Conformity & Obediance Flashcards
What is compliance?
Pretending to believe the same as the group but maintaining your own beliefs in private.
Example of compliance
Being vegetarian at school around friends but eating meat at home.
What is identification?
Agreeing and behaving the same as the group even when alone but this is a temporary change so when the person leaves the group their beliefs revert back.
Example of identification
Liking basketball because of friends who influenced you to like it but once moving to a new town, your beliefs revert back and you no longer like it.
What is internalisation?
The group has such an impact on the individual that their beliefs are permanently changed and they carry out the behaviour even if they are no longer apart of the group.
Example of internalisation.
Liking music because friends influenced you and beliefs never revert back.
What 2 factors affect conformity?
Normative and informational influence.
What is normative influence?
Changing behaviour in order to be liked or fit in.
Example of normative influence
Laughing at a joke you didn’t find funny
What is informational influence?
Believing the majority is right and changing beliefs and behaviour to come in line with the group. Also when someone gives you new information you didn’t know and now beliefs are changed.
Example of informational influence
Recycling after learning about climate change
What are individual factors affecting conformity?
Age, personality and sex.
How does age affect conformity?
Younger people conform more than older people (conformity levels are high under the age of 10, stable between 10-18 and then decreases).
How does personality affect conformity?
People with a higher self esteem confirm less.
How does sex affect conformity?
Women conform more than men to promote peace and group harmony.
What cultural factors affect conformity?
Collectivist cultures conform more as they value family and society more than individual needs. Individualist cultures conform less as they value individual needs more.
What situational factors affect conformity?
Group size, social support, secrecy and task difficulty.
How does group size affect conformity?
The more people putting pressure on you, the more likely you are to conform up to a group size of 4. (1 confederate = 0% conformity, 2 confederates = 12.8% conformity and 3 confederates = 33.3% conformity)
How does social support affect conformity?
When having an ally, conformity levels decrease. (With a confederate who was an ally, conformity drops to 5.5%)
How does secrecy affect conformity?
When hiding responses, people are less likely to conform. (Conformity drops to 5%)
How does task difficulty affect conformity?
Increasing the difficulty of a task increases conformity levels .
What is the aim of the Mori and Arai study?
To replicate Asch’s experiment without the need for actors to ensure nobody was acting unnaturally.
What is the method of M&A study?
Lab experiment
What is the procedure of M&A study?
They replicated an Asch type situation with length of lines but with no actors. Everyone wore filter glasses but one was given a different type so they perceived a different correct answer.
What are the results of M&A study?
Females conformed 36% of the time but males didn’t conform at all.
What is 1 strength of the M&A study?
It was a lab experiment which is a strength because all variables were controlled and a cause and effect can be established.
What is another strength of the M&A study?
The participants knew eachother which is a strength because we conform to friends so this is more relevant to the real world.
What is a weakness of the M&A study?
They were all Japanese students so results cannot be generalised as findings may not apply to other cultures.
What is another weakness of the M&A study?
It lacked mundane realism so most people who conformed in the experiment may not conform in real life.
What are 4 conclusions from the M&A study?
1 - People may conform amongst friends due to normative influence.
2 - Females are more likely to conform than males.
3 - Having an ally may not cause a big reduction in conformity in a collectivist culture.
4 - Males are less conformist than they were in the Asch study in the 50s.
What are situational factors affecting obedience?
Legitimate authority, proximity, presence of authority and peers.
What is legitimate authority?
The original study was set in a prestigious location so Milgram replicated the experiment in an office with the experimenter wearing casual clothes (obedience rate dropped to 52%).
What is proximity?
Milgram thought having a wall between the participant and Mr Wallace acted as a buffer making it easier to deliver the shocks so in another variation, the teacher sat in the same room (obedience dropped to 40%).
What is presence of authority?
In a variation, the experimenter gave instructions then left the room, delivering further instructions by phone (obedience fell to 20.5%).
What is peers?
Milgram added two confederates who dissented at specific points (obedience fell to 10%) an in another variation, a confederate teacher pressed the switches (obedience went to 92.5%).
What are societal factors?
Agency theory, socialisation and parenting.
What is agency theory?
In an autonomous state we act based on our own wishes and in an agentic state we look to an authority figure. When stressed we are in an agentic state.
What is socialisation?
We enter an agentic state because society taught us to respect authority figures as we are rewarded for making the right choices, influencing us to obey.
What is parenting?
Democratic parenting is encouraging children to think for themselves and authoritarian parenting teaches children to obey.
What is the aim of the Milgram study?
Milgram wanted to know how obedient ordinary people would be to an authority figure.
What is the method of the Milram study?
Lab experiment
What is the procedure of the Milgram study?
40 volunteers were introduced to an experimenter who they were told was another confederate - the true participant took the role as ‘teacher’ and the actor a ‘learner’. The teacher shocked the learner and increased the voltage after each wrong answer but they weren’t actually shocked. After 315V they were silent and if the participant hesitated, the experimenter used a verbal prod.
What were the results of the Milram study?
65% continued to the maximum shock level.
What is a strength of the Milgram study?
It was a lab experiment so all variables were controlled and a cause and effect can be established.
What is another strength of the Milgram study?
Milgram stated that in a survey, 84% of participants said they were glad to have taken part in the experiment so it tells us the experiment wasn’t as unethical as it seems.
What is a weakness of the Milgram study?
The sample was mostly American men so it doesn’t generalise to other cultures.
What is another weakness of the Milgram study?
It lacks mundane realism so people may not obey in the real world - unreliable.
What are four conclusions from the Milgram study?
1 - Ordinary people are highly obediant to authority figures.
2 - People are in an agentic state when following orders given by an authority figure.
3 - In some cases, it’s not the people who commit atrocities, it’s people following orders.
4 - This may help explain the “I was just following orders” reason given by those who obey orders to harm e.g Nazis at the Nuremberg trials.
