Untitled Deck Flashcards
What does conformity mean?
A person changes their beliefs and/or behaviour in response to group pressure from the majority.
- E.g an individual may pretend to enjoy an artist’s music because all their friends like and listen to it.
What are the three different types of conformity?
Compliance, Identification, Internalisation
What is compliance? Compliance is a type of conformity whereby an individual changes their behaviour to fit in with the
Compliance is a type of conformity whereby an individual changes their behaviour to fit in with the majority
Is compliance public or private?
Only public - meaning that they maintain a different private view.
- Compliance is only temporary. Once the majority group is no longer present, they returns back to their original behaviour.
- Compliance is the shallowest type of conformity.
E.g. Teenager smoking when with their friends even though they don’t like it and never smoke when alone.
What is identification?
Individual changes their behaviour and beliefs because they are a member of a group and have a role to play.
Is identification public or private?
- Both public and private as they look to their group for guidance on how they should behave.
- Can be temporary > behaviours and beliefs can change over time if the individual is no longer a member of that group.
- Identification is a deeper than compliance but shallower than internalisation.
EXAMPLE: - An individual changing their football team from Liverpool FC to Manchester United because they moved from Liverpool to Manchester and now identify as a Mancunian.
What is internalisation?
- The majority viewpoint has become a part of their own belief system.
Is internalisation public or private? Both public and private.
- Both public and private.
- Permanent type of conformity as it lasts even if the majority is no longer present.
- Internalisation is the deepest level of conformity.
- EXAMPLE: an individual permanently converting to veganism because they have internalised the belief that consuming meat is morally wrong.
What are the two explanations for conformity?
Normative social influence (NSI) and Informational social influence (ISI).
What is NSI?
- Individuals conform to the majority to be liked and accepted by the group to avoid not fitting it or being ridiculed.
What does NSI result in? It typically results in compliance whereby the individual publicly changes their behaviour despite maintaining a different private view. NSI tends to have a temporary effect.
- An individual continuing to drink even though they feel sick because they do not want their friends to think they cant handle their alcohol.
What’s ISI? Individuals conform to the majority because they lack knowledge of how to behave so look to the majority for guidance because they want to be right when the correct answer or right thing to do is ambiguous.
- The individual conforms to avoid the embarrassment of being wrong.
What does ISI result in? - ISI typically results in internalisation whereby the individual both publicly and privately changes their behaviour and beliefs. ISI tends to have a permanent effect.
- An example of ISI would be a student accepting an answer they initially thought was wrong because the class agreed on it and are more likely to be right.
What is the aim of Asch’s (1951) original conformity research? To see if participants conform to a majority in an unambiguous situation (where the correct answer should be obvious).
What is the procedure of Asch’s (1951) original conformity research? 123 male American college students volunteered to take part in a study investigating ‘visual perception’.
- In the lab room
7 male student participants looked
at two cards: the test card displaying one vertical line
and the comparison card displaying three vertical lines of different lengths.
- The participants called out in turns which of the three lines was the same length as the test line. All of the participants were confederates (accomplices of the researcher) except the one who sat second from last who was a real participant. All
of the confederates gave unanimous wrong answers on 12 of the 18 trials. These 12 trails were called the critical trials.
What is the findings of Asch’s (1951) original conformity research? - On average
participants conformed to the unanimous incorrect answer provided by the confederates on 32% of the
critical trials.