Conformity

• what is compliance?

  a superficial and temporary type of conformity where we outwardly go along with the majority view, but privately disagree with it. The change in our behaviour lasts as long as the group is monitoring us
• What is identification?

  a moderate type of conformity when we act in the same way as the group because we value it and want to be a part of it. But we don't necessarily agree with everything the group/majority believes.
• What is internalisation?

  a deep type of conformity where we take on the majority view because we accept it as correct. It leads to a far reaching and permanent change in behaviour, even when the group is absent
• define ISI

  Informative Social Influence is an explanation of conformity that says we agree with the opinion of the majority because we believe it is correct. We accept it becaise we want to be correct aswell. It is most likely to happen in new situations where there is some ambiguity or in crisis situations where we assume the group is likely to be right
• define NSI

  Normative Social Influence is an explanation for conformity that says we agree with the opinion of the majority because we want to gain social approval and be liked. This is most likely to occur around stranges where we are scared of rejection or arounds friends as we want social approval. It can also occur in stressful situations where people have a greater need for social support
• What is the APFC of Jenness' experiment in 1932


  A= To tes conformity on low stake tasks

  P= He asked people (101 M+F students) to estimate the number of sweets in a jar individually, then in a group, then once again individually again.

  F= Most particiapants' second individual guess changed to be closer to the group estimate.

  C= Most people had changed their answer based on the influence of the majority
• What was the A and P of Asch's experiment in 1951?


  A= he aimed to investigate to which social pressure from a group could influence a person to conform

  P= The naive participant was told to state which comparison -A, B or C- line looked most similar in length to the real line (answer was obvious). However, the confederates answered first and were told to give the incorrect answer.
• What was the F and C of Asch's experiment in 1951?


  F= 75% of naive participants conformed to majority view at least once, 36.8% of the naive participants in each trial conformed to the (clearly incorrect) majority. When interviewed the participants admitted that despite not agreeing with the majority they changed their answer to avoid social rejection and ridicule. Although, a few participants admitted that they really thought the group was correct.

  C= This study showed that both ISI and NSI are valid explanations of conformity and that people conform to get social approval
• give four limitations of Asch's research

  1)the tasks and situations were artificial = findings do not replicate real world situations which reduces ecological validity of study

  2)the sample used was only 123 american males = findings tell us little about conformity levels of other cultures and women

  3)ethical consideration may have been overlooked = we must question whether the research is worth the impact it may have on participants

  4) low temporal validity
• Evaluate Asch's research being artificial.

  Participants knew they were in a research study = this could have led to demand characteristics which make the findings unreliable. The task was trivial and meaningless so there was no reason to conform. We cannot apply the research task to the real world so generalisability is reduced.
• Evaluate Asch's sample

  The sample consisted of 123 american males which made it unrepresentative of the population, therefore not generalisable.

  eg. women are more likely to conform as they are more concerned with social relationships

  eg. in collectivist culture experiments conformity is higher
• evaluate the ethical concerns in Asch's research


  naive participants were decieved as they thought the confederates were real participants. Although, it can be argued as beneficial to the experiment as it will reduce demand characteristics.

  However, Asch's research has increased our knowledge on why people conform which can help avoid mindless, destructive conformity
• Give a strength of Asch's research


  There is support for task difficulty being an important factor in conformity.
• Give evidence that supports Asch's research (+evaluation)

  Lucas et al. 2006 asked participants to answer 'easy' and 'hard' maths questions (they also gave them answers from other -fake- students). This study showed that participants conformed more when problems were harder.

  However, Lucas et al. showed conformity is more complex. Participants who were more confident in their maths skills conformed less on hard tasks than those with low confidence
• what variables did Asch investigate?


  Group size, unanimity, task difficulty
• how does task difficulty affect conformity?


  when it was harder to see the difference between the lines, conformity increased as the situation became more ambiguous as the task got harder. This could be explained by ISI, which is when people observe others for guidance, wanting to be right.

  As TD increases, so does conformity (positive correlation)
• how does unanimity affect task difficulty?

  Asch introduced a dissenting confederate who in one variation gave the right answer, and in the other the wrong one. The participant conformed less; the rate decreased ot less than a quarter of what it was when the majority was unanimous. For both variations, the dissenter seemed to free the participant to behave more independantly. Conformity decreases when cracks are percieved in the majority's unanimous view.

  As U decreases, so does conformity (positive correlation)
• how does group size affect conformity?


