SI v3 Flashcards
Define conformity.
A form of social influence that results from exposure to the majority position and leads to compliance with that position.
Outline compliance as a type of conformity. And give an example.
- Individuals change their behaviour and the views, attitudes and beliefs they voice in public so they are in line with the majority
- There is no change to privately held views, attitudes or beliefs
- Only lasts when group is present
- superficial and temporary form
e.g. student during first day of school pretending to find others convos interesting even if they think they are dull
Describe internalisation as a type of conformity with an example.
- Individuals change their behaviour and the views, attitudes and beliefs they voice in public to align with majority
- They examine their behaviour and beliefs based on what others are saying and decide the majority is correct
- Leads person to accept majority group view privately as well as publicly
- Deeper, more permanent conformity
e.g. student on first day of school observing how people dress and eventually dressing and behaving like them because we value their dress sense and behaviour
Briefly explain identification as a type of conformity and support your answer with an example.
- An individual accepts social influence because they want to be associated with a role model or group
- By adopting behaviours, attitudes and views so they feel connected to the group/role model
- Also identify with people we admire/look up to
e.g. becoming vegetarian because all of your friends are but you still like meat
State the two explanations for conformity.
- Informational Social Influence
- Normative Social Influence
Outline ISI as an explanation of conformity.
- Person conforms because they are unsure of the correct answer or how to behave
- So they look to others for information/guidance
- Drive for conformity is the need to be right
More likely when:
- situation is ambiguous
- situation is difficult or complex
- situation is a crisis
- we believe others to be experts
ISI is likely to lead to internalisation
Describe NSI as an explanation of conformity.
- People conform to ‘fit in’ and to be liked and accepted in the group
- People have a fundamental need to be liked and accepted
- We avoid behaviours that make others reject or ridicule us
- Research shows people like those who are similar to them so conformity is a strategy to ensure acceptance
More likely when:
- Situations with strangers where you are concerned about rejection
- More pronounced in stressful situations where there is a greater need for social support
NSI leads to compliance
Evaluate NSI and ISI as explanations for conformity.
ADV 1: Research support for ISI:
- Lucas (2006)
- Asked students to giver answers to mathematical problems
- Conformity was more pronounced for incorrect answers when math problems were more difficult
- thus conformity is more likely to occur when situation is ambiguous or difficult
- Also students poor at maths looked to others as they believe others were experts
ADV 2: Research support for NSI
- Asch (1951)
- Many pps went along with obviously wrong answer just because other people did
- Pps feared rejection so agreed
- Not ambiguous or difficult but still conformed due to NSI
DIS 1: Individual differences
- Some are more concerned with NSI - nAffiliators (greater need for affiliation) are more likely to conform
- Some are resistant to conforming due to NSI
- NSI explanation doesnt apply to everyone - lacks population validity
DIS 2: Together
- ISI and NSI work together in explaining conformity (not two separate processes)
- In Asch’s exp. conformity was reduced when there was a single dissenter
- We cannot determine whether this was because the dissenter provided social support (reduces influence of NSI) or if they provided an alternate source of information (reduces ISI influence)
- Not clear which is at work in certain situations
Outline the procedure and results of Jenness (1932) study into conformity.
Procedure of Jenness (1932)
- Used an ambiguous situation
- 811 white beans in a large jar and 26 pps.
- First asked to individually estimate the number
- Divided into groups of 3 to provide a group estimate of the number following discussion
- Provided with second opportunity to individually estimate
Results:
- Almost all changed their original answer
- Males = changed by 256 beans
- Females = changed by 382 beans
- Range = 1800 to 470 (75% decrease)
Demonstrates converging of opinions due to ISI
Describe the procedure and results of Sherif’s autokinetic effect experiment.
Procedure of Sherif (1935):
- Autokinetic effect is a visual illusion where a spot of light in a dark room will appear to move even though it is still
- Pps individually asked to estimate how much the light moved
- Put in groups of three and tested (composed so that two have similar estimates and one has a different estimate)
- Had to say their estimate out loud
Results
- Over numerous estimates of movement of light, the group converged to a common estimate
- ## Person with greatly different estimate conformed to the estimate of the other two
Describe Asch’s study in detail.
Procedure Asch (1951):
- 123 male US undergraduates each in seperate rooms with up to 8 confederates
- Experimenter displays two cards: one with a single vertical line and one with three lines and asks which of the three lines is most similar to other card
- 18 trials total, 12 critical trials (wrong answer)
- Control group only had real pps
Results:
- 35% of pps conformed to clearly incorrect majority in critical trials
- 75% of pps conformed at least once in 12 trials
- 25% never conformed
- Pps were interviewed about why they answered incorrectly - most said they knew their answer was incorrect but they wanted to fit it and didnt want to be ridiculed
- demonstrates NSI
State the three variables affecting conformity according to Asch.
