1 Social influence

Question 1

Types of conformity

Answer 1

internalisation, identification and compliance

Question 2

Explanations for conformity

Answer 2

informational social influence and normative social influence

Question 3

Variables affecting conformity

Answer 3

• group size, unanimity and task difficulty as investigated by Asch but there’s an upper limit where adding more members doesn’t increase conformity (up to 7 in asch)
• presence of at least one other non-conformist conformity rates drop to near zero

Question 4

Internalisation

Answer 4

• when individual changes behaviour to fit in with group
  publicly while also agreeing with them privately
• strongest form bc group’s beliefs becomes part of
  individual’s belief system

Question 5

Identification

Answer 5

conforms to demands of a social role in society e.g. Zimbardo (1971) Stanford prison experiment

Question 6

Compliance

Answer 6

• someone votes differently publicly to when they vote
  privately
• going along with a demand in public while privately
  disagreeing with group’s behaviour
• change in people’s expresses views is temporary
• Asch’s studies showed participants would comply in public and answer questions correctly but privately disagree

Question 7

The Asch Effect

Answer 7

is the influence of the group’s majority view on an individual’s judgment.

Question 8

confederates

Answer 8

• each group of participants had only one true, naive subject that believes the confederates are uniformed participants like them
• in asch’s study, in confederates identified a line segment obviously shorter than the target line - wrong answer

Question 9

participant’s choice

Answer 9

75% of participants conformed to group pressure at least once by choosing incorrect line because of group’s views

Question 10

other factors that influence conformity

Answer 10

• public/private nature of responses: more likely to conform in public and vice versa
• task difficulty

Question 11

cons

Answer 11

artificial situation- has low ecological validity

deception- real participants don’t know other participants were confederates

Question 12

pros

Answer 12

laboratory setting ensured variables were strictly controlled meaning:

• can be repeated easily
• influence of extraneous variables can be minimised

Question 13

confidence in Asch’s study

Answer 13

• A found participants that didn’t conform displayed confidence, participants who had confidence in their answer did not succumb to the groups pressure
• as easily

Question 14

confidence in other studies 1

Answer 14

Perrin and Spencer (1980)
- carried out same A experiment, conformity rates not as high bc did it with engineering students perhaps because engineers were more confident in decision making

Question 15

confidence in other studies 2

Answer 15

Wiensenthal et al.(1976)

- observed participants confident in ability to complete task less likely to conform

Question 16

eagly and carli (1981)

Answer 16

b4 1970s- many psychologists felt women conformed more than men
but when e+c analysed conformity data, found inconsistencies in sex differences, they found the largest differences where group pressure was created

Question 17

eagly (1987)

Answer 17

believed men and women showed different levels of conformity bc of diff. social roles

• W more likely to conform to avoid group conflict
• M less likely to conform bc expected to show independence and assertiveness

Question 18

personal factors that may affect conformity according to Asch

Answer 18

• gender

- confidence