conformity

• Conformity


  A type of social influence that describes how a person changes their attitude or behaviour in response to group pressure
• Types of conformity

  • Compliance
  • Identification
  • Internalisation
• Compliance


  The shallowest level of conformity where a person changes their public behaviour but not their private beliefs
• Identification


  The middle level of conformity where a person changes their public behaviour and their private beliefs, but only while they are in the presence of the group
• Internalisation


  The deepest level of conformity where a person changes their public behaviour and their private beliefs on a long-term basis
• Explanations for conformity


  • Normative social influence (NSI)
  • Informational social influence (ISI)
• Normative social influence (NSI)

  When a person conforms to be accepted and to feel that they belong to the group
• Informational social influence (ISI)


  When a person conforms to gain knowledge, or because they believe that someone else is 'right'
• Normative social influence (NSI)

  Usually associated with compliance and identification
• Informational social influence (ISI)


  Usually associated with internalisation
• Compliance

  • Change in public behaviour but not private beliefs, short-term
• Identification


  • Change in public behaviour and private beliefs, but only in the presence of the majority, short-term
• Internalisation


  • Change in public behaviour and private beliefs, long-term
• Asch's (1951) study


  Provides research support for normative social influence
• Jenness (1932)


  Provides research support for informational social influence
• Individual differences may play a role in explaining social influence
• Normative social influence also occurs beyond the artificial laboratory setting
• Group size


  • Conformity slightly dropped (≈29%) when group size was 15 confederates
• It is possible the rate of conformity dropped because the real participants became suspicious of the experiment and not because the pressure to conform is necessarily less in larger groups
• Unanimity


  The extent that members of a majority agree with one another
• If the real participant has support for their belief

  They are likely more likely to resist the pressure to conform
• If the group's unanimous position is broken or disrupted


  Conformity is reduced significantly, even if the answer provided by the supporter is still incorrect
• Task Difficulty


  When the task was made significantly more difficult, by making the difference between the line lengths significantly smaller, the rate of conformity increased (percentage not reported)
• This is likely to be the result of informational social influence, as individuals look to another for guidance when undertaking an ambiguous task, in order to be 'right'
• Variations in Asch's experiment

  • Group size: 1 confederate (lower conformity 3%), 2 confederates (lower conformity 12.8%), 3 confederates (remained the same 32%), 15 confederates (lower conformity ≈29%)
  • Unanimity: one confederate gave the correct answer throughout (lower conformity 5%), one confederate gave a different incorrect answer to the majority (lower conformity 9%)
  • Task Difficulty: task made significantly more difficult (higher conformity*)
• Social psychology


  • Acknowledges the role of situational factors, such as group pressure, in determining human behaviour such as conformity
  • Suggests that individuals can exercise personal responsibility for their actions and demonstrate free will through showing independent behaviour
• Explanations of conformity (NSI/ISI)


  • Adopt a nomothetic approach as they attempt to provide general principles relating to human behaviour when observed under group pressure from a majority
• Social psychology research


  • Uses scientific methods, often in highly-controlled laboratory settings, to investigate key concepts which can be replicated
  • Asch's original study only used male participants, showing a beta bias as it may have ignored or minimised the differences between men and women in relation to conformity
• Compliance is a type of conformity where there is private disagreement whilst publicly going along with the majority
• Compliance


  Private disagreement whilst publicly going along with the majority
• Ajay spends lots of time observing his work colleagues, so that he will fit in with them and be approved of

  This is an example of compliance
• Internalisation


  The beliefs of the group become part of the person's own beliefs
• Normative social influence


  Conforming to the expectations of others in order to be liked and accepted by them
• Alexandra notices her work colleagues are more smartly dressed than her

  Normative social influence will likely cause her to dress smarter in the future to fit in
• Informational social influence


  Conforming to the opinions of others because we believe they have superior knowledge or are more competent than us
• Asch's study procedure involved participants being placed in a group with confederates who gave incorrect answers, and the participant having to publicly state whether they agreed with the majority or not
• Factors that might affect whether Lena and Simon conform to the rest of the school council committee or not include social support and group size
• Jane eats organic food because her housemates do

  This is an example of compliance
• Internalisation


  The deepest level of conformity where the beliefs of the group become part of the person's own beliefs
• Conducting psychological research in a laboratory setting allows for high levels of control and replication, but may ignore or minimise real-world differences like gender