  Conformity increases with group size, but only up to a certain point (curvilinear relationship). With three confederates, conformity increased to 31.8%, but did not change much when more confederates were introduced.
• what is the A+P of Zimbardo'a experiment

  Aim: to see whether people will conform to new social roles.

  Procedure: Student, male volunteers who were emotionally stable were selected and randomly allocated to the role of guard and prisoner. Prisoners were arrested from home randomly, stripped, and given a uniform and number that they were to by. The prison guards were given uniforms and worked shifts.
• what is the F+C of Zimbardo's experiment?


  Findings: the experiment was called off after 6 days due to the guards becoming so brutal and prisoners having nervous breakdowns, going on hunger strikes. One got released earlier as he showed signs of psychological disturbance. The prisoners rebelled at first but then became apathetic when the guards reinforced their power.

  Conclusion: social roles can influence a person's behaviour. This could be due to deindividualisation and is affected by individual perceptions of social roles
• how did uniform affect conformity to social roles?


  It created a loss of personal identity aka deindividualisation
• give strengths of Zimbardo's SPE 


  It is a lab experiment = high control over variables and ruled out individual differences through specific selection of participants = increased internal validity = more reliable results

  McDermott argues prisoners behaved as though the prison was real to them - 90% of conversations between guards were about prison life and some participants said they believed the prison was real but ran by psychologists rather than the government
• Give limitations of Zimbardo's SPE regarding generalisability

  Lab experiment = low mundane realism - Banuazizi and Movahedi argued participants were merely 'play-acting' = not generalisable to real world

  Behaviour was based on stereotypes and perceptions of their roles = invalidates findings about conformity to social roles in actual prisons

  Sample is not representative of the population = cannot be generalised
• Give other limitations of Zimbardo's SPE 


  Unethical - cannot withdraw, psychological harm

  Exaggerates power of roles - Fromm 1973 found that: Guards: 1/3=brutal, 1/3=fair, 1/3= sympathised and helped prisoners (most guards resisted situational pressures to conform) - Zimbardo overstated his view + minimised influence of dispositional factors
• What is an alternate explanation for Zimbardo's SPE 


  Reicher and Haslam criticise Zimbardo's explanation that 'conforming to social roles comes easily and naturally' does not account for the behaviour of non brutal guards. They explain this using the Social Identity Theory (SIT) saying the guards had to actively identify with their social roles to act the way they did
• give research support for NSI

  Evidence supports it as an explanation of conformity. When Asch interviewed his participants, some said that they conformed because they felt self conscious giving the correct answer and were afraid of disapproval. When participants wrote their answers down, conformity fell to 12.5% aas there was no normative group pressure when answering privately. This demonstrates that some conformity occurs due to a desire not to be rejected by the group for disagreeing with them (ie NSI)
• Give research support for ISI

  There is research to support ISI from the study by Lucas et al. He found that participants conformed more to incorrect answers when the maths problems were more difficult. This is because the situation became ambiguous and the participants did not want to be wrong, so relied on the answers they were given.
• What is a counterpoint for research support for ISI and NSI

  It is often unclear whether NSI or ISI is at work. Asch found that conformity fell when a dissenter was introduced. This could be due to them reducing the power of NSI by providing social support or reducing the power of ISI byb providing an alternative source of social information. Therefore it is hard to seperate ISI and NSI and both probably operate together in most real-life conformity situations.
• State a limitation of NSI 


  It does not predict conformity in every case as some people are more concerned with being liked than others. These people are called nAffiliators and have a strong need for 'affiliation' (ie. they want to relate to other people). McGhee and Teevan found that students who were nAffiliators were more likely to conform. This shows that NSI underlies conformity for some people more than others, therefore individual differences in conformity cannot be fully explained by oine general theory of situational pressures.
• Give two pieces of research support for Asch's experiment


  1. Lucas et al - experiment can be generalised, despite the unrepresentative sample as Lucas et al. got similar results
  2. Smith and Bond - replicated experiment in 1996 and recieved similar results - despite low temporal validity, it is still applicable to the modern world.
• give a counterarguement for Asch's experiement 


  Lucas et als study showed conformity is more complex. Conformity was affected by a person's confidence in their maths ability - those who were more confident conformed less. Therefore, Asch's experiment does not account for individual differences that can affect conformity
• Describe change in conformity % for each variable 


  Unanimity: When a dissenter was introduced, conformity fell to less than a quarter of the level it was (dependant on group size)

  Task difficulty: as task difficulty increased so did conformity due to ISI

  Group size: conformity decreases as group size increases but plateaus at three confederates at 31.8%