social psychology Flashcards
define conformity
a reaction to group pressures (real or imagined) to adopt the attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of the majority
what are the three types of conformity
-compliance
-identification
-internalisation
describe compliance
publicly conforming but privately maintaining ones own views
-this is a temporary change and only lasts whilst the group pressure is present
(changing behaviour not views)
describe identification
when individuals adjust there behaviour as they identify with a group they want to be part of
-the group is desirable and members are viewed as role models
-involves public and private acceptance
-generally temporary and not maintained when the individual is no longer a part of the group
describe internalisation
a conversion of private views
-behaviour or views of the majority is accepted by the individual
-most permanent and lasts even when majority is no longer present
what was the aim of Aschs study
to investigate the degree to which individuals would conform to a majority who gave them the wrong answer
how many participants were apart of Aschs study
123 male US undergraduates
outline Asches prodedure
-told ps investigation was on visual perception
-7-9 ps sat together and had to say out loud which line A B or C was the same as the stimulus line
-the correct answer was always unambiguous (obvious)
-all ps but one were confederates who were giving the wrong answer on 12/18 critical trials
how many ps conformed to the wrong answers in 12 critical trials in aches original study
37%
how many ps conformed to atleast one wrong answer in Aschs original study
75%
what did Asch conclude from his original study
-demonstrated how ps were motivated by NSI as they conformed to avoid rejection but privately trusted there own judgement
what were the 3 variations of Aschs study
-task difficulty
-group size
-unanimity
how did Asch alter task difficulty
made the stimulus line and comparison lines more similar so that the correct answer was less obvious
what did Asch conclude from increasing task difficulty
participants were more likely to conform to the wrong answers
-ISI plays a bigger role when the task is more difficult
-ps are more likely to look for guidance as confidence in our own judgement decreases
how did asch alter group size
-increased group size from one confederate to 15 confederates
what were the results from increasing group size in aschs study
-one p and one confederate (conformity was 3%)
-1 p 2 confeds (conformity was 13%)
-1 p 3 confeds (conformity was 32%)
adding more confederates after this made no difference to conformity
what did Asch conclude from increasing group size
majority size of 3 is sufficient for maximum influence on conformity
what is meant by unanimity
when the majority doesn’t agree with each other, by having the presence a dissenter (another non-conforming confederate) who always disagreed with the majority
what did Asch find from unanimity variation
-when the dissenter gave the right answers conformity dropped and the percentage of wing answers was 5%
-when the dissenter gave the wrong answer different from the majority and the true answer, conformity dropped to 9%
-
what did Asch conclude about unanimity
-breaking unanimity played a major role in reducing conformity
-gave participants social support and enabled them to disagree with majority
evaluate social support as an explanation for resisting social influence
Asch, Milgram, other factors
supporting evidence: Asch
-when dissenters were present conformity dropped to 5%
-demonstrates how its easier to resist conformity
supporting evidence: Milgram
-when real participant paired with two confederates who refused to go on, real ps that went to 450 volts dropped from 65% to 10%
-demonstrates more likely to go against an authority when in the presence of disobedient role model
Limit: other factors such as confidence
-Asch study repeated and found conformity was only 1/396 trials with engineering students
-may have felt more confident in there correctness
Evaluate strengths of locus of control as an explanation for resisting social influence
supporting evidence : ww2 survivors, conformity
obediance research (Oliner)
-interviewed ww2 surviors, found those that disobeyed and helped jews were more likely to have an internal locus of control then those who folllowed orders
Conformity research (spector)
-from 157 students found those with internal loc were less likely to conform
-only the case in NSI situations and there wasno difference between groups in ISI situations
-NSI is less influential than ISI on internals
evaluate the limitations of locucs of control as an explanation for resisting social influence
other factors, methodology
social responsibilty may also contribute
-in follow up interviews from milgrams study, disobediant ps scored a high internal loc and high ona social responsibity scale
-other factors should be considered
Flawed methodolgy when mesuring LOC
-rotter scale: 23 forced answer questions when ps must choose between two statements
-may not agree with either (forced responce)
-social desireabilty bias (answering what they believe will please theresearcher)
-effects validity of LOC.
outline moscovicis study as suppprting evidence for consistency in minority influence
-2 conferates to 4 participants
-shown 36 BLUE slides
-cond 1: consistent
confederates always says GREEN
8.5% of ps say green
-cond 2 : inconsistent
confed says GREEN 24 times and BLUE 12 times
1.25% of ps say green
consistent minority opinion had greater effect on majority
outline Nemeths research into flexibilty as supporting evidence for minority influence
-created groups of 3 ps 1 confed who were deciding how much to pay a ski accident victim
unflexible: confed argued low priceand refused to change position (had no effect on majority)
flexible: compromised a little and suggested slightly higher amount (majority agreed to go for the lower price)
needs to be a balance between consistency and flexability in order to be persuasive
evaluate minority influence
other factors, real life apps
identification should be considered
-the minority will be more influnetial and persuasive if the majority identifies with them
-for example if the minority is solely males they will be more influential in changing a majority of males
real life applications
-influential, positive rolemodels that the majority indetify with will be more successful
