Conformity

Question 1

What is conformity

Answer 1

A change in a persons behaviour or opinions as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people

Question 2

what are the different types of conformity

Answer 2

Compliance
Identification
Internalisation

Question 3

What is compliance

Answer 3

a temporary type of conformity where we publicly agree with the majority but privately disagree

Question 4

Give an example of compliance

Answer 4

when people make a not funny joke and people laugh so you feel like you should laugh

Question 5

What’s identification

Answer 5

a temporary type of conformity whereby we publicly and privately accept the groups belief but can be lost if the pressure is removed

Question 6

Give an example of identification

Answer 6

Wearing the same clothes as people to fit in and not stick out

Question 7

What is internalisation

Answer 7

we ctake on the majority’s view point publicly and privately because we accept it as correct, it is a permanent type of conformity

Question 8

Give an example of internalisation

Answer 8

religion
Vegan
Vegetarian
Slowing down to 30 mph in a 30 mph zone as its wrong to drive faster

Question 9

What did Aschoff investigate

Answer 9

Conformity

Question 10

What year did Aschoff research conformity

Answer 10

1956

Question 11

What was Asch’s aim

Answer 11

to see whether participants would conform to the majority and give wrong answers in an unambiguous situation

Question 12

Who were the participants in Asch’s study

Answer 12

50 male American white students

Question 13

What was Asch’s procedure

Answer 13

Participants were tested in groups of 6-8 people
Participants were shown a line then 3 comparison lines. They then had to give an answer aloud
At first Asch told the confederates to give the right answer but then told them to give the wrong answer
All participants do 18 trials

Question 14

What were Asch’s findings

Answer 14

participants conformed to the majority and gave the wrong answer 32% of the time.
74% of participants confirmed at least once
26% never conformed

Question 15

What were the conclusions of Asch’s study

Answer 15

It showed that participants confoto the majority when the answers were obvious.
In follow up interviews most said they conformed to avoid rejection from the group (normative social influence)

Question 16

What are the variable affecting conformity

Answer 16

Group size
Unanimity
Task difficulty

Question 17

If the task is more difficult with the conformity, increased or decrease

Answer 17

Increase

Question 18

If there was another nonconformist in the group, who gives the right answer with the conformity increase or decrease

Answer 18

Decrease

Question 19

If there is only one confederate would the conformity, increased or decrease

Answer 19

Decrease

Question 20

If there was only four confederates instead of seven would the conformity rates increase or decrease

Answer 20

Decrease

Question 21

If the task was easier would the conformity increase of decrease

Answer 21

Decrease

Question 22

If there is one confederate what is the conformity rate

Answer 22

3%

Question 23

If there was 2 confederates what would the conformity rate be

Answer 23

13%

Question 24

If there were 3-15 confederates what would the conformity rate be

Answer 24

32%

Question 25

Comment on group size and conformity rates

Answer 25

The size of the majority increases conformity up to a point but then remains the same regardless of the size of the group

Question 26

What does unanimity mean

Answer 26

Someone else that isn’t conforming

Question 27

The group contains one dissenter that agrees with the participant but not the majority what is the conformity rate and why is this

Answer 27

5.5% the participant No longer felt alone, they had someone to back them up, they were no longer a minority of one

Question 28

The group of confederates contained one dissenter who disagreed with the participant and disagreed with the majority, what was the conformity rate and why?

Answer 28

9% because the dissenter does not have to agree with the participant, just going against the majority is enough to allow the participant to also do so.

Question 29

When the task was made more difficult by using lines that were much closer in length to each other and the comparison line what happened to the conformity rate and why

Answer 29

Increased conformity because the task was more ambiguous, there was not a clear answer, the participant would be less sure about there own answer and therefore conform as they believe the group to be right and use them as a source of information (informational social influence)

Question 30

What are four evaluation points for Asch’s study

Answer 30

Evidence for normative social influence Unrepresentative sample Lacking ecological validity Ethics

Question 31

explain the evaluation point evidence for normative social influence for Asch

Answer 31

A strength is it provides evidence for normative social influence which is a key explanation of conformity, this is because in follow up interviews participants stated that they conformed to fit in and avoid rejection from the group. This is a strength because it supports that normative social influence is a valid reason for why some individuals may conform

Question 32

explain the evaluation point unrepresentative sample for Asch’s study

Answer 32

A weakness is it can be argued to lack generalisability. This is because the sample was unrepresentative and consisted of only American male students, this means the sample is both gender and cultural biased. This is a weakness because the levels of conformity might be different for females and individuals from other cultures

Question 33

explain the evaluation point lacking ecological validity for Asch’s study

Answer 33

A weakness is that it lacks ecological validity this is because Asch created an artificial task for participants to complete. In addition to this, it also took place in an artificial laboratory environment. This is bad as it is hard for us to generalise our finding to real life conformity situations and settings

Question 34

explain the evaluation point ethics for Asch’s study

Answer 34

A weakness is that Asch’s study is it is unethical, he lied to his participants about them being in a room with actors. he deceived them. This is bad because as a result of this his study is breaking ethical guidelines for conducting psychological research

Question 35

Plan this 16 mark essay, describe and evaluate Asch’s research into conformity

Answer 35

A01 - 6 marks What he did -lab experiment -males-believed to be a visual perception task - 3 comparison lines - confederates -findings -conformity occurred 32% of the time -task difficulty increases so does conformity A03 -10 marks -lacks generalisability -lacks ecological validity -unethical -provides evidence for normative social influence

Question 36

What are the two explanations/ reasons of conformity

Answer 36

Normative social influence and informational social influence

Question 37

Explain what normative social influence is

Answer 37

A person confirms because of their need to be accepted by the group THEY WANT TO FIT IN most likely to conform when we are in a group which is important to us and which we spend a lot of time in Most likely to lead to COMPLIANCE

Question 38

Explain what informational social influence is

Answer 38

A person is unsure on how to behave or is unclear as to what they feel about an issue THEY WANT TO BE RIGHT most likely to conform in new or ambiguous situations Often leads to internationalisation

Question 39

Evaluation of explanations/reasons for conforming

Answer 39

Research evidence Asch Research evidence Lucas et al Individual differences Normative and informational social influence work together

Question 40

explain the evaluation point research evidence Asch for reasons for conformity

Answer 40

Asch provided evidence for his famous conformity experiment, this is because of the follow up studies he did and he asked why they went along with the wrong answer, they said they were afraid of disapproval it supports normative social influence because participants were self conscious and afraid of disapproval, the participants wanted to fit in When the task was made more difficult, where he made the lines more similar, conformity increased this is research evidence for informational social influence as if the test is harder they have the need to be right

Question 41

explain the evaluation point research evidence Lucas et al for explanations for conformity

Answer 41

They asked students to give answers to mathematical problems that were easy or more difficult. They found that there was a greater conformity to incorrect answers when they were difficult and this was most true for participants who rated there maths ability poorly This supports information social influence as the questions were hard they had a need to be right

Question 42

explain the evaluation point Individual differences for explanations for conformity

Answer 42

A weakness is it doesn’t count for individual differences, it is questioned if the two explanations can explain all instances, this is due to individual differences. People who don’t care about being liked will not conform as often This is a weakness as it suggests the explanations are not valid for everyone

Question 43

explain the evaluation point Normative and informational social influence work together for explanations of conformity

Answer 43

Deutch and Gerrard said that conformity is due to either NSI or ISI however one criticism is that they are both likely to be involved in conformity, conformity is reduced with a dissenter from the group but it could be the dissenter reduce power of NSI or they reduced power of ISI as an alternative source of information This matters because it questions the validity that the two explanations work independently of each other