Conformity

• social factors of conformity

  • agency: agentic state (follow orders w/ no responsibility), autonomous state (own free choice)
  • authority: agentic shift (moving from making own choices to following orders, occurs when someone is in authority)
  • culture - social hierarchy
  • proximity
• dispositional factors of conformity

  • authoritarian personality
  • cognitive style (rigid stereotypes don't like change)
  • originates in childhood - strict parents
  • locus of control (internal= in control of own actions, external=opposite)
  • gender
  • morals
  • confidence in one's ability
• Asch's conformity study

  A= see if people would conform even if they knew it was wrong

  M= lab study, male American college students, group of 7- 9 people, real participants always last to answer

  R= conformed 36.8% of the time, 76% conformed at at least once, 24% never conformed

  C= people conform to fit with a group even when they know they are wrong
• Asch's conformity study evaluation

  • lab experiment
  • USA - individualistic culture, findings could not be generalised to all cultures
  • low population validity
• Piliavin's subway study

  A= does appearance of victim affect helping behaviour

  M= field experiment, 38 trials of alcohol, 65 of sober and walking stick, observations

  R= walking stick - help within 70secs 95% of time, drunk= help within 70sec 50% of time

  C= appearance affected whether help was given
• Piliavin's subway study evaluation

  • high ecological validity - participants didnt know they were taking part so didnt show demand characteristics
  • USA individualistic culture
  • city centre - cannot generalise