1 Social Influence- Conformity P1 Flashcards
(39 cards)
what is conformity?
changing our beliefs and behaviour in response to real or perceived group pressure, to fit the implicit social rules, yielding to majority influence
what are 3 types of conformity?
compliance
identification
internalisation
what is compliance?
-public (privately disagree)
-temporary change
-change behaviour to feel liked and gain social approval
what is identification?
-public
-temporary change
-change behaviour to be liked and be affiliated with a group
what is internalisation?
-public and private
-permanent change
-you believe this is the right way to believe/ behave
which researcher conducted a study about compliance?
Asch (1951)
describe the aim of asch’s research
to investigate the extent to which social pressure from a majority group could affect a person to conform in an unambiguous situation
procedure of asch’s research
where did it take place?
in a controlled, laboratory setting
who were the participants and the groups?
50 male students from Swarthmore college in America
-groups of 8 ppts
(7 confederates, 1 naive ppt)
procedure of asch’s research
how did the study work?
ppts were told it was a visual perception study
- they were asked to select which line was the closest in length to a target line- 3 options
- 18 total trials
- 12 critical trials
what were the results of asch’s research?
- 74% of ppts conformed on at least one critical trial
- 32% was the average number of ppts that conformed to in critical trials
- in control groups, less than 1% gave an incorrect answer
what were the conclusions from asch’s research?
ppts were interviewed after the study which revealed that most knew they were giving incorrect answers
-they conformed to normative social influence
-wanted to fit in
-didn’t want to feel ridiculed
what are 3 variables that can affect conformity?
- group size
- unanimity
- task difficulty
how did group size affect conformity in asch’s study?
he varied the number of confederates giving incorrect answers to up to 16
-found that 3 confederates had the highest conformity rate with 31.8%
-7 confederates had a 37.1% conformity rate
how did unanimity affect conformity in asch’s study?
one confederate gave the correct answer throughout
-this decreased the rate of conformity to 5%
one confederate gave a different incorrect answer to the majority
-this decreased the rate of conformity to 9%
how did task difficulty affect conformity in asch’s study?
the lines became more similar in length, so it was harder to judge differences
-this increased the rate of conformity
why does group size affect conformity?
participants may start to become suspicious if too many people start saying such wrong answers
why does unanimity affect conformity?
if someone else says an incorrect answer/ different answer to the majority, the ppt will feel as though they aren’t alone and not need social approval
why does task difficulty affect conformity?
the more unclear a situation is, the more a participant will look for others for guidance and therefore conform.
ethical issues
whether the procedures used in a study are seen as acceptable and treating the participants in a ‘moral’ way
androcentric
when a study that only really applies to males is assumed to be true of females
ethnocentric
when a study or theory is only really true of one culture, but we presume it is true of others
mundane realism
when a task reflects something that would be a realistic everyday experience people may encounter
-type of ecological validity
temporal validity
when a study or theory can be claimed to be true across different periods of time
