Conformity

• what is conformity?

  a change in a person's behaviour or opinion as a result of a real or imagined social pressure either from a group of people or individual
• why is Asch's research considered a baseline procedure?

  it is the study where later studies are compared to
• Briefly outline Asch's baseline procedure

  • experiment to see how people conformed
  • 123 American male undergraduates
  • groups up to 9 participants and 8 confederate majorities 1 naive minority
  • shown two grey cards (comparison lines)
  • stated out loud which lines matched
• how many trials did each participant go through and what was it made up of?

  18

  6 - confeds gave correct answer (reduce obviousness)

  12 critical - confeds gave wrong answer

  Control - pps judged lines alone
• what was the findings and conclusions of Asch's baseline procedure?

  36.8% conformity rate (based off naive pps going along)

  Control group 0.7% incorrect answers

  • people conform to majority influence even when the correct answer is obvious
• why did Asch extend his baseline study?

  to investigate the variables that might lead to an increase or decrease in conformity
• what were Asch's 3 variables in his repeated study?

  1. group size
  2. unanimity
  3. task difficulty
• what did Asch do with the group size in his repeated study?

  varied the number of confederates from 1 to 15 to know whether the size of the group would be more important than the agreement
• what type of relationship did Asch find between group size and conformity rate?

  a curvilinear relationship as both were increasing only up until a point
• how did Asch explore the variable unanimity?

  introduced a dissenting confederate (confed who'd sometimes disagree and agree with the rest)
• what did Asch conclude about unanimity when he introduced a dissenter (ally)?

  conformity rates reduced by 25% as the naive pps gained more confidence to act independently suggesting that conformity to majority depends on group being unanimous
• why did Asch increase the line judging task difficulty?

  he wanted to know whether making the task harder would affect the degree of conformity
• what happened when Asch increased the difficulty of his line judging task?

  conformity rates increased as pps struggled to differentiate between the lines as he made them closer thus more likely for pps to look to other for guidance and assume they're right (ISI)
• Strength of Asch's baseline study:

  P - high internal validity

  E - v highly controlled lab experiment where there were standardised instructions and same lines presented to all PPs

  E - good scientific credibility due to high levels of control

  L - replicable , findings that people most likely to conform more consistent
• Strength of Asch variable of task difficulty:

  P - research supporting task difficulty

  E - Todd Lucas et al (2006) asked their pps to solve easy + hard maths qs , conformity increased when the task difficulty increased

  E - supports Asch study as when the questions got harder , pps turnt

  to others for answers

  L - task difficulty is a valid variable for measuring task difficulty
• Limitation for Asch study:

  P - lack of ecological validity

  E - pps had to guess correct line

  E - task was artificial and doesn't have any real consequences , may conform due to demand characteristics

  L - cannot be generalised to real life settings where consequences r important
• Limitation for Asch's study:

  P - lack of generalisability

  E - sample = American men (beta - bias) collectivist cultures have higher conformity rates ( Bond and Smith)

  E - females may have high conformity rates as they are concerned about social rs

  L - do not account for gender and culture differences
• what is compliance?

  where the individual changes their behaviour to fit in the group despite not agreeing ; they'd agree publicly as it only lasts as long as the group is present

  • non permanent form of conformity
• what is identification?

  where the individual values the group as they identify with them so they'd want to be included hence there is a public change but they may not agree with everything
• what is internalisation?

  where the behaviour or belief is genuinely accepted by the individual so they agree with view both publicly and privately so it becomes part of their own belief system

  • most permanent form of conformity even when majority isn't present
• what are the 3 types of conformity suggested by Kelman?

  compliance , identification , internalisation
• what are the two explanations of conformity suggested by Dutch and Gerard?

  normative social influence and informational social influence
• what is normative social influence?

  • conformity is driven by the desire for social approval / acceptance
  • conforms to social rules that govern behaviour to be seen as a member
  • public change = conformity is temporary = explains compliance + identification
• what is informational social influence ?

  • conformity is driven by the need to be right / an accurate perception of reality
  • due to uncertainty about correct responses so believes group has more knowledge/expertise
  • explains internalisation = change more permanent
• how does Asch's research support NSI?

  P - supporting evidence

  E - interview said they conformed bc they felt self-conscious giving the correct answer and afraid of disapproval

  E - conformity rates dropped to 12.5% when answered privately due to lack of group pressure

  L - at least some conformity= desire not to be rejected by group from disagreeing (NSI)
• how does Todd et al's research support ISI?

  P - research evidence

  E - found that conformity was more frequent when maths qs were harder

  E - when qs were easier confidence grew but when it was harder the situation became ambiguous which drives the need to conform due to not wanting to be wrong

  L - ISI valid
• what is a limitation for NSI (Teevan + Mcghee)?

  P - does not predict conformity in every case

  E - nAffiliators more likely to conform as they may like to be able to relate to others

  E - they are greatly concerned with being liked by others

  L - NSI underlies conformity for some more than others hence individual differences in conformity cannot be explained by one general theory for situational pressures
• what are social roles?

  parts people play in various social groups which is associated with expected behaviours from the individual