Social Influence Flashcards
Who studied conformity
Asch (1951)
What was Asch’s procedure called
Baseline study
Why did he study different variables
To see whether they increased or decreased conformity rates
What were the 3 variables Asch studies
-Group size
-Unanimity
-Task Difficulty
How did Asch change group size
Varied the number of confederates from 1-15
What did the group size findings find
-There was a curvilinear relationship between group size and conformity
-With 3 confederates group size rose to 31.8%, however after that more confederates made little difference
How did Asch test unanimity
He had one confederate who disagreed with the other confederates
what were the findings from testing unanimity
-the genuine participants conformity rate decrease
-even when the non-conforming person disagreed with the genuine participant the genuine participant continued to not conform
How did Asch test task difficulty?
He changed the link-judging task by making the stimulus line and comparison line more similar to eachother (making it harder for the genuine participant to see the difference between the lines)
What did changing the task difficultly show
conformity rates increased as people were unsure with their own answer so looked around for guidance (isi-> informational social influence)
EVALUATION ASCH
Describe artificial situation and task
-limitation
-participants knew they where being researched so might of gone along (demand characteristics)
-Susan Fiske said don’t generalise for the real world
EVALUATION ASCH-
Describe Limited application
-Limition
-All american men
-Other research shows that women are more likely to conform to fit in with social relationships and to be accepted
-The is a individualistic culture and collectivist cultures are more likely to conform as they care more about social groups
What are the different types of conformity and what do they mean
Internalisation- Accept the group norms, publicly and privately
Identification- Accept the opinion of the group publicly, however may have a different opinion privately
Compliance- Only change opinion publicly, however disagree privately
What are the 2 reasons people conform and what do they mean
-Informational social influence- uncertain of what is right/ wrong so look at others for guidance (look at majority), indentification
-Normative social influence- looking at what’s seen as normal to gain social approval, compliance
EVALUATION TYPES AND REASONS FOR CONFORMITY
Research support for ISI
-Strength
-Todd Lucas
-Conform more to difficult maths problems
-The participant doesn’t want to be wrong (fear if rejection)
