P1 Social Influence: Topic 1: Conformity

Question 1

What is conformity?

Answer 1

Changing your behaviour / opinion as a result of real / imagined pressure from a group

Question 2

Who developed a two-process theory for why people conform?

Answer 2

Morton Deutsch and Harold Gerard (1955)

Question 3

What are the two-processed theories for why people conform?

Answer 3

Normative Social Influence (NSI)
Informational Social Influence (ISI)

Question 4

What is NSI?

Answer 4

Normative Social Influence
- We agree with majority due to the need to be accepted, gain approval and be liked.
- People don’t like to appear foolish or be rejected so they follow social norms.
- Occurs most when with strangers where you may be rejected, or when trying to gain social approval from friends.
- Often leads to compliance.

Question 5

What is ISI?

Answer 5

Informational Social Influence
- We agree with majority as we believe they are correct / more knowledgeable than us.
- Most often happens in situations that are new to us, where we feel uncomfortable / unsure.
- Also occurs when one person is regarded as more of an ‘expert’
- Often leads to internalisation.

Question 6

Who developed the three types of conformity?

Answer 6

Kelman (1958)

Question 7

What are the three types of conformity?

Answer 7

Compliance, identification, and internalisation

Question 8

What is compliance?

Answer 8

• Going along with others in public, but internally / privately not changing personal opinions.
• Results in superficial change and stops when group pressure stops.

Question 9

What is identification?

Answer 9

• Changes public behaviour and their private beliefs, only while in presence of group.
• Usually short-term change and normally the result of normative social influence.

Question 10

What is internalisation?

Answer 10

• Person genuinely accepts group norms, both in public and private.

Question 11

What is psychology?

Answer 11

The study of the mind, how it works, and how it affects behaviour.

Question 12

What are individual differences?

Answer 12

People are different therefore we can’t assume the same psychological and behavioural processes for everyone.

Question 13

Who conducted one of the earliest experiments examining conformity?

Answer 13

Jenness (1932)

Question 14

What experiment did Jenness do the examine conformity?
This is an example of Deutsch and Gerard’s two-process theory.

Answer 14

• Participents guess quantity of jelly beans in jar on their own.
• Then whole group asked to arrive at group estimate.
• After discussion, participents provided with another opportunity to individually estimate number of beans, to see if they changed original answer.
• Nearly all participents changed original answer.
• On average, males changed answers by 256 beans and females changed answers by 382.

Question 15

Why does Jenness’ experiment support Deutsch & Gerard’s two process theory?

Answer 15

It showed the power of confortmity using ISI.

• Participants changed their answers because they thought the group estimate was more likely to be right, over their individual guess.

Question 16

What experiment did Lucas do in 2006 that supports Deutsch & Gerard’s two process theory?

Answer 16

• Asked students to give answers to mathematical problems that were easy or more difficult.
• There was greater conformity to incorrect answers when they were difficult rather than when they were the easier ones.
• This was even more true for students who rated their mathematical ability as poor.

Question 17

How does Lucas’ experiment support Deutsch & Gerard’s two process theory?

Answer 17

Uses ISI.

• People conform when without the answer.
• They assume others know better than them.

Question 18

What did Asch find in his experiments about conformity? (1951)

Answer 18

Many participants conformed rather than give correct answer because they were afraid of disapproval.

Question 19

How does Asch’s experiment support Deutsch & Gerard’s two process theory?

Answer 19

Uses NSI.

• People conform due to desire not to be rejected by the group for disagreeing.

Question 20

What are nAffiliators?

Answer 20

People who care about being liked as they have a greater need for ‘affiliation’.

Question 21

What did McGhee and Teevan find about nAffilliators? (1967)

Answer 21

They found that students who were nAfilliators were more likely to conform.

Question 22

How does McGhee and Teevan’s findings weaken Deutsch & Gerard’s two process theory?

Answer 22

Lack of generalisability.

• NSI doesn’t affect everyones behaviour the same.
• There are individual differences in the way people respond.

Question 23

What is another limitation of Deutsch & Gerard’s two process theory?

Answer 23

• Deutsch and Gerard’s two process theory believes ISI and NSI work separately.
• More often that not, both processes work together.

Question 24

How does the belief that ISI and NSI work together weaken Deutsch & Gerard’s two process theory?

Answer 24

It goes against the theory.

• Conformity involves complex behaviour, so it includes a combination of both processes in the world.