Types/ explanations for conformity + Asch

• What is conformity?


  a change in behaviour or belief as a result of real or imagined group pressure.
• What are the three types of conformity?

  Compliance, identification and internalisation.
• What is compliance?


  Compliance is when people conform in order to be liked. Compliance is the weakest conformity as it is only public as when the person is in private their views don't change.
• What is identification?


  Identification is when people conform to gain acceptance from a group because you value that group membership - it is often public but can lead to a slight change in private views
• What is internalisation?


  Internalisation is when people conform because they fully accept the views and beliefs of the group - both public and private displays of the beliefs. Internalisation is the strongest for of conformity.
• What are the two explanations for conformity?

  Normative social influence and informational social influence.
• What is normative social influence?

  • The act of conforming based on the need for approval, the desire to be liked and fit in.
  • Normative social influence often leads to compliance.
  • Asch's research supports NSI as some participants said they conformed because they felt uncomfortable going against the group.
• What is informational social influence?

  • The act of conforming based on the desire to be correct and right.
  • We look for assurance and answers amongst a group when the answer is ambiguous thus leading to ISI and internalisation.
  • Jenness' bean study supports ISI.
• What was the aim of Asch's 1951 line study?

  Aim: to find if participants would yield to social influence in a group task, and to what extent they would give an obviously wrong answer in an unambiguous scenario.
• What was the sample for Asch's 1951 line study?

  • A volunteer sampling method.
  • 123 American male students.
• What was the procedure for Asch's 1951 line study?

  • Participants were deceived and told they were taking part in a new visual perception eye test.
  • Each group contained one real participant and between 6-8 confederates.
  • The real participants often sat last or second to last.
  • Participants were shown a card with a test line, then a second card with 3 lines of different lines were shown. They had to match one of the three lines to the test line.
• What was the procedure for Asch's 1951 line study?

  • The correct answer was obvious, however all the confederates were instructed to give the wrong answer when asked to say their response out loud.
  • There were 18 critical trials in which 12 of them all confederates gave identical wrong answers.
  • Conformity was measured by counting the number of times the real participant conforms and gives the wrong answer.
• What was the findings for Asch's 1951 line study?

  • 75% of participants conformed on at least 1 trial.
  • 37% of participants conformed and gave obvious wrong answers on each critical trial.
  • 26% of participants didn't conform at all.
• What was the findings from the interviewed participants for Asch's 1951 line study?

  • They reported a distortion of action where they knew the answer was wrong but didn't want to be ridiculed by the group.
  • Distortion of perception where they genuinely believed it was the correct answer.
  • Distortion of judgment where they were not certain if their answer and so went along with the group.
• Evaluation of Asch's 1951 line study?

  1.Generalisability

  • The findings were generated from an all male, all American, all student sample which isn't representative of the population and so you can't effectively extrapolate results and apply them to everyone.
• Evaluation of Asch's 1951 line study?

  2.Ethical implications.

  • The participants were deceived which goes against psychology's ethical guidelines as they thought they were participating in a new eye test.
  • The participants did receive a full debrief at the end of the experiment.
• Evaluation of Asch's 1951 line study?

  3.High reliability.

  • Asch followed standardised procedures and used a well-controlled laboratory procedure.
  • This meant that the study can be replicated to verify the findings and can also be adapted to investigate new independent variables.
• What are the 3 variables affecting conformity?

  1. Group size
  2. Unanimity
  3. Task difficulty