Conformity: Types and Explanations

Question 1

Name the 3 types of conformity.
List them in order of their strength.

Answer 1

Compliance
Identification
Internalisation

Question 2

What is compliance?

Answer 2

Going along with others in public and adhering to social norms.

Question 3

For compliance, how does public and private behaviour compare?

Answer 3

Behaviour in public is different to private behaviour.

Question 4

What is identification?

Answer 4

Following the behaviours/opinions of a group to be accepted by them and gain their social approval.

Question 5

How does public/private behaviour compare with identification?

Answer 5

Behaviour in public is changed to match the beliefs of the group, even if we do not agree privately.

Question 6

What is internalisation?

Answer 6

Where a person genuinely accepts group norms, leading to a permanent change in attitudes and beliefs.

Question 7

For internalisation, how does public/private behaviour compare?

Answer 7

Behaviour in private is the same as in public.

Question 8

Name 2 explanations for why people conform.

Answer 8

Informational social influence
Normative social influence

Question 9

What is informational social influence?
Give an example.

Answer 9

A type of social influence when we conform to others based off the information we give. The want to be right.
For example, if most of the class says the answer is A, we might change our answer to A because we want to be right.

Question 10

Why do we do ISI?

Answer 10

We want to be right and not appear as foolish to others.

Question 11

Why is ISI a cognitive process?

Answer 11

It is to do with how we think.

Question 12

Which type of conformity does ISI explain?

Answer 12

Internalisation. We change our beliefs because we accept that others are right.

Question 13

What 3 scenarios is ISI most likely to occur in?

Answer 13

New situations where we don’t know what is right, where a situation is ambiguous or in crisis situations, where we assume the group is most likely to be right.

Question 14

What is normative social influence?

Answer 14

Where we follow social norms to gain approval from others and not be rejected by them.

Question 15

Why is NSI an emotional process?

Answer 15

It focuses on how we feel, such as how we may feel when a person rejects us.

Question 16

Which type of conformity does NSI lead to?

Answer 16

Compliance, we go along with what is publicly acceptable, but we may behave differently to this in private.

Question 17

Give 3 examples of situations where we might use NSI.

Answer 17

When we are most scared of rejection
When we need social approval
In stressful situations where we need social support

Question 18

Explain the strength of NSI providing explanations of conformity.
Why did some PPTs choose not to give the correct answer in Asch’s study?
When PPTs privately gave their answers, what percentage did conformity fall to - why?

Answer 18

For example, when Asch interviewed participants, some said they conformed because they felt too self-conscious to give the correct answer, as they were afraid of causing disagreements between other participants. When participants wrote their answers down,
conformity fell to 12.5%, as privately giving answers means that there is no normative group pressure. This shows that some
conformity is due to a desire to not be rejected.

Question 19

Explain the strength of there being research support to back up ISI.
In Lucas’s study, when PPTs were given incorrect answers to difficult maths problems, why did they conform?
When the maths problems were easy, why did they not conform?

Answer 19

A study by Todd Lucas found that when participants were given incorrect answers to difficult maths problems, they conformed, as
they believed the answers were right. However, when given easy maths problems, they did not rely on the answers as they felt confident enough to complete the question by themselves. This shows how when situations are ambiguous, we conform as we don’t
want to be wrong. Overall, this shows evidence for ISI.

Question 20

Explain the limitation that NSI does not predict conformity in every case.
Use the example of research from McGhee and Teevan who found that nAffiliators were more likely to conform.

Answer 20

Some people are more concerned with being liked than others. For example, some people have a stronger need for affiliation and being liked – these people are called nAffiliators. Research by Paul McGhee and Richard Teevan found that students who were nAffiliators were more likely to conform. This shows that NSI
underlies conformity more than it does for others. There are individual differences in conformity that can’t be explained by one
general theory of situational pressures.

Question 21

Explain the limitation that it can be hard to tell whether ISI or NSI is operating.
Use Jenness’s white jelly bean research as an example. How does it demonstrate both NSI and ISI?

Answer 21

Research by Jenness found that when participants were presented with ambiguous situations and asked to make guesses on two different occasions (on their own, and after discussing guesses with 2 other people), many changed their answer on the second guess.
Jenness said this demonstrates NSI because the participants want to be liked by each other (by agreeing with each other’s answers). However, this research also shows ISI as participants change their answers to match their peers because they want to be right, as they were faced with an ambiguous situation. This research therefore shows that NSI and ISI can work together to affect conformity.