Social Influences : Conformity Evaluation + Research

Question 1

Evaluation point 1 : explanations of conformity (Sherif’s study)

Answer 1

Sherif’s study using the autokinetic effect gives support for the existence of ISI.
Sherif found that when participants were asked to judge how far a spot of light had moved in a dark room, when answering individually, estimates were stable, but there was considerable variation between participants (between 5cm and 30 cm). However, when they were put into groups of three their judgements converged towards a group norm.
He suggests this is because the task is difficult and therefore the group members are more likely to look to others to guide them to the right answer,
therefore supporting the view that informational influence leads to conformity

Question 2

Evaluation point 2 : explanations of conformity (Asch’s study)

Answer 2

Asch’s study gives support for the existence of NSI.
He found that when participants were asked to give an answer to an easy task, (judging which out of three lines was the same as the sample line), but the confederates, who answered first, all gave the same wrong answer, there was a 33% general conformity rate across critical trials.
As the task was easy, this suggests that participants conformed in order to fit in with the group.
This is evidence to support NSI as an explanation for conformity

Question 3

Evaluation point 3 : explanations of conformity (useful applications)

Answer 3

The research in this area has useful applications.
E.g. members of a jury may feel pressured to conform through normative influence, which could lead to injustice if a minority feels pressured to agree with a majority verdict.
This knowledge can be used by the courts to make jurors aware of the importance of being able to cast their vote privately, and not say it publicly, which should reduce the pressure each jury member feels to conform. This should result in a fairer verdict, one which truly reflects the opinions of the jury members,
showing that psychological research can have real benefits in society.

Question 4

Evaluation 1: Types of conformity (Asch’s study)

Answer 4

Asch’s study of conformity gives support for the existence of compliance.
When Asch interviewed his participants post-procedure to try to determine why they had conformed to an obviously wrong answer, although a few reported that their judgement had been distorted by the majority, most said that they had conformed to avoid rejection and that they were aware that they were giving the wrong answer.
This supports the view that they had changed their answer temporarily to avoid the disapproval of the group, rather than their behaviour being subject to a more permanent change.
This supports the view that NSI can to lead to compliance, a short-term change.

Question 5

Evaluation 2: Types of conformity (Sherif’s study)

Answer 5

Sherif’s study of conformity, using the autokinetic effect, gives support for the existence of internalisation.
When asked to judge how far a spot of light had moved in a dark room (a task that had no right answer), there were variations between participants’ answers in the first individual condition.
However, when they were put into groups of 3, a group norm was established that was maintained in a further condition where they answered individually. This suggests that they were truly persuaded away from their original answers and had taken the group view as their own,
demonstrating a fairly permanent change which is a feature of internalisation

Question 6

Evaluation 3: Types of conformity (useful applications)

Answer 6

The research into types of conformity has practical applications.
E.g. it alerts us to the fact that if the majority are attempting to effect a permanent change in behaviour, it is important that they truly persuade the minority away from their existing view or behaviour.
Failure to do so may result in a temporary change in behaviour.
E.g. those attempting to change the behaviour of heavy smokers may achieve agreement in a group setting through compliance, but a permanent change in behaviour will only be achieved if the message is persuasive enough to lead to internalisation of the anti-smoking values.

Question 7

What does Sherif’s study demonstrate ?

Answer 7

ISI and internalisation

Question 8

What was the procedure in Sherif’s study ?

Answer 8

Sherif (1935) carried out a laboratory experiment using a repeated measures design.
He used the autokinetic effect to demonstrate conformity.
The autokinetic effect is an optical illusion that is experienced when a person, placed in a completely dark room, perceives a stationary light to be moving.
Participants were first asked to judge, individually, how far the light appeared to move (condition I).
The participants were then put into groups of three, and asked to estimate again, announcing their estimates aloud (condition 2).
They were then asked to go back to estimating individually (condition 3).

Question 9

What was the procedure in Sherif’s study ?

