Types And Explanations Of Conformity, And Variables Affecting Conformity Flashcards
What is conformity?
Tendency to adopt group attitudes/behaviour influencing the majority as a result of real or imagined pressure (implicit expectations), leading to compliance with the majority position
Who came up with the three types of conformity, when and what are they?
Herbert Kerman (1958):
1. Internalisation
2. Identification
3. Compliance
What is compliance?
When a person goes along with the majority publicly as they want the approval associated with the action but privately they disagree with the action/behaviour
Summary: publicly agree, privately disagree
What kind of conformity is compliance?
Superficial - a temporary type of conformity as you only show the behaviour when you are in the presence of the group, it is not a deep belief
What is internalisation?
When a person goes along with the group action/behaviour and accepts the influence internally as it is in line with their own value system, taking the view deeply into their own beliefs
Summary: publicly and privately agree
What can lead to acceptance of views that causes internalisation?
If the Individual engages in a validation process, examine their beliefs to see if the action is wrong or right. If the group is generally trustworthy that individual is more likely to believe they are wrong and the other individual is right
What type of conformity is internalisation?
The deepest kind of conformity - it is permanent as you genuinely examine and accept the views you have conformed to
What is identification?
Conforming to a group as you want to be associated with them, and feel more part of the group by adopting the actions/behaviours of that group e.g skate culture
How does identification have elements of both compliance and internalisation?
. The purpose of adopting the actions is to be accepted and fit in (compliance)
. The individual adopts the actions as they believe they are right (internalisation)
How is identification different to internalisation?
Although it is a permanent belief at the time, things change with age and you usually grow out of identification
What type of conformity is identification?
Moderate - consists of superficial and deep conformity simultaneously
What do social psychologists believe leads to conformity?
Psychological needs
What did Deutsch and Gerard develop in 1955?
Developed a 2-process theory as to why people conform: claimed people conform based on two central needs:
. Need to be liked
. Need to be right
Describe what normative social influence (NSI) is and what does it explain?
Going along with the way people do things as we have a need to be liked so we want to fit in. This explains compliance as it doesn’t lead to a change in private opinions
Describe what informational social influence (NSI) is and what type of conformity does it explain?
When we conform because we believe others know better than us so they must be right, and we have a need to be right. It explains internalisation as we genuinely believe someone’s views are right and this leads to a change in private opinion
When is NSI or ISI more likely to occur?
NSI: in an unambiguous situation: even though the answer is clear, we still conform with wrong answers as we want to fit in
ISI: in an ambiguous situation: as the answer isn’t clear, we turn to others who ‘know better than us’ as we need to be right
What is the ‘Asch Effect’?
The extent to which participants conform even when the situation is non-ambiguous (clear right answer)
What 3 variables of Asch’s study affected conformity and how did it affect conformity?
. Group size: increased group size = increased conformity up to an optimum point
. Unanimity: less unanimity decreases conformity
. Task difficulty: increased task difficult increased conformity
What did Asch’s group size variation find?
Out of the 123 participants:
. One confederate in group - conformity = 3%
. 2 confederates = 13% conformity
. 3 or more confederates = 33% conformity
. Little change one group size reaches 4-5
When the group size of Asch’s study changes, what size is this referring to?
The number of CONFEDERATES
What is the optimal number or confederates for conformity to occur and what’s the evidence?
- Brown and Byrne (1997) suggested that if the majority confederate wrong answer goes above 3-4 people, the person may feel they are being colluded/pressured into a wrong answer deliberately and are likely to reject the majority due to demand characteristics
- a small majority is needed to conform, but no need to have a massive majority
What study is there to support Asch’s research on group size?
Bond and Smith (1996) - performed a meta-analysis of 133 Asch-type studies from 17 different countries (culturally generalisable results) and found that conformity peaks with around 4/5 confederates
What was the state of unanimity and conformity in Asch’s original research?
All 5 confederates were unanimous with the wrong answer (all gave the same wrong answer) and conformity was 33%
What are the unanimity variations and results on Asch’s study?
. One confederate gives the correct answer: conformity = 5.5%
. One confederate gives different wrong answer to the majority: conformity = 9%
