Conformity Types and Explanations Flashcards
What are the three types of conformity?
Compliance, Internalisation and identification
What is conformity?
A type of social influence where a person changes their attitude or behaviour in response to group pressure.
Define compliance
A superficial and temporary type of conformity where we outwardly go along with the majority but privately disagree. The change in our behaviour only lasts as long as the group is present.
Define identification
A moderate type of conformity where we take on the majority view because we want to be associated with the group as we value them in some way, even though we don’t necessarily agree with everything they believe
Define Internalisation
A deep type of conformity where we take on the majority view because the content of the attitude/behaviour proposed is consistent with our own value system. The change is permanent and persists even in the absence of the group.
Define the two explanations for obedience
Normative Social Influence - people conform because they want to be accepted. Driven by emotional factor rather than cognitive. Innate for us as social creatures to fear rejection. More likely to happen in a situation where an individual believes they are under surveillance by the group.
Informational Social Influence - People conform because they want to be right. It’s a cognitive process. Most likely to happen in ambiguous situations or where the others are experts. Change behaviour to conform with someone they deem to be right.
What are nAffiliators?
nAffiliators are people who have a greater need for ‘affiliation’ which makes them more susceptible to NSI as they have care more about being liked by the group
1 Strength of NSI
Research support:
Linkenbach and Perkins (2003) found adolescents exposed to message that the majority of their peers didn’t smoke were less likely to take up smoking. Shows how people shape their behaviour to fit in with the group.
In Asch’s (1951) research, he interviewed them and the participants reported conforming as they felt self-conscious and were afraid of disapproval from the group. When participants wrote their answers instead of saying them out loud, conformity fell to 12.5%.
Link in the back with Perkins and smoke- 3 of us together
1 Strength of ISI
Research support:
Lucas et al. (2006) asked students to give answers to mathematical questions that were easy or more difficult. Was greater conformity to incorrect answers when they were difficult. They also observed that independence occurred more often in participants with high mathematical efficacy. People conform in ambiguous situations or those where they don’t believe they have the knowledge as predicted by ISI.
Lucas Long Division - 6
1 Limitation that applies to both ISI and NSI
Do not always work independently. It’s assumed NSI and ISI are 2 seperate processes but more often both processes are involved. In Asch’s 1955 found that conformity reduced when there was a dissenting confederate reducing the power of NSI or maybe because of ISI, providing an alternative source of info and perhaps removing some doubt on their ability to be correct. It isn’t always possible to be sure which type of conformity is at work, and there is doubt over whether the 2 processes work independently.
2 Limitations of NSI
Individual differences - nAffiliators have a greater need for affiliation and so are more likely to be affected. NSI cannot be used as an explanation for conformity in every case.
May not always be detected - Some individuals do not recognise the behaviour of others as a causal factor in the change of their own behaviour. Nolan et al. (2008) investigated whether people detected the influence of social norms on their own energy conservation behaviour. They believed the behaviour of their neighbours had the least impact on their behaviour when results showed it had the strongest impact. Reduced face validity.
