types and explanations of conformity Flashcards
What were the types of conformity and who proposed them?
-Herbert Kelman (1958)
-Internalisation
-Identification
-Compliance
What is Internalisation?
-A genuine form of conformity as a person genuinely accepts the norms and sees it is a correct
-leads to permanent change in public and private
What is identification?
-Moderate conformity where someone conforms as they value elements of a group and want to be part of it
What is compliance?
-A superficial and temporary type of conformity where we outwardly go along with the majority view, but privately disagree with it.
-The change in our behaviour only lasts as long as the group is monitoring us.
What is the two-process theory and who proposed it?
-Deutsch and Gerard (1955)
-Normative social influence(NSI)
-Informative social influence (ISI)
What is NSI?
-An emotional process where someone conforms to gain social approval and to be liked
-leads to compliance
What is ISI?
-A cognitive process where someone conforms to the majority on the basis that the majority is correct and they also want to be correct.
-leads to internalisation
Strengths of the two process theory
-Research support for NSI: in an interview after Asch (1951) study participants said they conformed as they wanted to be liked by the rest and when the answers were written down anonymously conformity fell to 12.5% from 36.8%
-Research support for ISI: Lucas et al. (2006) replicated a similar study but used maths questions- and people conformed more when the questions were easier as they knew their own mind.
However, unclear whether ISI or NSI is at work. Asch found conformity rates decreased with dissenter which may reduce NSI because they provide social support or may provide ISI as they give a different answer. Therefore hard to separate the 2 explanations.
Weaknesses of the two process theory
-Individual differences in NSI: Mcghee + Tavern (1967) found that people who have higher needs for affiliation were more likely to conform- nAffiliators.
Individual differences in ISI: Perrin + Spencer(1980) replicated Asch study with UK engineering students in the UK and only 1 student conformed in 396 trials.
