Social Influence : Types of conformity and Explanations for Conformity Flashcards
Internalisation, identification and compliance. Explanations for conformity: informational social influence and normative social influence, and variables affecting conformity including group size, unanimity and task difficulty as investigated by Asch
Define ‘identification’
Where people change their beliefs (sometimes temporarily) to fit in with a group.
Define ‘internalisation’
Where people change their beliefs permanently.
Define ‘Compliance’
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.
What was Todd Lucas’ contribution to ISI? What can we infer from this?
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.
What does ISI stand for?
Informational social influence
What does NSI stand for?
Normative social influence
What is NSI?
Normative social influence is about having a desire to behave like others and not look foolish.
Is NSI a cognitive or emotional process?
Emotional
People prefer social approval rather than rejection.
When is NSI most likely to occur?
In unfamiliar and/or stressful situations where people need more social support.
With people we know (we want social approval from friends).
What is ISI?
ISI is about information and a desire to be right.
Is ISI a cognitive or emotional process?
Cognitive
When is ISI most likely to occur?
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’.
Explain Deutsch & Gerrard’s two-process theory
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
Why have Deutsch & Gerrard’s explanations been criticised?
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.
When was Asch’s study of conformity conducted?
1955
What was Asch’s research aim?
Asch wanted to see how the judgements of others in a group affect the decisions of an individual on a simple task.
Briefly explain Asch’s procedure/method.
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.
What % of the time did naïve participants give the wrong answers? What does this show?
36.8%
This shows a high level of conformity (the Asch effect)
What is the Asch effect?
The extent to which people conform even in an unambiguous situation.
What were the considerable individual differences in the results of Asch’s experiment?
25% of participants never gave a wrong answer, so 75% conformed at least once.
A few participants conformed most of the time.
In Asch’s experiment, why did most participants say they conformed?
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).
Why do some people argue that Asch’s study was unethical?
Participants were also deceived - they believed the confederates were participants.
What research method was used in Asch’s experiment? What did this allow Asch to do?
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.
Why do many psychologists say that Asch’s experiment lacks ecological validity?
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.
Why is it an issue that Asch only used male participants?
Meant that the experiment lacked population validity - it didn’t take into account the conformity rates of women.
What were the three variables affecting conformity in Asch’s experiment?
Group Size
Unanimity
Task difficulty
What did Asch conclude when researching how the number of confederates affected conformity rates?
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%.
In terms of unanimity, what did Asch conclude by adding in a truthful confederate or a confederate that was dissenting but inaccurate?
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.
In Asch’s experiment, what did having a dissenter enable a naïve participant to do?
Behave more independently.
What is conformity?
Changing your behaviour to go along with a group (even if you don’t fully agree)
When did Solomon Asch conduct several experiments, determining how people are affected by the thoughts and behaviours of other people?
1950s
What is the Asch affect?
The influence of the group majority on an individual’s judgement
What have researches identified as the three types of conformity?
Identification
Internalisation
Compliance
Give an example of where identification is shown within an experiment
Zimbardo (1971) Stanford prison experiment
Why is internalisation the strongest form of conformity?
Because the groups beliefs become part of the individual’s belief system
Which form of conformity is temporary?
Compliance
What type of social influence did Asch conduct an experiment investigating?
NSI
(Normative social influence)
What was the aim of Asch’s (1955) study?
He wanted to see if people would conform to a group’s wrong answer even if the answer was unambiguous.
What is a confederate?
A person who is aware of the experiment and works for the researcher
What are confederates used for?
Used to manipulate social situations as part of the research design
What was the relationship between group size and the likeliness that participant’s conformed?
The greater the number of people in the majority, the more likely an individual will conform
+ In Asch’s experiment, the laboratory setting meant variables were strictly controlled. Why was this beneficial?
The experiment could be repeated easily
The influence of extraneous variables (those not being studied) could be minimised
Name 2 limitations of Asch’s experiment
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
In what year was Sherif’s Autokinetic Effect Experiment conducted?
1935
What experimental method was used in Sherif’s (1935) Autokinetic Effect Experiment?
Laboratory
What is the autokinetic effect?
• 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
What were participants in Sherif’s experiment led to believe? What were they asked?
That someone was moving the light
They were asked to guess how far the light moved
What were the 3 phases in which participants were tested in Sherif’s autokinetic effect experiment?
Phase 1 - Participants made guesses individually
Phase 2 - Participants made guesses in groups of 3
Phase 3 - Participants made guesses individually
What were the results of Sherif’s 3 phases?
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
What were the 3 conclusions of Sherif’s experiment?
• 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)
Name a strength of Sheriff’s experiment
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
Name 3 limitations of Sheriff’s experiment
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
