types and explanations of conformity

Question 1

3 types of conformity are (deepest lvel to least level)

Answer 1

1. internalisation - change public and private beliefs;genuinely accept the groups norms/ attitudes
2. identification - want to be a part of the group but dont agree with some of the beliefs. Change publically but not privately fully
3. Compliance - ‘Simply going along with others’ in public but not private. superficial change.

Question 2

explanations of conformity

Answer 2

informational social influence - you conform becuase you have the need to be right.
Normative social influence - you conform because you want to be liked and gain social approaval.

Question 3

ao3: limitation of NSI : Individual differences

Answer 3

some people are nAfilliators -they have a strong need to be afilliated with a group. People who are like this are more likely to conform. Shows that NSI underlies conformity for some people more than others. Therefore conformity cannot be fully explained by one general theory.

Question 4

ao3: rsearch support for NSI

Answer 4

asch interviewed ppts post experiment and found that people conformed as they wanted to be liked and were affraid of disapproval. However when ppts wrote there answer in the experiement on a piece of papaer rather than out loud, conformity decreased (12.5%) a there was not normative group pressure.

Question 5

research support for ISI

Answer 5

researchers gave easy/hard maths problems for ppts to solve. Ppts were give the answers from three students. Conformity increased when they approached the harder problems. This shows ISI. therefore this supports aschs claim that task difficulty affects conformity.

However this research doesnt account for individual differences. For example research that replicated this study found that people confident in their maths abilitys were less likely to conform than people not confident. Therefore Acsh’s research doesnt account for all individual factors.