conformity

• What are the 3 types of conformity?

  compliance, identification and internalisation
• What is internalisation?

  a person genuinely accepts group norms and opinions in public as well as in private and this change is normally permanent
• What is identification?

  when people conform because they value the opinion of members in the group, even if they privately disagree
• conformity is when people change their behaviour to fit in with the majority, as a result of pressure from a person or group
• One explanation of conformity is Informational social influence - suggests that we agree with the opinion of the majority group as we believe it to be correct , we accept the opinion as we also want to be correct - can lead to internalisation
• One explanation of conformity is normative social influence- suggesting that we agree with the opinion of the majority because we want to be liked and accepted by the group - can lead to compliance
• Research support for normative social influence- Asch interviewed Participants from his study, some said they felt self-conscious to give the right answer. When participants wrote their answers down, conformity fell to 12.5%
• conformity=a change in a person’s behaviour or opinion as a

  result of a real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people’
• research support for informational social influence- Lucas et al found that conformity to an obviously incorrect maths answer was greater when the question was more difficult and the participant rated their own maths ability unfavourably. This shows that individuals are more likely to turn to others when they lack the information to make their own informed decisions
• 3 variables effecting conformity -

  • task difficulty
  • group size
  • unanimity
• Asch's study consisted of 123 American undergraduate students, divided into groups of 6 with 5 confederates and 1 true participant
• Asch's study found that:

  36.8% conformed. 25% never conformed. 75% conformed at least once
• group size-Asch found that an individual is more likely to conform when in a larger group. when there was more than 3 and the conformity rose by 30%. this is because a person is more likely to conform if all members of the group give the same answer, because it will increase their confidence in correctness of the group, and decrease their confidence in their own answer. However.... Conformity does not seem to increase in groups larger than four 
• unanimity -Asch found that An individual is more likely to conform when the group is unanimous. when he introduced a confederate who disagreed with other confederates and gave a different wrong answer, the participant conformed less
• task difficulty - Asch found that An individual is more likely to conform when the task is difficult, he altered the (comparison) lines making them more similar in length. Since it was harder to judge the correct answer conformity increased. When the task is difficult, we are more uncertain of our answer so we look to others for confirmation. The more difficult the task the greater the conformity
• compliance is when a person goes along with group norms in order to fit in even if they don't actually agree with their viewpoint. they tend to disagree with these views in private
• zimbardo's stanford prison experiment investigated conformity to social roles
• social roles can be defined as the parts that people play as members of their social group - accompanied by expectations of what behaviour is appropriate for each role
• Asch's study lacks population validity due to sampling issues - For example, the participants were only American male undergraduates, and so the study was subject to gender bias, where it is assumed that findings from male participants can be generalised to females (i.e. beta bias).
• Asch's study supports normative social influence - participants reported that they conformed to fit in with the group, so it supports the idea of normative influence, which states that people conform to fit in when privately disagreeing with the majority.
• zimbardo's sample consisted of 24 male students from Stanford university
• key features of zimbardo's study:

  American student volunteers were paid to take part in the study.

  They were randomly issued either guard or prisoner.

  Both prisoners and guards had to wear uniforms.

  Prisoners were only referred to by their assigned number. Guards were given props like handcuffs and sunglasses
• findings of zimbardo's Stanford study:

  identification occurred very fast, as both the prisoners and guards adopted their new roles and played their part in a short amount of time.

  Guards began to harass and torment prisoners in harsh and aggressive ways – they later reported to have enjoyed doing so.

  The guards became more demanding of obedience and assertiveness towards the prisoners while the prisoners become more submissive. This suggests that the respective social roles became increasingly internalised.
• reicher and haslam's study replicated the Stanford prison experiment in the UK. found that participants did not conform to their roles automatically. guards were reluctant to impose authority. shows that conformity may vary over the world.
• zimbardos study caused Psychological harm – Participants were not protected from stress, anxiety, emotional distress and embarrassment e.g. one prisoner had to be released due to excess distress and uncontrollable screaming and crying. One prisoner was released on the first day due to showing signs of psychological disturbance, with a further two being released on the next day. This study would be deemed unacceptable according to modern ethical standards.
• zimbardo's study was terminated after only 6 days out of the originally planned 14 days
• zimbardo used participant observation to observe behaviour, meaning his own behaviours may have effected the findings of study, so the validity of the findings is questionable