Conformity Flashcards
(26 cards)
What is conformity?
Conformity is a type of social influence where a person changes their attitude or behaviour in response to group pressure
What are the three types of conformity?
Compliance
Identification
Internalisation
What is compliance?
Temporary- When someone outwardly goes along with the majority view but privately disagrees with it
What is identification?
Moderate- when we take on majority view because we want to be associated with the group that holds those beliefs even though we may not agree with everything
What is internalisation?
Deep- we take on the majority view because we actually believe in that attitude/ behaviour
What are the two explanations for conformity?
Normative social influence- NSI
Information social influence- ISI
What is normative social influence-NSI?
People conform because they want to be accepted
What is informational social influence- ISI?
People conform because they want to be right
What are two strengths of influence of explanations for conformity?
Research support for NSI- Linkenbach and Perkins (2003), found that adolescents espoused to the message that majority of their peers did not smoke were less likely to smoke. In Asch’a study, when ptpts wrote down their answers, conformity fell to 12.5%.
Research support for ISI- Lucas et al. (2006) there was greater conformity to incorrect difficult questions answered than easier ones. People conform in situations when they don’t know the answer.
What are the three limitations of influence of explanations for conformity?
ISI and NSI don’t always work Independently- Deutsch and Gerrard- NSI and ISI are two separate processes and proposed that behaviour is either due to NSI or ISI. However, more often, both processes are involved. For example, conformity is reduced when there is one other dissenting participant in the Asch experiment. This dissenter may reduce the power of NSI (because the dissenter provides social support) or may reduce the power of ISI (because there is an alternative source of information). This shows that it isn’t always possible to be sure whether NSI or ISI is at work and so casts serious doubt over the view of ISI and NSI as two processes operating independently in conforming behaviour.
NSI may not be detected- There is some support for the claim that individuals do not always recognise the behaviour of others as a causal factor in the change of their own behaviour. Nolan et al. (2008)- investigated whether people detected the influence of social norms on their energy conservation behaviour. When asked about what factors had influenced their own energy conservation, people believed that the behaviour of neighbours had the least impact on their own energy conservation, yet results showed that it had the strongest impact.
This shows that people tend to under-detect the impact of normative influence on their behaviour.
Individual differences in NSI- Some research shows that NSI does not affect everyone’s behaviour in the same way. For example people who are less concerned with being liked are less affected by NSI than those who care more about being liked. These people are known as nAffiliators= people who have a greater need for ‘affiliation’. This shows that the desire to be liked underlies conformity for some people more than others, and so they will be affected by NSI in differing ways. Studies need to take into account these individual differences.
What is an nAffiliator?
They have a need to be affiliated with a group/ a need to be associated with a group
What was the procedure of Asch’s line study (1951,1955)?
123 US undergraduate males were shown 3 lines and they had to say out loud which was the same as the ‘standard’ line. There was only one naive ptpt and the confederates all deliberately gave the wrong answer.
What was the findings of Asch’s line study (1951,1955)
When confederates gave the same wrong answer the mean conformity was 36.8%.
What is the effect of group size on conformity?
With three confederates conformity increases to 31.8% but more confederates had no effect on the level of conformity
What is the effect of unanimity on conformity?
Conformity reduced by a quarter when there was a dissenting confederate giving the right answer
What is the effect of task difficulty on conformity?
Conformity increased when the line judging task was more difficult
What is conformity to social roles?
When am Individual adopts certain behaviours and beliefs due the the expectations from a role they play in society, but stop when they are out of the role
What is the key study that investigates conformity to social roles?
Zimardo’s Stanford prison experiment (1973)
Describe the sample used in Zimabrdo’s study
21 American, male undergraduate students
Describe the procedure of Zimardo’s study
- volunteers psychologically and physically screened
- Randomly assigned role of prisoner and guard
- prisoners arrested at home and given uniform and assigned ID number
- guards given uniform and wooden clubs and gold they had complete power over prisoners
Describe how the prison guards showed conformity to their roles
Frequent headcount in the middle of the night, cleaning toilets with bare hands, punishes for smallest misdemeanour
How did the prisoners show conformity?
- accepted harsh treatment
- became passive and subdued (5 prisoners had to be withdrawn early)
After how many days was the experiment stopped early?
After 6 instead of initial 14
What is the overall conclusion from the findings of Zimardo’s study?
Demonstrates the power of social roles on peoples behaviour- both guards and prisoners conformed to roles even when they went against moral principles
