topic 5 - conformity

Question 1

what is conformity an example of?

Answer 1

informational social influence

Question 2

which study was used in order to test conformity?

Answer 2

Arthur Jenness (1932)

Question 3

what did Arthur Jenness’s (1932) study investigate?

Answer 3

investigated conformity through asking participants to guess how many beans were in a glass bottle. Then he had a group discussion between participants and found that participants were likely to change their answers following the group discussion. This is because the participants did not know the answer so they looked to others as a source of information.

Question 4

what are the situational factors that affect conformity?

Answer 4

size of the majority, unanimity of the majority and task difficulty/ ambiguity

Question 5

explain how size of the majority affects conformity?

Answer 5

the greater the majority the greater the influence over your behaviour, however, this only happens to a point.

Question 6

what study investigates the size of the majority?

Answer 6

Solomon Asch (1950)

Question 7

what did Solomon Asch’s (1950) study investigate, what did it involve, what were the results etc?

Answer 7

Asch conducted experiments looking into conformity. A participant was placed around a table with confederates. The confederates pretended to be participants but had been instructed of what to do during the experiment.

The experimenter presented the group with a card displaying three lines of different lengths labelled A, B and C. They were shown a second card with a single line on it and asked to say which of the three lines it resembled.

The confederates all picked the wrong answer on purpose which resembled nothing like the second card. The participants heard the confederates and as a result some of them also picked the wrong line.

When there was only one confederate in the room, the conformity rate was 3%. With 2 confederates the conformity rate rose to 13% and with 3 confederates, the conformity rate was 32%.

the optimal number was 3 to four confederates. More than 4 arose suspicion in the participants. There were too many people picking the wrong answer for it to be true .

Question 8

explain how unanimity of the majority affects conformity.

Answer 8

this refers to when a group is split and there is disagreement among the majority; the decision to change is not unanimous. Whatever decision you choose, you have social support from some people in the group.

Question 9

explain how task difficulty/ ambiguity affects conformity

Answer 9

this refers to how difficult the task is.

If the task we are performing is difficult or ambiguous, then we are more likely to look to others for the right answer.

Question 10

what was Asch’s results in unanimity of the majority?

Answer 10

Asch found that if most confederates picked the wrong line but one picked the correct line, the participant was less likely to conform.

Question 11

what was Asch’s results in task difficulty/ ambiguity?

Answer 11

Asch found in his original experiment the comparison line was clearly the same as one of the three lines on the card and very different from the other two. However, when the three lines were more similar to the comparison line, he found a higher rate of conformity because it was ambiguous.

Question 12

what are the personality factors affecting conformity?

Answer 12

locus of control (internal and external)

Question 13

what does the term ‘locus of control’ mean

Answer 13

this refers to the extent to which we believe we have control over our own behaviour

Question 14

what does the term ‘internal locus of control’ mean

Answer 14

this refers to when we feel we have personal control over our own behaviour

Question 15

what does the term ‘external locus of control’ mean

Answer 15

this refers to when we feel that external factors control our behaviour

Question 16

how does the type of locus control affect conformity of a person

Answer 16

a person with internal locus control is less likely to be influenced by others around them and therefore less likely to conform,

a person with an external locus of control is more likely to be influenced by others and therefore more likely to conform.

Question 17

what is a weaknesses to the types of locus of control?

Answer 17

whether we conform depends on the situation which we are put in. Even if we had the personality type of internal locus of control is we were put in an unfamiliar situation such as a new school or new environment then we would be more likely to conform or more likely to fit in regardless of your locus of control.