Conformity Booklet One Flashcards
What is conformity?
A change in a person’s behaviour when faced with real or imagined pressure from a person
What is internalisation?
Changing your behaviour to fit a wider social group because you have internalised those beliefs and think they are your own
What is compliance?
Correcting your behaviour to fit a wider social group despite your own private thoughts
What is identificiation?
Changing the way you act to fit a set of social norms, like a specific position in society.
What is Informational Social Influence (ISI)?
An individual who conforms and changes the way they act based on the information gained from or about the wider social group
What is Normative Social Influence (NSI)?
When am individual conforms or changes the way they act based on apparent social norms and expected behaviour
What is majority influence?
When a person changes their attitude, actions and beliefs to fit in with a larger group
What is a confederate?
A ‘non-participant’ who is working for the experimenter to answer in a specific way.
How many male students were involved in the Asch experiment?
123 male students
Asch experiment was known as a task of what?
Visual perception
How many participants in turn called out which of three lines matched the standard line
7-9
How many people were genuine and where were they placed?
One and at the end
On how many of the 18 trials did the confederates give an incorrect answer?
12/18 trials
What % of the time did the real pp conform to the majority?
33%
What % of real pp conformed at least once ?
75%
What % of real pp conformed every time?
5%
In the control group how much % actually made a mistake?
1%
What conclusion was drawn from asch’s research?
When pps were interviewed, the majority said they conformed due to NSI but some also conformed to ISI too
What are the two strengths of Asch’s study ?
High internal validity and high internal reliability
What is internal validity?
Control variables are carried out so a cause and effect can be established
What is internal reliability?
A consistent method which can be easily repeated.
What are the 4 weaknesses of Asch’s study?
Lacks ecological validity, possible demand characteristics, lacks temporal vaidlity and gender bias
What is ecological validity?
Not relevant to real life
What is demand characteristics?
An artifical setting - the individual can change their behaviour due to this.
What is temporal validity?
It’s out dated and may not work again/show same results
What is gender bias?
Where one gender is only favoured so there is a lack of population validity.
What were the Asch’s variations?
Size of the majority, unaminity of the group and difficulty of the task.
What did Asch do to make the tasks more difficult?
He made a difference between the lines much smaller so the ‘correct’ answer was less obvious.
What happened to conformity when the task was more difficult?
Conformity Increased
When the group was unanimous, what happened to conformity?
Increased
Levels of conformity decreased to what % when a pp dissented from the majority (correct answer)?
5%
Conformity dropped to what % when another pp gave a different incorrect answer?
9%
How does the size of the majority effect conformity?
There is little conformity when there is less confederates, increased to 30% when majority of 3. Then after 3 plateau
What was the aims for zimbardos SPE study?
To test the situational versus dispositional explanation of behaviour
What did zimbardo firstly set up in the basement of the psychology department of Stan ford University?
A mock prison
How many student volunteers were selected as emotionally stable?
24
How was the pps allocated to the role of guard and prisoner?
Randomlly
Prisoners were given what to wear?
A loose smock
Prisoners were identified by what?
Numbers
The guards had their own uniform, a baton, handcuffs and what else?
Mirrored sunglasses
The uniform created a loss of identity called what
De-individuation
The guards were told they had to do what over the prisoners?
Control
Could the guards cause physical harm? Yes or no
No
Within two days of zimbardos experiment, the prisoners did what?
Rebelled
Did the guards become harsh to the prisoners? Yes or no
Yes
Once the rebellion was put down what happened to the prisoners?
The became subdued, depressed and anxious
A prisoner went on what that lead him to being released and what signs did he show?
Hunger strike and signs of psychological disturbance
Zimbardo ended the study after how many days instead of the original 14?
6 days
What did zimbardo conclude that both the prisoners and guards did?
They conformed to their social role
What explanation of behaviour was supported in Zimbardos experiment?
Situational
What were the strengths of zimbardos SPE?
Moderate ecological validity and moderate internal validity
What were the weaknesses of Zimbardos SPE?
Ethical issues, possibility of demand characteristics, lacks ecological validity, lacks interns validity and possible investigator effects
Asch’s research links to NSI, give the reasons
Those who maintained private opinion but ‘went along’ with the group. Conformity decreased with presence of an ally.
ISI links to Asch’s research, how?
Those who ‘doubted their own eyes’ and thought everyone else must be right. Conformity Increased with difficulty
A weakness of Asch’s research is that it was artifical, explain why
Pps knew they were being studied so potential of demand characteristics
A strength of Asch’s research is that it had controlled lab conditions, explain how
Pps were limited to 7-9 each experiment and there was 1 genuine pp and was done inside a laboratory
One strength is that there is research support for NSI, explain how
Asch interviewed pps after, told him they were self conscious on giving the correct answer, conformity decreased (answers given privately) no normative group pressure.
However it is hard to separate ISI, explain how?
When Asch added a dissenting pp conformity decreased. They work simultaneously as pp could not conform as dissenter acts as social ally (NSI) or that the dissenter convinces pp that they are correct (ISI)
