Social Influence : Types of conformity and Explanations for Conformity

Question 1

Define ‘identification’

Answer 1

Where people change their beliefs (sometimes temporarily) to fit in with a group.

Question 2

Define ‘internalisation’

Answer 2

Where people change their beliefs permanently.

Question 3

Define ‘Compliance’

Answer 3

The lowest level of conformity. When a person changes their public behaviour but not their private beliefs. Usually a short-term change and a result of normative social influence.

Question 4

What was Todd Lucas’ contribution to ISI? What can we infer from this?

Answer 4

Lucas (2006) asked students to give answers to easy and more difficult maths problems.

He found that there was more conformity to incorrect answers when the problems were difficult. This was most true for students who rated their maths ability as poor.

We can infer from this that people conform in situations where they do not know the answer (ISI). We look to others and assume they know better than us and must be right.

Question 5

What does ISI stand for?

Answer 5

Informational social influence

Question 6

What does NSI stand for?

Answer 6

Normative social influence

Question 7

What is NSI?

Answer 7

Normative social influence is about having a desire to behave like others and not look foolish.

Question 8

Is NSI a cognitive or emotional process?

Answer 8

Emotional
People prefer social approval rather than rejection.

Question 9

When is NSI most likely to occur?

Answer 9

In unfamiliar and/or stressful situations where people need more social support.
With people we know (we want social approval from friends).

Question 10

What is ISI?

Answer 10

ISI is about information and a desire to be right.

Question 11

Is ISI a cognitive or emotional process?

Answer 11

Cognitive

Question 12

When is ISI most likely to occur?

Answer 12

In ambiguous situations - where it is not clear what’s right and what’s wrong.
It may happen in situations where decisions need to be made quickly.
When one or more members are regarded as being ‘expert’.

Question 13

Explain Deutsch & Gerrard’s two-process theory

Answer 13

Deutsch & Gerrard (1955) brought ISI and NSI together in their two-process theory.
They argued that people conform because of two basic human needs:
The need to be right
The need to be liked

Question 14

Why have Deutsch & Gerrard’s explanations been criticised?

Answer 14

For failing to recognize the importance of belonging to a group.
For suggesting that normative and informational influence are separate or independent from each other.

Question 15

When was Asch’s study of conformity conducted?

Answer 15

1955

Question 16

What was Asch’s research aim?

Answer 16

Asch wanted to see how the judgements of others in a group affect the decisions of an individual on a simple task.

Question 17

Briefly explain Asch’s procedure/method.

Answer 17

Asch recruited 123 American male college students.

Each student was tested individually with a group of between 6 to 8 confederates.

The experimenter held up two cards and participants were asked which line on the right hand card was the same length as line x.

Each person answered in turn individually, with the confederates answering first.

On the first few trials, confederates gave correct answers but then all selected the same wrong answers.

Each participant completed 18 trials, 12 of which they gave the wrong answers for.

Question 18

What % of the time did naïve participants give the wrong answers? What does this show?

Answer 18

36.8%
This shows a high level of conformity (the Asch effect)

Question 19

What is the Asch effect?

Answer 19

The extent to which people conform even in an unambiguous situation.

Question 20

What were the considerable individual differences in the results of Asch’s experiment?

Answer 20

25% of participants never gave a wrong answer, so 75% conformed at least once.
A few participants conformed most of the time.

Question 21

In Asch’s experiment, why did most participants say they conformed?

Answer 21

Most participants said they conformed to avoid rejection (normative social influence) and continued to privately trust their own opinions (compliance, going along with others publicly but not privately).

Question 22

Why do some people argue that Asch’s study was unethical?

Answer 22

Participants were also deceived - they believed the confederates were participants.

Question 23

What research method was used in Asch’s experiment? What did this allow Asch to do?

Answer 23

A laboratory experiment.
This allowed Asch to control many variables, meaning her could confidently conclude that the set-up was directly affecting the conformity rates.

Question 24

Why do many psychologists say that Asch’s experiment lacks ecological validity?

Answer 24

The task may not have represented whether we would conform in a real life situation.
The task is not one that people usually come across in everyday life.

Question 25

Why is it an issue that Asch only used male participants?

Answer 25

Meant that the experiment lacked population validity - it didn’t take into account the conformity rates of women.

Question 26

What were the three variables affecting conformity in Asch’s experiment?

Answer 26

Group Size
Unanimity
Task difficulty

Question 27

What did Asch conclude when researching how the number of confederates affected conformity rates?

