Types of conformity

Question 1

Who proposed the three types of conformity?

Answer 1

Kelman (1958)

Question 2

What are the three types of conformity?

Answer 2

Compliance
Internalisation
Identification

Question 3

What is compliance?

Answer 3

Individuals accept influence because they hope to achieve approval (want to fit in) - publicly but not privately

Question 4

What is internalisation?

Answer 4

Individual genuinely accepts the group’s beliefs or behaviour as their own — both publicly and privately (usually if the group seems trustworthy)

Question 5

What is identification?

Answer 5

Individual adopts an attitude or behaviour because they want to be associated with a particular person or group

Question 6

What are the two explanations for conformity?

Answer 6

Normative social influence
Informational social influence

Question 7

What is normative social influence?

Answer 7

An individual conforms with the expectations of the majority to gain approval or avoid disapproval (typically associated with conformity and identification)

Question 8

What is informational social influence?

Answer 8

Form of influence resulting from the desire to be right - looking to others as a way of gaining evidence about reality (typically internalisation)

Question 9

What research support is there for normative social influence?

Answer 9

Linkenbach and Perkins (2003) - found adolescents exposed to the simple message that the majority of peers their age did not smoke were subsequently less likely to take up smoking
Schutz - hotel guests exposed to the normative message that 75% of guests reuse their towels reduced their own towel usage by 25%

Question 10

What research support is there for informational social influence?

Answer 10

Wittenbrink and Henley - participants exposed to negative information about African Americans (they believed was the majority view) later reported more negative attitudes towards black individuals

Question 11

Why might normative social influence be hard to detect?

Answer 11

Nolan et al (2008)- investigated whether people detected the influence of social norms on the energy conservation - they claim behaviour of neighbours had the least impact however results showed it had the strongest
This suggests people rely of beliefs about what should motivate their behaviour, and so under-detect the impact of normative influence