Social Influence: Conformity (Types and Explanations) Flashcards
What does conformity refer to?
a change in a persons behaviour or beliefs as a result of real or imagined pressure from an individual or group
What are the 3 different types of conformity and what do they mean?
Compliance-change public beliefs but not private beliefs , its superficial and temporary and is usually done to avoid disapproval
Identification-act same way as a group because they value them and want to be part of them , public change but doesnt always remain in private
Internalisation-accept groups beliefs as your own , change in public and private beliefs
What are the 2 explanations for conformity and what do they mean?
Normative social influence-conform to be part of a majority , based on desire to be liked and to avoid disapproval , often results in compliance
Informational social influence-conform because unsure how to behave so use majority as a source of info , based on desire to be right , believe that others know more and often results in internalisation
What 3 factors , identified by Asch , affect conformity?
Group size , unanimity and task difficulty
How does group size affect conformity?
rates increase as size of group increases to a certain point
1 confederate-3% conformed
2-13%
3-32% and any additional confederates made little difference
What is meant by unanimity and how does it affect conformity?
How did Asch manipulate this?
it means agreement by all involved
conformity rates increases= when majority are unanimous
Asch manipulated this by having 1 confederate give right answer and c rates dropped to 5.5%
How does task difficulty affect conformity?
How did Asch manipulate this?
conformity rates increase when the task is more difficult
he made comparison lines much more similar to the stimulus line and he found that c rates increased
What are 2 strengths of the explanations of conformity?
+supporting evidence from Asch’s variations
C rates increase when majority are unanimous which supports NSI and C rates increase when task is harder which supports ISI , this provides empirical evidence to support the explanations
+further evidence support for ISI
Lucas et al (2006) asked ppts to answer easy and hard maths questions and they could see peoples previous ‘answers’ and found that there was greater conformity to the incorrect previous answers when question was harder
What is a further strength of the explanations for conformity?
+practical applications
they can both account for real world behaviours which adds external validity to them
What are 2 limitations of the explanations for conformity?
-individual differences in ISI
research shows it doesn’t affect everyone in the same way as some people have a higher desire for affiliation , meaning the explanation cant be applied to everyone
-the two overlap and work together
it is difficult to distinguish between the reasons why people conform , this challenges the validity of the explanations
