CONFORMITY

• conformity

  a change in a person's behaviour or opinions as a result of real or imaginable pressure from others
• 3 ways people conform:

  internalisation, identification, compliance
• internalisation

  1. a person genuinely accepts a groups norms
  2. private and public change
  3. change is likely to be permanent
  4. change persists even when group is not there
• identification

  1. we conform to a group as there is something about the group we value
  2. public change, even if we don't privately agree
  3. change is temporary
  4. group leaves, behaviour stops
• compliance

  1. going along with others in order to fit in
  2. public change
  3. temporary change
  4. group leaves, behaviour stops
• why we conform?

  1. informational societal influence (need to be right)
  2. normative social influence (need to be liked)
• informational societal influence

  • we agree with the opinion of the majority as we believe they are correct
  • cognitive process
• why does informational societal influence occur?

  1. when people are in new situations
  2. when people are in ambiguous situations
  3. when decisions need to be made quickly
  4. when someone is regarded as an expert
  5. PROCESS LEADS TO INTERNALISED CONFORMITY
• normative social influence

  • we agree with the opinion of the majority as we want to be accepted, gain social approval
  • emotional process
• why does normative social influence occur?

  1. situation where we don't want to be rejected
  2. situation where you want to gain social approval
  3. situation where levels of stress are increased so need more social support
  4. PROCESS LEADS TO COMPLIANCE
• paragraph

  P (limitation of .... is ....)

  E (this is because...)

  E (this is a problem because... / in addition)

  L (summary)
• 1. a strength of using NSI is that it is supported from evidence from

  Linkenbach and Perkins

  who found that their teenagers exposed to a message that the majority of peers their age did not smoke

  were subsequently less likely to smoke
• 2. (strength NSI) this supports the idea that...

  the majority has a major impact on behaviour of individuals as they are likely to copy the behaviour in order to fit in
• 3. (strength of NSI) in addition research by..

  Schultz et al found that..

  hotel guests who were exposed to a normative message that majority of guests reuse their towels each day

  reduced their own towel use by 25%
• 4. (strength of NSI) this therefore suggests that...

  people's behaviour is shaped by their desire to fit in with their reference group
• 1. a strength of ISI is that it is supported by evidence from..

  Lucas et al who found that...

  after asking maths questions there was a conformity to incorrect answers when the questions were more difficult
• 2. (a strength of ISI) this supports the idea that..

  people conform in situations where they don't feel like they know the answer

  in uncertain situations we look to others guidance as we assume they know better and must be right
• 3. (a strength of ISI) however...

  it must be taken into account that tasks which are more ambiguous and need an emotional responses, will tend to lead to more conformity
• 3. (strength of ISI) in addition findings by

  Witterbrink and Henley found that...

  exposure to other people's beliefs have an influence on social stereotypes

  they found that when pps were exposed to negative information about African Americans

  it was found that there were more negative beliefs against a Black individual
• 4. (strength of ISI) thus it can be argued that

  ISI is a valid explanation of conformity as there is lots of evidence
• 1. a limitation of using NSI as an explanation of conformity

  it doesn't account for individual differences

  not everyone's behaviour is affected in the same way

  people who are less concerned about being liked are less affected by NSI than people who do care

  the people who do care about being liked are called Naffiliators (a greater need for affiliation and relationships with others)
• 3. (limitation of NSI) this is supported by evidence from

  McGhee and Teevan who found...

  students who demonstrated a high need for affiliation were more likely to conform
• 2. (limitation of NSI) this is a problem as..

  there is no universal explanation of NSI

  as different people respond differently depending on their needs
• 4. (limitation of NSI) this therefore suggests that

  the desire to be liked underlies conformity

  this factor plays more of a role in some than others

  this is something that this explanation fails to consider
• Asch's research

  • pps = 123 American male students who told they were taking part in investigating visual perception
• how Asch's study was carried out

  • the study involved each naive pp seated second to last around a table with 6-8 confederates
  • confederates were instructed to give the same incorrect answer in 12 out of 18 trials
  • (12 trials were referred to as the critical trials)
  • only 12 so the pps would fall for the trial
  • each trial involved pps being shown 3 lines of different lengths and saying in each which line matched the standard line
  • conformity was measured according to whether the pps gave the correct answer or conformed to the incorrect group norm
• findings in Asch's study

  • in 36.8% of the critical trials, pp's gave an incorrect answer
  • 75% conformed on at least one of the critical values
  • in a controlled condition less than 1% of responses were incorrect
• affecting Asch's study

  group size, unanimity, task difficulty
• group size

  aim - to investigate if group size would be more important than group agreement

  what changed: Asch varied the number of confederates between 1 and 15

  findings - he found a curvilinear relationship between group size and conformity

  conformity increases with group size until a certain point

  • 1 confederate = 3.5% conformity
  • 2 confederates = 14% conformity
  • 3 confederates = 31.8% conformity
  • 4+ confederates = made little differences of conformity
• group size conclusion

  whilst a small majority has little influence on conformity, there is no need for a majority of >3 for influence to be exerted

  people are sensitive of the views of others as just 1 or 2 people was enough to sway opinion
• unanimity

  aim- to investigate whether the presence of a dissenter would affect the naive pp's conformity

  findings - when the dissenter was present, conformity decreased 25% regardless of whether they gave the correct answer or not
• unanimity conclusion

  the findings suggest that majority influence is influenced by group unanimity

  the presence of a dissenter frees the pp to act more independently

  even if they disagreed with the pp
• task difficulty

  aim- to investigate if complexity of the tasks affect conformity

  findings - when the lengths of the lines became more similar so it was harder to tell them apart, conformity increased
• task difficulty conclusion

  the findings suggest that the ambiguity of the task increases conformity which can be explained by an increase in ISI
• 1. Asch's research into conformity is described as a 'child of its time'

  this is problem as Asch's study took place in a particular period of time of US history where conformity was very high and so lacks temporal validity
• 2. (limit of A's study child of its time) this criticism is supported by evidence from..

  Perrin and Spencer..

  who repeated Asch's study with English engineering students and found that only 1 out of 396 trials conformed
• 3. (limit of A's study child of its time) however in a subsequent Perrin and Spencer study

  they repeated A's study again but using

  male youth on probation with their officers as their confederates

  they found similar levels of conformity to Asch's initial study

  this opposes the idea that the study was a 'child of its time'
• 4. (limit of A's study child of its time) therefore it can be argued that

  conformity is more likely if the perceived cost of not conforming is high, which would have been the case in the Mcarthy period in US

  • A's study is not consistent across time and not a fundamental feature of human behaviour
• 1. Another limitation of A's study is that it was conducted in an artificial setting

  the pps knew they were apart of the research, and so went along with demands
• 2. (A's study in artificial setting) this is a problem because

  tasks of identifying lines is so trivial, everyone conformed

  as well as this, the naive pp was part of a random group, not somewhere they would be everyday