Social Influence - Explanations for Conformity Flashcards
Who identified two main reasons for conformity? When?
Deutsch and Gerard in 1955
Why do individuals conform according to psychologists?
Because humans have psychological needs to seek approval and acceptance
What theory did Deutsch and Gerard develop?
The two process theory
Two main reasons for conformity according to Deutsch and Gerard
Need to be right
Need to be liked
Type of social influence under the need to be liked
Normative social influence
NSI
Normative social influence
Why do individuals conform when they are under NSI?
They go along with the majority to gain approval
What is conformity often due to when individuals are under NSI?
Fear of rejection even when the actions they are conformed to do may be wrong
During what situations does NSI occur?
During non-ambiguous situations (non-grey areas)
Does the individual agree with the majority group when under NSI?
They may not agree but they go along with the group anyway
What social influence comes under the need to be right?
Informational social influence
ISI
Informational social influence
During what situations does ISI occur?
During ambiguous situations
Why do people conform under ISI?
Because they want to be right and correct
When does one go under ISI?
When they lack information and when other people are more informed than them
What situation is ISI typical in?
In an emergency
Example of emergency when ISI takes place: lifeguard
If a lifeguard is saving someone’s life and they tell you to call someone then you will do it because they are greater informed and you want to be right
What do we do then we are unsure to behave according to ISI?
We look to the majority group for answers as we believe them to right
Biggest criticism of ISI
It only occurs on certain situations and is dependent on the task you’re doing, decreasing validity
Who carried out research supporting the NSI? When?
Asch in 1951
What did Asch show participants?
Two white cards at the same time, one saying ‘standard line’ and other having three ‘comparison lines’
What was one of the three lines in Asch’s research?
One of the three lines was always the same length as the standard line and the others were completely different
Participants in Asch’s research for NSI
123 male American undergraduates
What groups were each participants tested in?
Tested individually in groups containing 6-8 confederates
How many trials were initially carried out on Asch’s research into NSI?
18
In how many trials did the confederates give the wrong answers in Asch’s research into NSI?
12/18
Out of the trials that confederates have wrong answers, what percentage of participants gave the wrong answers in Asch’s research into NSI?
37%
What percentage of participants did and didn’t conform at any time in Asch’s research into NSI?
25% never conformed
75% conformed at least once
The Asch Effect
The extent of which participants conform even when the situation is ambiguous
At interviews that took place after the trials, what was the reason why the majority of participants said they conformed in Asch’s research into NSI?
To avoid social rejection (supports NSI)
Compared to less confederates, with three confederates what did the conformity levels rise/fall by?
They rose by 31.8%
Impact on results of there being more than 3 confederates in the trial in Asch’s research into NSI
Addition of further confederates made little difference to results, showing no need for a majority group larger than 3
What did Asch want to investigate when looking into unanimity?
He wanted to investigate if the presence of another participant (who was a confederate) would influence conformity levels
How did Asch go about testing impact of unanimity?
He introduced a confederate who disagreed with the other confederates
What percentage did conformity increase/reduce by when a correct confederate was added in Asch’s research into NSI?
Conformity reduced by 25%
How did the introduction of a non-conformer change the behaviour of the participant in Asch’s research into NSI?
It allowed them to behave more independently
What did Asch want to investigate when looking into impact of task difficulty?
He wanted to investigate if difficulty of the task would influence conformity percentages
How did Asch increase the task difficulty?
He made the lines more similar in length
What happened to conformity as a result of the task coming more difficult in Asch’s research into NSI?
Conformity increased when lines were more similar, showing ISI
Strength of Asch’s research into NSI: establishment
Cause and effect relationship established as lab experiment was used
Strength of Asch’s research into NSI: reliability
Easily replicable
Strength of Asch’s research into NSI: data gathered
Qualitative and quantitative data gathered by researcher
Limitation of Asch’s research into NSI: all-male sample
Lack generalisability as the sample was all-male
Limitation of Asch’s research into NSI: ethics
Participants were deceived which is ethically concerning
Limitation of Asch’s research into NSI: artificial test
Task is artificial to it lacks ecological validity and real-life application
Limitation of Asch’s research into NSI: test carried out in 1951
Lacks temporal validity
Which psychologists showed that Asch’s research into NSI lacks temporal validity? How?
Perrin and Spencer repeated experiment in 1980 and only 1 person out of 396 trials conformed
Time period of 1950s
Time period where lots of people conformed
Who carried out research to support the ISI? When?
Sharif in 1935
Aim of Sharif’s research for ISI
Aimed to investigate whether people are influenced by others
What type of task was Sharif’s research for ISI?
An ambiguous task
What effect did Sharif use in his research of ISI?
The autokinetic effect
Autokinetic effect
Still point of light in the dark appears to move
What were participants shown in Sharif’s research for ISI? What were they told to do after?
A point of light in the dark and told to estimate how far it moved, first on their own and then in groups
What did participants develop alone after seeing the point of light in Sharif’s research for ISI?
They developed their own stable estimates
Other phrase for stable estimates
Personal norms
When in groups, what did participants do in Sharif’s research for ISI?
They conformed to share the same idea (group norms)
How does Sharif’s research for ISI support the ISI?
It shows that participants were influenced by guess estimates of the movement of the dot by other participants
Limitation of Sharif using a lab experiment
Lacks ecological validity meaning results cannot be generalised
Strength of Sharif using a lab experiment (3)
Controlled environment means there are no extraneous variables
Cause and effect relationship established
Experiment easily replicable
What experimental design did Sharif use?
Repeated measures design
Strength of repeated measures design being used by Sharif
Means individual differences are controlled
What may manipulate the results of Sharif’s study (limitation)?
Order effects
Ethical concern of Sharif’s research of ISI
Deception used by researcher as participants were told that the dot was moving even though it wasn’t
Who carried out further research after Sharif to support the ISI? When?
Lucas et al in 2006
Method of Lucas et al’s supporting research for ISI
Asked students to give answers to maths problems
What maths questions had the greatest conformity in Lucas et al’s research for ISI?
Greatest conformity to incorrect answers that were more difficult
Conclusion of Lucas et al’s research for ISI
People conform to situations where they don’t know the answer
