Section 1 : Social Influence - Conformity T

Question 1

What is conformity

Answer 1

a change in a persons behaviour or opinion due to real or imagined pressure from others

Question 2

Asch - 1951
Aim

Answer 2

Assess extent to which people conform to the opinion of others in unambiguous situations

tested the effects of Normative Social Influence

Question 3

Procedure

Answer 3

lab experiment, independent groups
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123 American men
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one standard line and three comparison lines
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lines were obviously different lengths - unambiguous
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groups of 6-8
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one naive participant, rest confederates
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seated last or second last
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all gave same incorrect answer
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18 - 12 of these were critical trials

Question 4

What happened in the critical trials

Results of Critical Trials

Answer 4

The confederates all gave the same wrong answer
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-Naive Participants conformed to the majority giving the wrong answer 37% of the time.
-75% conformed at least once
-25% never conformed
-Participants didn’t really believe their answer but didn’t want look different

Question 5

Control Group?
Task?
Results?

Answer 5

Yes

Judged the line lengths in isolation

Participants gave the wrong answer 0.7% of the time

Question 6

Asch investigated 3 situational factors:
Group size
unanimity
task difficulty

Question 7

variable - group size

Answer 7

varied number of confederates 1-15

rela between group size and level of conformity was curvilinear

2 confeds conformity = 14%
3 confeds conformity = 32%
above 3, made little difference

conclude -small majorities are easier to resist than large ones, people are sensitive to opinions of others as one confed was enough to sway opinions

Question 8

variable - unanimity

Answer 8

dissenting confederate, always disagreed with majority

fellow dissenter meant unanimity in the group was broken. The rates of conformity fell to 5.5%

easier for participants to resist the pressure to conform

dissenter enables naive participant to behave more independantly

Question 9

variable - task difficulty

Answer 9

increased TD, made stimulus line more similar to comparison line

conformity increased

situation is more ambiguous, less confident, more likely to look for guidance, conform

informational social influence affects us more as TD increases

Question 10

weakness Asch
Situation and task - artificial

Answer 10

Participants know they are taking part in study, lab setting
Demand characteristics
Findings do not generalise to real world situations

lacks ecological validity- not a natural situation less likely to conform if real life consequence

Question 11

weakness Asch
Limited Application/ Generalizability

Answer 11

All american men
Neto 1995 - women are more conformist about social relationships + being accepted

Question 12

weakness Asch
Generalizability

Answer 12

US - individualist culture, CHINA - collectivist culture, conformity rates are higher Bond and Smith 1996
Individualistic culture - prioritise standing out
Collectivist culture - prioritise group loyalty

Question 13

Strength Asch
Research Support

Answer 13

Support from other studies
Todd Lucas et al, easy and hard maths problems, participants conformed more when problems were harder
Conclusion was correct task difficulty affects conformity
(however Lucas et all found individual confidence influences conformity, interacts with situational variables (task difficulty)
Asch did not look at individual factors

Question 14

Weakness Asch
Child of the times 1951

Answer 14

Perrin and Spencer 1981
Retrialled experiment - only one engineering student conformed out of 400

Question 15

Weakness Asch
Ethical Issues

Answer 15

Naive participants were deceived
Unaware of confederates
Embarrassed in debrief
Lack trust in psychologists

Question 16

Strength Asch
Lab setting

Answer 16

-There was good control of variables - minimises the effects of extraneous variables.
-Can easily repeat the study

Question 17

What are the 3 types of conformity

Answer 17

Compliance
Internalisation
Identification

Question 18

What is compliance

Answer 18

-publicly but not privately going along with the majority influence to gain approval/avoid ridicule
-Weak/temporary and only shown in presence of a group
-stops when group pressure is removed

Question 19

What is internalisation

Answer 19

-true conformity
-public and private acceptance of majority influence, through adoption of the majority group’s belief system
-stronger, permanent form of conformity, as it maintained outside of the groups presence

Question 20

What is identification

Answer 20

• public and private acceptance of majority influence in order to gain group acceptance
• stronger form of conformity but still temporary, don’t always agree with the group

Question 21

two process theory

Answer 21

Deutsch and Gerard

two main reasons people conform

based on 2 basic human needs

need to be right: ISI
need to be liked: NSI

Question 22

what is information social influence (ISI)

Answer 22

a cognitive process, we conform to the majority because we want to be right

leads to internalisation

Question 23

why does information social influence happen

Answer 23

• Uncertain
• agree with the majority and believe that is right
• want to be right
• cognitive process
• public and private agreement

Question 24

when does ISI happen

Answer 24

situations that are new to a person
some ambiguity
in crisis situations
one person in the group is regarded as being more of an expert

Question 25

what is NSI (normative social influence)

Answer 25

• NSI is an emotional process
• we conform ot majority because we want to be accepted, gain social approval and be liked.
• the person may publicly change their behaviour/view but will privately disagree

leads to compliance

Question 26

why does NSI happen

Answer 26

• agree with the opinion of majority
• need for acceptance
• gain social approval/be liked
• emotional process
• public and private views differ -> compliance

Question 27

when does NSI happen

Answer 27

-situations with strangers
-occur with people you know
-pronounced in stressful situations

Question 28

supporting research NSI

Answer 28

Asch
many participants conformed, afraid of disapproval

when wrote down answer, no normative group pressure, conformity fell to 12.5%

some conformity due to normative pressure, not be rejected by group

Question 29

strength ISI
research support

Answer 29

Lucas et al

participants conformed more to maths problems when task diffuculty was higher

ambiguous situation, looked to others

supports ISI as an explanation for conformity, ISI predicts results

BUT
unclear if NSI or ISI is acting, eg Asch, dissenter may affect ISI (provide alternative source of social info) or NSI (provide social support)

hard to separate ISI and NSI, as they operate together in real life situations of conformity

SUGGESTS
distinction between ISI and NSI is not useful, Lucas findings could be due to NSI or ISI

BUT Asch shows both are reasons for conformity

unanimity - reason for NSI
unanimity - ISI, everyone knows

Question 30

weakness NSI
individual differences

Answer 30

does not always predict conformity

some people are concearned about being liked, nAffiliators, strong need to relate to others, Teevan - nAffiliators are more likely to conform

shows NSI underlies in some people more than others, indiviudal differences can’t fully explain conformity

Question 31

What does situational factors mean

Answer 31

Refers to the social situation someone is in

Question 32

What does dispositional factors mean

Answer 32

Refers to the persons internal characteristics

Question 33

What dispositional factors could’ve affected conformity rates in Asch’s research

Answer 33

• Confidence
• Gender

Question 34

Did confidence affect conformity rates, why?

Answer 34

Yes, if people felt more confident in their judgements, they were more able to resist group pressure

Question 35

What studies support that confidence decreases conformity

Answer 35

Wiestenthal (1976) - if people felt competent in a task, they were less likely to conform
Perrin and Spencer - Replicated Asch’s study, Participants were engineering students.Conformity levels were lower, could’ve been to the fact that engineering students have more confidence in their skills in making accurate observations.

Question 36

What was the dominant view about gender and conformity

Answer 36

The dominant view was that women are more likely to conform than males.

Question 37

What study changed the dominant view about gender and conformity

Answer 37

Eagly and Carli (1981)

Question 38

What was Eagly and carli

Answer 38

They did a meta-analysis of conformity research. They analysed a number of data from studies x they found some differences in sex for conformity but they were inconsistent.

Question 39

What did Eagly argue (1987)

Answer 39

Men and womens different socials roles explain differences in conformity. Women are more concerned with group harmony, so are more likely to agree with others.