Answer 27

The more confederates that took part in the experiment, the higher the conformity rate - with two confederates, conformity to the wrong answer was 13.6%, with three it rose to 31.8%.

Question 28

In terms of unanimity, what did Asch conclude by adding in a truthful confederate or a confederate that was dissenting but inaccurate?

Answer 28

The presence of a dissenting confederate reduced conformity whether the dissenter was giving the right or wrong answer.
The figure was, on average, 25% wrong answers.

Question 29

In Asch’s experiment, what did having a dissenter enable a naïve participant to do?

Answer 29

Behave more independently.

Question 30

What is conformity?

Answer 30

Changing your behaviour to go along with a group (even if you don’t fully agree)

Question 31

When did Solomon Asch conduct several experiments, determining how people are affected by the thoughts and behaviours of other people?

Answer 31

1950s

Question 32

What is the Asch affect?

Answer 32

The influence of the group majority on an individual’s judgement

Question 33

What have researches identified as the three types of conformity?

Answer 33

Identification
Internalisation
Compliance

Question 34

Give an example of where identification is shown within an experiment

Answer 34

Zimbardo (1971) Stanford prison experiment

Question 35

Why is internalisation the strongest form of conformity?

Answer 35

Because the groups beliefs become part of the individual’s belief system

Question 36

Which form of conformity is temporary?

Answer 36

Compliance

Question 37

What type of social influence did Asch conduct an experiment investigating?

Answer 37

NSI
(Normative social influence)

Question 38

What was the aim of Asch’s (1955) study?

Answer 38

He wanted to see if people would conform to a group’s wrong answer even if the answer was unambiguous.

Question 39

What is a confederate?

Answer 39

A person who is aware of the experiment and works for the researcher

Question 40

What are confederates used for?

Answer 40

Used to manipulate social situations as part of the research design

Question 41

What was the relationship between group size and the likeliness that participant’s conformed?

Answer 41

The greater the number of people in the majority, the more likely an individual will conform

Question 42

+ In Asch’s experiment, the laboratory setting meant variables were strictly controlled. Why was this beneficial?

Answer 42

The experiment could be repeated easily

The influence of extraneous variables (those not being studied) could be minimised

Question 43

Name 2 limitations of Asch’s experiment

Answer 43

Artificial situation, meaning it has low ecological validity (and cannot be generalised well to real-life situations)

Deception - real participants did not know the other participants were confederates

Low population validity because of limited sample use

Question 44

In what year was Sherif’s Autokinetic Effect Experiment conducted?

Answer 44

1935

Question 45

What experimental method was used in Sherif’s (1935) Autokinetic Effect Experiment?

Answer 45

Laboratory

Question 46

What is the autokinetic effect?

Answer 46

• Where a dot of light is projected onto a screen in a dark room
• Light appears to move, even though it isn’t
• Dot appearing to move is a visual illusion

Question 47

What were participants in Sherif’s experiment led to believe? What were they asked?

Answer 47

That someone was moving the light

They were asked to guess how far the light moved

Question 48

What were the 3 phases in which participants were tested in Sherif’s autokinetic effect experiment?

Answer 48

Phase 1 - Participants made guesses individually
Phase 2 - Participants made guesses in groups of 3
Phase 3 - Participants made guesses individually

Question 49

What were the results of Sherif’s 3 phases?

Answer 49

Phase 1 - individual guesses varied a lot (by 20cm-80cm)
Phase 2 - participants guesses tended to converge to a common estimate
Phase 3 - individuals made guesses closer to the common group estimates than their initial estimates

Question 50

What were the 3 conclusions of Sherif’s experiment?

Answer 50

• Experiment showed that people look to others for guidance when they face ambiguous situations
• When people don’t have all the information that need, they look to others for information (informational conformity)
• Participant’s estimates converged and a group norm formed because participants were influenced by other participant’s estimates (they were influenced by ISI)

Question 51

Name a strength of Sheriff’s experiment

Answer 51

Variables strictly controlled in lab

Means 3rd variable shouldn’t have influenced results and we should be able to establish cause and effect

Method was replicable as participant variables could be controlled and kept constant

Question 52

Name 3 limitations of Sheriff’s experiment

Answer 52

Deception
- Participants believed the light was being moved

Narrow sample
- Only males participated, reducing the generalisability of the results

Artificial Situation
- Low ecological validity, cannot be generalised well to real-life situations