conformity Flashcards
(19 cards)
define compliance
the person conforms publicly with views or behaviour expressed by others in a group but continues privately to disagree
define identification
adopts the views and behaviours of the group publicly and privately bc the individual identifies with the group and feels a sense of group membership
define internalisation
true change of private views to match those of the group
define normative social influence
the desire to be liked and accepted, often results in compliance only.
define informational social influence
the desire to be right and to look for others to give us information on how to behave/ think
define conformity
the tendency to change our behaviour/beliefs in response to the influence of others
what is the aim of Aschs study on conformity ?
to see if individuals would conform to a majority when presented with an unambiguous task
what is the sample in aschs study on conformity ?
recruited 123 male students and asked the to participate in a visual perception task
what is the method in aschs’s study on conformity?
one naive genuine participant in a group with 7/9 confederates. shown a card with a test line and then another card with lines of other lengths. participants asked to say aloud which line matched the test line. answer was obvious
what did the confederates do in aschs study when asked to answer?
they all gave the same answer
what were the findings of aschs study on conformity?
74% participants conformed to the wrong answer at least once
what can you conclude from aschs study on conformity?
even when the correct response is obvious there may be strong group pressure to conform
what did Asch find on group size?
conformity increased as the number of confederate rose from 1-3 but after this group size made no difference
what did other research find into group size?
conformity was similar with groups from 3/7 but conformity was greater with a majority of 8
variables affecting conformity other than group size
type of task,
personal preference, more people leads to higher levels of conformity
correct answer increasing majority has little effect on conformity
how does unanimity affect conformity
if one confederate disagrees with majority judgement conformity decreases from 37% to 5.5%
state a evaluation of conformity on validity.
lab experiment is very artificial and not like real life, lacks ecological validity can’t be generalised to real life
but experimental method can be defended
the artificial setting allowed the power of group pressure to be shown as other variables were controlled
state a evaluation of conformity. time
lacks temporal validity as in the 1950 Usa encouraged conformity, findings may only reflect the society asch studied in.
further research when repeating aschs study found little evidence on conformity
but may be due to students self confidence
state an evaluation of conformity. ethics
participants mislead as to what study was about but they were debriefed after and able to remove data
