Psychology A2 - concept one - social

Question 1

what is conformity?

Answer 1

-part of a group we may choose to ‘go along’ with other people by agreeing with their opinions or copying behaviour
-is result of ‘invisible’ pressure from others

Question 2

Deutsch and Gerard (1955)

Answer 2

-there are two main processes that explain why people conform
1. normative social influences (NSI)
2. informational social influences (ISI)

Question 3

1. normative social influences (NSI) – group norms

Answer 3

-about group norms
-in groups, there are behaviours and beliefs that are considered ‘normal’ or typical
-guide the behaviour of individuals in a group and helps glue them together
-accept norms of the group, want to be liked by other members and to avoid rejection

Question 4

1. normative social influences (NSI) – emotional process

Answer 4

-an emotional process, about how you feel
-may be stronger in stressful situations where people have greater needs for social support

Question 5

2. informational social influences (ISI) – information

Answer 5

-about who has better information, you or others
-often unsure about what behaviours/beliefs are right or wrong
-example, putting your hand up in class for ‘yes’ as everyone else has put their hand up so ‘yes’ is probably right
-conform to their views because we want them to be right

Question 6

2. informational social influences (ISI) – cognitive processes

Answer 6

-cognitive process, it is about what you think
-likely to happen in situations that are new to you or situations that are ambiguous
-also occurs when one person is regarded as more of an expert

Question 7

studying conformity – Asch (1951)

Answer 7

-demonstrated conformity
-groups of 6/7, students were asked in turn to identify which line was the same length as another
-only one person was a genuine participant (naive) who didn’t know what the task was
-other (confederates) were told to sometimes give the wrong answer
-naive pps agreed with the wrong answers 36.8% of the time
-75% of pps conformed at least once
-task was very obvious, shows NSI as the students conformed in order to avoid rejection

Question 8

evaluation: practical applications (+)

Answer 8

-understanding conformity can have applications in workplaces
-example, whistleblowers are people who risk their jobs to highlight wrongdoings in their workplace, are anti-conformists, choose to not go with the group
-prepared to be rejected by colleagues (resists NSI) and don’t think others automatically know better than them (resists ISI)
-having an understanding of NSI and ISI means we can help counteract and resist mindless conformity

Question 9

evaluation: research support (+)

Answer 9

-Asch provided evidence of NSI in study
-discovered that many pps went along with a wrong answer just because other people did
-when asked why some said they “felt self-conscious” as they were afraid of disapproval
-Asch repeated study but asked naive pps to write down their answers, conformity rate fell to 12.5%
-suggests that we conform in order to avoid rejection by majority
-when public pressure is removed, conformity is less likely

Question 10

evaluation: NSI and ISI are less clear in the real world (-)

Answer 10

-two processes are interdependent
-less likely to conform if there is another person present who disagrees with the group
-difficult to know why this is the case
-dissenter may reduce power of NSI (provide social support) or may reduce power of ISI (alternative source of information)
-shows we can’t always be sure whether NSI or ISI is responsible for conformity
-most likely that they are both operating