social influence Flashcards
what is conformity?
conformity is the change of behaviour or opinions as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or a group of people
difference levels of conformity
(types of conformity)
complaince
identification
internalisation
what is compliance?
when individuals go along with the group to gain approval
does not result in change in underlying attitude, only in the views expressed in public so its temporary
- smoking to look cool
what is identfication?
has elements of both compliance and internalisation as the individual accepts the attitudes and behaviours they are adopting as true (internalisation) but the purpose of doing so is to be accepted as a member of the group (compliance)
smoking relives stress + they think im cool
what is internalisation?
individuals go along with a group because of an acceptance of their views
this can lead to the acceptance of a groups point both publicly and privately - permanent chane
what is ISI
when an individual is conforming to be right especially in ambiguous situations needed and to reduce uncertainty. This often leads to internalisation.OTHERS MORE KNOWLDGEABLE
explanation of conformity
- normative social influence (NSI)
- informational social influence (ISI)
what is NSI
when an individual is conforming to be liked to gain acceptance through agreeing with a group to be accepted and not rejected - it is a temporary effect results in superficial change of behaviour
evidence for NSI
- supporting evidence for Asch study (1951) unambigous line - it shows pps conformed selecting wrong answers when the confederates did and after the interviews pps said that they conformed to avoid rejection from others. This shows people will show complaint behaviour in order to fit in and and be approved by the majority
CONS of the supporting evidence for NSI
line experiment was unusual not like everyday real life tasks therefore it lacks mundane realism it could be argued conformity would act differently in real word situations
evidence for ISi
Jenness (1932) - Jelly beans in jar
asked to guess alone then with others - an ambigious task
Jennes found the individuals second guess would move closer to the groups demonstrating ISI
bonus fact women conformed more
con for the evidence of ISI
- Also lacks mundane realism
eval of types and explanation conformity
-some people are more able to resist social pressures to conform this raises questions on why that may occur
what did zimbardo want to investigate
whether the aggressive behaviour seen in american prisons was due to dispositions( perosnalities) or because of the prision environment itself
set up of zimbardos study
he created a fake prison in the basement of Stanford university 21 male students rated as both physically and mentally well were chosen for 75 volunteers
there was a random selection of 10 guards and 11 prisoners
the prisoners were given a realistic arrest by police, wore prisoner uniform and they were labelled as just a number this was to try dehumanise them.
the guards were given uniform, handcuffs , clubs and sunglasses to avoid eye contact.