Social Influence - Explanations for Conformity

Question 1

Who identified two main reasons for conformity? When?

Answer 1

Deutsch and Gerard in 1955

Question 2

Why do individuals conform according to psychologists?

Answer 2

Because humans have psychological needs to seek approval and acceptance

Question 3

What theory did Deutsch and Gerard develop?

Answer 3

The two process theory

Question 4

Two main reasons for conformity according to Deutsch and Gerard

Answer 4

Need to be right
Need to be liked

Question 5

Type of social influence under the need to be liked

Answer 5

Normative social influence

Question 6

NSI

Answer 6

Normative social influence

Question 7

Why do individuals conform when they are under NSI?

Answer 7

They go along with the majority to gain approval

Question 8

What is conformity often due to when individuals are under NSI?

Answer 8

Fear of rejection even when the actions they are conformed to do may be wrong

Question 9

During what situations does NSI occur?

Answer 9

During non-ambiguous situations (non-grey areas)

Question 10

Does the individual agree with the majority group when under NSI?

Answer 10

They may not agree but they go along with the group anyway

Question 11

What social influence comes under the need to be right?

Answer 11

Informational social influence

Question 12

ISI

Answer 12

Informational social influence

Question 13

During what situations does ISI occur?

Answer 13

During ambiguous situations

Question 14

Why do people conform under ISI?

Answer 14

Because they want to be right and correct

Question 15

When does one go under ISI?

Answer 15

When they lack information and when other people are more informed than them

Question 16

What situation is ISI typical in?

Answer 16

In an emergency

Question 17

Example of emergency when ISI takes place: lifeguard

Answer 17

If a lifeguard is saving someone’s life and they tell you to call someone then you will do it because they are greater informed and you want to be right

Question 18

What do we do then we are unsure to behave according to ISI?

Answer 18

We look to the majority group for answers as we believe them to right

Question 19

Biggest criticism of ISI

Answer 19

It only occurs on certain situations and is dependent on the task you’re doing, decreasing validity

Question 20

Who carried out research supporting the NSI? When?

Answer 20

Asch in 1951

Question 21

What did Asch show participants?

Answer 21

Two white cards at the same time, one saying ‘standard line’ and other having three ‘comparison lines’

Question 22

What was one of the three lines in Asch’s research?

Answer 22

One of the three lines was always the same length as the standard line and the others were completely different

Question 23

Participants in Asch’s research for NSI

Answer 23

123 male American undergraduates

Question 24

What groups were each participants tested in?

Answer 24

Tested individually in groups containing 6-8 confederates

Question 25

How many trials were initially carried out on Asch’s research into NSI?

Answer 25

18

Question 26

In how many trials did the confederates give the wrong answers in Asch’s research into NSI?

Answer 26

12/18

Question 27

Out of the trials that confederates have wrong answers, what percentage of participants gave the wrong answers in Asch’s research into NSI?

Answer 27

37%

Question 28

What percentage of participants did and didn’t conform at any time in Asch’s research into NSI?

Answer 28

25% never conformed 75% conformed at least once

Question 29

The Asch Effect

Answer 29

The extent of which participants conform even when the situation is ambiguous

Question 30

At interviews that took place after the trials, what was the reason why the majority of participants said they conformed in Asch’s research into NSI?

Answer 30

To avoid social rejection (supports NSI)

Question 31

Compared to less confederates, with three confederates what did the conformity levels rise/fall by?

Answer 31

They rose by 31.8%

Question 32

Impact on results of there being more than 3 confederates in the trial in Asch’s research into NSI

Answer 32

Addition of further confederates made little difference to results, showing no need for a majority group larger than 3

Question 33

What did Asch want to investigate when looking into unanimity?

Answer 33

He wanted to investigate if the presence of another participant (who was a confederate) would influence conformity levels

Question 34

How did Asch go about testing impact of unanimity?

Answer 34

He introduced a confederate who disagreed with the other confederates

Question 35

What percentage did conformity increase/reduce by when a correct confederate was added in Asch’s research into NSI?

