Social Influence Flashcards
What are the three types of Conformity ?
compliance, identification, internalisation
Define compliance
individuals PUBLICLY go along with MAJORITY view, but PRIVATELY disagrees - TEMPORARY
Define Identification
individuals adopt behaviour of group as they VALUE GROUP MEMBERSHIP- MODERATE lasts as long as group
Define Internalisation
individuals express view PUBLICLY and PRIVATELY as they believe its correct- PERMEANT
what three things was Asch studying in his experiment into conformity ?
the difficultly of task , size of majority, unanimity
how many participates in aschs study ?
123
outline aschs procedure
he used a line judgement task with 23 male undergrads, where he placed 1 real participant in a room with 7 confederates which had agreed answers in advance. they had to match a standard line to 3 other lines of differing lengths and say their answer out loud in a group setting , the lines were made purposely ambiguous and easy to match. the p was always second to last, confederates gave wrong answer 12 out of 18 trails.
discuss findings for aschs study
he found 76% of participants conformed at least once,and 24% never conformed that on 12 critical trials average conformity rate= 33%, compared to a control group where mistakes were only made 1% of the time. found that compliance wasn’t an automatic response but rather a variable process with many different factors influence it. after he interviewed them and majority said they still had their own beliefs privately- evidence of conformity
how did Asch change the difficulty of the task and does it increase or decrease conformity?
in one variation he made it more difficult by making difference in line lengths smaller- in first study lines were clearly distinguishable . harder= increase rate of conformity- people look for help , easier= decrease conformity- people are more sure.
how did Asch use size of majority and does it increase and decrease conformity?
when there was 1 confederate 3% conformed, when 3, 32% conformed. small group=decrease, big group=increased
how did Asch use unanimity and does it increase or decrease conformity ?
in one variation on confederate was instructed to choose correct the whole was through - conformity dropped 5%. unanimous verdict= decrease, disturbed unanimity= increased
evaluation asch- negative- generalisability could be considered low….
- high levels of conformity found, may be because of the time (ie 1950’s).
-modern day replications have found that people are less conforming now
-means study lacks TEMPORAL VALIDITY
-the ps in study were also 123 males, therefore its hard to generalise to potential female participants and is unrepresentative of population
-finally it was done in the USA meaning the conformity levels may not be the same in all cultures
-study is ETHNOCENTRIC
LINK BACK- cannot be generalised
evaluation asch- positive-high reliability because of standardised procedures…
-all ps sat round a table with 7 confederates
-all answers said out loud
LB- means study can be checked for consistency of findings
evaluation asch- positive- practical applications…
-jurors now warned about conformity during briefing, so they do not feel pressure to conform by excessive pressures to give a specific verdict
LB- used in everyday life situations to explain conformity
evaluation asch-negative- low external validity….
- study took place in a lab, controlled environment
- must be careful when generalising to the real world
-the task also did not reflect real life situations of conformity
LB- implies aschs results cannot be fully generalised to real life situations of conformity, as it was an artificial situation
the two types of explanations for conformity -
normative and informational social influence
