Conformity Flashcards
Explain internalisation
- Going along with the majority and believing in their views
- You have accepted and internalised them so they are now your own
What situation may internalisation take place
- In an unfamiliar situation
- Look to others for info on how to behave=informational social influence
Compliance
Where you go along with the majority even if you don’t share their views
Where may compliance take place?
- In a social situation to appear normal, to avoid rejection from the group
- Normative social influence
Identification
Where you conform to fulfil a social
Where may identification take place?
If people are trying to model their behaviour to fit a certain social role e.g. A nurse or trying to imitate the behaviour of a role model
Types of conformity
- Internalisation
- Compliance
- Identification
Zimbardo et al 1973 method
- Male students were recruited as guards or prisoners
- Randomly assigned roles
- Behaviour was observed
- Prisoners were arrested and treated as such, given uniforms and numbers
- guards were given uniformm and mirrored glasses
Zimbardo et al 1973 results
- Initially, guards tried to assert their authority and prisoners resisted by sticking together
- Prisoners became more passive and obedient
- Guards became meaner, nasty punishments
- Experiemnt was abandoned after 6 days because prisoners became very distressed
What type of conformity does zimardo show?
Conformity to certain social roles
Describe Asch 1951 method
- Lab experiment
- Independant group design
- In groups of 8, ppts judged whether a comparison line was the same as a standard line
- each group had one real ppt
- 12 of 18 trials were critical trials
Asch 1951 results
- In critical trials ppt conformed 33% of the time
- 75% conformed at least once
What type of influence encouraged people to conform?
Normative social influence
Positive evaluation of Asch 1951
- Lab experiement so good control
- Lab experiment minimses impact of extraneous variables
- Strict control of variables means study can be easily repeated to check results
Negative evaluation of Asch 1951
- Ppts weren’t in a natural situation so study lacks ecological validity
- May be less likely to conform if their answers has real life consequences
- Ppts were deceived
- May have caused stress related to embarassment
- Ppt recruited via advertising, which may attract a certain type of person
