Social Influence Flashcards
What is conformity?
- change in behaviour/ideals/beliefs
- usually to fit in with a group
3 types of conformity:
- compliance
- internalisation
- identification
What is compliance?
- temporary change in public behaviour
- private views maintained
Give an example of compliance:
- being quiet in class then loud when teacher leaves
What is internalisation?
- both public behaviour and private views change because of new information
Give an example of internalisation:
changing political views to fit in with friends
What is identification?
- behaviours and views change to fit in with a group
- temporary or permanent depending on desire to fit in
Give an example of identification:
starting smoking because your friends do
2 explanations for conformity:
- informational social influence
- normative social influence
What is informative social influence?
- agreeing with majority view
- often in unfamiliar situations
- other group perceived to be right
Give an example of informative social influence:
not knowing an answer to a question but agreeing with majority answer
What type of conformity does informative social influence lead to?
internalisation
What is normative social influence?
- agree with majority view to be accepted by group
- often caused by peer pressure
Give an example of normative social influence:
smoking due to peer pressure, privately disagreeing with it
What type of conformity does normative social influence lead to?
compliance
What did Asch’s research focus on?
variables affecting conformity
What did Asch find in the increased group size variation of his study?
- up to 3 confederates = conformity rose to 32%
- adding more after this made little difference
What did Asch find in the disrupted unanimity variation of his study?
- added confederate who disagreed with others
- resulted in reducing conformity & participant becoming more independent
What did Asch find in the increased task difficulty variation of his study?
- standard line and comparison lines are more similar length
- conformity increased (due to ISI as situation is ambiguous)
What did Zimbardo’s research investigate?
conformity to social roles
What is a social role?
the role people play subconsciously as members of society e.g. parent, child student
- has expectations of appropriate behaviour
What did Milgram’s research focus on?
obedience
How does uniform affect obedience?
- if dressed as authority figure, authority is perceived = more likely to obey