Social Influence Conformity

Question 1

Types of conformity

Answer 1

Compliance
Identification
Internalisation

Question 2

Compliance

Answer 2

Conforms publicly with the views/behaviours of others - but privately disagrees.​
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Conformity tends to be temporary.​
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Most superficial form of conformity.​

Question 3

Identification

Answer 3

Both public & private acceptance of the group’s views as the individual identifies with the group and feels a sense of group membership. Identification may also occur as a result of identifying with a social role and conforming to the expectations of that role.
​
May only be temporary - not maintained once left the group/no longer has that social role.​

Question 4

Internalisation

Answer 4

The deepest level of conformity. Involves conversion - true change of private views to match those of the group (public & private acceptance).​
New attitudes / behaviours become part of the individual’s value system - so not dependent on the presence of the group - therefore long term/ permanent. ​

Question 5

Explanations of conformity

Answer 5

Normative social influence (NSI)
Informational social influence (ISI)

Question 6

Variables affecting conformity

Answer 6

Group size, unanimity, task difficulty

Question 7

Normative social influence (NSI)

Answer 7

People agree with the opinion of the majority in order to be liked and gain approval/acceptance/avoid rejection/avoid ridicule. ​
This often leads to compliance which is where people will agree publicly with the group but privately they do not change their personal opinions. ​
Occurs in situations where there is a high level of social pressure.
AQA MS AS 2017

Question 8

Informational social influence (ISI)

Answer 8

Going along with the majority through acceptance of new information​
Occurs because of a desire to be right/correct​
Occurs in ambiguous/difficult/novel situations​ where there is a high degree of uncertainty.
Conforming for cognitive reasons ​
Leads to internalisation​ - resulting in a permanent change in view/behaviour.​
AQA MS

Question 9

Findings from Asch’s original study

Answer 9

• naïve participants conformed to the majority by giving a wrong answer about 37% of the time
• Approximately 25% of participants did not conform at all/75% conformed at least once​
• 5% conformed every time​
• the control group gave the incorrect answer (less than) 1% of the time​ (no confederates present).
  AQA MS

Question 10

Asch’s procedure (original study)

Answer 10

Laboratory Experiment
Sample: 123 Male student volunteers.
One naïve genuine participant was placed in a group of 7-9 other individuals, all of whom were accomplices (confederates) of the experimenter.
They were shown a pair of cards. On one card there was a test (standard) line and the on the other card there were three lines of differing lengths (comparison lines). · The participants’ task was to say aloud which of the three comparison lines matched the standard line.
The correct answer was always obvious. ·
To create group pressure, the confederates were instructed to give the same wrong answer unanimously on 12 of the 18 trials. (These 12 trials were called the “critical trials”).
The naïve, genuine participant was always last or last but one to answer.
Only one genuine participant could be tested at a time, so this procedure of 18 trials was repeated for each of the 123 individual male participants.

Question 11

Variables affecting conformity: Group size

Answer 11

• Asch Procedure - varied the number of confederates using 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 10 and 15 in the group
• Asch Findings: found that group size affected level of conformity - up to 3 confederates levels increased, thereafter they tended to plateau ​

AQA MS AS 2016 & AS Specimen Paper

Question 12

Variables affecting conformity: Unanimity

Answer 12

*Asch Procedure: Presence of a dissenter - Asch sometimes arranged for a confederate to give a different answer to the majority/same answer as the real participant​ breaking the unanimity of the group.

Asch findings: Asch found that unanimity affected level of conformity - where the majority were unanimous in their wrong answer, conformity levels increased (whereas when there was an ally, conformity levels deceased from 37% to 5.5% of the time/trials).

Question 13

Variables affecting conformity: Task difficulty

Answer 13

Asch Procedure: Task difficulty - Asch made the right answer less obvious by having lines of similar length​.