Answer 9

Sherif (1935) carried out a laboratory experiment using a repeated measures design.
He used the autokinetic effect to demonstrate conformity.
The autokinetic effect is an optical illusion that is experienced when a person, placed in a completely dark room, perceives a stationary light to be moving.
Participants were first asked to judge, individually, how far the light appeared to move (condition I).
The participants were then put into groups of three, and asked to estimate again, announcing their estimates aloud (condition 2).
They were then asked to go back to estimating individually (condition 3).

Question 10

What were the findings in Sherif’s study ?

Answer 10

Sherif found that in condition I, each individual’s estimates were stable, but there was considerable variation between participants (between 5cm and 30 cm).
In condition 2, their judgements converged towards a group norm.
In condition 3, the individual participants maintained the group norm

Question 11

What was the conclusion from Sherif’s study ?

Answer 11

When faced with an ambiguous situation, the participant looked to others for help, showing ISI, demonstrating they had internalised the estimate of the distance.

Question 12

Sherif’s study : evaluation 1 (high internal validity)

Answer 12

There were highly controlled conditions.
Sherif was able to isolate the variable of informational influence (working in a group of 3) and measure its effect on the responses of the participants.
This allows us to make firm conclusions about the role of ISI on a person’s behaviour in the long term and short term, which could be useful for those who benefit from majority influence.
E.g. employers may find that working in groups are more effective at solving problems

Question 13

Sherif’s study : evaluation 2 (jeness’ study)

Answer 13

Supporte the view that conformity may occur in an ambiguous situation.
Jeness asked participants to estimate the number of jellybeans in a jar and found that in the group condition, answers converged.
This was also done in a second private estimate and the individuals moved towards the group norm.
The reliability of the research in this area adds weight to the conclusions made by sherif, increasing scientific validity.
However, these findings apply to lab studies, and we may not see the same effect in a real-life situation.

Question 14

Sherif’s study : evaluation 3 (lack of mundane realism)

Answer 14

Judging how far a spot of light moves in a dark room is unlikely to feel like an important task to the participant, so it is likely that they will care about their answer than if they were asked to conform in a real-life situation, where coming up with the right answer may be much more important,
for example, if someone was trying to come up with a solution to a work-based issue. This means that we may find that laboratory studies exaggerate the amount of conformity in the field, as they are only using trivial tasks, rather than issues that people care about, where they may be less prepared to change their view

Question 15

What is the aim of Asch’s original study and what does it demonstrate ?

Answer 15

To see partcipants would feel presured into conforming to an obviously wrong answer.
Demonstration of NSI and compliance

Question 16

What are the procedures of Asch’s original study ?

Answer 16

Participants were asked to match 1 line with 3 possibilities.
The control study had 36 participants, and only 3 mistakes were made over 720 trials.
Participants (male college students) were tested in groups of 7,8,9.
All other members were confederates who were instructed beforehand to give the same wrong answers on critical trials.
Only naive participants were always the last or second last to answer.

Question 17

What are the findings of Asch’s original study ?

Answer 17

26% of participants did not conform on any critical trials.
5% of participants conformed on every critical trial
74% of participants conformed at least once
32% was the basic conformity rate

Question 18

Why had the participants conformed in Asch’s original research ?

Answer 18

1. Some wanted to please the experimenter, and they thought that conforming was what the experimenter wanted
2. a few genuinely doubted their own eyesight
3. others reported that they did not want to appear different or be made to look a fool.

Question 19

What does Asch’s original study conclude ?

Answer 19

Shows NSI as many didn’t internalise the answer, showing compliance

Question 20

Asch’s study : evaluation point 1 (useful applications)

Answer 20

The research has useful applications which can potentially benefit society.
E.g. it alerts us to the fact that public voting may be affected by NSI, and therefore, organisations that require their members opinions can ask them to give their views privately.
This has been taken on board by trade unions, who no longer ask for a show of hands when attempting to vote through.
Instead, private ballots are the norm, demonstrating how knowledge of NSI has improved the democratic process.

