Conformity: Types And Explanations Flashcards
What is conformity
A change in a person’s behaviour or opinions as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people
What are the three ways in which people conform?
Internalisation
Identification
Compliance
What is internalisation?
A deep type of conformity where we take on the majority view because we accept it as correct. It leads to a far-reaching and permanent change in behaviour, even when the group is absent
What is identification?
A moderate type of conformity where we act in the same way with the group because we value it and want to be part of it. But we don’t necessarily agree with everything the majority believes.
What is compliance?
A superficial and temporary type of conformity where we outwardly go along with the majority view, but privately disagree with it. The change in our behaviour only lasts as long as the group is monitoring us.
What are the two explanations for conformity?
Informational social influence (ISI)
Normative social influence (NSI)
What is informational social influence (ISI)?
An explanation of conformity that says we agree with the opinion of the majority because we believe it is correct.
We accept it because we want to be correct as well. This may lead to internalisation.
What is normative social influence (NSI)?
An explanation of conformity that says we agree with the opinion of the majority because we want to be accepted, gain social approval and be liked. This may lead to compliance.
A03: Research support for ISI
Lucas et al. (2006)
- asked students to give answers to mathematical problems that were easy or more difficult.
- there was greater conformity to incorrect answers when they were difficult rather than when they were easier ones.
- this was most true for students who rated their mathematical ability as poor.
- the study shows that people conform in situations where they feel they don’t know the answer (which is exactly the outcome predicted by the ISI explanation).
- we look to other people to assume they know better than us and must be right.
A03: individual differences in NSI
- some research shows NSI doesn’t affect everyone’s behaviour in the same way.
- e.g. people who are less concerned with being liked are less affected by NSI than those who care more about being liked. (Such people are described as nAffiliatiors)
- these are people who have a greater need for affiliation
E.g. McGhee and Teevan (1967) found that students high in need of affiliation were more likely to conform.
- this shows that the desire to be liked underlies conformity for some people more than others. Therefore there are individual differences in the way people respond.
A03: ISI and NSI work together
- conformity is reduced when there is one other dissenting ppt in the Asch experiment
- this dissenter may reduce the power of NSI (as the dissenter provides social support) or may reduce the power of ISI (as the dissenter is an alternative source of information)
- this shows it isn’t always possible to be sure whether ISI or NSI is at work
- this is the case in lab studies, but is even truer in real life conformity situations outside the lab.
- this casts serious doubt over the view of ISI and NSI as two processes operating independently in conforming behaviour.
A03: Individual differences in ISI
- as with NSI, ISI does not affect everyone’s behaviour in the same way.
- e.g. Asch (1955) found that students were less conformist (28%) than other participants (37%)
- Perrin and Spencer (1980) conducted a study involving science and engineering students and found very little conformity.
A03: Research support for NSI
- Asch (1951)
- found many of his ppts went along with a clearly wrong answer just because other people did
- when he asked why they did this, some of his ppts said they felt self-conscious giving the correct annwer and they were afraid of disapproval.
- when Asch repeated his study but asked ppts to write down their answers instead of saying them out loud, conformity rates fell to 12.5%.
