Conformity (Social Influence) Flashcards
What is a private attitude?
Genuine beliefs/feelings about something.
What is a public attitude?
What they tell others they believe and feel.
What is conformity?
When a persons private or public attitudes are influenced by the majority.
What are the three types of conformity?
- Compliance
- Identification
- Internalisation
What is compliance?
Where someone conforms publicly but not privately.
What is the reason for compliance?
Fear of social rejection.
What is the duration for compliance?
Very short.
What is the strength of compliance?
Weak.
What is identification?
Public and private conformity.
What is the reason for identification?
Desire to imitate a role model or fit a social role.
What is the duration for identification?
Short but depends on attractiveness of group.
What is the strength of identification?
Medium.
What is internalisation?
Public and private conformity.
What is the reason for internalisation?
Persuaded that the attitude is correct.
What is the duration for internalisation?
Long-lasting.
What is the strength of internalisation?
Strong.
What are the three situational variables that affect conformity?
1) Group size
2) Unanimity
3) Task difficulty
What happens if the situational variables increase?
People are more likely to conform.
What are the two explanations for conformity?
- Normative social influence (NSI)
- Informational social influence (ISI)
What is normative social influence (NSI)
- When people conform to feel accepted and fit in.
When does normative social influence occur?
In situations of high social pressure.
What type of conformity does normative social influence result in?
Compliance.
What is informational social influence? (ISI)
When people conform as they want to be correct as they believe majority is correct.
When does informational social influence occur?
When uncertainty is high and social pressure is low.
What types of conformity does informational social influence result in?
Internalisation ot identification.
Who study supports the ISI?
Jenness.
What was Jenness’s procedure?
Asked people to estimate how many jelly beans were in a jar (before and after group discussions).
What were Jenness findings?
People estimates conformed to the group estimate after the discussion even though the group was no longer present.
What did Jenness conclude?
Confroming by internalisation due to uncertainty, thinking the groups estimate was correct.
What is a limitation of Jenness’s study?
NSI might also have has influenced behaviour (yet is ignored).
Which studies investigated conformity?
- Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment
- Asch
What was the procedure in Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment?
- Gained student volunteers + selected those emotionally stable after psychological testing.
- Set up a mock prison.
- Randomly assigned ppts social roles of either guard or prisoners (provided them with uniform).
- Was a controlled and overt observation/
What were the findings in Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment?
They all conformed to their roles.
Guards = treated prisoners harshly
Prisoners = tried to rebel, then became passive.
- Study had to be stopped after 6 days when 14 was intended.
What are the limitations for Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment?
- Unethical = stress which has long lasting consequences.
- Lack generalisability: only white, middle class, male students were recruited.
- Lack ecological validity: ppts may not have believed it was real, they may not have behaved as they would in the real world.
What is a strength for Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment?
- He had control over variables such as the selection of ppts being randomly assigned.
- This rules out individual personality differences, increasing internal validity meaning a more valid result about influence roles on behaviour.
What was Asch’s aim?
To investigate whether people would conform with the majority when they are obviously wrong.
What was Asch’s procedure?
Asked ppts in the experiment group to judge line lengths in presence of confederates who gave the wrong answer.
- A control group gave their answers privately.
What were the findings in Asch’s study?
Ppts did conform and gave the wrong answer.
75% = confromed at least once
32% = overall conformity rate
- Ppts didn’t seem to give the wrong answer because they didn’t know, as the control group had a 0.04% error rate.
What happend to conformity when Asch reduced unanimity?
When one confederate disagreed with majority there was a decrease in conformity.
What happend to conformity when Asch increased group size?
There was an increase in conformity (only up to a certain point).
What happend to conformity when Asch increased task difficulty?
There was an increase in conformity.
What are the limitations of Asch’s study?
- Lab study = lack ecological validity.
- Demand characteristics = ppts might have realised confederates were deliberately giving the wrong answer as the ppts gave the wrong answer.
What strengths counteract the limitations in Asch’s study?
- Lab study = establish cause + effect relationship for the presence of the majority giving the wrong answers + ppts giving wrong answer.
- Ppts stated they thought the confederates were real ppts.