Asch Findings: - Asch found that task difficulty affected level of conformity - where the lines were of similar length making the judgement more difficult conformity levels increased (whereas when correct answer was obvious the levels decreased) ​

AQA MS AS 2016

Question 14

Limitations of Asch’s research into conformity: Lack of internal validity

Answer 14

demand characteristics: artificiality of situation/task may have caused some participants to go along with the confederates, reducing internal validity​

Question 15

Limitations of Asch’s research into conformity: Lack of external validity

Answer 15

• lacks temporal validity: Asch’s findings may not be so relevant today – the outcome may have been influenced by social attitudes of the 1950s – post-war attitudes that people should work together and consent rather than dissent​
• lacks mundane realism & ecological validity: Asch’s task was artificial – therefore not a valid measure of real-life conformity where conforming takes place in a social context and often with people we know rather than strangers.​ The research was also carried out in a laboratory/controlled conditions, so behaviour may not generalise beyond the laboratory setting to real-life settings.
• Lack of population validity/gender bias/lack of generalisability: use of a volunteer, student, male sample - thus may not represent the behaviour of non-volunteers, females or non-student populations - therefore may lack generalisability.

Question 16

Conformity to roles: Zimbardo Procedure

Answer 16

• observational study in basement at Stanford university
• controlled participant observation study (overt).
• 24 US male student volunteers
• psychological assessment: the chosen volunteers had been assessed as psychologically stable and healthy.
• agreed to participate in a 7 to 14-day study
• paid $15 a day
• randomly assigned role of prisoner or guard
• prisoners unexpectedly arrested at home
• deloused, given prison uniform and ID number
• small mock prison cells housed 3 prisoners each
• given some rights, eg 3 meals, 3 supervised toilet trips a day and 2 visits per week
• guards were given uniforms, clubs, whistles and wore reflective sunglasses
• guards were told to run the prison but not harm the prisoners
• guards worked in teams of 3 for 8-hour shifts and allowed off site after shift
• Zimbardo took role of prison superintendent
• planned duration was 2 weeks but stopped after 6 days

AQA MS AS 2022

Question 17

Limitation of Zimbardo’s study: Lack of Internal validity

Answer 17

Zimbardo playing a ‘dual-role’/participant observer. Zimbardo’s own behaviour affected the way in which events unfolded, thus the validity of the findings could be questioned​.

Possibility of demand characteristics.

DIscussion: Counter-argument - However - distress experienced by participants and the abusive nature of the guard’s behaviour was so extreme it is thought that this was beyond demand characteristics/play acting.

AQA MS AS 2022

Question 18

Limitation of Zimbardo’s study: external validity

Answer 18

lack of population validity/sample bias - male, student volunteers - lacks generalisability.

lack of ecological validity/mundane realism - e.g. mock prison, not real prisoners and guards.

However - evidence suggests the study does have ecological validity. For example:
- an outside observer who had a long history of imprisonment considered the mock prison and the behaviour of the prisoners and guards to reflect those of a real prison.
- The study has also been applied to explain behaviour in real life examples (e.g. Abu Ghraib). The study could therefore be seen as having high ecological validity.

AQA MS AS 2022

Question 19

Limitation of Zimbardo’s study: Ethical issues

Answer 19

Lack of protection from psychological harm - participants soon became distressed.
Right to withdraw was initially declined​.
Possible lack of informed consent, was the consent gained sufficiently informed? “Prisoners” were not aware that they would be arrested.

Discussion: counterarguments for the above criticisms e.g. there was no deception, informed consent as much as possible was gained, could the harm have been anticipated? Attempts were made to protect participants - only those who were emotionally stable were selected, the study was ended early, Participants were debriefed and a follow-up was carried out to ensure no long term adverse effects from the study.

AQA MS AS 2022

Question 20

Limitation of Zimbardo’s study: is the conclusion accurate?

