Conformity Flashcards
(25 cards)
What is conformity?
Conformity is a type of social influence involving a change in belief or behavior in order to fit in with a group.
What are the three types of conformity?
Compliance, Internalisation
Identification
What is compliance?
When an individual changes their behaviour in order to fit in with their group. Pretend to agree publicly but don’t privately.
This is a temporary form of social influence and is explained by NSI
What is Internalisation?
When majority norms, behaviours and beliefs are accepted and becomes a part of their own belief system.
Public and private conformity.
It is the most permanent
Links to informational social influence
What is NSI?
Normative social influence is When individual conform in order to appear normal and to fit in. This is an emotional process.
What is ISI
Informative Social Influence is when we conform in order to be correct, we use the majority as a source of information especially in difficult or ambiguous( unclear).
Cognitive process
What was the aim of Aschs conformity research ?
To discover if participants will conform to a group, even if the answer is obvious
What was the procedure of Aschs study?
123 US male volunteers .
A participant sits in a room with 6-7 confederates.
Participants is given a line length judging task. The
Confederate gives incorrect answer
What conclusion was made from Ash’s conformity study?
People will conform to an obvious wrong answer in order to fit into a group. This is an example of compliance.
What was the findings of Aschs conformity research?
Naive participants agreed with the confederates incorrect answers on 37% of critical trials.
75% conformed at least once
5% conformed every time
Most participants
conformed to avoid rejection and looking stupid
What are some disadvantages of Ash’s conformity study?
The situation and task were artificial therefore demand characteristics will occur as the participants knew they were in a study
The findings only apply to a certain group (US males).
Lacks temporal validity- Perrinand Spencer conducted a replication and the results were very different.
What is one positive of Ash’s research of conformity?
-Due to it being a lab study it was highly controlled
- Had good face validity
What were Ash’s 3 variations?
Task difficulty
Group size
Unanimity of the majority
What was the procedure and findings of Ash’s variation task difficulty?
Procedure- the lines were made a lot more similar in lengths
Findings- found that conformity increased. Supports the Informational social influence explanation as the participants looked t others for guidance.
What was the procedure and findings of Asch’s variation group size?
Procedure- the number of confederates varied between one to 15
(Group 0-16 with participant)
Findings- increase was curvilinear. Conformity increased to three confederates. Participants conformed on 32% of critical trials
what was the procedure and findings of ashs’s variation Unanimity of the majority?
Procedure- Included one confederates giving the correct answer or a different answer from the other confederates which was still wrong.
Findings- Presense of dissenting a confederates reduced conformity in both conditions. Naive participants will be more willing to be independent.
What was the aim of zimbardos study?
To investigate if brutality of prison guard was result of personality or conformity to social roles.
What was the procedure of zimbardos study?
This study was an overt, participant observation.
24 emotionally stable US male university students places in a mock prison in the basement of Stanford University.
They each were paid $15 a day.
Each participant was randomly assigned prisoner or guard.
The prisoners were unexpectedly arrested from their home.
Guards were given mirror shades,clubs,whistles,uniform and were told to keep control,but not to harm prisoners.
8 hour shift were worked
What were the findings of zimbardos study of conformity to social roles?
He found that the guards behaviour became increasingly brutal and threatened the psychological health of the prisoners.
Prisoners became increasingly more submissive after the initial rebellion.
Three prisoners were released early due to emotional disturbance.
The study stopped after six days.
What was the conclusion zimbardos made from his research towards conformity to social roles?
He stated that social roles have a strong influence on peoples behaviour if they’re given the right cues.
What are the positives towards zimbardos study of conformity to social roles?
Good control over variables- participants were randomly assigned
Hours of footage- they had a large amount of evidence rather than a snapshot of behaviour
Real world application- has helped in prison reform , increased training of guards.
