Social (Conformity) Flashcards
What is conformity?
Conformity:
- A type of social influence, occurring when an individual changes their behaviours or beliefs to fit with a group.
What are the 3 main types of conformity?
The 3 main types of conformity:
Compliance
- When the individual conforms with the group publicly but disagrees with their beliefs/behaviour privately. May occur as a result of trying to fit in and gain approval from the group.
Identification
- The individual adapts their behaviours (public) and takes on beliefs (private) to that of the social group, however this may change if they leave the group. The private conformity is not permanent.
Internalisation - The group behaviour is manifested into the individuals own beliefs and behaviour. The individual agrees with the group publicly and privately, and if the individual leaves the group they continue to follow these behaviours
Explain the 6 situational factors that affect conformity.
Situational factors that affect conformity:
Situation:
What the situation is, time, place, setting, etc.
Group size:
The number of people in a social group. Asch’s experiment (1951) showed that as the number of confederates in a group decreased conformity also decreased. He also found that large groups are more likely to conform to similar behavior than small groups.
Support:
The number of people in a group who share the same beliefs within the majority and minority. Asch found that if the size of the minority was increased conformity was reduced
Secrecy:
The anonymity of an individual’s opinion. Asch found that when participants gave their opinion in private, they were much less likely to conform to group opinions. This reduces the power of normative influence and the individual’s fear of rejection.
Peers:
Peers are those who are similar to an individual e.g. Friends and family. Studies have shown that if an individual feels they have similar characteristics with the majority, they are more likely to confirm.
Task Difficulty:
The more difficult the task is, the fewer people conform as they are less embarrassed to be wrong if the task is hard. This was studied by Asch (1951) in a varied version of the original experiment where the answer was less obvious.
How does group size influence conformity?
Group size:
Larger group = more conformity. Ashe (1951) varied the number of participants. He found that:
1 person = no conformity.
2 people = 12% conformity.
3 people = 33.3% (1/3) conformity.
In Ashe’s study he concluded that any more than 3 made little difference.
However… in the real world more people would of course have more of an influence on a person’s pressure to conform.
How does support influence conformity?
If one person is in support of another, conformity decreases. This is because people feel more confident and comfortable when they are not the only odd one out. An example of this would be one variation in Asch’s study (1951) where one of the actors would act as an ally for the true participant. In this variation, conformity fell to 5.5%.
How does secrecy influence conformity?
When people cannot rely on others for an answer then they have to think independently, therefore conformity decreases. An example of this would be one variation in Asch’s study (1951) where the participants were asked to write their answers on a sheet of paper privately. In doing so conformity fell to 5%.
How does similarity influence conformity?
If people share the same characteristics with the majority of the group, they are more likely to conform. One study which looked at this would be the confederate study done by Abrams et al (1990) in which he showed that if people identify as different from the rest of the group then they are less likely to conform.
How does task difficulty influence conformity?
The more difficult the task is, the less conformity there is within a group. This is because people are less embarrassed to get something wrong if it is difficult. An example of this would be one variation in Asch’s study (1951) where he made the distinction between each line much smaller, therefore making the answer less obvious.
Distinguish between situational factors and individual factors.
Situational factors explain behavior that is caused by the situation an individual is in, whereas individual factors explain behavior that is caused by the way the individual feels/believes/acts.
Explain 5 individual factors that affect conformity.
Individual factors affecting conformity:
Age:
Conformity is high in early to middle childhood. Age of group (collective) also affects conformity.
Personality:
Confident individuals, with high self-esteem, were less likely to conform, whereas those with low self-esteem and confidence were more likely to confirm.
Gender:
Some studies have shown that females are more likely to conform than males (Mori & Ari, 2010). This may be a result of gender roles, however, this may differ between cultures and change over time.
Beliefs:
Studies by Hornsey et al (2003) show that if an individual has strong conviction they are less likely to conform. The study was on 205 Australian students on same-sex marriage.
Culture:
Different cultures and religions follow many different views on conformity. Some value family and society over individual needs whereas others are the opposite. This makes it reasonable to assume that conformity levels will differ between cultures and beliefs.
Culture can be linked to collectivist and individualist cultures.
What are the two main motives to conform, and who studied them?
Deutsch and Gerald (1995) proposed 2 motivational factors to conform:
Normative:
When the individual yields to group pressure because they want to be accepted by the group. The individual is scared of rejection (wants to be liked).
Informational:
When the individual conforms in order to be correct. They may feel they lack knowledge and thus look to the group for guidance (wants to be right).
Name, date, and describe one key study of conformity.
Mori and Ari (2010)
- A more modern version of Asch’s (1951) conformity study without the use of confederate actors.
- Took place in Japan.
- Like in the Ash study, participants had to match the sample line to one of the three example lines.
- Unlike in the Ash study, all participants were true participants.
- All participants were given a set of filter glasses, allowing them to view the same screen but see different things.
- Participants were then asked which line they thought matched the length of the sample line.
Results:
- Female participants generally conformed 36% more than male participants, who didn’t conform at all to the majority view.
- This may be due to cultural expectations of gender roles within Japan.
- Participants knew each other, this was not true in previous studies making it difficult to compare to other studies.
However, Mori and Arai believed it better reflects everyday life, as people tend to spend most of their time with people they are familiar with e.g. friends, family, work colleagues.
Who studied the effects of group size on conformity and in what year?
Asch (1951).
Who studied the effects of support vs unanimity on conformity and in what year?
Asch (1951).
Who studied the effects of secrecy on conformity and in what year?
Asch (1951).
