Social Influence Flashcards
What are the three types of conformity?
Compliance - the lowest level of conformity where an individual changes their public behaviour to suit those they are around but may not particularly agree privately.
Identification - where an individual changes their public behaviour and personal beliefs temporarily whilst in a group setting.
Internalisation - the highest level of conformity where an individual permanently or semi-permanently changes both their public and private beliefs even in the absence of a group.
What are the explanations of conformity?
Normative Social Influence (NSI) - conforming to be accepted and belong to a group. Allows the individual to avoid punishment, discomfort, and possibly be rewarded.
Informational Social Influence (ISI) - conforming to gain knowledge and be ‘right’. Allows individual to gain knowledge and know how to act.
Who investigated the extent to which people will conform to the opinions of others?
Asch (1951)
Outline Asch’s baseline procedure on conformity (1951)
- 123 male students
- Deceived into thinking it was an eye-test
- Pps were put in groups of 6-8, all of which contained 1 naive participant. The naive participant was positioned towards the last 2 chairs.
- Pps were shown 2 cards, one which contained the standard line, and the other which contained 3 comparison lines. One of the lines were clearly the same, whilst the other 2 were clearly different.
* Pps were told to match one of the comparison lines to the standard line - Confederates would give scripted, incorrect answers
RESULTS - 36.8% of naive pps conformed to the confederates’ incorrect answers.
- 25% never confo444444rmed (and never gave an incorrect answer)
Outline the 3 groups used in Asch’s variation (1955)
• Group Size: group size changed with the addition of 1-15 confederates.
There was a curvilinear relationship between the conformity rate and group size as conformity increased to 31.8% at 3 confederates but after that it did not increase so much. (NSI)
• Unanimity: the extent to which members in a group agree, in the presence of a dissenter conformity rates decreased to less than a quarter of what it had been before. (NSI)
• Task Difficulty: the more difficult and ambiguous the task, the higher the rates of conformity due to ISI
Evaluate Asch’s Research
Strengths
• Research Support: Lucas et al. Showed that conformity rates did increase as the task difficulty increased.
Limitations
• HOWEVER it also showed that there were more factors which had not been controlled by Asch that affect conformity rates: confidence.
• All male sample: biased sample: results cannot be generalised to a wider population of women or non-Americans as culture and gender can have an impact on conformity rates
• the study is a ‘child of its time’ and so its results are no longer applicable to modern day. The study had been repeated more recently and its conformity rates were much lower (%)
Define the term ‘social roles’
The roles played by people in a group along with the expectations that come with it.
Who investigated conformity to social roles?
Zimbardo (1971)
