Conformity, Obedience Flashcards
What is conformity?
A change in behaviour or belief as a result of real or imagined group pressure
Why do people who conform?
Normative social influence- Desire to be liked. We conform to be accepted and to be approved. So we don’t appear foolish.
Information social influence- Desire to be right. We conform by looking at others whom we believe to be correct, to give us info, particularly in ambiguous situations
Why do people not conform?
Independence- Unresponsive to the norms of the group
Anti- conformity- Consistently oppose to the norms of the group
Aim of Asch’s line experiment
To see if people would conform to the majority when given an unambiguous situation
Procedure: Asch’s line experiment
- 123 undergraduate students
- 8 to 10 participants round table
- Each participant was shown 18 sets of lines in total, on 12 the confederates all gave the same wrong answer
Results: Asch’s line experiment
- On critical trials, 36.8% of responses were incorrect
- 25% never conformed, 75% conformed at least once
Limitations of Asch’s line experiment
- All male- Cannot generalise the results to other populations. Lacks population validity
- Nothing to do with everyday life- Artificial task. Not applicable to real life situations
Strengths of Asch’s line experiment
- Levels of conformity reflected American culture- Easy to replicate, more accurate average of conformity and increases reliability
Asch Variations
- Unanimity- Less conformity when one of the confederates didn’t conform
- Task difficulty- More conformity when task was harder
- Size of majority- More conformity when there were more confederate
What is compliance?
Publically conforming to the behaviour but privately maintaining ones own views
Supports NSI
What is internalisation?
A conversion, or true change of private views to match those of the group
Supports ISI
What is identification?
Adopting the views or behaviour publically and privately because one valued membership of that group
Normative social influence evaluation
Strength- Asch’s participants said they feel self conscious giving the correct answer and they were afraid of disapproval
Limitations- People who are less concerned with being liked are less affected than those who care about being liked. Naffiliators
Informational social influence evaluation
Strength- People conform in situations where they feel they don’t know the answer
Limitations- Doesn’t affect everyone’s behaviour. Asch found that students were less conformist (28%) than other participants (37%)
Aim of Zimbardo’s experiment
To see if dispositional or situational factors affect conformity to social roles
What is the situational explanation of behaviour?
Presumes people will act in a way that they think is required by their social role
Procedure: Zimbardo’s experiment
- 24 male students
- Unexpectedly arrested at home
- Guards and prisoners wore uniforms
Results: Zimbardo’s experiment
- Guards grew increasingly tyrannical
- 5 prisoners released early with extreme depression
- Suppose to last 2 weeks, lasted 6 days
Conclusion: Zimbardo’s experiment
- Guards and prisoners conformed to the social roles they were assigjned
- Supporting situational explanation of behaviour and
Limitations: Zimbardo’s experiment
- Reliability- not consistent. Can’t be repeated as there are a lot of ethical issues
- Breaks ethical guidelines: protecting the participant and informed consent
- Study lacks population validity and is cultural biased ( more conformity in china)
Strengths: Zimbardo’s experiment
- Good application in real life situations. Abu Ghraib- real life problems
- Randomly chosen participants- reacted as though it was real
- Maintained some degree of control and some ecological validity
What is obedience?
Doing what you have been told to do by someone else (authority)
Aim of Milgram’s experiment
Investigate whether ordinary people will obey in extreme situations
Procedure: Milgram’s experiment
- 40 male participants- introduced to (confederate)
- Participant is always the teacher
- Administer increasingly strong electric shocks
- 3 prompts before they’d stop
