Conformity (Asch)

• What is conformity?

  Changing behaviour due to group pressure
• What are Kelman's three types of conformity?

  • Compliance: Publicly conforms, privately disagrees (NSI)
  • Identification: Adopts group behaviour, private agreement varies
  • Internalisation: Deepest form, permanently adopts beliefs (ISI)
• Which type of conformity involves publicly conforming but privately disagreeing?

  Compliance
• What characterizes identification as a type of conformity?

  Adopting group behaviour for belonging
• Which type of conformity involves permanently adopting the group's beliefs?

  Internalisation
• What is Deutsch & Gerard's Two-Process Theory of conformity?

  • Normative Social Influence (NSI): Conforming to be liked, leads to compliance.
  • Informational Social Influence (ISI): Conforming to be correct, leads to internalisation.
• What does Normative Social Influence (NSI) involve?

  Conforming to be liked
• What type of conformity does Normative Social Influence (NSI) typically lead to?

  Compliance
• What type of conformity does Informational Social Influence (ISI) typically lead to?

  Internalisation
• What is the main motivation behind Informational Social Influence (ISI)?

  Conforming to be correct
• What happened to conformity rates in Asch's study when answers were written down?

  Conformity dropped to 12.5%
• What was the aim of Asch's experiment?

  To investigate majority influence on conformity
• How many participants were in Asch's study and what was their gender?

  123 male students
• How many trials involved confederates giving incorrect answers in Asch's study?

  12 out of 18
• What was the overall conformity rate in Asch's study?

  36.8%
• In Asch's study, what percentage of participants conformed at least once?

  75%
• In Asch's study, what percentage of participants never conformed?

  25%
• In Asch's study, what percentage of participants conformed every time?

  5%
• What conclusion did Asch draw from his experiment regarding why people conform?

  Due to NSI (social approval)
• How did group size affect conformity in Asch's variations?

  Conformity levelled off after three
• How did unanimity affect conformity in Asch's variations?

  Dissenter answered correctly which reduced conformity to 12.5%
• To what percentage did a dissenting confederate reduce conformity in Asch's variations?

  5.5%
• How did task difficulty affect conformity in Asch's variations?

  More difficult tasks increased conformity
• Which type of social influence is most likely to be the reason why more difficult tasks increased conformity in Asch's variations?

  ISI
• What are the strengths of Asch's study?

  • High internal validity (standardised procedures)
  • Reliable (controlled lab setting)
  • Supports NSI
• What are the weaknesses of Asch's study?

  • Low ecological validity (artificial task)
  • Lacks population validity (male, American sample = gender/cultural bias)
  • Ethical issues (deception, lack of informed consent)
• Why is Asch's study criticised for low ecological validity?

  Due to the artificial task
• What type of validity is compromised by the use of only male, American participants in Asch's study?

  Population validity
• What ethical issues are associated with Asch's study?

  Deception, lack of informed consent
• Who identified the three types of conformity (compliance, identification, and internalisation)?

  Kelman
• What type of social influence, according to Deutsch and Gerard, leads to compliance?

  NSI
• According to Deutsch and Gerard's Two-Process Theory, what type of social influence most directly leads to internalisation?

  ISI