Conformity

    Cards (26)

    • What is conformity?
      Conformity is compliance with or adherence to certain standards rules or norms. There are three types of conformity; internalisation (privately and publicly accepting group norms, genuinely believing their views) ; identification (publically conformity to what is expected of you to fulfill a social role) ; and compliance (superficial change caused by group pressure)
    • what are the two explanations for conformity?
      There are two main explanations for conformity : informational and normative social influence. Informational social influence is conforming as we believe the information provided is correct, which can lead to internalisation. Normative social influence is conforming to gain social approval, which can lead to compliance.
    • factors affecting conformity AO1? Part 1
      In 1956 Asch investigated the factors which affect strength of conformity, evidencing that an increase in group size, unanimity, and task difficulty all increase conformity. His method consisted of individually placing 50 male American students with 7 confederates where they were shown a target line followed by a selection of lines from which they had to match to the first. Each participant partook in 18 trails and results showed participants conformed on 32% of the trials and 74% of them conformed at least once. 
    • factors affecting conformity AO1 part 2 ?
      In a follow up experiment, asch changed the IV to the number of confederates and results showed that with 1 0% conformed, with 2, 13% conformed, and with 3+, 32% conformed. Additionally a meta analysis of 133 studies form 17 countries showed that conformity does not increase further beyond 4/5 confederates. 
    • what are the strengths of factors affecting conformity?
      supporting research
      lab conditions
    • elaborate on supporting research as a strength of factors affecting conformity?
      One strength of this study is the supporting research by Lucas et al in 2006. They asked participants to solve easy or difficult maths problems and found that the participants conformed to three other students’ answers if the problems were hard. This demonstrates that task difficulty is a variable that can affect conformity.
    • elaborate on lab conditions as a strength of factors affecting conformity?
      Both of these studies use laboratory conditions. Through which, a high degree of control over extraneous variables can be created which ensures they cannot confound the results allowing a cause and effect relationship to be established. Furthermore the standardisation of variables means they can be measured accurately, increasing the internal reliability which in turn increases the external reliability as it can be easily replicated. 
    • what are the weaknesses of factors affecting conformity?
      Lacks ecological validity
      limited sample size
      cultural bias
      volunteer sampling
      unethical
    • elaborate on lacking ecological validity as a weakness for factors affecting conformity?
      However, data collected may lack ecological validity as artificial conditions do not reflect real world scenarios questioning the generalisability of the results. This is because we do not compare lines like this on a day to day basis and additionally this task has no particular consequences for the participants. Moreover there is a high risk of demand characteristics as participants may alter their behaviour based on their interpretation of the purpose of the experiment. 
    • elaborate on limited sample size as a weakness for factors affecting conformity?
      Another criticism of aschs experiment is limited sample size, and gender and cultural bias. In order to provide a comprehensive explanation for conformity a more diverse sample size was needed e.g. gender, age, and culture to ensure the results can be generalised to society as a whole rather than American male students
    • elaborate on cultural bias as a weakness for factors affecting conformity?
      for example America is an individualist country (where conformity is less common) so results could differ in collectivist cultures like Asia.This theory was actually supported by research from Smith and Bond in 1996, contributing to the weakness of aschs study on the basis that it can tell us little about variables that affect conformity in these types of societies and so lacks generalisability.
    • elaborate on volunteer sampling as a weakness for factors affecting conformity?
      Furthermore, volunteer sampling has weaknesses as particular personalities may be more inclined to volunteer.
    • elaborate on unethical nature as a weakness for factors affecting conformity?
      Finally, some would argue that Asch’s research is deemed unethical. This is because participants were deliberately deceived as they were told it was a test of vision not conformity. Additionally, some participants felt stressed and underwent psychological harm during the study. However, Asch argued that he debriefed them after the study to overcome this and that without deception, the results would be invalid.
    • outline zimbardos research into conformity part 1 ?
      In 1971 zimbardo investigated the strength of identification versus disposition, specifically in a prison environment. His experiment was funded by the US office of naval research, taking place in a mock prison in the basement of Stanford university. It consisted of 24 volunteers who had replied to a newspaper article advertising a “psychological study of prison life” offering $15 daily, were screened and deemed mental and physically healthy. They were then randomly divided in half to be assigned prisoners and guards. 
    • outline zimbardos research into conformity part 2?
      The prisoners were arrested and blindfolded, then strip searched before given a “dress” uniform with an ankle lock and chain. 
      During the experiment they were subjected to indignities e.g. cleaning toilets bare handed. The guards were given sunglasses and uniform, with their only order being to not physically abuse the prisoners. On the first day nothing happened however that quickly escalated as on the second day a rebellion was staged due to the harsh punishment system the guards had quickly adopted.
    • outline zimbardos research into conformity part 3?
      However, within the first 4 days, 3 prisoners had to be released due to the cruel and dehumanising abuse they had endured.  It was observed that there was a clear authority figure created within the guards - John Wayne who was “creative in his evil”, and very little support within the prisoners. The mistreatment of the prisoners was so unethical and abusive that due to the persuasion of zimbardos girlfriend, the 2 week long experiment was terminated after only 6 days. 
    • what are the strengths of zimbardos research?
      contribution to society
      standardisation/ Replicability
    • elaborate on contribution to society as a strength of zimbardos?
      One strength of this study is its contribution to psychology. The results were unexpected and show us a more in-depth detail into conformity and obedience, and since laboratory conditions were used, a high degree of control over extraneous variables ensures they cannot confound the results allowing a cause and effect relationship to be established, e.g. the mental screening to ensure dispositional factors like poorer mental health did not effect the study. 
    • elaborate on standardisation as a strength of zimbardo?
      Furthermore the standardisation of variables means they can be measured accurately, increasing the internal reliability which in turn increases the external reliability as it can be easily replicated. 
    • what are the weaknesses of zimbardo?

