conformity: types & explanations

Question 1

Herbert Kelman (1958)

Answer 1

• 3 ways people conform
• types of conformity compliance
  internalisation
  identification

Question 2

types: internalisation

Answer 2

• person genuinely accepts group norms and they accept them as correct
  leads to a permanent change
• e.g : living with a vegan & becoming a vegan

Question 3

types: identification

Answer 3

• changing opinions to be accepted by a group
  temporary change
  public change but not private
  e.g : smoking with a certain group

Question 4

types: compliance

Answer 4

• ‘going along with others’ but doesn’t change opinions privately
  superficial and temporary
  e.g : smoking with a certain person

Question 5

Deutsch & Gerard (1955)

Answer 5

• developed a two-process theory that states there are 2 reasons why people conform
  
  • need to be liked NSI
  • need to be right ISI

Question 6

Normative social influence (NSI)

Answer 6

• done for social approval
  emotional process and temporary change (compliance)
• occurs when we feel we’re with people that we may feel may reject us in stressful situations

Question 7

Informative Social Influence (ISI)

Answer 7

• done for the need be right
  cognitive process
• permanent change (internalisation)
• occurs in new situations when there’s ambiguity & crisis situations

Question 8

AO3: research support for NSI

Answer 8

• Asch (1951): interviewed ppts and said they conformed as they felt self-conscious and disapproval
  when they wrote it down conformity fell to 12.5%
  due to no normative group pressure

Question 9

AO3: Research support for ISI

Answer 9

• Lucas et al (2006): found ppts conformed more on ‘hard’ math questions
• situation became ambiguous
• more true if they describe their math abilities as poor
  don’t want to be wrong

Question 10

AO3: Individual differences in NSI & ISI

Answer 10

• research has shown that NSI doesn’t effect everyone’s behaviour the same
• some are less concerned with being liked so they are less affected by NSI
• nAffiliators : greater need for affiliation
• McGhee & Teevan (1967): found that students high in need of affiliation conform more
• ISI doesn’t affect everyone’s behaviour the same
• Asch (1955): found that students were less conformist (28%) than other ppts (37%)
• Perrin & Spencer (1980): found that a particular type of student (science & engineering) were not conformist

Question 11

AO3: ISI & NSI work together

Answer 11

• Deutsch & Gerrad: both NSI & ISI are involved when we conform
• not always possible to know whether ISI or NSI caused conformity

Question 12

Schultz et al (2008)

Answer 12

• 132 hotels & 794 hotel rooms where guests stayed for a week
• they either had a hanger telling them the environmental benefits of reusing towels (control condition)
  or is said that 75% of guests chose to reuse the towels (experimental condition)
  experimental condition reduced the need for fresh towels by 25%