Types and explanations

• Compliance - type of conformity


  Conform in public but not in private

  It is superficial

  Stops when group stops

  eg: laughing at a joke that isn't funny
• Identification - type of conformity


  Public but maybe not private

  Conform because you value something in the group

  Stops when group stops

  eg: veggie at uni but not at home
• Internalisation - type of conformity


  Public and private

  Full on conversion

  Continues even when the group stops
• Informational Social Influence (ISI)


  Conform because you want to be right

  Likely to happen in situations that are new to a person, a crisis or ambiguous situations

  ISI is a cognitive process that leads to internalisation - permanent change
• Normative Social Influence (NSI)


  Conform because we want to be liked

  Happens with strangers or in a social environment when we are concerned about social approval

  NSI is an emotional process - leads to compliance - a temporary change
• Strength of NSI


  There is research evidence to support the experiment

  When Asch interviewed his participants, some said that they conformed because they felt self conscious giving the correct answer as they were afraid of disapproval

  When they wrote their answers down conformity rate fell by 12.5% - because giving answers privately meant that there was no group pressure
• Limitation of NSI 


  Does not predict conformity in every case

  Some people are nAffiliators (they want to relate to people)

  Students who are nAffiliators are more likely to conform

  This shows that NSI shows conformity for some people more than others
• Strength of ISI


  Research support from Lucas et al

  He found that participants conformed more often to incorrect answers they were given when the maths problems were difficult

  When the questions were easy, the participants knew their own minds but when they got harder then the situation became ambiguous - the participants didn't want to be wrong so they replied on the answers they were given