Social Influence Flashcards
Conformity:
A)Name the three types of conformity.
B)Describe each type of conformity.
A)Compliance, internalisation, identification
B)Compliance-individual will go along with view in order to gain approval/avoid disapproval. They will perform social comparison, watching others behaviour and copying their actions. They desire to fit in yet there view will only be public as their private view will not change.
Internalisation-individual will go along with the views of the group and once exposed to these views their opinion may change, therefore believing they are wrong and the group is right. Their view is changed both publicly and privately.
Identification-has elements of both compliance and internalisation. The individual will accept influence as they want to be accepted by a person/group. If they adopt behaviours and attitudes they feel more part of it.
A)Normative social influence-what is it?
B)Informational social influence-what is it?
A)Following the crowd in order to fit in with the ‘norm’ and to be liked by group. When we want to be liked by a majority group we go along with them even though we may not agree with them.
B)When individuals accept information from others as evidence about reality. Most likely to occur in ambiguous situation (the right course of action is unclear or where experts are present. Do not only comply with behaviour change own behaviour to fit in. Changes views both publicly and privately (making it an e.g. of internalisation)
Evaluation of conformity-
Name three issues with measuring and distinguishing conformity
1) Difficulty distinguishing between compliance and internalisation-complicated by how we define and measure public compliance and private acceptance. E.g. assumed that person who publicly agrees with majority yet disagrees with them privately must be demonstrating compliance. However it could also be possible that this acceptance disappears as they have forgotten the information or have received new information.
2) Normative influence may not be detected-Normative influence has powerful effect on behaviour of individual (as discovered by conformity research). Researchers have began to speculate weather individual recognise behaviour of others as casual factors in their own behaviour. Nolan et al. (2008) investigated weather people detected influence of social norms on their energy conservation behaviour. When asked about what factors had influenced their own energy conservation, people believed the behaviour of neighbours had the least impact on their own energy conservation, yet results show that it had the strongest impact. This shows that people rely on beliefs about what SHOULD motivate their behaviour and so under-detect the impact of normative influence.
3) Informational influence is moderated by type of task-Features of the task moderate the impact of majority influence. E.g. “Bristol the most highly populated city in the south west of England” can be determined through objectivity (physical) by consulting statistics etc. However, other judgments e.g. “Bristol is the most fun city in he south of England” can be made by using objective criteria because such criteria does not exist. Instead these judgments must be made on basis of social consensus e.g. what other people think. As result, majorities should exert greater influence on issues of social rather than physical reality. (Laughlin 1999 research shows this)
Variables effecting conformity
A)Name three variables effecting conformity
B)Describe these three variables
A)Group size, difficulty of task, unanimity of majority
B)Group size: Campbell and Fairey (1989) suggests group size matters more than the choice is subjective. Fitting in becomes driver.
Difficulty in task: Lucas et al. (2006) measured attempts at maths questions. Those with high confidence and skills had lower conformity
Unanimity of majority: Asch (1956) showed that individuals are more likely to conform if they are largely out numbered. If they have an “ally” then they are less likely to conform.
Evaluation of the variables effecting conformity
Identify and explain three evaluative points on the variables effecting conformity.
1) Independent behaviour rather than conformity-Asch believed that rather than showing human beings to be over conformist, his study demonstrated a commendable tendency for participants to stick to what they believed to be the correct judgement I.e. to show independent behaviour.
2) Asch’s research may be a ‘child of its time’-Asch’s research took place in a particular period of US history when conformity was high. (McCarthyism a strong anti-communist period when people were scared to go against majority). Perrin and Spencer attempted to repeat Asch’s study and found that only 1 in 396 trials conformed. A later study showed similar levels of conformity to those found by Asch’s study.
3) Problems with determining the effect of group size-
