Explanations of Conformity

Question 1

What are the two explanations of why people conform?

Answer 1

Normative social influence and informational social influence

Question 2

What is normative social influence?

Answer 2

The desire to be liked. We need to be accepted and to belong to a group

Question 3

Why type of conformity does normative social influence involve and why?

Answer 3

It involves compliance as the individual goes along with the group publicly but privately disagrees

Question 4

What is informational social influence?

Answer 4

The desire to be right. When an individual is unsure of how to act in a social situation they look to others for guidance and may copy their actions

Question 5

What type of conformity does informational social influence involve and why?

Answer 5

Internalisation because the individual accepts the opinions of the majority both publicly and privately

Question 6

What situations is informational social influence more likely in?

Answer 6

Ambiguous situations and when we believe others to be experts

Question 7

What study supports normative social influence?

Answer 7

Asch

Question 8

How does this study support normative social influence?

Answer 8

Participants later admitted that they knew the confederates answers were wrong but they didn’t want to be the odd one out and be ridiculed so they went along with their answers

Question 9

What study supports informational social influence?

Answer 9

Jennes

Question 10

How does this study support informational social influence?

Answer 10

When individuals estimated how many jellybeans were in a jar, the estimates moved towards the estimates of the others showing that they publicly and privately agreed with these estimates

Question 11

What is a strength of normative social influence?

Answer 11

Research by Geirandeau et al shows that those with a strong need for social acceptance were more likely to go along with pressure from a bullying group to victimise another child as they have the desire to be liked

Question 12

What is a strength of informational social influence?

Answer 12

Fein et al showed a film of a presidential candidate to participants and then gave them the views of the rest of the group. They tended to go along with the views of others showing the desire to be right

Question 13

What is a limitation of why people conform?

Answer 13

It is not always possible to identify just one explanation for conformity. Participants may be influenced by both. Therefore incidents are not straight forward

Question 14

What other limitations can you use of why people conform?

Answer 14

Methodological, ethical and sampling evaluation points