Conformity

• Conformity

  A type of social influence where a person yields to group pressures and changes their behaviour or opinion as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or group
• Types of conformity (Kelman)

  • Internalisation
  • Identification
  • Compliance
• Internalisation

  Making the beliefs, values, attitude and behaviour of the group your own (the strongest type of conformity, often occurs as a result of informational social influence)
• Identification

  Temporary/short term change of behaviour and beliefs only in the presence of a group (middle level)
• Compliance

  Following other people's ideas/going along with the group to gain their approval or avoid disapproval (lowest/weakest level of conformity)
• Informational social influence


  When someone conforms because they want to be right, so they look to others by copying or obeying them, to have the right answer in a situation

  ISI is a cognitive process- people generally want to be right, it usually leads to internalisation
• Normative social influence

  When someone conforms because they want to be liked and be part of a group; when a person's need to be accepted or have approval from a group drives compliance

  NSI is an emotional rather than cognitive process, people prefer social approval therefore NSI leads to compliance
• Deutsch and Gerrard's 'Two Process Model'


  Model explaining why people conform; ISI and NSI
• When is ISI most likely to occur and why?

  Ambiguous situations, if you're unsure you'll conform due to the need to be right. Also when decisions are to be made quickly
• When is NSI most likely to occur and why?



  In a group of strangers/ new people so they don't reject you
• Who did the reasons for conformity (ISI & NSI)?

  Deutsh and Gerrard
• McGhee and Teevan (19667)


  nAffiliators are more likely to conform
• nAffiliators


  people who are greatly concerned with being liked by others
• NSI EVALUATION

  S = Asch's research, when they were asked to write down their answers instead the conformity rate dropper

  L = NSI doesn't account for individual differences e.g nAffiliators
• ISI EVALUATION

  S = Supporting evidence. Jenness (1932) jellybeans in a jar

  L =
• STRENGTHS OF NSI

  P= research supportE= Asch found many participants conformed rather than give the correct answer because they were afraid of disapprovalE= when participants wrote down answers (no normative pressure), conformity fell to 12.5%L= This shows that at least some comformity is due to a desire to be rejected by the group for disagreeing with them
• LIMITATION OF NSI


  P= individual differencesE= some people are concerned about being liked by others- nafilliators who have a strong need for affiliationE= McGhee and Teevan found that students who were naffilaitors were more likely to conformL= This shows that NSI underlies conformity for some people more than for others
• STRENGTH OF ISI

  P= research supportE= Lucas et al found participants conformed more to incorrect answers when maths problems were difficultE= For hard problems the situation was ambiguous so they relied on the answers they were givenL= This supports ISI because the results are what ISI would predict
• LIMITATION OF ISI


  ?
• Lessons from conformity research

  1- dissenters make social chnage more likely

  . Asch's research- variation where one confederate always gave correct answer. This broke the power of the majority encouraging others to dissent. This demonstrates potential for social change

  2- Normative social influence

  . Environmental and health campaigns exploit conformity by appealing to NSI. They provide information about what other people are doing