Social Influence - Conformity

Question 1

What is majority influence/conformity?

Answer 1

Being influenced by the views of a larger group.

Question 2

What is minority influence/conformity?

Answer 2

Being influenced by the views of a smaller group.

Question 3

What are the three types of conformity?

Answer 3

1) Compliance.
2) Internalisation.
3) Identification.

Question 4

What is compliance?

Answer 4

This is when a person conforms publicly with the views or behaviours expressed by others but continues to privately disagree.
- This is a shallow (temporary) type of conformity.

Question 5

What is an example of conformity?

Answer 5

Ben doesn’t like politics but will still attend political rallies with his room mates. He would not attend them without their presence.

Question 6

What is internalisation?

Answer 6

The deepest type of conformity where a person conforms publicly and privately because they have internalised and accepted the views of the group.

Question 7

What is an example of internalisation?

Answer 7

After living with his room mates for a while Ben becomes more political.

Question 8

What is identification?

Answer 8

A moderate form of conformity where we act the same as the group because we share their values and want to be accepted/associated with them. The change of belief or behaviour is often temporary.

Identification has elements of both internalisation and compliance. The individual accepts the attitudes and behaviours they are adopting as right and true (internalisation), but the purpose of adopting them is to be accepted as a member of the group (compliance).

Question 9

What is an example of identification?

Answer 9

Ben might become really involved in politics and with a party but may turn his back on politics after uni again. OR a child may start smoking because “that’s what the cool kids do” and they want to be seen as a “cool kid”.

Question 10

Who developed the explanations of conformity and what are they?

Answer 10

Dutch and Gerard (1955) developed a two-process theory which proposes there are two main reasons people conform.

• The need to be liked (normative social influence).
• The need to be right (informational social influence).

Question 11

What is informational social influence?

Answer 11

Going along with the majority because you lack info and you believe that others are better informed than you. You want to be correct. Often occurs in an ambiguous situations.They often change their behaviour/views publicly and privately, this is an example of internalisation.

Question 12

What is normative social influence?

Answer 12

Going along with the majority to fit in and gain approval. Often due to fear of rejection. Often occurs in a non-ambiguous situation. For this to occur the individual must usually believe that they under surveillance by the group and they will usually conform to the majority publicly but not privately.

Question 13

What is a key study supporting informational social influence?

Answer 13

Sherif (1935).
Aim - to investigate social influence in an ambiguous task.
Method - used the auto kinetic effect were a still point of light in the dark appears to move.
Results - When alone Ps developed own stable answers, in group judgements gradually became closer and closer until a group estimate was made.
Conclusion - estimates converged because Ps used info from other to help them.
Evaluation - supports ISI, low ecological validity, ambiguous task means no correct answer.

Question 14

Evaluate types of conformity.

Answer 14

The relationship between compliance and internalisation is complicated because of difficulties in knowing when each is actually taking place.

Question 15

What explanation of conformity does Asch’s experiment explore?

Answer 15

Normative social influence.

Question 16

What was the procedure in Asch’s study?

Answer 16

It was a lab experiment were 123 male US students were tested. The Ps had to look at three lines and call out which one looked to be the same length as the standard line with the real P always answering second to last. There was 1 naive P and 6-8 confederates.

Critical trials were when the confederates gave the wrong answer. 12/18 trials.

Question 17

What was the findings in Asch’s experiment?

Answer 17

• Naive Ps gave the wrong answer 36.8% (37%) of the time in the critical trials = conformed.
• The actual answers were unambiguous.
• 25% never conformed, 75% did at least once.

Question 18

Evaluate Asch’s experiment.

Answer 18

• It was a child of its time (due to Cold War attitudes towards conformity could of been different) therefore it lacks temporal validity.
• Artificial situation and task so it lacks ecological validity.
• Limited application of finding due to it lacking ecological validity.
• 123 male US students means it lacks population validity.

Question 19

How does Group size effect conformity?

Answer 19

Out of the 123 Ps:

• with one confederate in the group conformity was 3%.
• with two conformity was 13%.
• with three or more conformity was 33%.
• little change in conformity once the group size reaches 4-5.
• 4 is considered the optimal group size (all 4 giving the same wrong answer).

Bond and Smith (1996) supported this in a meta-analysis.

Question 20

What did Campbell and Fairey say about group size?

Answer 20

Group size may have a different effect depending on the type of judgement being made and the motivation of the individual. When there is no objectively correct answer and the individual is more concerned about fitting in then the larger the majority the better. When there is a correct response and the individual is concerned about being correct, then the views of just one or two others will usually be sufficient.

Question 21

How does unanimity effect conformity?

Answer 21

When one of the confederates was instructed to give the correct answer throughout conformity dropped to 5.5%.
When one of the confederates gave a different wrong answer, conformity dropped to 9%.

If you break the groups unanimous position then conformity is reduced.

Question 22

How does task difficulty effect conformity?

Answer 22

When the lines were made more similar in length it was harder to judge the correct answer. Conformity increased due to ambiguous situation, but Ps displayed more ISI than NSI.

Lucas et al found that both situational differences (task difficulty) and individual differences (self-efficacy) are both important in determining conformity.

Question 23

What are social roles?

Answer 23

The behaviours expected of an individual who occupies a given social position or status.

Question 24

What is conformity to social roles?

Answer 24

The extent to which people behave in the expected manners according to their social role.

Question 25

Who conducted the study which looked at conformity to social roles and when?

Answer 25

Zimbardo in 1973.

Question 26

How were the participants selected in Zimbardo’s study?

Answer 26

• 70 applicants answered ad and were interviewed + took a personality test to eliminate candidates with psychological problems, medical disabilities, or a history of crime or drug abuse.
• 24 white, healthy middle class, US males.
• They were randomly assigned prisoner or guard with flip of coin.

Question 27

What was the procedure in Zimbardo’s study (what were the prisoners and guards given, etc)?

Answer 27

The prisoners were unexpectedly arrested at their homes, went through normal prison procedures and were then assigned a number and were made to wear a chain round their ankle.

The prison guards were given uniforms, billy clubs, etc).

Zimbardo took the role of Prison Superintendent.

The study was planned to last two weeks.

Question 28

Why were the guards and prisoners required to wear certain things?

Answer 28

It deindividuated them and made them lose their sense of self.

Question 29

Who conducted the BBC prison study and in what year?

Answer 29

Reached and Haslam in 2006.

Question 30

What was the procedure in the BBC prison study?

Answer 30

Ps randomly assigned to prisoner or prison guard. The 15 male Ps were put into 5 groups of 3 and were matched as closely as possible on key personality traits (1 guard, 2 prisoners). Study was to be run for 8 days.

Question 31

What were the findings of the BBC prison study?

Answer 31

Guards failed to identify with their role being hesitant to impose authority, but prisoners worked together to collectively challenge the authority of the guards creating a power shift.

Question 32

Evaluate: the two studies on conformity to social roles.

Answer 32

• Conformity to roles is not automatic (Haslam and Reicher challenged Zimbardo’s belief that it was automatic).
• The problem of demand characteristics.
• Were the studies ethical? (In Zimbardo’s study some participants suffered great emotional distress).