Social influence- Conformity

Question 1

Asch’s research : Baseline procedure

Answer 1

123 men judged line lengths. Confederates deliberately gave wrong answers

Question 2

Findings

Answer 2

Naive participants conformed on 36.8% of trials. 25% never conformed

Question 3

Variations

Answer 3

Group size- Asch varied group size from two to 16. Conformity increased up to three, then leveled off.

Unanimity- Asch placed a dissenter in the group. Conformity rate reduced.

Task difficulty- Asch made line lengths more similar. Conformity increased when task was harder (ISI)

Question 4

Evaluation- Artificial situation and task

Answer 4

Participants knew this was a study so they just played along with a trivial task (Demand characteristics)

Question 5

Limited application

Answer 5

Asch’s research only conducted on American men

Question 6

Research support

Answer 6

Lucas et al. found more conformity when maths problems were harder.

Counterpoint- Conformity more complex, confident participants were less conforming (individual factor)

Question 7

Ethical issues

Answer 7

Research may help avoid mindless conformity, but participants were deceived.

Question 8

Internalisation

Answer 8

Private and public acceptance of group norms

Question 9

Identification

Answer 9

Change behavior to be part of a group we identify with, may change privately too

Question 10

Compliance

Answer 10

Go along with group publicly but no private change

Question 11

Informational social influence (ISI)

Answer 11

Conform to be right. Assume group knows better than us

Question 12

Normative social influence (NSI)

Answer 12

Conform to be liked or accepted by group

Question 13

Evaluation- Research support for NSI

Answer 13

When no normative group pressure (wrote answers) conformity down to 12.5% (Asch)

Question 14

Research support for ISI

Answer 14

Participants relied on other people’s answers to hard maths problems (Lucas et al)

Counterpoint- cannot usually separate ISI and NSI, a dissenter may reduce power for NSI or ISI

Question 15

Individual differences in NSI

Answer 15

Affiliators want to be liked more, so conform more (McGhee and Teevan)

Question 16

Is the NSI/ISI distinction useful?

Answer 16

NSI/ISI distinction may not be useful but Aschs research supports both

Question 17

The Stanford prison experiment

Answer 17

Mock prison with 21 student volunteers, randomly assigned as guards or prisoners.
Conformity to social roles created through uniforms and instructions about behaviour

Question 18

Findings related to social roles

Answer 18

Guards became increasingly brutal, prisoners rebellion put down and prisoners became depressed.
Study stopped after 6 days

Question 19

Conclusions related to social roles

Answer 19

Participants strongly conformed to their social roles

Question 20

Evaluation- Control

Answer 20

Random assignment to roles increased internal validity

Question 21

Lack of realism

Answer 21

Participants play-acted their roles according to media-derived stereotypes (Bunauzizi and Movahedi)

Counterpoints- evidence that prisoners thought the prison was real to them

Question 22

Exaggerates the power of roles

Answer 22

Only one-third of guards were brutal so conclusions exaggerated (Fromm)

Question 23

Alternative explanation

Answer 23

Social identify theory suggests taking on roles due to active identification, not automatic (Haslam and Reicher)