Types of conformity

Question 1

what are the strengths

Answer 1

there is research support for both normative social influence and informational social influence

Question 2

what is research supporting normative social influence

Answer 2

• Shcultz et al
• Linkenbach and Perkins

Question 3

what did Schultz et al find

Answer 3

he found that hotel guests which were exposed to the normative message that 75% of guest reuse their towels each day, reduced their towel use by 25%

Question 4

what did Schultz et al research support

Answer 4

supports idea that people shape their behaviour out of desire to fit in with the majority, supporting NSI

Question 5

what did Linkenbach & Perkins find

Answer 5

found that teenagers exposed to the normative message that the majority of their peers did not smoke, were less likely to start smoking

Question 6

what did Linkenbach & Perkins research support

Answer 6

supports idea that people shape their behaviour out of desire to fit in with the majority, supporting NSI

Question 7

what is research supporting informational social influence

Answer 7

Lucas et al

Question 8

what did Lucas et al find

Answer 8

he found that participants conformed more to other people’s answers when the maths problem were more difficult as the situation was ambiguous

Question 9

what did Lucas et al findings support

Answer 9

ISI because since the situation was ambiguous people looked to others for guidance and relied on their answers, which is what ISI predicts happens in hard situations with no clear answer

Question 10

what are the limitations

Answer 10

• individual differences
• difficult to distinguish between compliance and internalisation

Question 11

what did Perrin & Spencer find

Answer 11

they carried out Asch’s experiment using engineering students and found only one person conformed in 400

Question 12

what does Perrin & Spencer’s research show and why

Answer 12

• shows individual differences can play a role in whether a person will conform or not
• this is because as engineering students have knowledge on the matter they were more confident in their answers so felt no pressure to conform

Question 13

why is it difficult to distinguish between compliance and internalisation

Answer 13

• it is difficult to define and measure when each one is taking place
• when a person agrees with the majority in public but not in private it is considered compliance, however acceptance of the group’s view may have occurred in public but then dissipated when in private because they may have forgotten the information given or they may have found new information which changed their mind