Answer 20

over exaggeration of findings: only a third of participants conformed to roles​

AQA MS AS 2022

Question 21

Zimbardo’s Findings: The Prisoners

Answer 21

Prisoners rebelled against the guards after only two days, Guards quelled the rebellion using fire extinguishers.
· After the initial rebellion the prisoners became submissive and subdued.
Participants conformed to their roles demonstrating conformity by identification.
· A number of prisoners had to be released early due to their extreme reactions (severe emotional disturbance, rage, disorganised thinking, acute anxiety & depression). For example, one prisoner had to be released after less than 36 hours. Three more prisoners demonstrated similar symptoms and had to be released on successive days.

Question 22

Zimbardo’s Findings: The Guards

Answer 22

· The use of force, harassment and aggression by the guards increased steadily.
Participants conformed to their roles demonstrating conformity by identification.
· The guards conformed to their perceived roles with such zeal, harassing the prisoners so much, that the study had to be discontinued after just 6 days (8 days early).
· There were individual differences in the guards’ behaviour. About one third became tyrannical in their arbitrary use of power and one guard particularly stood out in terms of their level of brutality, whilst a number of other guards were described as “good guards” who did not degrade or harass the prisoners.

Question 23

Discussion of Group Size and Conformity

Answer 23

Group size has different effects depending on the type of task. For example, if the task has a correct answer (e.g. Asch-type experiment) increasing the group size up to 3 increaes conformity - but increasing group size beyond 3 has little further effect. However - if the task related to personal preference (e.g. liking a film), group size has a linear effect - with a positive relationship between the size of the majority and conformity (Campbell & Fairey, 1989).

Group size & Public vs Private response: Bond (2005) found that when participants were able to give their response privately there was a small negative relationship between conformity and group size.

Question 24

Discussion of Task Difficulty and Conformity

Answer 24

Support for Asch’s findings on task difficulty - Lucas et al (2006) gave students easy and hard mathematics problems and found a greater level of conformity when the problems were hard - particularly when participants doubted their mathematical abilities.

Difficult to assess task difficulty as there are individual differences in what is experienced as difficult e.g. Perrin and Spencer’s study found engineers did not conform as readily on an Asch-type task as the participants did in the original Asch study. This may be due to the engineering students finding this task less difficult.

Question 25

Evaluation of Normative Social Influence (NSI)

Answer 25

Support - Asch debriefing interviews - most of the participants claimed they knew they were giving the wrong answer but did not want to be the odd one out - indicates NSI motivated conformity to the majority’s wrong answer.

Support - Abrams et al (1990) found higher conformity when the majority are from an ingroup rather than an outgroup. There is a higher need for social approval from in-group members - indicating NSI explains the higher levels of conformity.

Support - Garandeau and Cillessen (2006) found that children who had greater need for social acceptance were the most likely to comply to pressure exerted by a bullying group to victimize another child, believing they would be accepted by other group members. Demonstrates real world application of NSI as an explanation for conformity.

Question 26

Evaluation of Informational social influence (ISI)

Answer 26

support from Lucas et al’s (2006) study. found that participants conform more to incorrect answers given when maths problems were difficult. Participants did not want to be wrong, so they relied on the answers they were given.

COUNTERPOINT- unclear whether it is NSI or ISI at work in research studies, or real life. E.G. Asch (1955) found that conformity reduced when there is one other dissenting participant. Dissenter may reduce the power of NSI ( provide social support ) or may reduce power of ISI ( they provide an alternative source for social information ). both interpretations are possible. Hard to separate NSI from ISI.

Question 27

evaluation - what do individual differences do for NSI?

Answer 27

NSi does not predict conformity in every case. some people are greatly concerned with being liked with others. those people are called ‘ nAfiliators ‘. These types of people are more likely to conform ( research says ). shows that NSI underlies conformity for some people more than others. Individual differences in conformity that cannot be fully explained by one general theory of situational pressures.

Question 28

evaluation - what does NSI/ISI distinction do?

Answer 28

counterpoint suggests that the distinction is not useful because it is impossible to work out which is operating. Asch (1955) clearly demonstrates both NSI and ISI as reasons for conformity. the possibility for rejection is a strong reason for conforming (NSI) but it is also true that a unanimous group conveys the impression that ‘ everyone is in the know ‘ apart from you (ISI).