Explanations And Types Of Conformity Flashcards
(18 cards)
What is conformity
A type of social influence involving a change in belief or behaviour in order to be in line with the group
What is informational social influence
Conforming to be right- individual conforms because they are unsure about something and they believe the majority must be right
What is normative social influence
Conforming to be liked- An individual conforms to fit in with the groups because they don’t want to be left out-private opinion will not change
What is compliance
When an individual goes along with the group to gain approval- change in public behaviour but not their private beliefs
What is identification
The individual accepts the attitudes and behaviours the are adopting as true. the purpose is to be accepted into the group
What is internalisation
An individual changes their public behaviour and private beliefs. Not doing it to be accepted as a member of the group
What was Ash’s sample for his conformity study
123 male American participants
What did Asch find was the conformity rate
33%
What percentage of participants did not conform at all in Ash’s conformity study
25%
What percentage of answers were wrong on the control condition
1%
How were Ash’s findings culturally bias
All participants were American which is an individualistic culture. Other research into collectivist cultures show that they have a higher conformity rate
What is one ethical issue of Ash’s study
Deception- participants were told that the confederates were participants
Evaluation of ash’s research methods
Lack mundane realism- task is simple and highly controlled and does not replicate real life social interactions
High internal validity- carefully controlled and standardised procedures allows research to be replicated and checked for reliability
AO3 support for normative social influence
Ash’s original study- unambiguous task where participants agreed in interviews that they conformed to not stand out. Another variation- participants wrote down responses and conformity rates dropped to 12.5%
AO3 support for informational social influence
Asch’s task difficulty study- increased ambiguity. Participants seek correct information from the group demonstrating ISI
Jenner’s white beans- average change in answers was between 250-382
What were asch’s three variations
Task difficulty, unamity and group size
How did group size affect conformity
Only one confederate caused 3% conformity. Small unambiguous group has a strong social pressure but beyond a certain point group size does not proportionally increase this
How does unamity affect conformity
One confederate broke unamity by responding correctly and rate dropped to 5.5%. Dissenter provides social support
