Conformity: Types & Explanations Flashcards
What are the 3 types of conformity?
- Compliance
- Identification
- Internalisation
What is compliance?
Superficial agreement with the group
Going along with other people’s opinions in public but holding other views privately (not necessarily to please people just because)
e.g a person may laugh at a joke because others are
What is identification?
Conforming to a group because we value it
- Prepared to change views to be a part of it even if we internally disagree
e.g A new football team to support every time you move town
What is internalisation?
Conforming to a group because you accept its norms
- You agree privately & or publicly, when exposed to the views of other members of a group, individuals are encouraged to engage in a validation process, examining their own beliefs to see if they or others are right.
e.g a person may become vegetarian because they accept it.
Why do people conform?
Morton Deutsch & Harold Gerard developed a two-process theory, arguing that there are two main reasons people conform.
They are based on two central needs; the need to be right (ISI), and the need to be liked (NSI)
What is informational social influence (ISI) and what type of process is it?
Agreeing with the majority view/behaviour because we believe they know better or are more likely to be right
A cognitive process- to do with what you think
When is informational social influence (ISI) most likely to occur?
Most likely to occur in situations that are new to a person (so you dont know what is right/ wrong)
Also typical in a crisis where decisions need to be made quickly or when one person/group is regarded as the expert
What is normative social influence (NSI) and what type of process is it?
Agreeing with the majority because we want to be liked
To do with norm i.e what is normal behaviour?
An emotional process- people don’t want to appear foolish
When is normative social influence (NSI) most likely to occur?
Most likely to occur in situation with strangers where you may feel concerned about rejection.
May also occur with people you know because we are concerned with social approval of our friends
Give one strength of ISI.
- Research support- Lucas at al (2006)
- Lucas et al found that participants conformed more often to incorrect answers they were given when the maths questions were difficult
- This is because when the problems were easy the ppts ‘knew their own minds’ but when the problems were hard the situation became ambiguous (unclear)
- The ppts did not want to be wrong so they relied on the answers they were given
Shows that ISI is a valid explanation of conformity because the results are what ISI would predict
Give one limitation of NSI & ISI.
- It is rare for both NSI & ISI to be tested in real conditions
- Most research in this field is lab-based
- Lab-based research is low in mundane realism which reduces scope of its external validity
Give another limitation of ISI & NSI.
- Neither explanation for conformity explains why some people resist both NSI and ISI, e.g. freedom fighters, rebels, iconoclasts
- The above observation means that both explanations for conformity cannot be generalised to everyone
to this extent they cannot account for individual differences