- Group size
- Unanimity
- Task difficulty
Explain how group size affects conformity.
- Very little conformity with only one or two confed in majority
- Majority of 3 confeds, conformity went up to 30%
- After 3, no further increase to conformity
- Important only up to certain point
Explain how unanimity affects conformity.
- If one confederate gave the correct answer, cormity dropped from 33% to 5.5%
- If one confed gave wrong but different answer, conformity dropped to 9%
- Only need single break in unanimous decision for conformity to drop regardless of correctness
Explain how task difficulty affects conformity.
- Asch made difference between lines much smaller to increase task difficulty, so conformity increased
- Influence of task difficulty is moderated by the self-efficacy of the pps. (how competent someone feels in completing a task)
- Even in high difficulty task, pps with high efficacy remained more independent than those with low efficacy
- Both situational (task diff) and personality differences (efficacy) have an effect on conformity
Evaluate Asch’s studies and variables affecting conformity.
DIS 1:
- Child of its time
- Study was repeated with engineering students in the UK in 1980
- Only one student conformed in 396 trials compared to 75% in Asch’s
- 1950s was a conformist decade in the US and was seen as the norm but society has changed greatly since
- Asch effect is not consistent across situations or time so lacks temporal validity
DIS 2:
- Artificial task and situation so pps are likely to show demand characteristics
- Task of guessing correct line doesn’t not reflect everyday tasks
- Criticised because Asch’s groups would not resemble groups we are a part of in everyday life
- Thus cannot generalise findings to everyday life so lacks ecological validity
DIS 3:
- Limited application of findings
- Pps were all men so may not apply to women
- Men were from US which has individualistic culture more concerned about self
- Asch repeated in China (collectivist) and there were higher conformity rates
- Can only be applied to US males, not women or other cultures so lacks population validity
DIS 4:
- Ethical issues: deception, psychological harm, lack of fully informed consent
- Pps werent aware of confederates
- Psych harm as they may be confused and stressed why everyone is giving obviously wrong answer
What is conformity to social roles?
Conforming to the expectations of a particular social role and behaving in a way expected of that role e.g. cashier in bank is expected to be polite
What was the procedure of Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment?
- Volunteer sampling
- Sample reduced to 24 male college students following diagnostic interviews and personality tests to eliminate candidates with psych problems, medical disabilities and history of alcohol or substance abuse
- Randomly assigned to role of either prisoner or guard
- Prisoners were arrested in their homes without warning, fingerprinted, photographed and booked
- Taken to simulated prison in basement of Stanford university
- Prisoners had all their personal possessions removed, given prison clothes, referred to by only their number, tight cap to cover hair (deindividualisation process)
- Guards had identical khaki uniforms with sunglasses to minimise eye contact with prisoners
- Guards were instructed to do whatever they thought was necessary to maintain law and order (no physical violence was permitted)
Describe the results and findings of the Stanford Prison Experiment.
- Prisoners and guards quickly identified with their roles
- Within hours, guards were harassing the prisoners in a brutal and sadistic manner
- Prisoners were taunted with insults and petty orders and generally dehumanised
- Within days, prisoners rebelled but this was quashed by the guards
- Guards became increasingly abusive
- Prisoners became increasingly submissive (further identification with subordinate roles)
- 5 prisoners released from experiment early because of adverse reactions to physical and mental torment e.g. crying, extreme anxiety
- One released after 36 hours because of uncontrollable bursts of screaming, crying and anger - thinking became disorganised and appeared to be entering early stages of deep depression
- Terminated on day 6 out of 14
What can you conclude from Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment?
People quickly conform to social roles even if it goes against their moral principles. Situational factors were largely responsible for the behaviour found as none of the pps demonstrated these behaviours previously
What are the benefits of SPE study?
ADV 1: Good level of control over variables
- Chose the most emotionally stable males to reduce influence of participant variables
- Random assignment of roles so no experimenter bias
- High control over variables increases internal validity so more confidence in drawing conclusions about conforming to social roles
ADV 2: Real life applications to Abu Graib
- Abu Graib is a military prison in Iraq notorious for torture and abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers in 2003-4
- Zimbardo argues there is the same conformity to social role effect
- US soldiers were victims of the situational factors
- Combination of lack of training, unrelenting boredom and no accountability to higher authority (shared factors in SPE) as well as the opportunity to misuse their power led to the abuse of prisoners in both situations