Psychology: Social Influence - Conformity

Question 1

What is Conformity?

Answer 1

A change in a person’s behaviour or opinions due to real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people

Question 2

Outline Sherif’s Experiment. How does this study show evidence of conformity?

Answer 2

• Participants were put in a darkened room, with no visible objects and asked to focus on a single spot of light
• They were asked how far the light had moved and in what direction - ambiguous task
• Dramatic variation in response when done individually
• Repeated experiment in groups of 3
• Individual changed their individual views and converged or agreed with others within the group
• Group norm was formed

Question 3

Who came up with the three types of conformity and what are they?

Answer 3

• Internalisation
• Identification
• Compliance

Question 4

Define Internalisation. Give an example

Answer 4

Is the deepest level of conformity. Here a person changes their public behaviour and their private beliefs to the majority view. Occurs even when the group is about.

Long - term change

ISI

Question 5

DEfine Identification. Give an example

Answer 5

Is the middle level of conformity. People publicly change their behaviour in line with the group because they identify with the group and want to be part of it. Privately they do not change their behaviour.

Short - term change

NSI

Question 6

Define Compliance. Give an example

Answer 6

Is the lowest and superficial level of conformity. Here a person ‘goes along with others’ in line with the majority view, but privately disagrees.

Short - term change

NSI

Question 7

What is Deutsch + Gerard’s two - process theory?

Answer 7

• Informational Social Influence
• Normative Social Influence

Question 8

What is informational social influence (ISI)? What type of process is it?

Answer 8

This occurs when we look to the majority group for information as we are unsure about the way in which to behave. A person will conform because they genuinely believe the majority to be right as we look to them for the right answer and this gives them a feeling of control

Generally occurs in ambiguous or new situations / crisis situations

It is a cognitive process as it is to do with how / what you think about the group and the situation

Question 9

What is normative social influence (NSI)? What type of process is it?

Answer 9

This occurs when we wish to be liked by the majority group, so we go along with them even though we may not agree with them. This is really just following the crowd in order to fit in with the ‘norm’ and be liked by the group

Most likely to occur in situations where you know the people well or in stressful situations where you need social support

It is an emotional process as people do not like to feel foolish or rejected by the in-group

Question 10

Outline the study conducted by Jenness (1932). What explanation of conformity does it show supportive evidence for?

Answer 10

Aim: To investigate whether individual judgements of jellybeans in a jar was influenced by a discussion in groups
Finding: Individuals second private estimate tended to move towards group estimates. More women also seen to conform.

ISI the task was ambiguous task - answer was unclear

Question 11

What did McGhee + Teevan find? How is this a limitation of the dual-process explanation of conformity?

Answer 11

Individual differences: McGee & Teevan (1967), students high in need of affiliation were more likely to conform, naffiliators. But, what about people who do not have the need to affiliate?

Question 12

How is ISI and NSI potentially working together a limitation of the dual-process explanation of conformity?

Answer 12

It is hard to separate them and work out which one explains Conformity. Example of a dissenter in Asch’ study - this may suggest distinguishing between the two is not very useful

Question 13

What real-life application has NSI got? Why is this a strength?

Answer 13

Schulz et al. (2008) were able to change the energy consumption of hotel guests, particularly through messages that said other hotel guests were re-using their bath towels. Useful and had a positive impact

Question 14

How does Asch’s research provide support for both NSI and ISI?

Answer 14

Provides support for both ISI and NSI through his line study. Hard to draw a general conclusion about why people conform - different for different people

Question 15

Outline the procedure of Asch’s research. Include:
- Participants information
- How many trials
- Confederates
- What was the DV?

Answer 15

• Testing Conformity in unambiguous (obvious) situations
• 123 American men tested with 5 confederates (payed actors)
• After trial the confederates give false answers
• DV = how often the participants conformed and also give an incorrect answer

Question 16

What were the findings of Asch’s baseline study?

Answer 16

• Participants conformed 36.8% of the time
• 75% of participants confined at least once
• To make sure the line test want difficult, Asch conducted a control trial with no confederates. He found that people only made mistakes 1% of the time.

Question 17

What explanation of conformity could explain these findings? Why?

Answer 17

NSI as the answers were ambiguous so the participants were conforming to fit in with the group

Question 18

What were the three variations of Asch’s research?

Answer 18

• Group size
• Unanimity
• Task difficulty

Question 19

Group size: What relationship did Asch find between group size and conformity? What does this mean?

Answer 19

Found a curvilinear relationship
- Conformity rates were low with 1 or 2 confederates, but jumped to 31.8% when there were three confederates
- There was not much increase in conformity after this - it leveled off
- Conformity actually decreased when there were more than 7 confederates - could be because the aims of the study become more obvious

Question 20

Group Size: what explanation best explains rates of conformity here? Why?

Answer 20

NSI best explanation but ISI could also play a role

Question 21

Unanimity: How did Asch investigate this variable?

Answer 21

He increase the size of the group by repeating the study

Question 22

Unanimity: What did Asch find when he investigated unanimity?

Answer 22

To see if the presence of a dissenter (different answer to the rest of the confederates)
- Found conformity decreased by 75%
- This is regardless of whether the dissenter was giving the correct answer or a different incorrect answer to the rest of the confederates

Question 23

Unanimity: What explanation best explains rates of conformity here? Why?

Answer 23

NSI is involved

Question 24

Task Difficulty: How did Asch study this and what did he find?

Answer 24

Increased the task difficulty by making the differences between the lines smaller
- Found conformity significantly increased

Question 25

Task Difficulty: What explanation best explains rates of conformity here? Why?

