psychology - conformity

• what is compliance?


  Adherence to rules or regulations. Change to public behaviour, but not actual belief
• what is identification?


  change of public behaviour and private beliefs, but only when with a certain group of people
• what is internalisation?


  Internalisation refers to the process of incorporating external information or values into one's own beliefs or behaviors.
• what are the 3 types of conformity?


  compliance, identification, internalisation
• who created the 3 types of conformity? and when?

  Kelman - 1958
• what is normative social influence?


  Compliance and identification. short term change done in order to fit in
• what is informational social influence?

  internalisation. changing opinion based off of information and so you truly believe it to be correct
• what is an example of ISI?


  converting religion or becoming vegetarian
• what are the 2 types of social influence?


  social and informational
• who created the 2 types of social influence? and when?

  Deutsch and Gerard - 1955
• who did a study on conformity? and when?

  Solomon Asch - 1956
• what was the aim of Asch's study?


  To investigate conformity and the influence of group pressure on individual behavior. To see if people would purposefully give a clearly wrong answer just because everyone else does.
• what was the method of Asch's study?


  groups of about 6-9 people were asked to find 2 similar lines (very easy). confederates picked wrong lines.
• what were the results of Asch's study?


  people conformed and picked the same wrong lines to fit in with confederates. people only correct 2/3 trails, when before 99% correct
• what was Asch's conclusion?


  people conform to fit in with a group
• Evaluate Asch's study


  -done over 70 years ago (too old)

  -Perrin and Spencer repated study in 1981 (only 1/396 conformed)

  -task lacks mundane realism

  -only men were tested (can't generalise it to women)

  -only USA citizens tested (cultural differences so can't generalise it)
• who did a study testing conformity to social rules? (prison) and when?

  Zimbardo - 1973
• what was the effect of increasing majority in Asch's study? and why


  conformity increased beacuse there became a higher pressure to conform as they feel further isolated and want to fit in
• what was the effect of including the presence of a non-conforming person in Asch's study? and why?


  conformity decreased as they feel less ostrasized and so feel more comfortable to say what they actually think. less pressure
• what was the effect of making the task more difficult in Asch's study? and why?


  conformity increased as the pps may believe they are genuinely wrong if the answer is not as clear