conformity

• Conformity - when a person changes their behaviour due to group pressure
• Compliance

  • changes behaviour to fit in with the group
  • changes public behaviour
  • does not change private belief
  • not permanent
• Identification

  • changes behaviour to be a member of the group
  • change their public and private belief
  • not a permanent change
• Internalisation

  • changes behaviour, as they have accepted the groups belief as their own
  • permanent change
• Asch study

  method:

  • lab experiment
  • volunteer sampling
  • they were asked “which of the three lines is the same length as the standard line?”
  • confederates gave the same incorrect answer on 12/18 trials (the critical trials)
• Asch study

  results:

  • participants conformed on 32% of critical trials
  • 75% conformed atleast once
  • 25% never conformed
• Variables affecting conformity:

  • group size
  • task difficulty
  • unanimity
• Evaluation for research into conformity

  ☹️ A child of its time

  ☹️ Lacks ecological validity

  🙂 Reliability

  ☹️ Ethical issues
• Explanations of conformity

  • normative social influence
  • informational social influence
• Normative social influence

  • why people conform due to compliance
  • due to fear of rejection or need to be liked
  • the majority can include or exclude them
  • leads to public change
• Informational social influence

  • why people conform due to internalisation
  • they want to be right/correct
  • occurs in difficult or unusual situations
  • the majority has the knowledge you require
  • leads to a public and private change
• Evaluation of explanations of conformity

  🙂 NSI support from Asch

  🙂 ISI support from Asch’s variation

  🙂 ISI support from Lucas maths

  ☹️ Individual differences

  ☹️ Difficult measuring why conformity occurs