some conformity may not have been genuine. Low ecological validity as would not know how people would conform in real life settings.

Question 12

Evaluation: ethical issues?

Answer 12

Participants were deceived and could have felt embarrassed and tricked that they gave into group pressure and knowingly gave the wrong answers.

Question 13

Evaluation: shows more non-conformity?

Answer 13

Two thirds of the time, participants did not conform, suggesting the study shows more independent behaviour. Conclusions could be incorrect.

Question 14

Evaluation: lack of cultural validity?

Answer 14

Smith et al (2006) analysed Asch types studies across different cultures. Conformity was 25% for individualist cultures and 30% for collectivists. This is explained by conformity being a normal and accepted behaviour in collectivist cultures that help bring people together.

Question 15

Evaluation: lack of mundane realism?

Answer 15

Judging a line is trivial and not a real life task. Less concerned with conforming because of no real life consequence. When the study was replicated with engineering students, conformity was almost non-existent. Do results have relevance in everyday life?

Question 16

What is conformity?

Answer 16

The tendency to change what we do, say and think to respond to the influence of real or imagined pressure.

Question 17

What is compliance?

Answer 17

Going along with others in public but in private views and behaviours are unchanged. Change in behaviour is only superficial, and when the pressure stops, the behaviour stops. Example- crossing on a red man because everyone else is.

Question 18

What is identification?

Answer 18

When the individual goes along with others because they value something in the group and want to be associated with that group/person. They publicly change behaviour but privately may not agree. Example- Learning to play football because your new friends like it.

Question 19

What is internalisation?

Answer 19

When the individual has genuinely accepted/adopted the views of the group so results in a private and public change in behaviour. Usually a permanent change. Example- Converting to Buddhism from Christianity.

Question 20

Who suggested the explanations for conformity?

Answer 20

Deutsch and Gerald (1955)

Question 21

What are the explanations for conformity?

Answer 21

–Normative social influence- The desire to be accepted and liked. An emotional process. Happens in situations with strangers where you are concerned about being rejected, and with friends because of the need for social approval.
–Informational social influence- Desire to be right. It is a cognitive process. Happens in an ambiguous or new situation.

Question 22

Evaluation of NSI?

Answer 22

–NSI: Linkenbach and Perkins (2003)- identified that teenagers exposed to a simple message saying most young people did not smoke were subsequently less likely to take up smoking.
–NSI: Schultz et al (2008)- hotel guests that were exposed to a message saying 75% of guests reuse their towels, reduced towel use by 25%.

Question 23

Evaluation of ISI?

Answer 23

–ISI: Lucas et al (2006)- asked students to give answers to easy or difficult maths problems. There was greater conformity when the problems were difficult, showing people conform more in unclear situations.
–ISI: Jenness (1932)- participants estimated how many jelly beans were in a jar. He found the individual estimates moved towards the estimates of others, showing they genuinely believed the others to be correct.

Question 24

Limitations of explanations?

Answer 24

-Often hard to establish whether it is NSI or ISI in play. Apply to Asch.
-Some people are nAffiliators, with the strong need to affiliate. McShee and Teevan found that these people were more likely to conform, The individual differences in NSI cannot be explained by these explanations, therefore lacks credibility.

Question 25

Why did Zimbardo conduct the Stanford prison experiment?

Answer 25

In the 1970s there had been many prison riots. He wanted to assess whether the social role or the guards personality made them behave brutally.

Question 26

What was Zimbardo’s sample?

Answer 26

24 male university student volunteers, paid $15 a day (assessed as emotionally stable), randomly assigned to either ‘prisoner’ or ‘guard’

Question 27

What was Zimbardo’s procedure?

Answer 27

-A mock prison was set up in the basement of the Stanford University Psychology department.
-Randomly assigned to be a prisoner or a guard and were encouraged to play their roles.

Question 28

What uniform was worn?

Answer 28

Uniform- prisoners had a loose smock and a cap. They were only ever identified by numbers. The guards had mirrored glasses, wooden clubs and handcuffs.
-This created de-individualisation which is the loss of personal dignity, so they were more likely to conform to social roles.

Question 29

What were Zimbardo’s findings?

Answer 29

-The guards were enthusiastic with their role and treated prisoners harshly, within two days they rebelled.
-The guards then used ‘divide and rule’ tactics by pitting prisoners against each other. They conducted frequent headcounts and reminded prisoners of their powerlessness.
-The prisoners then became subdued and depressed. One was released because he showed signs of psychological disturbance, followed by two more on day 4. One prisoner went on hunger strike.
-The guards’ behaviour became more and more aggressive and brutal until Zimbardo ended the experiment early on the sixth day of fourteen.

Question 30

What conclusions were drawn from the SPE?

Answer 30

Social roles appear to have a strong influence on behaviour. All participants easily took on their roles.
Situational variables could however have played a part in the level of aggressiveness and conformity.

Question 31

Strengths of SPE?

Answer 31

Control- Emotionally stable participants were randomly assigned to roles. This ruled out the possibility of individual personalities explaining the results. This increases the internal validity of the study and more confident conclusions can be drawn.

Question 32

Weaknesses of SPE?

Answer 32

-Exaggeration of power- Only one third of the guards behaved brutally. Another third applied the rules fairly and the rest tried to support and help the prisoners. May have overstated the impact of roles on behaviour.
-Investigator effects- Zimbardo reminded the guards of their complete authority and power, which may have encouraged brutality. May not have behaved in such a way.
-Low population validity:all male and age bias.
-Low empirical support- Reicher et al (2006) repeated the experiment and in their experiment, the prisoners did not conform and took over the prisoners.They suggested an alternative explanation of social identity theory, where the guards had to actively identify with their roles to change behaviour.
-Lack of realism- argued that the SPE did not have the realism of a true prison and participants were just ‘play acting’ rather than genuinely conforming to a role, and their behaviour was based on stereotypes.