Types Of Conformity and Explanations of Conformity

Question 1

what is compliance?

Answer 1

• change is public
• weakest form of conformity as any changes in behaviour are short-term

Question 2

what is identification?

Answer 2

• public (can be private) as behaviour is not maintained when individual leaves group
• adopts people’s behaviour as they value membership of the group
• any change in behaviour is temporary

Question 3

what is internalisation?

Answer 3

• public and private change
• when new behaviours become apart of an individuals value system and isn’t dependent on the presence of the group
• any change in behaviour is permanent

Question 4

what is normative social influence?

Answer 4

• the desire to be liked
• we are concerned about social approval
• people don’t want to appear foolish and they want to avoid rejection

Question 5

is NSI an emotional or cognitive process?

Answer 5

emotional process

Question 6

is NSI temporary or permanent?

Answer 6

temporary

Question 7

what type of conformity links to NSI?

Answer 7

compliance

Question 8

what is informational social influence?

Answer 8

• the desire to be right
• occurs in ambiguous situations and crisis situations where decisions have to be made quickly

Question 9

is ISI an emotional or cognitive process?

Answer 9

cognitive process

Question 10

is ISI temporary or permanent?

Answer 10

permanent

Question 11

what type of conformity links to ISI?

Answer 11

internalisation

Question 12

what is NSI and ISI?

Answer 12

a two process theory

Question 13

who proposed the NSI/ISI?

Answer 13

Deutsch and Gerard

Question 14

what is conformity?

Answer 14

• people adopt the behaviour, attitudes or values of other members of the group
• people change their behaviour and opinions to fit with the group
• due to real or imagined pressure

Question 15

what is a strength of NSI?

Answer 15

• Asch’s research support
• Asch interviewed his ppts and found that some conformed as they were self-conscious giviving the correct answers
• Also they were afraid of disapproval from the group
• Asch found that when ppts were asked to write down their answers conformity decreased to 12.5%, this is due to no normative group pressures.
• This shows that people conform to avoid rejection from the group, thus supporting NSI.

Question 16

what is a strength of ISI?

Answer 16

• Lucas et al’s research support
• Lucas et al found that ppts conformed more often when the maths problems were more difficult
• This is because when the maths problems were easy the ppts were more certain in their answer being correct but when the maths problems were more difficult the situation was more ambiguous
• The ppts didn’t want to be wrong so conformed to the wrong answers they were given
• ISI is valid

Question 17

what is a weakness of NSI?

Answer 17

• cannot be used to universally explain the behaviour of conformity
• for example nAffiliators are people who have a greater need for social relationships and want to be liked
• McGhee and Teevan found that these nAffiliators are more likely to conform
• This suggests that there are individual differences in the way people are influenced by social pressures
• thus suggesting the theory on NSI only drives the behaviour of part of the populations