Social-Conformity and Obedience

Question 1

What is conformity?

Answer 1

When the minority goes along with the majority- changes in behaviour and/ or attitudes occurring in response to group pressure.

Question 2

Types of conformity

Answer 2

Internalisation: Where the views and opinions of the majority become your own, and you maintain these views even if you leave the group.

Compliance: Where you publicly go along with the views and opinions of the majority, but privately maintain your own views.

Identification: Someone shows influence with respect to the demands of a given role in society.

Question 3

Explanations of conformity

Answer 3

Normative social influence: we conform because we think it will make us appear ‘normal’ to the group and they will accept us.

Informational social influence: we conform because we do not know how to behave, so we ‘copy’ what the rest of the group is doing.

Question 4

Study supporting Normative influence

Answer 4

Key study to support: Asch (1951)
Method: Lab experiment
Sample: 1 genuine participant out of a group of 7/8 the rest of the group were confederates.
Procedure: 6 ‘control trials’ were confederates did not all agree with each other, 12 ‘critical trials’ where all confederates gave wrong answer of comparison line.
Findings: in control trials, 0.7% gave wrong answer, in critical trials 37% gave wrong answer
 high control so high internal validity
x study is a lab study so low in ecological validity – does it tell us about normative influence in real life?
x Study is outdated, so lacks historical validity

Question 5

Study supporting informational social influence

Answer 5

Key Study: Sherif (1935)
Method: Lab experiment
IV = estimation alone or estimation in a group
Participants shown an ambiguous task, testing the autokinetic light effect
Results: On their own, participants gave stable estimates, in a group they changed their estimates so their was a stable answer for the group
 Highly controlled so high internal validity
x lab experiment – does it tell us about informational social influence in real life? Low in E.V
x Outdated so may lack historical validity

Question 6

Factors affecting conformity (increasing conformity)

Answer 6

• Group size: Asch repeated study and found with 2 confederates, conformity was 13% on critical trials vs. 33% when confederates rose to 3.
• Status and Knowledge: If someone is of high status, or has lots of knowledge they will be more influential and so people will be more likely to conform.
• Locus of Control: Having an external locus of control means you are more likely to conform.
• Personality: people with low self-esteem conform more and people with a high IQ conform less.
• Culture: People raised in collectivist cultures are more likely to conform (Smith & Bond 1998)-

Question 7

Factors affecting conformity (decreasing it and leading to independent behaviour)

Answer 7

1. Exposure to dissent: conformity dropped from 37% to 5% when one confederate gave the correct answer on all trials. Seeing other people resist makes you realise there is an alternative minority view.
2. Group size: it is easier to avoid conforming when the number of people against you is very small.
3. Reactance: People can react against the majority simply because that is the view they hold (they feel their freedom is limited). This could be a personality variable or because of the situation participants are in.
4. Moral Considerations.

Question 8

Obedience & Key Study

Answer 8

“Acting in response to a direct order from a figure with perceived authority”.
Milgram (1963)
Method: Controlled observation.
Sample: 40 men from a range of occupations responded to adverts
Procedure: Paired with a ‘learner’ who was really a confederate, gave shocks ranging from 15 volts to 450 volts (these were not real but participant thought they were) for every wrong answer to word pair.
Findings: Despite participants showing signs of distress, all participants shocked to 300 volts, 65% went to 450 volts, simply because the ‘authority figure’ of the experiment said ‘please continue’.

Question 9

Factors affecting obedience (decreasing it and leading to independent behaviour)

Answer 9

1.Harm being done to the victim is made more clear (e.g. participant placed their hand onto a metal shocking place).
2.Steps can be taken to reduce the perceived authority of the person issuing the orders. E.g. using a seedy environment for the experiment.
3.Presence of allies: When there were 3 teachers (1 participant and 2 confederates) the real participant was less likely to obey.
4.Proximity of the authority: When they authority figure gave prompts by phone from another rom, obedience rates dropped to 23%.
Moral Consideration: Those who based their decisions on more general moral principles (e.g. importance of social order), were more defiant in Milgram’s study.
5.Social Heroism (Zimbardo)

Question 10

Factors affecting obedience/ explanations of obedience (increasing obedience)

Answer 10

1. Gradual commitment: obeying in small steps, participants in the study obeyed step by step through the gradual increase in voltage.
2. Justified authority: we are socialised to recognise some people as more authoritative and so we are more likely to obey them.
3. An Agentic State: When we are acting for someone else we feel less responsible for our own actions.
4. Buffers: Protect us from the consequence of our actions, in Milgram’s experiment participants were more obedient in conditions where they could not hear or see the victim.

Question 11

Evaluation of research into obedience

Answer 11

Milgrams study was highly controlled so very valid results meaning the explanations arising can be said to be valid
Supporting research e.g. Hofling (1966) found that 21 out of 22 nurses obeyed the order of a ‘doctor’ over the phone to mis-administer medication which suggest the explanations are correct

x Milgrams study broke several ethical guideline e.g. informed consent, deception, so perhaps the findings did not outweigh the problems
x Study lacked E.V so can it tell us about obedience in real life?

Question 12

How can individual differences cause independent behaviour?

Answer 12

• Culture : Bond and Smith (1996 found that collectivist cultures tended to show higher levels of conformity than individualist countries.
• Locus of control (Rotter 1966) refers to peoples beliefs about what controls events in their lives. Internal loc = what happens to me is down to me; External loc = what happens to me is down to external force. Rotter suggested that people with an internal locus of control are more likely to show independent behaviour

Question 13

Implications for social change of research into social influence

Answer 13

Resisting unwanted influences: The research has informed us that people do behave inhumanly due to social influences, not an innate ‘evil’ therefore we can out things in place to reduce the social effects.
Educating nurses: Findings from Hofling et al raised awareness about the potential for senior staff to influence junior personal.
‘Foot in the door’ technique: commonly used by sales people or charities to get people to slowly commit to more than they had intended in the first place.
Implications for ethical guidelines: major ethical issues from social research such as Milgram and Zimbardo influenced the development of ethical guidelines being put in place.

Question 14

Research on minority influence

Answer 14

Moscovici (1969) : Lab experiment
Sample: female students
IV: 2 confederates vs 6 participants gave ‘inconsistent’ answers of ‘green’ for 24 of 36 slides where the colour was blue or ‘consistent’ where 2 confederates vs. 6 participants said ‘green’ for all 36 slides DV: participants answers
Findings: inconsistent trial = 1.25% conformity
Consistent trial = 8.42% conformity showing minority can affect majority
Evaluation
lab experiment = high control and high internal validity so helps to strengthen suggestion that minority can influence majority.
x low ecological validity as an artificial task so does it really tell us about minority

Question 15

Implications of research into the minority

- what has the research been able to tell us about how the minority could have a big effect?

Answer 15

Moscovici identified the behavioural styles that people must show if the minority is to be as effective as it can be:

1. Consistency in their resistance to majority
2. Flexibility: they must be prepared to not ‘stick to their guns’ and be flexible to get their message across
3. Committed to their cause

If these factors are adhered to it could lead to…;
•The snowball effect: When a minority succeeds in attracting enough supporters, it is transformed into the new majority.
Social Cryptoamnesia:
The majority forgets that the ideas came from the minority, so they feel more comfortable about accepting them.