Conformity: Types and Explanations Flashcards
Key terms:
Conformity = A "change in a person's behaviour/opinions as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person/group of people" (Aronson 2011). Norms = What is 'normal' or typical behaviour for a social group. Norms regulate the behaviour of groups and individuals so it is not surprising that we pay attention to them.
Types of conformity
Kelman (1958) suggested that there are 3 ways in which people conform to the opinion of a majority:
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.
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 privately agree with everything the majority believes.
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.
Explanations for conformity
Deutsch & Gerard (1955) developed a two-process theory, arguing that there are 2 main reasons people conform. They are based on 2 central human needs: the need to be right (ISI), and the need to be liked (NSI).
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. ISI is a cognitive process because it’s to do with what you think. ISI is most likely to happen in situations that are new to a person, situations where there’s ambiguity, crisis situations where quick decisions must be made, or occurs when one person/group is regarded as being more of an expert.
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. NSI is about norms - people don’t like to appear foolish and prefer to gain social approval rather than be rejected, thus NSI is an emotional process. NSI is most likely to occur in situations with stranger where you may be concerned about rejection, it also occurs with people you know because we are most concerned about the social approval of our friends, and it may be more pronounced in stressful situations where people have a greater need for social support.
Evaluation
+ Research support for ISI - Lucas et al. (2006) asked students to give answers to mathematical problems, there was greater conformity to incorrect answers when the maths problems were more difficult (most true for students who rated their mathematical ability as poor). This study shows that people conform in situations where they feel they don’t know the answer, so they assume that other people know better than us and must be right.
- Individual differences in NSI - Some research shows that NSI doesn’t affect everyone’s behaviour in the same way. For example, people who are less concerned with being liked are less affected by NSI. People who care more about being liked are described as nAffiliators - they have a greater need for ‘affiliation’ (a need for being in a relationship with others) McGhee & 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, thus there are individual differences in the way people respond.
- ISI and NSI work together - The idea of Deutsch & Gerard’s ‘two-process’ approach is that behaviour is either due to ISI or NSI, when in fact it more often involves both processes. For example, conformity is reduced when there’s one other dissenting ppt in the Asch experiment. This dissenter may reduce the power of ISI (because there is an alternative source of information) or may reduce the power of NSI (because the dissenter provides social support). This shows that it’s not always possible to identify whether ISI or NSI is at work. This is the case for lab studies, but even more so for real-life conformity situations. This casts serious doubt over the view of ISI and NSI as 2 processes operating independently in conforming behaviour.
