types of conformity

• social influence is the study of how the thoughts, feelings and behaviour of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of others
• jenness (1932)

  • did an experiment with jelly beans in a jar
  • findings: found that after being given the opportunity to discuss their estimates, participants who were asked to give their individual estimates tended to converge to a group norm
  • conclusion: in an ambiguous situation, people look to others for information
• types of conformity - specification

  • internalisation
  • identification
  • compliance
• compliance


  occurs when an individual accepts influence because they hope to achieve a favourable reaction from those around them. an attitude or behaviour is adopted not because of it content, but because of the rewards or approval associated with its adoption.
• internalisation


  occurs when an individual accepts influence because the content of the attitude or behaviour proposed is consistent with their own value system
• identification


  a form of influence where an individual adopts an attitude or behaviour because they want to be associated with a particular person or group
• normative social influence


  • the person conforms because of their need to be accepted by and belong to the group
  • this may be because being part of the group is rewarding or because the group has the power to punish or exclude those who do not fit in
  • an important condition for NSI to occur is that people must believe they are under surveillance by the group
• normative social influence leads to compliance = people may personally and privately continue to disagree but conform on the surface
• in asch's study, many of ppts who'd conformed on the critical trials knew the confederates' answer was wrong. but if they gave the correct answer, they risked being laughed at by the majority (a form of rejection). they said things like ''i dont want to look stupid''. so, wat they said publicly and what they believed privatelt were different.
• information social influence


  • Individuals accept information from others as evidence of reality.
  • Humans need to feel confident in their perceptions and beliefs.
  • ISI is more likely in ambiguous situations or where others are experts.
  • In social situations, individuals may conform to others due to their belief in their rightness.
• internalisation leads to internalisation = this involves changing both public and private attitudes and behaviours
• sherif's (1935) - conformity and the autokinetic effect

  The experiment used the autokinteic effect to show participants how far a still point of light in the dark moves. They estimated the distance independently and in groups. Participants developed stable estimates when alone, and as they grew in groups, they gradually developed a group norm. The study concluded that participants' estimates converged due to the use of information from others. However, some participants were unsure about the light's movement.