Conformity: SOCIAL INFLUENCE Flashcards
What is social influence
the process by which individuals and groups change each others attitudes and behaviors
Conformity
a change in a persons behaviour or opinions as a result of real or imagined pressures from a person or group
3 types of conformity
Compliance
Identification
Internalisation
Main points of Compliance
With the behaviours they:
Superficial
-expressed publicly
-doesn’t express privately
Main points of identification
With the behaviours they:
-Value group
-expressed publicly
-doesn’t express privately
Main points of internalisation
With the behaviours they:
-Internalise
–show publicly
-show privately
What is Normative social influence
Explanation for conformity, suggests we agree with opinions of the majority as we want to gain social approval and be liked
What Type of conformity does Normative social influence fall under
Compliance
what is Informational social Influence
an explanation for conformity that suggests we agree with the opinions of the majority as we believe it is correct.
what type of conformity does Informational S.I fall under?
Internalisation
Aim of Asch (1951) research into conformity
To study whether a participant would conform in a situation where the majority where clearly wrong
SAMPLE +
Procedure of Asch (1951) research into conformity
-Total of 123 p.p in study
-naive p.p = real p.p
-confederate= researcher / actor
-naive p.p placed 6th in a group of 7
-p.p shown line cards with with different variations each time
-Once they’d seen the cards, p.ps had to say aloud which comparison line matched the x line
-Conefeds answered incorrectly
Findings of Asch (1951) research into conformity
-Naive p.p agreed with confederates 36.8% of the time
-25% of p.p never gave wrong answer
What did Asch do 1955
extended his baseline experiment, studying different variables which may increase or decrease conformity
what are the 3 different variables which may increase or decrease conformity that Asch studied
-Group size
-Unanimity
-task difficulty
How did Asch test the effects of group size on conformity
What did he find
-varied number of confederates 1-15
-found curve linear relationship group size and conformity
-‘conformity increased with group size until around 3 confederates when it plateaud
-1to3 is enough to sway pp
How did Asch test the effects of unanimity on conformity
What did he find
- added a non-conforming confederate to the group who sometimes gave the correct answer, sometimes gave the wrong answer
-Ash found that conformity of the naive participant decreased in the presence of the non-conforming Confederate
How did Asch test the effects of task difficulty conformity
What did he find
Found that as the difficulty of the task increases as the task becomes more ambiguous causing a real participants to look to the Confederates for the right answer
. :conformity increases
WHO STUDIED CONFORMITY INTO SOCIAL ROLES
Zimbardo
who was zimbardos sample
75 male students . Emotional stability test took . Top 21 succeeded
procedure of Zimbardos research - role allocation
Randomly assigned to prisoner or guard
-Role allocation, Prison guard given uniform
Prisoners arrested by local police, treated as real prisoners e.g: strip searched and taken to mock prison
prisoner given loose smock, hat covering hair, identified as a number.
procedure of Zimbardos research - guards asserting authority
- 16 rules they had to follow
- woken at 2.30 am to do counts
-Push ups
-insults
-petty orders
Findings: what issues did Zimbardo’s prison experiment face
-36 hrs into study, prisoner #8612 suffered emotionally and was released
-Day 2 = Rebellion, prisoners removed hats and numbers. barricaded doors. punished by removing beds
-Day 6 = study terminated due to emotional breakdown of prisoners and excessive aggression of the guards.
what is Deindividuation
The state when you become immersed in the norms of the group and lose your sense of identity personal responsibility
(can be used to explain behaviour of participants in zimbardos study)
Conclusions of Zimbardos prison experiment
social roles appear to have a strong influence on peoples behaviour
