Social Influence

Question 1

What is conformity?

Answer 1

A change in behaviour/ opinion due to a real/ imagined pressure from a person or group of people.

Question 2

Name the 3 types of conformity

Answer 2

Compliance
Identification
Internalisation

Question 3

Provide info about compliance

Answer 3

Agree in public (change in public)
Disagree privately (stay the same in private)

The change is short-term

Question 4

Provide info about identification

Answer 4

Agree in public (only when the group is around)

Temporary- will stop displaying behaviours/ opinions- when no longer a group member.

Typically short-term
While in presence of the group

Question 5

Provide info about internalisation

Answer 5

Agree in public
Agree in private

Person genuinely accepts groups norms

Changes in opinions/behaviours persist even in absence of other group members

Change- usually permanent= attitudes been internalised (becomes part of the way the person thinks)

Changes usually long-term/ semi-permanent

Question 6

What are the 2 explanations for conformity?

Answer 6

Informative social influence (ISI)

Normative social influence (NSI)

Question 7

What is the reason for informational social influence (ISI)?

Answer 7

Reason= conforming to gain knowledge and/ or be ‘right.’
-usually used when in ambiguous situations.

Why= to act appropriately or to avoid standing out

Question 8

Normative social influence (NSI)

Answer 8

Reason= To be accepted and belong to a group despite privately disagreeing.

Why= It’s rewarding or to avoid punishment

Question 9

Asch (1951) and the Asch effect and experiment

Name 3 factors that increase conformity

Answer 9

Task difficulty
Groups size
Unanimity

Question 10

What is task difficulty and how does it increase conformity?

Answer 10

The harder the lines were to distinguish in length, the more conforming increased.

Question 11

What is meant by group size and how does it increase conformity?

Answer 11

Asch increased the size of the group by adding more confederates, thus increasing the size of the majority. Conformity increased with group size, but only up to a point, leaving off when the majority was greater than 3.

Question 12

What is meant by unanimity and how does it increase conformity.

Answer 12

Unanimity- The extent to which all the members of a group agree. In Asch’s studies, the majority was unanimous. When all the confederates selected the same comparison line. This produced the greatest degree of conformity in the naive participants.

Question 13

How factors increase conformity?

Answer 13

1) Conformity is likely to increase when responses are made publicly than privately.
2) If there is at least one dissenter, conformity rates drop to near zero.
3) the more people in the majority the more likely an individual is to conform.

Question 14

What are the cons in Asch’s experiment?

Answer 14

Artificial situation
- participants in an artificial situation (low ecological validity)

Deception
-participants were deceived

Question 15

What were the pros of Asch’s experiment?

Answer 15

• Experiment could be easily repeated

- The influence of extraneous variables (those not being studied) could be minimised.

Question 16

What two other things did Asch identify which might affect conformity?

Answer 16

Confidence and Gender

Question 17

What did Asch find out about confidence in his studies?

Answer 17

-Participants that did not conform all displayed confidence

Participants that felt confident in their decisions did not succumb to group pressure as easily.

Question 18

What did other studies say about confidence affecting conformity?

Answer 18

Perrin and Spencer (1980)- carried out Asch’s experiment on engineering students.
Conformity rates were not as high as in Asch’s experiment.
This maybe because the engineers were confident in their decision making.

Wiesenthal et al (1076)- observed that participants who were confident in their ability to complete a task were less likely to conform.

Question 19

What studies suggested that gender effected conformity?

Answer 19

Eagly and Carli (1981)

Before 1970’s most psychologists believed that women conformed more than men.

Analysed conformity rates/research data they found inconsistencies in sex difference.

They found that males and females differed most in studies where audiences created group pressure.

Question 20

What did Eagly believe?

Answer 20

Believed that men and women show different levels of conformity because of their social roles.

Women are more likely to conform as they dont like conflict.

Men are less likely to conform because they are expected to show independence and assertiveness.