Social influence- Conformity

Question 1

What is conformity ?

Answer 1

A change in a persons behaviour or opinions as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people.

Question 2

What are the three types of conformity ?

Answer 2

Compliance, Identification and Internalisation

Question 3

What is compliance ?

Answer 3

Compliance is a temporary type of conformity where we outwardly go with the majority view but privately disagree with it. The change in behaviour only lasts as long as we are around the group.

Question 4

What is identification ?

Answer 4

Short term change of behaviour or beliefs only in the presence of a group. For example a work setting

Question 5

What is internalisation ?

Answer 5

Making the beliefs, attitudes and behaviour of the group your own. This change in an individuals view is permanent.

Question 6

What is informational social influence ?

Answer 6

An explanation of conformity that says that we agree with the opinion of the majority because we believe it is correct. We accept it because we want to be correct aswell

Question 7

When does ISI usually occur ?

Answer 7

In situations where we do not have the knowledge of expertise to make our own decisions.

Question 8

What does ISI usually lead to ?

Answer 8

Internalisation, as their own internal views change as they believe others have a better answer

Question 9

What is normative social influence ?

Answer 9

A explanation of conformity that says that we agree with the opinion of the majority because we want to gain social approval and be liked

Question 10

What does NSI normally lead to ?

Answer 10

Compliance, as we go along with the views of majority in public but privately disagree

Question 11

When does NSI usually occur ?

Answer 11

When someone wants to avoid the situation of disagreeing with a majority

Question 12

What are the three variables Asch investigated ?

Answer 12

Group size, Unanimity and Task difficulty

Question 13

What was the aim of Asch’s study ?

Answer 13

To investigate conformity and minority influence

Question 14

Outline Asch’s method

Answer 14

• Participants and confederates are presented with 4 lines (3 comparison lines and 1 normal line)
• Then asked to state which of the 3 lines are the same as the original line
• The real participant always answered second to last or last
• Confederates would answer incorrectly incorrect answer 12 out of 18 trials

Question 15

What percentage of people conformed at least once ?

Answer 15

75%

Question 16

What percentage of people never conformed ?

Answer 16

25%

Question 17

What percentage of people conformed all the time ?

Answer 17

36.8%

Question 18

How many participants did Asch use for this study ?

Answer 18

123 American male undergraduates

Question 19

What effect did group size have on conformity and how did Asch investigate this ?

Answer 19

To test the effect of this he varied the number of confederates from one to 15 and found the as group size increased conformity increased but only up to a point

Question 20

What effect did unanimity have on conformity and how did Asch investigate this ?

Answer 20

He introduced a confederate who disagreed with the other confederates and found that the genuine participant conformed less often in the presence of a dissenter

Question 21

What is unanimity ?

Answer 21

The presence of a non conforming person

Question 22

What effect did task difficulty have on conformity and how did Asch investigate this ?

Answer 22

He increased the difficulty by making the comparison and specimen lines very similar making it harder for the genuine participants to distinguish, he found that as task difficulty increased conformity increased.

Question 23

Give one limitation of Asch’s research (artificial)

Answer 23

One limitation of Asch’s research was that the task and situation were artificial meaning that participants knew they were in a research study and may simply have gone along with what was expected. The task of identifying lines was relatively trivial, and so there was no reason NOT to conform. This means that findings do not generalise to real world situations.

Question 24

Give 4 strengths of Asch’s research

Answer 24

• High internal validity
• Lab experiment
• Ethical issues, ppts debriefed
• Support for NSI

Question 25

What was the aim of Zimbardo’s study ?

Answer 25

To investigate how readily people would conform to the social roles in a simulated environment, and specifically, to investigate why ‘good people do bad things’.

Question 26

Where was ZImbardos study held?

Answer 26

Stanford University

Question 27

Outline Zimbardo’s method

Answer 27

• They selected 21 men (volunteers) who were tested as emotionally stable
• The students were randomly assigned to play the part of either prisoner of guard
• Both had to wear uniforms and were encouraged to conform to their roles
• Guards were given objects such as handcuffs and glasses

Question 28

What is de-individuation ?

Answer 28

A loss of personal identity- This meant the guards would be more likely to conform to their social roles

Question 29

How long was Zimbardos study intended to take place ?

Answer 29

14 days

Question 30

How long did Zimbardos study actually take place for ?

Answer 30

6 days

Question 31

Give one strength of Zimbardos prison study

Answer 31

Real- world application as this research as improved the way in which US prisons are run

Question 32

Give 3 limitations of the SPE

Answer 32

• Lacks ecological validity
• Ethical issues
• Lacks population validity (only white middle aged American men)