Answer 35

Conformity reduced by 25%

Question 36

How did the introduction of a non-conformer change the behaviour of the participant in Asch’s research into NSI?

Answer 36

It allowed them to behave more independently

Question 37

What did Asch want to investigate when looking into impact of task difficulty?

Answer 37

He wanted to investigate if difficulty of the task would influence conformity percentages

Question 38

How did Asch increase the task difficulty?

Answer 38

He made the lines more similar in length

Question 39

What happened to conformity as a result of the task coming more difficult in Asch’s research into NSI?

Answer 39

Conformity increased when lines were more similar, showing ISI

Question 40

Strength of Asch’s research into NSI: establishment

Answer 40

Cause and effect relationship established as lab experiment was used

Question 41

Strength of Asch’s research into NSI: reliability

Answer 41

Easily replicable

Question 42

Strength of Asch’s research into NSI: data gathered

Answer 42

Qualitative and quantitative data gathered by researcher

Question 43

Limitation of Asch’s research into NSI: all-male sample

Answer 43

Lack generalisability as the sample was all-male

Question 44

Limitation of Asch’s research into NSI: ethics

Answer 44

Participants were deceived which is ethically concerning

Question 45

Limitation of Asch’s research into NSI: artificial test

Answer 45

Task is artificial to it lacks ecological validity and real-life application

Question 46

Limitation of Asch’s research into NSI: test carried out in 1951

Answer 46

Lacks temporal validity

Question 47

Which psychologists showed that Asch’s research into NSI lacks temporal validity? How?

Answer 47

Perrin and Spencer repeated experiment in 1980 and only 1 person out of 396 trials conformed

Question 48

Time period of 1950s

Answer 48

Time period where lots of people conformed

Question 49

Who carried out research to support the ISI? When?

Answer 49

Sharif in 1935

Question 50

Aim of Sharif’s research for ISI

Answer 50

Aimed to investigate whether people are influenced by others

Question 51

What type of task was Sharif’s research for ISI?

Answer 51

An ambiguous task

Question 52

What effect did Sharif use in his research of ISI?

Answer 52

The autokinetic effect

Question 53

Autokinetic effect

Answer 53

Still point of light in the dark appears to move

Question 54

What were participants shown in Sharif’s research for ISI? What were they told to do after?

Answer 54

A point of light in the dark and told to estimate how far it moved, first on their own and then in groups

Question 55

What did participants develop alone after seeing the point of light in Sharif’s research for ISI?

Answer 55

They developed their own stable estimates

Question 56

Other phrase for stable estimates

Answer 56

Personal norms

Question 57

When in groups, what did participants do in Sharif’s research for ISI?

Answer 57

They conformed to share the same idea (group norms)

Question 58

How does Sharif’s research for ISI support the ISI?

Answer 58

It shows that participants were influenced by guess estimates of the movement of the dot by other participants

Question 59

Limitation of Sharif using a lab experiment

Answer 59

Lacks ecological validity meaning results cannot be generalised

Question 60

Strength of Sharif using a lab experiment (3)

Answer 60

Controlled environment means there are no extraneous variables Cause and effect relationship established Experiment easily replicable

Question 61

What experimental design did Sharif use?

Answer 61

Repeated measures design

Question 62

Strength of repeated measures design being used by Sharif

Answer 62

Means individual differences are controlled

Question 63

What may manipulate the results of Sharif’s study (limitation)?

Answer 63

Order effects

Question 64

Ethical concern of Sharif’s research of ISI

Answer 64

Deception used by researcher as participants were told that the dot was moving even though it wasn’t

Question 65

Who carried out further research after Sharif to support the ISI? When?

Answer 65

Lucas et al in 2006

Question 66

Method of Lucas et al’s supporting research for ISI

Answer 66

Asked students to give answers to maths problems

Question 67

What maths questions had the greatest conformity in Lucas et al’s research for ISI?

Answer 67

Greatest conformity to incorrect answers that were more difficult

Question 68

Conclusion of Lucas et al’s research for ISI

Answer 68

People conform to situations where they don’t know the answer