      unethical nature
      inducement
      demand characteristics
      experimenter bias
      limited sample size
      cultural bias
      volunteer sample
    • elaborate on the unethical nature of zimbardo as a weakness?
      However, due to its extreme unethical nature, replicating this study would not be approved by the BPS. Not only were the participants mentally and physically abused, there was no informed consent as participants did not know what they were signing up for, zimbardo argued this with the concept that deception is necessary to obtain reliable results however for this to be accepted participants need to be informed of their right to withdraw which was not the case with this experiment.
    • elaborate on inducement as a weakness of zimbardo?
      Additionally the use of inducement has criticisms in psychological experiments as it discourages participants from withdrawing as they feel since they have been paid they are obligated to continue further increasing the unethicality of this experiment. 
    • elaborate on demand characteristics as a weakness of zimbardo?
      Another criticism of zimbardos experiment is the high risk of demand characteristics as participants may alter their behaviour based on their interpretation of the purpose of the experiment. For example John Wayne admitted to emphasising his behaviour for the purpose of the experiment, modelling the warden in the movie “cool hand Luke”.
    • elaborate on experimenter bias as a weakness for zimbardo?
      Furthermore experimenter bias can been seen through zimbardo as he actively involved himself in the experiment as superintendent. This blurred his lines between science and make believe, reducing the research’s scientific credibility. 
    • elaborate on limited sample size as a weakness for zimbardo?
      Finally, zimbardos experiment had a limited sample size. In order to provide a comprehensive explanation for conformity a more diverse sample was needed e.g. gender, age, and culture to ensure the results can be generalised to society as a whole rather than American male students, for example America is an individualist country (where conformity is less common) so results could differ in collectivist cultures like Asia, as found by smith and bond in 1966
    • elaborate on volunteer sampling as a weakness for zimbardo?
      Furthermore, volunteer sampling has weaknesses as particular dispositions may be more inclined to volunteer especially since the advertisement of “prison study” can influence the type of participants who volunteer.