Question 21

Asch’s study : evaluation 2 (cultural bias)

Answer 21

There is evidence that suggests a cultural bias in Asch’s research.
Smith & Bond (1996) analysed over 100 studies using an Asch type procedure and found that collectivist cultures conform more than individualist cultures. Asch’s research was carried out in an individualist culture, so we would expect less conformity due to the value placed on independence and autonomy in such a culture.
However, in a collectivist culture, we would expect more conformity due to the importance placed on being part of a group.
This means that Asch’s results may not be the same for non-western cultures.

Question 22

Asch’s study : evaluation 3 (lack of mundane realism)

Answer 22

This is due to the artificiality of the task and its trivial nature.
It is unlikely that participants would have felt strongly about the task, because judging the length of a line is not an emotive issue. However, in a real-life situation, conforming may involve compromise of the person’s values.
This may mean that someone is less likely to conform due to normative pressures in an everyday situation, and therefore, Asch may have over-estimated conformity as his results are not necessarily generalisable.
The artificiality of the situation means that conformity is studied outside of its true social context, which makes conforming behaviour look odd or negative, when in fact, we might consider it to be essential for social cohesion

Question 23

What are the 3 variables that affect the levels of conformity ?

Answer 23

1. Group size
2. Unanimity
3. Task difficulty

Question 24

What is group size ?

Answer 24

Asch manipulated the size of the majority to record the effect it had on the participant. Using his original procedure, he varied the number of confederates in the group. Participants were tested using either I, 2, 3, 4, 8, 10 or 15 confederates.

Question 25

What are the findings for group size ?

Answer 25

• Conformity was only 3% when there was one confederate
• Conformity was 13% when there were two confederates
• When there were three confederates, conformity increased to 33%
• In some conditions, a larger group of 15 confederates led to less conformity (because the participant was more likely to become suspicious when there was such a large group)

Question 26

What is unanimity ?

Answer 26

Asch wanted to see if one person dissenting from the majority would affect the likelihood of the participant conforming

Question 27

What are the findings for unanimity ?

Answer 27

• When the participant had one (confederate) ally who gave the right answer before the participant answered, conformity dropped to 5.5%
• Asch found that when the confederate dissenter gave a different answer from the majority, but that answer was still incorrect, this was equally effective in reducing conformity in the participant.
  (Asch suggested the important factor was that the participant had support for deviating from the group, not support for his answer)

Question 28

What is task difficulty ?

Answer 28

Conformity increases when the task becomes more difficult.

Question 29

What are the findings for task difficulty ?

Answer 29

when he made the length of the lines more similar, conformity increased.

supports the view that conformity is more likely when the task is difficult

Question 30

Factors that affect conformity : evaluation 1 (useful applications)

Answer 30

As Asch’s original study is thought to support the existence of NSI, these variations are useful for understanding the best number needed in the majority to exert those pressures on the minority.
This could be used in schools to make sure that children with problematic behaviour are grouped with others whose behaviour is more desirable in the hope that the problem behaviour will be modified by the presence of the larger group.
The observation that the larger group of 15 was less influential backs up the idea that large majorities are no more influential and possibly less influential than smaller ones.
However, we have to be cautious about Asch’s finding as it may have been caused by the real participant becoming suspicious that ‘something was going on’ when the majority is too large.
This highlights one of the problems of using lab research to understand the influences behind real-life behaviour.

Question 31

Factors that affect conformity : evaluation point 2 (implications)

Answer 31

The observation that majorities need to be unanimous to be influential has implications for those wishing to exert influence.
It alerts us to the increased pressure of those who are subjected to unanimous majorities, for example in a jury situation.
It may be difficult for one or two jurors to express their true opinion if faced with 10 or 11 people who are all in agreement.
This also has useful applications as it shows the importance of allowing jurors write down whether or not they believe a suspect to by guilty, rather than declare it to the group.

