conformity

• Conformity is a type of social influence involving a change in a persons belief, opinion or behavior in order to fit in with a group. This change is into a response of either a real or imagined group pressure
• Compliance is when the person conforms publicly but continues privately to disagree. It is the shallowest form of conformity as it is temporary.
• Identification is when the person conforms publicly as well as privately because they have identified with the group and they feel a sense of group membership. The change of belief or behavior is temporary.
• Internalisation is when the person conforms publicly and privately because they have internalised and accepted the views of the group. It is the deepest form of conformity and its permanent.
• Normative social influence= Is the desire to be liked as we conform to fit in with the group because we dont want to appear as foolish or be left out. This is likely to occur in unfamiliar situations or when we are concerned about the social approval of our friends. This leads to compliance.
• Informational social influence= is the desire to be right as we look to others who we believe may have more information than us. It leads to internalisation as it is a cognitive process. Likely to occur in some situations where there is some ambiguity. The decisions have to be made quickly.
• there is research evidence supporting NSI, for example Aschs study found many pp conformed rather than give the correct answer because they were afraid of disapproval . When asked pp asked to write the answer conformity decreased because there was no group pressure. This shows that at least some conformity is due to a desire to be accepted by the group and not to be rejected for disagreeing with them.
• Can be argued that ISI and NSI work together which goes against Gerrads view that behaviour is due to only one of them. E.g. Asch's research demonstrated that both ISI and NSI as reasons for conformity, for instance conforming to fit in with the rest of the group and also because the group was unanimous shows that everyone knows apart from the participate. Suggesting that behaviour is often influenced by both normative and informational social influence working together.
• Research support for ISI comes from Lucas et al. He found that pp conformed more to incorrect answers when the maths problems were difficult. This is because the question was ambiguous so relied on the group answers they were given. This shows that ISI is a valid explanation of conformity because the results are what ISI would predict
• Aschs study was to investigate the extent to which social pressure could affect a person to conform with an unambiguous task.

  123 American male pp were placed in groups with around 7 confederates. They would sit towards the end of the row. Each person in the room had to say which comparison line matched the standard line. Confederates agreed previously what their response would be (wrong answer).
• The finding for Asch was that 37% of the pp conformed to incorrect answer and 25% never conformed. Most of the pp went along in fear of being ridiculed which is NSI
• A limitation of Aschs study is that the task and situation was artificial. Pp knew they were in a research study an may have gone along with the group, this is known as demand characteristics. Identifying the lines was basic therefore there was no real reason not to conform. This means the findings do not generalise to real life scenarios, making the study lack ecological validity.
• One strength is that there is research support investigating task difficulty. Lucas et al asked pp to solve an easy and hard maths problem. They were given answers from 3 fake students. PP conformed more often when a problem is difficult in fear of being wrong which is showing ISI. This supports Aschs results in claiming that task difficulty is one variable affecting conformity.
• however the study has been accused of breaking ethical guidelines. One of them would be the protection of pp as the pp might feel uncomfortable or frustrated if they gave either the correct or wrong answer as they felt they had to go along and conform in order to fit in. This shows how the pp were distressed making the study unethical.
• First variation Asch made was group size

  He found that conformity tends to increase as the size of the group increases. But a group of three was the optimal size as conformity doesnt increase as much after 3.
• Second variation was that when another person in a group gives a different answer then conformity drops. Asch found that with even one confederate going against the majority leads to a reduction of 80% in conformity.
• Third variation is task difficulty. When the difficulty rose conformity increased as people look to others for conformation (ISI), we naturally assume we are wrong and others are right.
• Standford prison experiment- To investigate whether people will conform to new social roles.

  24 male pp were randomly allocated to either guard or prisoner, and the study was supposed to last 2 weeks. The prisoners were arrested unexpectedly from their homes and had to wear stockings over their heads, wore uniforms and were only referred to by their given numbers. The guards had a uniform and mirrored sunglasses.
• The findings for zimbardos study-

  it was cancelled after 6 days due to the mental conditions of the pp. The guards became so brutal that one of the prisoners went on a hunger strike. Eventually the prisoners became apathetic. Overall, the pp conformed to social roles and the guards showed deindividuation ( no personal responsibility)
• one strength of the experiment is Zimbardo had control over key variables. Emotionally stable individuals were randomly assigned to their roles (guard/prisoner). This ruled out any individual personality differences. The outcome of their behaviour was due to the role itself. Control over variables increased the internal validity, supporting the roles on conformity.
• One limitation is the lack of realism of the mock prison. It has been argued pp were play acting. Their performances were based on stereotypes e.g. one of the guards based his brutal character on a film character. This suggests that the findings tell us little about conformity to social roles in actual prisons.
• It has been argued Zimbardo may have exaggerated the power of social roles to influence people. For example, only a third of the guards behaved in a brutal way. Another third applied rules fairly and sympathised with the prisoners. Most of the guards resisted the pressure to conform to brutal roles. This suggests that Zimbardo overstated his view and pp were conforming to social roles and minimised the influence of dispositional factors.