social influence - conformity Flashcards
define conformity
a change in a person’s behaviour or opinions due to real or imagined pressure from a person or a group of people
define compliance
-the shallowest level of conformity
-a person changes their public behaviour but not their private beliefs
how long does compliance last?
very short term
temporary and superficial - only present when we are in and amongst a group
an example of compliance
saying to friends that you love rock because they do but you go home and listen to pop
what is identification?
-the middle level of conformity
-a person acts the same way as the group because the group is valued and the individual wants to be a part of it - they identify with the group
-both public and private beliefs may change in order to be accepted but only in the presence of the group, away from the group, these views may not be held
define internalisation
-the deepest level of conformity
-both public and private behaviour changes because the views of the group have been completely internalised and accepted
how long does internalisation last?
usually a long-term change
does behaviour change in public for each type of conformity?
COM - yes
IDEN - yes
INTER - yes
does behaviour change in private for each type of conformity?
COM - no
IDEN - yes (in the presence of the group)
INTER - yes
are each of the types of conformity long term or short term?
COM - short term
IDEN - short term
INTER - long term
liz is by nature a smart dresser but she wears jeans and a sweater to work on ‘dress down friday’ because she doesn’t want to give the impression of being stand-offish to her work colleagues who she likes
identification
lewis is eating alone at a sushi restaurant. although he finds eating with chopsticks rather tedious and inconvenient, he uses them because he feels too awkward to ask for a fork
compliance
len slows down to 30 mph as soon as he reaches that speed zone because he believes it is wrong to drive faster than that in a built-up area
internalisation
when did asch’s research take place?
1951
what was the aim of asch’s study?
to see the extent to which social pressure from a majority, could cause a person to conform to an incorrect answer in an unambiguous situation
method of asch’s study
-sample consisted of 123 male undergraduate students from the USA who thought that they were taking part in a general vision test
-asch used a line judgement task
-he placed one real (naïve) participant in a room with six to eight confederates (actors working on behalf of the experimenter), who had agreed their answers in advance
-the naïve participant was led to believe that the other people were also real participants
-the real participant was always seated second from last
-In turn, each person had to say out loud which line (A, B or C) was most like the target line in length
-the correct answer was always obvious
-each participant completed 18 trials and the confederates gave the same incorrect answer on 12 trials, called ‘critical trials’
results of asch’s study
-on average, the real participants conformed to the incorrect answers on 32% of the critical trials
-74% of the participants conformed on at least one critical trial
control group in asch’s study
-one real participant completed the same experiment without any confederates
-asch found that less than 1% of the participants gave an incorrect answer
conclusion of asch’s study
-asch interviewed his participants after the experiment to find out why they conformed
-most of the participants said that they knew their answers were incorrect, but they went along with the group in order to fit in, or because they thought that they would be ridiculed
-participants complied due to normative social influence and the desire to fit in publicly without changing their private viewpoint
behaviours of participants that took part:
-shifted uncomfortably in their seats
-sweated
-turned red
which 3 variations/ factors affecting conformity did asch investigate?
-inanimity
-task difficulty
-group size
define unanimity
the extent that members of a majority agree with one another
how did asch investigate unanimity & what was the result?
-in asch’s original experiment, the confederates all gave the same incorrect answer on the critical trials
-in one variation of asch’s experiment, one of the confederates was instructed to give the correct answer throughout
-the rate of conformity dropped from 32% to 5%
what conclusion can be drawn from the unanimity variation?
if the real participant has support for their belief, then they are likely more likely to resist the pressure to conform
how did asch investigate unanimity?
(a second time)
-in another variation, one of the confederates gave a different incorrect answer to the majority
-conformity dropped to 9%
what conclusion can be drawn from the second unanimity variation?
-if you break or disrupt the group’s unanimous position, then conformity is reduced significantly, even if the answer provided by the supporter is still incorrect
how did asch investigate task difficulty? (+ results)
-in asch’s original experiment, the correct answer was always obvious (unambiguous)
-in one of his variations he made the task more difficult, by making the difference between the line lengths smaller and therefore appear closer together and more ambiguous
-he found that the rate of conformity increased, although he didn’t report the percentage
what conclusion can be drawn from the task difficulty variation?
individuals look to another for guidance when undertaking an ambiguous/difficult task
how did asch investigate group size?
-asch altered the amount of confederates in the experiment each time to see how this affected the rate of conformity
what were the percentages of conformity for each group size?
1 confederate = 3%
2 confederates = 12.8%
3 confederates = 32-37%
(little changed in conformity once the group size reached 4-5)
15 confederates = 29%
what is the optimal group size for conformity?
3
when does conformity increase? (group size)
conformity tends to increase as the size of the group increases
identify three variables affecting conformity and outline how each of these was investigated in asch’s experiment [6 marks]
group size - asch varied the number of confederates by adding and removing confederates
unanimity - asch sometimes arranged for a confederate to give a different answer to the majority/same answer as the real participant
task difficulty - asch made the right answer less obvious by having lines of similar length, making the task more ambiguous
issues with asch’s study:
-sample was biased
-low ecoval
-lack of temporal validity
-there is further research to question the validity of asch’s findings
-ethically questionable
asch’s study ao3: bias
P - asch’s initial sample was biased
E - asch used 123 male students from colleges in america
↳ we cannot generalise the results to other populations, eg: female students, as we are unable to conclude whether female students would have conformed in a similar way to male students
E - participants were from the USA (individualistic culture)
↳ it has been suggested that conformity rates are higher in collectivist cultures e.g. china which are more concerned with group needs
L - asch’s sample lacks population validity & further research is required to determine whether males and females and other cultures conform differently
asch’s study ao3: low ecoval
P - asch’s experiment has low levels of ecological validity
E - asch’s line judgement task, is an artificial task, which does not reflect conformity in everyday life (the line task was trivial so there was no reason to conform)
↳ the naive participants were in a ‘group’ but not like groups found in everyday life) which means the task lacks mundane realism
L - we are unable to generalise the results of asch to other real-life situations, such as why people may start smoking or drinking around friends, and therefore these results are limited in their application to everyday life