Question 32

Factors that affect conformity : evaluation 3 (ISI)

Answer 32

The observation that conformity increases when the task becomes more difficult can be explained through informational social influence.
As the task becomes harder, there is a greater need to look to others for the right answer.
Therefore, ISI combines with NSI to increase the conformity rate.
This can be useful knowledge for those working in education, as it suggests that when students are working on a difficult assignment, they would benefit from being in a group, increasing their accuracy in the task.

Question 33

What are the aims of Zimbardo’s study and what does it demonstrate ?

Answer 33

1. To test the dispositional versus the situational hypothesis. If prison guards violent because they have violent personalities, or if their roles make them behave that way
2. To test the extent to which participants would adopt the role of prisoner or guard, even though the
   roles were determined randomly
3. Example of identification

Question 34

What are the procedures in Zimbardo’s research ?

Answer 34

The study used a sample of 21 male student volunteers (all rated as being psychologically stable)
Participants were randomly assigned to the role of either prisoner or guard.
Zimbardo played the role of prison superintendent
The study took place in the basement of Stanford, which was converted into a mock prison.
To add to the realism of the study, the prisoners were arrested at their homes by the local police, taken to the prison.
They were dehumanised as they were referred to by number rather than name.
Guards were deindividuated by wearing a uniform, reflective sunglasses and being referred to only as ‘Mr. Correctional Officer’
No physical violence was allowed.
The study was scheduled to last for two weeks

Question 35

What were the findings of Zimbardo’s study ?

Answer 35

Within a day the prisoners had rebelled and ripped off their numbers.
The guards responded by locking them in their cells and taking away their blankets
As the study progressed, the guards became increasingly cruel.
Prisoners were humiliated, deprived of sleep, made to carry out demeaning tasks (such as cleaning the toilets).
The prisoners became depressed.
Some showed signs of serious stress.
One prisoner was released after 36 hours due to fits of crying and
rage. Three more were released with similar symptoms during the next few days.
The study ended after six days due to the unforeseen effects on the prisoners

Question 36

What can be concluded by Zimbardo’s research ?

Answer 36

Conforming to social roles leads people to behave differently to how they normally would

Question 37

Zimbardo’s research : evaluation 1 (doesn’t fully support situational hypothesis)

Answer 37

This is because it fails to explain why not all of the guards behaved equally aggressively towards the prisoners.
Some were reluctant to carry out their job.
This suggests that individual differences play a part in the way someone responds to role expectations.
Therefore Zimbardo’s assertion that situations cause people to behaviour in a certain way can’t be seen as a the only explanation without considering other factors such as aggression behaviour or past experience

Question 38

Zimbardo’s research : evaluation 2 (lack of reliability)

Answer 38

Others have failed to replicate Zimbardo’s original findings.
Reicher & Haslam replicated Zimbardo’s study in 2002.
The findings were very different to Zimbardo’s.
The guards were unwilling to impose authority over the prisoners, who rapidly took charge of the prison. Both groups attempted to establish a fair + equal social system.
When this failed, a small group of prisoners took control and the study was called off.
This could suggest that Zimbardo’s findings may have been a one off, and caused by flaws in the methodology of the original study.
It could also suggest that Zimbardo’s study lacks temporal validity and that people are now less likely to conform to the demands of a role if it leads to a negative outcome for others.

Question 39

Zimbardo’s research : evaluation 3 (ethical issues)

Answer 39

He has been criticised for not accurately assessing the potential impact on his participants, and failing to end the procedure when it became clear that some of those taking part were experiencing psychological harm.
Partly this was due to Zimbardo taking on the role of prison superintendent, and therefore not creating enough distance from the procedure to be able to maintain professionalism in his role as psychologist.
This means that Zimbardo failed in his duty to protect the welfare of his participants.
Furthermore, Zimbardo’s involvement in the study could have had an influence on the behaviour of the participants.
He could have unknowingly cued them to behave in a particular way (investigator effects).
The artificiality of the situation could have led to a change in behaviour due to demand characteristics, making the results of the study invalid.