Types and explanations of conformity

Question 1

What is conformity?

Answer 1

Conformity is a change in a person’s behaviour or opinions as a result of real or perceived pressure from others/ the situation.

Question 2

Three types of conformity (Shallowest to deepest level)

Answer 2

Compliance- Publicly but not privately going along with the majority influence to gain approval.
Behaviour change on a temporary basis.

Identification- Public (and sometimes private) acceptance of the majority influence in order to gain group acceptance.
Behaviour changes publicly but not necessarily privately.

Internalisation- Public and private acceptance of the majority influence by adopting the groups beliefs.
The behaviour change is permanent

Question 3

Explanations for Conformity

Answer 3

Deutsch and Gerard (1955)
Claimed we conform for two main reasons outlined in the TWO-PROCESS theory.
1) Informational social influence- the need to be right.
2) Normative social influence- the need to fit in.

Question 4

ISI

Answer 4

This is about who has better information, because people want to be right.
eg. you may not know an answer in class, but the answer that most people agree on is likely to be right.
Cognitive process (about what you think).
Most likely in situations that are new, when you don’t know what is right, or when it’s not clear what you should think (crisis situations, experts).

Question 5

Outline ISI as an explanation for conformity.

Answer 5

ISI is said to stem from the human need to be right. It is a cognitive process that asserts that when we hear the opinions of others that are different to ours, we believe they must be right, so go along with their beliefs. This leads to internalisation and a permanent behaviour change.

Question 6

NSI

Answer 6

Based on norms or typical behaviour.
Norms regulate behaviour of groups and the individual. These are followed to gain social approval rather than being rejected.
Emotional process.
Likely to occur with strangers as this can create concern over rejection, or with people you know, as this is where people are most concerned about social approval.
More pronounced in stressful situations- need for social support.

Question 7

AO3- ISI

Answer 7

1) Supporting research from Lucas et al. (2006).

Asked students to give answers to maths problems. Greater conformity for more difficult questions, especially when there was lower maths ability. Shows conformity occurs due to uncertainty.

2) Opposing research from Perrin and Spencer (1980).

Science and engineering students showed little conformity, showing that ISI is affected by individual differences (students partaking in specialist subject could reduce generalisability of findings?)

Question 8

AO3- NSI

Answer 8

1) Supporting research from Jenness (1932).

Ppts asked to guess number of jelly beans in a jar privately, discuss ideas in group, and then amend personal judgement. Answers affected by majority opinions as amended guesses tended to reflect group estimate.

2) Supporting research from Asch (1951).

Many ppts went along with obviously incorrect answer because confederates did. Conformity rates fell when ppts wrote answers in secret, rather than out loud.

Question 9

AO3- Explanations of conformity

Answer 9

1) Holistic approach required.

Some believe ISI and NSI do not occur in isolation and individuals conform due to both processes. Eg. presence of dissenter may reduce NSI, provides social support, or ISI, provides different source of information.

2) nAffiliators.

People more concerned with being liked compared to others, showing there are individual differences in relation to social influence.

Question 10

Asch’s research into conformity.

Answer 10

Solomon Asch- Conformity line experiment (1951)

• Lab experiment to study conformity.
• 50 male students from Swarthmore College in USA participating in ‘vision test’.

Question 11

Asch’s procedure

Answer 11

• Naive ppt in room with seven confederates, who had previously agreed responses to the task. Real ppts believed others were also unknowing ppts.
• Line task presented, each person had to state which line was most like the target line. Answer was always obvious and real ppt answered last.
• Confederates began to provide unanimously incorrect answers.
• 18 total trials, 12 critical trials
• Control group- no confederates.

Question 12

Asch’s findings from baseline study

Answer 12

• around one third (32%) of ppts conformed with incorrect majority in critical trials.
• Over 12 critical trials, 75% conformed at least once, 25% never conformed.
• Control group: less than 1% of ppts gave the wrong answer.

Question 13

Asch- post-findings interviews

Answer 13

Ppts interviewed- said they did not believe their answers bt did not want to veer from majority so they weren’t ridiculed.
A few of them said they did believe the group’s answers were correct.
(evidence of NSI vs ISI)

Question 14

Asch’s variations

Answer 14

Group size, Unanimity, Task Difficulty.

Question 15

Asch’s variations: Group size

Answer 15

• Investigated if group size would be more important than agreement of the group. Varied number of confederates (found curvilinear relationships).
• Conformity rose with group size but only to a certain degree.
• 3 confederates- conformity rose to 31.8% but more made little difference.

Question 16

What did investigating group size suggest?

Answer 16

People are sensitive to the opinions of others as two or three confederates were enough to sway them to conformity.

Question 17

Asch’s variations: Unanimity

Answer 17

Conformity dropped to 25%, irrespective of whether the dissenter was giving the right or wrong answer.

Question 18

What did investigating unanimity suggest?

Answer 18

Influence of majority has an effect only if unanimous. More likely to break free from conformity if cracks are perceived.

Question 19

Asch’s variations: Task Difficulty.

Answer 19

Conformity increased.
This suggests that when a task is more difficult, ppts have less certainty in their judgement so trust others more.

Question 20

AO3: Asch’s research- limited application

Answer 20

1) WEAKNESS: LIMITED APPLICATIONS OF FINDINGS.
P- All ppts were male students who were same age.
Ev- Neto (1995) suggested women may be more conformist due to higher concerns about social relationships.
Bond and Smith (1996) studied collectivist cultures, where social group is more important- found increased conformity.
Ex- shows conformity are sometimes higher- suggests lack of population validity as results can’t be generalised to other social groups.
IDA: Androcentric and Ethnocentric Bias.

Question 21

AO3: Asch’s research- ethical issues

Answer 21

P- The naive ppt was deceived throughout the study.
Ev- The naive ppt was under the impression that they were partaking in a ‘vision test’, meaning deception was present throughout the study.
Ex- Deception could create emotional/ psychological distress for ppts. Despite this the researchers used debriefing to inform ppts of the study, so deception did not continue.
Cost- benefit analysis- slight psychological impact for important research.

Question 22

AO3- Asch’s research: Lack of application

Answer 22

P- Effects highlighted by Asch may not be applicable to different situations and across time.
Ev- Perrin and Spencer (1980) repeated study with engineering students in UK- only one conformed in 396 trials.
Ex- Situation of America in 1950s increased conformity levels- social norms increased conformity. Later, British, environment reduced these effects, conformity not as a fundamental part of human behaviour, but as a product of the time and environment.

Question 23

AO3: Asch’s research- artificial situation and task

Answer 23

P- All ppts knew they were in a research study so behaviour could be influenced by demand characteristics.
Ev- Trivial task they were presented with, ppts had no reason not to conform. Ppts belonged to a restricted group in society so results may not be further applicable. Generalisability limited by the fact there was no important consequence of their behaviour.