Social Influence - Conformity Flashcards
What year did Asch carry out his original investigation into conformity?
1951
Aim of Asch (1951)
To investigate the extent to which social pressure from a majority group could affect a person to conform.
Method of Asch (1951)
four points
- Lab experiment
- 123 American male ppts, put into groups with 6-8 confederates
- Line judgement task: two cards, one with a standard line, other with three comparison lines. Each person asked to say which comparison line was the same length as the standard line (answer was always obvious).
- 18 trials, in 12 ‘critical’ trials, confederates gave the wrong answer.
Findings of Asch (1951)
- 75% of ppts gave a wrong answer and conformed on at least one of the trials.
- 25% of ppts never gave a wrong answer, so also never conformed.
- Around 36.8% of ppts in each trial conformed to the clearly incorrect majority.
Name three variations of Asch’s (1951) baseline study
Group size
Unanimity
Task difficulty
Outline how group size affects conformity.
- Asch added more confederates to group, thus increasing the size of the majority.
- Total group sizes were between 2- 16.
- Conformity increased, but only up to a point.
- With three confederates, conformity increased to 31.8%
- But presence of more confederates made little difference - conformity rate soon levelled off.
- Suggests that people are very sensitive to the views of others, as with just one or two confederates was enough to sway opinion.
Define the term ‘unanimity’
The extent to which all members of the group agrees.
Outline Asch’s investigation into how unanimity can effect conformity.
- Asch introduced another confederate into the group who disagreed with the other confederates answers.
- In one variation the confederate gave the correct answer
- In another variation the confederate gave a different (wrong) answer to the majority group.
- Genuine ppts conformed less with the presence of this person.
- Rate decreased from 33% to 5.5% when the majority was not unanimous.
- This suggests that the influence of the majority depends to a large extent on it being unanimous.
Outline Asch’s investigation into how task difficulty can effect conformity.
- Increased difficulty by making the comparison lines and the standard line more similar to each other in length.
- Means it became difficulty for the participant to distinguish the differences between the lines.
- Conformity increased as the situation was more ambiguous when the task was harder - correct answer unclear to ppts.
- Ppts looked to group for guidance - informational social influence (ISI).
Identify the types of conformity.
Compliance
Identification
Internalisation
Explain ‘compliance’ as a term of conformity.
- The person goes along with the group to fit in and therefore conforms publicly but continues to privately disagree.
- Shallowest form of conformity.
- Continues as long as the group is monitoring.
In the context of conformity, explain what psychologists mean by ‘identification’.
- The person conforms publicly as well as privately because they have identified with the group and feel a sense of group membership.
- The change of belief or behaviour is often temporary.
Explain ‘internalisation’ as a term of conformity.
- The person conforms publicly and privately because they have internalised and accepted the views of the group.
- Deepest form of conformity.
- Permanent change even when group is absent.
Outline the difference between internalisation and identification as types of conformity.
with identification, the change in behaviour is temporary, whereas with internalisation, the change in behaviour/ belief is permanent.
By who, and in what year was a two process theory which argued that there are two main reasons as to why people conform, developed?
By Dutsch and Gerald (1955)
What are the two explanations for conformity?
- Informational social influence
- Normative social influence
What is meant by the term ‘informational social influence’?
- We agree with the opinion of the majority because we believe it to be correct and we want to be correct as well.
- Usually occurs when a person lacks knowledge and looks to the group for guidance, or the person is in an ambiguous situation.
- May lead to internalisation.
What is meant by the term ‘normative social influence’?
- We agree with the opinion of the majority because we want to gain social approval and be liked.
- Likely to lead to compliance.
Name a researcher who studied conformity to social roles.
Zimbardo
What year did Zimbardo carry out his social roles experiment?
1973
Aim of Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment (1973)
To investigate how people will conform to new social roles.
Method of Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment (1973)
four points
- The 21 participants, all ‘emotionally stable’ male psychology students, had volunteered to take part in the study.
- Randomly allocated to two groups: prisoner and prison guards.
- Prisoners were to spend two weeks locked in ‘cells’ in a wing of the university, and prison guards were there to look after the prisoners and keep them under control - not allowed to use physical force.
- The prisoners were unexpectedly arrested at home and taken to the university. They were given a prison uniform and number which was used to refer to their person.
Findings of Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment (1973)
six points
- Within hours of the beginning of the experiment, some guards began to harass the prisoners. E.g. making them do headcounts extremely early in the morning.
- Prisoners were physically punished e.g. during push-ups the guards would step on the prisoner’s back.
- During the second day the prisoners rebelled. Rebellion was unsuccessful, and the prisoners became more subdued and dependent on the guards.
- Less than 36 hours into the experiment, prisoner #8612 began suffering from emotional distress and uncontrollable crying and rage.
- Prisoner #819 broke down and cried hysterically and referred to himself as his number and not by his name.
- Study was ended after 6 days, instead of after the planned 14 days.
Conclusion of Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment (1973)
three points
- Social roles have a strong influence on behaviour - brutal guards, submissive prisoners.
- Social roles can be very easily adopted
- Deindividuation: uniforms created a loss of personal identity, particularly with the guards.
