Social (Conformity + Obedience) 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 3 situational factors that affect conformity.
Situational factors that affect conformity:
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 behaviour than small groups.
Majority/minority size
- 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
Privacy
- The anonymity of an individuals opinion. Asch found that when participants gave their opinion in private, they were much less likely to conform to group opinion. This reduces the power of normative influence and the individuals 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 conform.
Age
- The conformity of an individual may depend on the age range of the group. Studies have shown that an individual is more likely to conform if the group is similar to the individual, therefor, it is reasonable to believe that an individual will conform more to those of a similar age.
Distinguish between situational factors and individual factors.
Situational factors explain behaviour that is caused by the situation an individual is in, whereas individual factors explain behaviour that is caused by the way the individual feels/believes/acts
Explain 3 individual factors that affect conformity.
Individual factors affecting conformity:
Personality
- The character or type of person an individual is. Studies found that confident individuals, with high self esteem were less likely to conform, whereas those with low self esteem and confidence were more likely to conform.
Gender
- Some studies have shown that females are more likely to conform than males (Mori & Ari, 2010). This may be as a result of gender roles, however this may differ between cultures and change over time.
Culture
- Different cultures and religions follow many different views on conformity. Some value family and society over individual needs whereas other are the opposite. This makes it reasonable to assume that conformity levels will differ between cultures and beliefs.
Name, date and describe one key study of conformity
Mori and Ari (2010)
- A more modern version of Asch’s (1951) conformity study without 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 more than male participants, who generally didn’t conform to the majority view
- This may be due to cultural expectations of gender (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
What are the three main motives to conform?
Motivation 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
Informational
- When the individual conforms in order to be correct. They may feel they lack knowledge and thus look to the group for guidance
Ingratiational
- When the individual conforms in order to gain something from a group. The individual may be trying to improve their status etc. This is not a result of group pressure.
Describe obedience.
Obedience:
- A form of social pressure in which an individual obeys or disobeys commands or instructions (often given by a figure of authority)
Date and describe one key study of obedience.
What is the significance of this study?
Milgram (63) study of obedience
Method:
- Three individuals took part
- Two were Milgram’s confederates, the third was a participant
- One of Milgram’s confederates wore a lab coat acting as the experimenter, the other acted as another participant
- The participant and the confederate participant selected roles of ‘teacher’ and ‘learner’ from a hat - this was fixed so the participant always selected teacher
- The teacher was told to read a series of questions and word patterns to the student, who sat in a separate room
- The teacher was told to issue an electric shock to the student got answers wrong, increasing the voltage each time.
- The shock controls were labelled clearly to show the danger of the level of voltage
- Recordings of the confederate participant were played back upon each question - getting more distressed as the voltage increased and eventually going silent
- If the teacher hesitated they received up to three prompts from the experimenter to continue
Results:
- 26 out of the 40 participants issued the lethal, maximum shock level (450V)
- All participants issued at least 300V despite the switches being labelled “damaging to humans”
- Some showed signs of distress however continued upon prompting from the experimenter
Evaluation:
- Done in a lab, therefor lacks ecological validity and cannot necessarily be generalised to real life situations
- However, findings have been supported by other studies e.g. Hofling et al (66) study in hospitals
Describe 3 situational factors that may effect obedience.
Situational factors effecting obedience:
Legitimate authority - Before obeying orders an individual will often look for clues to see if the person giving orders has the authority to do so. An individual is more likely to obey if they believe the person giving orders is an authority figure e.g. A police officer
Proximity
- This is the physical separation or distance between the person giving orders and the people/person receiving orders. In Milgrams experimment (1963) when the authority figure (experimenter) was separated from the teacher, the teachers obedience fell
Location
- The status of a location may affect the way an authority figure is perceived and therefor affect an individuals obedience. When the location of the Milgram experiment (1963) was changed to a rundown office obedience fell by 47%
Peers
- Peers are those who are similar to an individual e.g. Friends and family. In the presence of peers who disobey, an individuals obedience may also fall as there is less personal responsibility. When Milgram (1963) introduced another teacher into his experiment, he found that obedience was reduced.
Describe three social factors which may effect obedience?
Social factors effecting obedience:
Parenting
- The way people are brought up by their parents can affect how obedient they are.
- Democratic parents encourage their children to think for themselves and make their own rational decisions
- Authoritarian parents teach their children to obey and respect the authority without question
Socialisation
- In most societies we are socialised to respect the hierarchy and follow orders from those in authority. During infancy people are rewarded for obeying authority figures like their parents and school teachers, this then socialises us to obey more later in life
Agency theory
- Milgram suggested that when people are comfortable they tend to take control of their own decisions (autonomous) but in times of stress or conflict they tend to look towards authority figures for orders (agentic)
What is a cult?
Cult:
- A group of people who do not conform with the majority of society i.e. their beliefs and behaviours are considered abnormal by the majority
There are two types:
Benign cults - Regarded as unusual but do not harm or encourage harm to their group members
Destructive cults - Also regarded as unusual but encourage destruction and harm in some form. Use the power over conformity and obedience for destruction
How can you recognise a destructive cult?
Destructive cults:
Behaviour control
- Regulation of members lifestyle e.g. controlling what they eat, what they do for leisure etc.
Information control
- Regulating the information the group can receive e.g. through lies and deception
Thought control
- Only allowing membership of those who follow the appropriate beliefs and the cults view of reality e.g. may instil “us v. them” thinking etc.
Emotional control
- Members may be taught to fear external views or independent thought e.g. may be told that leaving the group is a sign of weakness
Give three examples of how social pressure to conform or obey can be resisted
Resisting social pressure:
Education
- Being taught about the impact of social pressure increases awareness and thus makes it easier to identify and avoid pressure from harmful groups. This makes the individual leas vulnerable to manipulation.
Support
- If peers refuse to submit to destructive groups it can make it easier to avoid obeying themselves. This also makes them less of a target as manipulators will often look for people who are isolated
Values
- Those who have strong morals have been found to be less likely to succumb to social pressure if it goes against their own values
Curiosity/questioning motives
- As manipulators tend to lie about their true motives it can help to question their motives instead of simply complying
- It can also help to avoid making decisions under stress or pressure as manipulators may use compliance to pressure people into joining a cult
Responsibility
- Taking responsibility for actions can encourage more thought. Allowing responsibility to fall into the hands of someone else can prevent the individual from properly assessing their own situation, as seen in the Milgram study (63)
