Conformity- Types and explanations Flashcards
What are the 3 types of conformity?
Internalisation= Occurs when a person genuinely accepts the groups norms.
- This results in private as well as a public change of opinions/behaviour. This change is usually permanent because attitudes have been internalised.
- The change in opinions/behaviour persists even in the absence of other group members.
- Identification= we conform to the opinions/behaviour of a group because there is something about that group we value.
- We identify with the group, so we want to be part of it.
- This identification may mean we publicly change our opinions/behaviour to be accepted by the group, even if we don’t privately agree with with everything the group stands for.
Compliance= This type of conformity involves simply going along with others in public, but privately not changing personal opinions and/ or behaviour.
- Compliance results in only a superficial change
- It also means that a particular behaviour or opinion stops as soon as group pressure stops.
What are the explanations for conformity?
Deutsch and Gerard developed a two-process theory, arguing that there are two main reasons people conform. They are base on two central human needs:
ISI ( The need to be right )
Informational social influence is about who has the better information- you or the rest of the group. Often we are uncertain about what behaviours or beliefs are right or wrong. E.G. You may not know the answer to a question in class but if most of your class gives one answer, you accept it because you feel they are likely to be right. We follow the behaviour of the group because we want to be right.
- ISI is a cognitive process because it is to do with what you think.
- It leads to permanent change in opinions/behaviour ( Internalisation )
Normative social is about norms i.e what is normal or typical behaviour for a social group.
- Norms regulate the behaviour of groups or individuals.
-People do not like to appear foolish and prefer to gain social approval rather than be rejected.
- So NSI is an emotional rather than a cognitive process.
- It leads to a temporary change in opinions/behaviours( compliance)
- NSI is likely to occur in situations with strangers where we may feel concerned about rejection.
- It also may occur with people you know because we are most concerned about social approval of our friends.
- It may also be pronounced in stressful situations than no stressful where people have a greater need for social support
EVALUATION
Research support for NSI
What is one strength of NSI ?
One strength for NSI is that evidence supports it is an explanation of conformity. For example, when Ash interviewed his participants, some said they conformed because they felt self- conscious giving the correct answer and they were afraid of disapproval. When participants wrote their answers down, conformity fell to 12.5%. This is because giving answers privately meant there was no normative group pressure.This shows that at least some conformity is due to a desire not being rejected by the group for disagreeing with them.
What is the Research support for ISI?
Another strength is that there is research evidence to support ISI from the study by Lucus et al . Lucus et al found that participants conformed more often to incorrect answers they were given when the maths problems were difficult. This is because when problems when problems were easy the participants knew their own minds but when problems were hard the situation became ambiguous (unclear). The participants did not want to be wrong so they relied on the answers they were given. This shows that ISI is a valid explanation of conformity because the results are what ISI would predict.
What is a counterpoint for that?
However it is often unclear whether it is NSI or ISI at work in research studies. For example Asch found that conformity is reduced when there is one other dissenting participant. The dissenter may reduce the power of ISI because they provide an alternative source of social information. Therefore it is hard to separate ISI and NSI and both processes probably operate together in most real-world situations
Why is individual differences in NSI a limitation?
One limitation is that NS! does not predict conformity in every case. Some people are greatly concerned with being liked by others. Such people are called nAffiliators- they have a strong need for ‘affiliation’ (i.e. they want to relate to other people) McGhee and Teevan found that students who were nAffilators were more likely to conform. This shows that NSI underlies conformity for some people more than it does for others. There are individual differences in conformity that cannot be fully explained by one general theory of situational pressures.
