Social Influence - Types Of Conformity

Question 1

What is conformity?

Answer 1

A change in a person’s behaviour/opinions as a result of real/imagined pressure from a person or group of people

Question 2

What are the 3 types of conformity proposed by Kelman?

Answer 2

Compliance
Identification
Internalisation

Question 3

What is compliance?

Answer 3

A superficial & temporary type of conformity where we outwardly go along with the majority view, but privately disagree with it
The change in behaviour only lasts as long as the group is monitoring the individual

Question 4

What is identification?

Answer 4

A moderate type of conformity where we act in the same way with the group because we value it & want to be a part of it but don’t necessarily believe with every view of the majority

Question 5

What is internalisation?

Answer 5

A deep type of conformity where we take on the same view as the majority because we accept it is correct, leading to a permanent change in behaviour even when the group is absent

Question 6

What are the 2 explanations for conformity?

Answer 6

Informational social influence & normative social influence

Question 7

Who came up with the 2 explanations for conformity?

Answer 7

Deutsch & Gerard

Question 8

What is informational social influence (ISI)?

Answer 8

An explanation of conformity that says we agree with the majority’s opinion because we believe it is correct and we want to be seen that way

Question 9

What does ISI usually lead to?

Answer 9

Internalisation

Question 10

What is normative social influence (NSI)?

Answer 10

An explanation for conformity that says we agree with the majority’s opinion because we want to be liked & gain social approval

Question 11

What does NSI usually lead to?

Answer 11

Compliance

Question 12

Who did an experiment into ISI?

Answer 12

Jenness

Question 13

What was the aim of Jenness’ experiment?

Answer 13

To investigate whether individual judgements of jellybeans in a jar were influenced by discussion in groups

Question 14

What was the procedure of Jenness’ experiment?

Answer 14

Participants made individual & private estimates of the number of jellybeans in the jar
They discussed their estimates in either a large/small group and discovered in the processes that individuals differed widely in their estimates
After discussion group estimates were created & participants made a 2nd individual & private estimate

Question 15

What were the findings of Jenness’ experiment?

Answer 15

The individuals’ 2nd private estimates tended to converge with their group estimate & women conformed more

Question 16

What were some strengths of Jenness’ experiment?

Answer 16

Little deception -> more ethical than other studies

Question 17

What were some limitations of Jenness’ experiment?

Answer 17

Lab experiment -> artificial & unusual situation = lacks mundane realism
Tells us very little in majority influence in unambiguous situations
NSI may also be involved (people could’ve moved their estimate closer to the group’s because they wanted to be liked & correct)

Question 18

What is some strengths of Deutsch & Gerard’s explanations of conformity?

Answer 18

Lucas et al -> asked students to give answers to math problems that were easy & more difficult, people conformed more to the difficult questions & less on easy -> shows people conform in situations that they don’t know the answer

Research support for NSI -> Asch found many of his participants went along with a clearly wrong answer just because other people did as some said they felt self-conscious giving the correct answer and were afraid of dissaproval

Question 19

What are some limitations of Deutsch & Gerard’s explanations of conformity?

Answer 19

Individual differences in NSI -> not everybody’s behaviour is affected by NSI in the same way as some people who dont care about being liked (nAffliators) are less likely to conform than those who do

ISI & NSI work together -> Their 2 process model suggests either one is at work but most of the time both are at work (Asch experiment -> a dissenter may be able to reduce NSI (social support) or ISI (alternative source of information) -> you cant tell which one is at work