Conformity: Types And Explanations

Question 1

What is conformity

Answer 1

Conformity is the tendency to change what we do, think or say in response to the influence of real or imagined pressure from others

Question 2

Compliance

Answer 2

• Conforming publicly but continuing privately to disagree

Question 3

Internalisation

Answer 3

• A deep types of conformity where a person conforms publicly and privately because they have internalised and accepted the views of the group

Question 4

Identification

Answer 4

• A moderate type of conformity where we act the same as the group because we share their values and want to be accepted

Question 5

Explanations for conformity

Answer 5

• Normative social influence
• Informational social influence

Question 6

Normative social influence

Answer 6

• This occurs when we wish to be liked by the majority group, so we go along with them even though we may not agree with them
• This is really following the crowd in order to fit in and be liked by the group

Question 7

Informational social influence

Answer 7

• This occurs when we look to the majority group for information as we are unsure about the way in which to behave
• A person will conform because they genuinely believe the majority to be right as we look to them for the right answer

Question 8

Lucas et al (2000)- research support for ISI

Answer 8

• He asked students to give answers to maths problems that were easy or more difficult
• He found that there was greater conformity to incorrect answers when they were difficult rather than when they were easy
• This shows that people conform in situations where they feel they don’t know the answer, which is exactly the outcome predicted by ISI. We look to others and assume they know better than us and must be right

Question 9

Asch (1951)- research support for NSI

Answer 9

• He found that many of his participants went along with clearly wrong answers just because other people did
• They did this due to feeling self-conscious about giving the right answer and were afraid of disapproval
• When Asch repeated this experiment but made the participants write down their answers instead of saying them out loud, conformity rates fell to 12.5%