Conformity Flashcards
(26 cards)
What is conformity?
Change in persons behaviour or opinions as result of real or imagined pressure from person or group of people.
What are the 3 ways people may conform to majority?
Internalisation, identification, compliance
What is internalisation?
When person actually accepts the group norms. Results in public and private change. Change to be permanent as attitudes internalised. Change stays even in absence of other group members
What is identification?
Conform to beliefs and behaviours of the group because we value the group. Publicly change our opinions to identify with group but not privately as don’t agree with everything they stand for.
What is compliance?
Go along with majority group but do not agree with it privately. (no change of views) Behaviour stops as soon as group pressure stops.
What is normative social influence?
explanation of conformity as a desire to be liked and accepted by the majority so fit into their norms. An emotional Process. Lead to compliance.
What is informational social influence?
Explanation of conformity as we want to be correct. Believe majority will be correct so accept their opinion to be correct as well. Cognitive process. Lead to internalisation
When does NSI occur?
- with strangers due to fear of rejection
- Friends due to wanting social approval
- stressful situations due to need for social support
When does ISI occur?
- new situations as not clear what is right
- crisis situations due to decisions being made quickly
- when someone in group regarded as an expert.
Strengths of the explanations of conformity
- Research support for ISI (Lucas et al found ppts conformed more often to incorrect answers when maths problems were difficult: looked to others = outcome predicted by ISI)
- Research support for NSI - Asch
Limitations of explanations of conformity
- Individual differences - NSI does not affect everyone the same (e.g people who less concerned about being liked less affected by NSI) - students higher in affiliation more likely to conform
- Both process work together - conformity reduced when another dissenting ppts - may reduce NSI or ISI
Asch (conformity) - procedure
- Line test
- Used 123 American Male undergraduates
- Each ppts in group with 6-8 confederates
- Had to choose what line matched the standard line.
- The confederates chose correct ones first, 12/18 incorrect.
Asch (conformity) - findings
- Naïve ppts gave wrong answer 36.8% of the time
- 25% did not conform at all. 75% on at least one trial
- When interviewed after, ppts said conformed to avoid rejection (Normative Social Influence)
What were Asch’s varaitions?
Conditions that may lead to increase or decrease in conformity:
- Unanimity
- Group size
- Task difficulty
Asch variations - Unanimity
- Prescence of another non-conforming ppt - confederate who would sometimes agree, sometimes not.
- Conformity was reduced by 25% compared to when majority unanimous
- enabled ppt to act more independently
Asch variations - Group size
- Asch increased group size to make the majority bigger.
- Found that having 3 confederates, conformity rose to 31.8% but anymore made no difference to this.
- Small majority is not sufficient, but majority does not need to be more than 3.
Asch variations - Task difficulty
- Made task more difficult by making lines and standard more similar in length
- Led to increase in conformity.
- Shows Informative social influence increases when task becomes harder - situation more abigious.
Strengths of Asch’s research
- Use of lab experiment - extraneous variables controlled - can be replicated - increasing reliability. Can establish cause and effect relationships.
Limitations of Asch’s research
- Contradicting evidence (Perrin and Spencer et al) repeated study with engineer students in UK and only 1 conformed in 396 trials - 1950s were very conformist time in America - cant be applied and generalised well to modern time - Lack of ecological validity.
- PPts new they were apart of a research study so may have displayed demand characteristics + was not reflective of real life situation (lack of mundane realism) - lack of generalisability.
- Only tested men and Americans - culture and gender bias (beta bias) - generalised to everyone but does not take in cultural and gender differences e.g in collectivist cultures, conformity higher.
What is conformity to social roles?
When an individual adopts a particular behaviour and belief, while in a particular social situation
What are social roles?
The ‘parts’ people play as members of social groups. For example, teacher, parent, passenger, employee.
They have expectations and appropriate behaviours which fit the role.
Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment - procedure
- Set up Mock prison in Stanford University
- Advertised for volunteers to take part
- Volunteers randomly assigned of guards and prisoners
- To make it realistic, ‘prisoners’ were arrested in their homes, they were blindfold, strip-searched + issued a uniform and number.
- Guards had their own uniform, handcuffs, keys and shades.
- Given social roles - routines heavily regulated, follow rules. Names would never use.
Zimbardo Stanford Prison Experiment - Findings
- After a few days, guards took up their roles with enthusiasm - behaviour became threat to prisoners psychological and physical health so was stopped after 6 days.
- Within 2 days, rebelled against harsh treatment by guards - ripped their uniforms, swore at guards
- Guards harassed prisoners - showed social roles by creating opportunities to enforce rules and punish anything, Became aggressive and brutal
- Prisoners became depressed and anxious - 1 released due to symptoms of psychological disturbance, 1 went on a hunger strike
Zimbardo Stanford Prison Experiment - Conclusion
- Shows power of situation influencing peoples behaviour
- All guard, prisoners and the researchers conformed to their roles.
