Explanations For Conformity

Question 1

Give 2 reasons why people conform

Answer 1

• the need to be liked
• the need to be right

Question 2

Define informational social influence

Answer 2

Accepting the view point of others because you believe they have superior knowledge and are most likely to be right.

Question 3

Define normative influence

Answer 3

When a person wants to be liked and respected so they follow the crowd in order to be accepted due to the fear of rejection

Question 4

Explain the dual process dependency model (Deutsch and Gerard 1955)
“Informational and normative influence”

Answer 4

People conform because of
> informational social influence - conform because you believe in the superior knowledge of others, you want to be right occurs in ambiguous situations- leads to changing private opinion - linked to internalisation

> normative social influence - conform because you want to be liked and respected by others in unambiguous situations- doesn’t lead to changing private opinion

Question 5

Outline Sherif (1935) into Informational social influence

Answer 5

• participants looked at a still point of light in the dark which appears to move (autokinetic effect)
• they were asked to estimate how far it moved, on their own first and then in groups
  FINDINGS
• when alone participants had their own estimates but in groups estimates got closer and closer

Question 6

Outline Asch’s research into normative social influence and group conformity

Answer 6

• lab exp. 123 male US students
• 1 naive participant and 6-8 confederates
• 12/18 were critical trials where confederates gave the wrong answers
• participants had to look at 4 lines, 1 standard and 3 others and had to state which of the 3 lines were the same as the standard line
  FINDINGS
  -baseline is naive participant gave wrong answer 37% of the time
• 75% conformed at leats once
• 25% didn’t conform at all
• when interviewed after they said they conformed because they didn’t want to embarrass themselves

Question 7

AO3 evaluation of Asch’s study

Answer 7

• temporal validity- 1950s US was during the Cold War meaning society may have been more susceptible to conform
• lacks population validity- only done in the US on males (gender bias)
• cultural variations, individualistic cultures much lower conformity and collectivist cultures had higher
• ethical issues deceiving and psychological harm

Question 8

Name 3 factors that affect conformity

Answer 8

• group size
• task difficulty
• unanimity of the group

Question 9

Explain how Asch’s found group size to affect conformity

Answer 9

• when majority was 1(3%)-2(13%) confederates there was little conformity
• 3+ confederates = 33% conformity
• little change after 4-5 confederates
• Bond and Smith meta-analysis on 133 Asch’s type studies found conformity peaks at around 4-5 confederate

Question 10

Explain how the unanimity of the group can affect conformity rates

Answer 10

• one confederate giving right answer = conformity drops to 5.5%
• one confederate gives a different but wrong answer = conformity drops to 9%
• shows breaking the groups unanimity is a major factor affecting conformity

Question 11

Explain how the difficulty of the task in Asch’s study can affect conformity rates

Answer 11

• in one variation he made the lines closer together in length increasing the ambiguity of the task
• in turn conformity increased