Paper 1 - Social

Question 1

What is conformity?

Answer 1

A change in a person’s behaviour or opinions as a result of real or imagined group pressure.

Question 2

What are the types of conformity

Answer 2

Compliance - Changing your opinions publicly but privately not changing your behaviour or opinions. This is the result of NSI. This is the weakest level of conformity.

Identification - Changing your views privately and publicly because your membership in a group is important to you. This is a true change whilst your membership is important. This is a moderate level of conformity.

Internalisation - Change of private and public behaviour but does not depend on presence of group. This is the deepest level of conformity.

Question 3

What are the two explanations for conformity

Answer 3

NSI - The desire to be liked

ISI- The desire to be right

Question 4

Strengths and weaknesses of NSI and ISI

Answer 4

ISI:
+ Lucas et al (2006) gave students easy or difficult maths questions & and asked students to give answers. There was greater conformity to incorrect answers when they were more difficult. This was most true if they had a poor maths ability. This shows people conform in situations where they don’t know the answer so we look to other people and assume they know better and must be right.
-

NSI:
+ Asch’s line study
- People who are less concerened with being liked are less affected by NSI. This shows that the desire to be liked underlies conformity for some people more than others. Decreases generalisability.