Answer 25

Shows that ISI can explain conformity as when we are unsure we look to other people for the right answers

Question 26

Why is it a limitation that Asch's research was conducted using a lab study?

Answer 26

- Many simply have shown demand characteristics due to artificial situation - The groups do not resemble everyday life - Can not generalise to real life Counter -> high internal validity - High Control of extraneous variable's - IV -> DV (confident we measured what was intended to be measured)

Question 27

How can we criticise the sample? Why is this an important limitation of Asch's research into conformity?

Answer 27

- Only tested men and woman may be more conformist (Neto, 1995) - Only tested Americans (individualist culture) - Bond and Smith (1995) found conformity was higher in China (collectist) - Lacks generality to target population

Question 28

What are potential ethical issue of this study? Why is this problematic?

Answer 28

- Shows researcher support for task difficulty and the ISI explanation of conformity - Increases the validity of Asch's research into conformity Counter: - However, they also found confidence in maths ability played a large role in conformity - more complex than Asch thought?

Question 29

What research did Lucas et al. (2006) conduct? How does this research both support and refute Asch's findings in conformity?

Answer 29

- They deceived participants which could have caused them psychological harm --> damage psychology reputation Counter: - However, is this worth it for the potential positive real life impact of this knowledge?

Question 30

What research did Perrin and Spencer conduct? How did it show that Asch's finding might be a child of its time? What does this actually mean?

Answer 30

- They deceived partisans which could have caused them psychological harm --> damage psychology reputation. Counter: However, is this worth it for potential positive real life impact of this impact of this knowledge

Question 31

What are social roles?

Answer 31

The 'parts' we play as members of social groups. We have expectations about what appropriate behaviour is for each role. Examples: Police Office, Parent, Teacher

Question 32

Provide information about the participants in Zimbardo's study: - How many - How were they assigned - How were they chosen? Why?

Answer 32

- 24 males half guard and half prisoners randomly allocated - Lots of psychological tests and the most 'normal' / emotional stable chosen - Basement of Stanford University

Question 33

Brief outline the procedure of Zimbardo's study

Answer 33

Prisoners did not conform originally but where punished by the guards using divide and conquer tactics to play prisoners against each other.

Question 34

What were the two main methods used to encourage conformity towards social roles?

Answer 34

Guards wore: Black glasses, uniform, baron, handcuffs Prisoners wore: Numbers, smocks, caps to cover hair, chain on ankle Instruction about behaviour: encourage to act in the way their role would expect them

Question 35

What is deindividuation?

Answer 35

They no longer feel themselves and unique

Question 36

What happened initially on the first two days of the study (both from prisoners and guards)?

Answer 36

- Prisoners: Non-conformity, laughing, not following along, rebelled, ripping their uniforms, swearing - Guards: Gain control, took up social roles, divide and conquer tackle to play> prisoners off against each others, Harris the prisoners, Remind them they are powerless

Question 37

What happened after the rebellion was squashed?

Answer 37

Prisoners conformed to their social roles

Question 38

Why did the study have to end early?

Answer 38

Because there was several ethical issues such as many prisoners having psychological breakdowns

Question 39

What conclusions did Zimbardo make about Conformity to social roles?

Answer 39

Conformity to social roles was very high + take on very easily. Even prison Chaplin (Zimbardo) confined to social roles

Question 40

What were the ethical issues present in this study? Why is this a limitation of Zimbardo's research?

Answer 40

He didn't end the research when experiment when prisoners had psychological breakdowns. Questions the research.

Question 41

What happened in Abu Ghraib? How did the support the findings of Zimbardo and what are the potential implications?

Answer 41

Real life appl,ovations as the same events occurred in Abu Ghraib. They army also confirmed to social roles, and Zimbardo brought this psychological phenomenon to light.

Question 42

What research did Jean Orlando conduct? How does this support Zimbardo's findings?

Answer 42

1973 selected staff at a psychiatric hospital at random to play the role of patients on a ward for one week that they would normally look after. After two days several participants experienced symptoms of psychological and become very anxious and depressed as time when on (symptoms like real patients). Study had to be ended as participants were losing their sense of self-identity.

Question 43

Why might the study lack external validity? How is this a limitation of Zimbardo's findings?

Answer 43

Mark McDermott (2019) argues that the participants really did see the scenario as real, as 90%of the conversations the prisoners had was about their life as a 'prisoner', rather than their real lives outside the study. Interviews have also shown the participants thought the prison was very realistic and did not feel they could just leave the scenario at any time. This suggests Zimbardo's research may have high levels of validity.

Question 44

How may Zimbardo have over exaggerated his findings? What are the implications of this for his explanation of conformity to social roles?

Answer 44

Zimbardo may have exaggerated the findings about Conformity to social roles and how much it influenced behaviour. Although he claimed all there were high levels of conformity to social roles, only 1/3 of the guards actually behaved brutally, 1/3 tried to be very fair when applying the rules, and the final 1/3 actively sympathised and tried to help the prisoners by offering them cigarettes and privileges that had bee taken away by other guards. What does this suggest about Zimbardo's findings? What other factors might be just as important for determining behaviour?

Question 45

How did Zimbardo's study have good internal validity? Why is this a strength of his explanation?

Answer 45

The way Zimbardo selected participants had very high levels of control as they were deemed emotionally stable through extensive testing and randomly assigned to be conditions of the Independent VAriable (guards or prisoners). This rules out the Extraneous Variable of individual differences which means the study had a high internal validity.