Social Influence Flashcards
Three types of conformity…
- Compliance
- Identification
- Internalisation
What is compliance?
Publically conforming to others, but privately maintaining our own personal opinions. Simply ‘going along with the others’ but opinion stops as soon as the group pressure stops.
What is identification?
We identify with the group and so we publically change our behaviour to be a part of it, even if we don’t privately agree with everything the majority believes.
What is internalisation?
A private as well as a public change of behaviour. This change is likely to be permanent and persists even without the presence of other group members.
2 explanations for conformity…
- Normative social influence
2. Informational social influence
What is Normative social influence?
The desire to be liked. Conform to the behaviour of others to gain social approval rather than to be rejected. NSI is an emotional rather than cognitive process.
What is Informational social influence?
The desire to be right. Conform to the behaviour of others as we want to be right but are uncertain on the correct answer. Go along with the majority answer as it’s most likely to be right. ISI is a cognitive process rather than emotional.
Evaluation for ISI?
Research support.
Lucas et al asked students to answer mathematical q’s which were either easy or difficult. Found there was greater conformity to incorrect answers when they were difficult rather than easier. Supports the idea that people conform to others in situations where they do not know what is right.
Evaluation for NSI?
Individual differences.
NSI does not affect everyone’s behaviour in the same way. Eg, naffiliators are people who have a greater need for being in relationships with others. Therefore those higher in need for affiliation, are more likely to conform.
Conformity- Asch’s procedure?
123 American male undergraduates. Naïve ppt was tested around six confederates who purposely gave the wrong answers. Showed ppts a standard line and three comparison lines. The ppt was asked which of the comparison lines matched the standard line (the answer being obvious).
What were Asch’s findings?
75% of ppts conformed at least once. The ‘Asch effect’ has been used to describe this- the extent to which ppts conform to others even when the situation is unambiguous.
What were Asch’s variations?
- Group Size.
Conformity rose to 31% when 3 confederates were introduced but more than 3 made little difference - Unanimity.
Introduced a dissenting confederate who disagreed with the rest of the confederates to see if this would effect conformity. Conformity fell by a quarter. Ppt acted more independently. - Task difficulty.
Asch made task more difficult by making the comparison lines more similar to the standard line. Conformity increased.
Evaluation for Asch’s research? Child of its time…
A child of its time.
More recent research following the original study using engineering students found that only one student conformed. May be due to the 1950s being a more conformist era where people felt they needed to conform to established social norms. Asch effect is not consistent across all situations and times.
Evaluation of Asch’s research? Artificial…
Artificial situation and task.
Demand characteristics occurred, ppts may have known they were in an experiment and so may have just gone along with the demands of the situation. Task was trivial and so no real reason not to conform. The groups also did not resemble every day life. Findings therefore do not generalise to everyday situations.
Evaluations of Asch’s research? Limited application…
Limited application of findings.
Only men were tested, other research suggests that women may be more conformist as they are more concerned about social relationships than men are.
The men were also American, and so an individualist culture where people are more concerned about themselves than their social group. Conformity rates in collectivist cultures are much higher. Findings do not take into account gender and cultural differences.
