Explanations and types of conformity

• Informational social influence = an explanation for conformity that says we agree with the opinion of the majority because we believe that it is correct. We accept it because we want to be correct as well (Need to be right)
• ISI is most likely to occur when a situation is new to a person, in ambiguous situations, in crisis situations and where there is an expert in the group
•  A strength for ISI is research support from Lucas et al, he found that students conformed to an incorrect answer when they found the task more difficult
• a weakness for ISI is individual differences, research to support this is Perrin and Spencer and they found that very little conformity can show that some people are less likely to seek information from others
• Normative social influence = an explanation for conformity that says we agree with the opinion of the majority because we want to gain social approval and be liked (the need to be liked)
• NSI is most likely to occur in emotional rather than cognitive situations, when conformity is used in order to gain approval or avoid disapproval, situations with strangers social approval and stressful situations 
• a strength for NSI it's N affiliators,  these are people in need of affiliation (to be liked) and therefore are more likely to conform
• a weakness for NSI is individual differences, NSI doesn't affect everyone in the same way
• compliance = a temporary type of conformity where we outwardly go along with the majority view but privately disagree with it
• identification = we act in the same way as a smaller group because we value it and want to be part of it however we don't necessarily agree with everything the group believes but we change our behavior whilst in the group
• internalization = a deep type of conformity where we take on the view because we accept it as correct it results in permanent change in our behaviour even when the group is not present