explanations for conformity Flashcards
(26 cards)
Define ‘conformity’.
A change in a person’s behaviour or opinions as a result of a real or imagined pressure from a person or a group of people.
Name the 3 types of conformity.
- Compliance
- Identification
- Internalisation
Define ‘compliance’.
A person changes their behaviour but not their private beliefs - this is often a short term change that only occurs in the presence of the group.
Give an example of ‘compliance’.
An individual may claim to like a certain type of music when amongst their peers to fit in.
Define ‘identification’.
An individual changes their public behaviour and their private beliefs, but only while in the presence of the group, meaning that this is often a short term change.
Give an example of ‘identification.’
An individual may become vegitarian because all of his flatmates are vegetarians, but when away from the them he may still eat meat.
Define ‘internalisation.’
An individual changes their public behaviour and their private beliefs - this is often a long term change that the individual will continue even when they are away from the pressure of the group.
Give an example of ‘internalisation’.
An individual may convert to a particular faith, and will continue in this faith even when they are away from the group.
What theory did Deutsch and Gerard (1955) develop? What did they argue? What was it based on?
- A two process theory.
- Arguing there are two main reasons people conform.
- Based on two central human needs: the need to be right and the need to be liked.
What does NSI stand for?
Normative Social Influence
What does ISI stand for?
Informational Social Influence
What is meant by the term ‘normative social influence’?
- When a person conforms to be accepted or to belong to a group.
- To do with ‘norms’ meaning what is normal or typical behaviour of a social group.
- A person conforms because it is socially rewarding or to avoid social punishment e.g being mocked for not fitting in.
What sort of process is NSI?
Emotional
What 2 types of conformity is NSI associated with?
- Compliance
- Identification
What is meant by the term ‘informational social influence’?
- When a person conforms to gain knowledge or because they believe someone else is right.
- An individual follows a group in this situation because they want to be right.
What sort of process is ISI?
Cognitive - to do with what we think.
Give an example of NSI.
All of your friends are buying a certain kind of jeans, and so you buy them to fit in, even though you don’t really like the style.
Give an example of ISI.
If all your classmates choose answer A, you may also choose answer A because you want to be right.
Name a strength of ISI.
Research Support
Sumarise the reserach support for ISI.
- Lucas et al asked students to answer mathematical problems and found that conformity to incorrect answers were higher when the questions were difficult than when they were easy; this was most true for students who rated their maths ability as poor.
- This shows that people conform in situations where they don’t know the answer, as they assume others must be right.
- This supports ISI as it shows individuals conform as they want to be right.
What is a strength of both ISI and NSI?
Asch’s Research Support
Summarise Asch’s research support for ISI and NSI.
- Investigated if individuals would conform to the group even when they knew the group was incorrect.
- 75% of participants conformed at least once, with an average of 37% conformity on each critical trial.
- After the experiment, Asch interviewed participants to find out why they conformed.
- Some participants conformed because they did not want to be rejected by the group (NSI) whilst others conformed because they believed the group was right and they were wrong (ISI).
- This study provides evidence or the idea that people will conform to the group to be right or to fit in, supporting both ISI and NSI as explanations.
What is a limitation for NSI and ISI?
Individual Differences
Summarise individual differences in NSI.
- There are individual differences in how people behave.
- Research shows that people who are less concerned about being liked are less affected by NSI than those that care more about being liked; known as ‘nAffilliators’.
- ‘nAfffilliators’ have a greater need for ‘affilliation’, a need for being a relationship with others and are therefore more likely to conform.
- Therefore, individual differences affect how people respond to NSI and therefore how likely they are to conform, which this explanations of conformity does not account for.
