Explanations for conformity

• The two types of social influence is normative social influence and informational social influence
• Normative social influence is where a person conforms to fit into a group and to be liked (usually compliance)
• Informational social influence is when a person conforms because they have a desire to be right, believe the majority are right (usually obediance)
• What was Asch's line study?

  • To investigate whether people would conform in situations where the answer is obvious
  • Used 123 American male undergraduates
  • Confederate told to give wrong answer on 12/18 trials
  • A third conformed on clinical trials
  • 75% conformed at least once
• What factors influence conformity (Asch line study)

  • Task difficulty increases conformity
  • Unanimity (a confederate ,friend') lowers conformity to 5%
• What was the Zimbardo (Stanford) prison experiment?

  • Wanted to investigate how readily people would conform to social roles of a simulated prison
  • Volunteer sample 24 males
  • Cut short to 6 days instead of 2 weeks
  • Unknowingly arrested in their own homes
  • Prisoners given uniforms and addressed by number only
  • Guards given uniforms
  • Zimbardo acted as warden
  • Both settled into roles quickly and within hours guars were harassing prisoners
  • Prisoners became submissive
  • Some prisoners had to leave early due to mental deterioration
• Give one strength and three limitations of the Zimbardo prison experiment

  STRENGTH:

  • Led to better ethical guidelines being developed

  LIMITATION:

  • Demand characteristics (they may have just been acting)
  • Lacks population validity
  • Ethical issues