general information

Question 1

Explain what psychologists mean by compliance?

Answer 1

• Shallowest level of conformity
• Here a person changes their public behaviour but not their private beliefs
• Short-term change
• Normative Social Influence (NSI)
• eg might say you like taylor swift as many others do but really you can’t stand it

Question 2

In the context of conformity, explain what psychologists mean by the term identification.

Answer 2

• Middle level of conformity
• A person changes their public behaviour and their private beliefs but only in the presence of the group
• Usually a ST change
• NSI
• eg may become veggie because all their flat mates are, but when you walk past a McDonald’s they can’t resist a Big Mac
• Identification takes place when we are surrounded by a particular group, we change are private beliefs while in the presence of the majority but not permanently

Question 3

Explain what psychologists mean by Internalisation?

Answer 3

• The deepest level of conformity
• A person changes their private beliefs and public behaviour
• LT change and as a result of Informational Social Influence (ISI)
• eg influenced by flat fats to become veggie and converts without the presence of their flat mates

Question 4

Outline 2 differences between Internalisation and Compliance

Answer 4

• Compliance has public acceptance and private rejection vs internalisation which has public and private acceptance
• Compliance is caused by NSI vs internalisation which is caused by ISI
• Compliance has short term effects vs internalisation which has long term

Question 5

What are the 3 types of conformity?

Answer 5

• Internalisation
• Identification
• Compliance

Question 6

What is Normative social influence?

Answer 6

• person conforms to be accepted and to feel that they belong
• Conforming is socially rewarding
• Usually associated with compliance and identification

Question 7

What is informational social influence?

Answer 7

• Person conforms to gain knowledge or because they feel as if someone else is right
• Usually associated with internalisation
• This semi-permanent change in behaviour and belief is the result of a person adopting a new belief system, because they genuinely believe that their new beliefs are ‘right’ or that the majority are ‘experts’

Question 8

Evaluating Types and Explanations for conformity

What is the research support for ISI?

Answer 8

• Lucas et al used maths problems to provide support for ISI
• ppts had to answer easy and difficult maths questions
• Increased conformity for difficult questions= especially for people who rated their ability as poor
• Shows that people conform when they don’t know the answer as we look to others and assume they are right
• ISI predicted

Question 9

Evaluating Types and Explanations for conformity

What is research support for NSI?

Answer 9

• Asch’s study into conformity provides research support for NSI
• When asked to judge line lengths and match them to a standard line, he found that many ppts went along with the obviously wrong answers
• When asked later why they did this they said they changed their answers to avoid disapproval from the rest of the group, to fit in
• Further to this he demonstrated later that when the pressure to conform is removed by asking ppts to write down their answers, conformity fell by 12.5%

Question 10

Evaluating Types and Explanations for conformity

Why do individual differences affect conformity?

Answer 10

• Individual differences may play a role in explaining social influence, meaning the processes will not affect everyone’s behaviour in the same way
• Perrin and Spencer conducted an Asch style experiment, but using engineering students in the UK
• They found only 1/400 responses to be a conforming one
• This could be due to the fact that the students rated their ability to judge line lengths due to their experiences
• This confirms that different people will react differently in these situations

Question 11

Evaluation of Asch’s Research

Why is it a biased sample?

Answer 11

• He used a bias sample of 123 male uni students
• Other research suggests that women might be more conformist
• And as Asch’s study was done in the US which is an individualist culture
• doing it in a collectivist culture where the social group is more important conformity rates could be higher (Bond and Smith)
• Shows conformity levels are sometimes even higher than Asch found

Question 12

Evaluation of Asch’s Research

Why might Asch’s study be referred to as a child of its time?

Answer 12

• His research took place at a particular time in US history where conformity was higher
• Since 1950, many psychologists have attempted to replicate, such as Perrin and Spencer using engineering students in the UK and found much lower conformity levels
• This may be due to the fact that the students felt more confident , however it’s still possible that the 1950s were an especially conformist time
• This suggests that Aschs research lacks historical validity

Question 13

Evaluation of Asch’s Research

what are ethical issues surrounding Asch’s study?

Answer 13

• It is ethically questionable
• He broke several guidelines including deception as he deliberately deceived his ppts saying the aim was different
• Although deception is unethical, Asch’s experiment required it to achieve valid results
• They also weren’t protected from psychological harm as many reported feeling stressed
• However, Asch interviewed all ppts following the experiment to overcome the issue