Conformity

• Conformity is a change in a person’s behaviour or opinions as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or group.
• Kelman suggested there were 3 ways to conform: internalisation- person accepts norms resulting in a public and private change, identification- agrees with some values and want to be a part, compliance- don’t actually agree but publicly conforms.
• Deutch and Gerrard developed the two process theory of conformity: Informational Social Influence- the need to be right, and Normative Social Influence- the need to be liked.
• Research support for ISI: Lucas et al asked students for answers on easy and difficult maths problems. There was greater conformity to incorrect answers when they were difficult questions. The study shows people conform in situations where they feel they didn’t know the answer, like the outcome predicted by ISI.
• Research support for NSI: Asch held an experiment to see if people would conform to incorrect answers. When 123 male american undergraduate participants were shown a line then 3 comparison lines and asked which closely matched, they conformed with the 6-8 confederates in their groups and gave the wrong answer 36.8% of the time. When asked why they said they felt self-conscious giving the correct answer and didn’t want the group to disapprove. When he repeated the experiment but asked participants to write down the answers, conformity dropped to 12.5%.
• Individual differences can effect how NSI effects people’s behaviour. People who are less concerned about being liked are less effected. McGhee and Teevan found that students higher in need of affiliation were more likely to conform.
• Zimbardo researched whether social roles influence behaviour. He conducted the Stanford prison experiment to see what happens when you put good people (students)in a bad place. The students were randomly picked as a guard or a prisoner, and Zimbardo briefed guards to maintain law and order however they began to take anger out on prisoners and they began to lose their identities. This study shows that power corrupts and they conformed to their social roles, however it was unethical as it was psychologically harming the participants and they felt they couldn’t withdraw.