Week 5 Obedience & Conformity

Question 1

What is conformity?

Answer 1

Conformity = a change in one’s behaviour, attitudes or expressed beliefs in line with the imaginary or real influence of other people

Question 2

Why did nearly a third of participants conform to a false answer in Asch’s study?

Answer 2

1. Self-doubt: Reported initial self-doubt and uncertainty
2. Eyesight: Thought their eyesight was impaired
3. Conforming: Thought it was the thing to do - did not want to upset the experiment
4. Self-reputation: Didn’t want to look silly in front of others

Question 3

What are the 3 factors reduce the rate of conformity in variations of Asch’s experiment?

Answer 3

1. Privately - Able to write answers privately
2. Majority - There are more participants (giving correct answers) than confederates (giving wrong answers)
3. Anonymity of the participant, not surveillance of others

Question 4

How do Sherief’s autokinetic studies show a tendency for people to shift from a personal norm to a group norm?

Answer 4

• After 3 group trials, they come to a shared understanding of how many inches of moment the light travels.
• This agreement becomes a group norm and starts to affect perception of the physical world.

Question 5

What term did researcher use to describe the shift from personal norm to a group norm?

Answer 5

A simulated microculture

Example - participants average response to the light movement of 8cm moved higher towards the confederate’s estimate of 40 cm

Question 6

What factor decreases the likelihood of developing a group norm?

Answer 6

The number of changing participants - the group norm only disappear after changing participants 6 times

Question 7

What 3 situations account for when people conform with others?

Answer 7

1. Situational uncertainty - When the situation is ambiguous, ie. autokinetic effect
2. Personal uncertainty - When we are uncertain, in situations we have never been in before, new countries, jobs, etc.
   In a crisis situation
3. High status of others - When other people are perceived as experts/more knowledgeable/high status

Question 8

What are social norms and when do we follow them?

Answer 8

Social norms are implicit or explicit rules from a group about acceptable behaviours.

We only want to follow social norms of groups that are attractive to us, social conformity is not always a subconscious, mindless thing.

Question 9

What factors influence whether people would obey in Milgram’s situation? (4)

Answer 9

Learner
1. Physical proximity - whether participants could hear a voice or if they were in the same room or place a hand on the learner

2. the reactions of the learner - when learner wants to continue or not

Authority -
3. inconsistent image of authority when sciences argue about shock ie. dissent amongst authority

4. appearance of authority figure - whether the experimenter in normal clothes or not

Question 10

What is the older/traditional understanding of obedience?

Answer 10

1. who was perceived as more important
2. agentic state from one’s own desires to the purpose of another, we move psychology from being the agent to following someone else

Question 11

What is the newer understanding of obedience?

Answer 11

1. relationship between participants and experimenter, ie. does the experimenter become an ally or provide social support?
2. Considers the complexity of relationships and degrees of involvement regarding participant and authority figure
3. The degree of shared identity as a learner

Question 12

What are the 2 different types of conformity?

Answer 12

1. Informational conformity = conforming to others behaviour with the genuine belief that they are right due to their perceived amount of expertise
2. Normative conformity = conforming from of the desire to be liked and accepted regardless of whether we truly believe the other person is right

Question 13

What is the difference between conformity and compliance?

Answer 13

Compliance = changing behaviour, or expressed beliefs, in responses to requests by, or in accordance with, others - not necessarily resulting in a change in belief like conformity

Question 14

What is the difference between social and psychological group memberships?

Answer 14

Sociological groups = Groups that we belong to in our social environment, ie. ethnicity, education, age, that others identify us as

Psychological groups = groups that we have chosen to identify with and that are psychological meaningful and relevant to us - more impactful on our behaviour

Question 15

Which type of group do we feel connected to while potentially not physically belonging in?

Answer 15

Psychological groups, ie. football teams, K-Pop fans

Question 16

What is informational influence and how does it differ to social or normative influence?

Answer 16

Informational influence refers to a type of social influence in which individuals modify their behavior, opinions, or beliefs based on the information they receive from others

• it facilitates adaptive and accurate responses from observations in our environment of what to do