Psych

• Compliance


  The weakest type of conformity where a person publicly changes their behaviour and beliefs to fit that of a group and avoid disapproval, but privately does not accept the behaviours and beliefs of the group
• Compliance


  • Pretending to like a film you dislike so as not to stand out from a group who all really love that film
• Identification


  A stronger type of conformity than compliance, where the person both publicly and privately changes their behaviour and beliefs to fit that of a group they want to be part of
• The person only identifies with these beliefs as long as they are associated with the group – upon leaving the group, the original behaviours and beliefs return
• Identification


  • Adopting the same music and fashion tastes as your friendship group. When you move away, though, you revert back to your old clothes and music
• Internalisation


  The strongest type of conformity, where a person both publicly and privately changes their behaviour and beliefs to those of a group – but permanently
• Individuals who internalise beliefs and behaviours maintain those beliefs and behaviours even after leaving the social group
• Internalisation


  • A person who undergoes a genuine religious conversion. This person will still pray and believe in God even if they move away from the social group of their church
• Social influence looks at how people's beliefs and behaviours are affected by people around them
• Examples of social influence in A Level psychology

  • Conformity
  • Obedience
  • Resistance to social influence
  • Minority influence
  • Social change
• Conformity


  Doing what the group does
• Obedience


  Doing what an authority figure tells you to do
• Types of conformity (Kelman, 1958)


  • Compliance
  • Identification
  • Internalisation
• Compliance


  Publicly changing behaviour and beliefs to fit a group to avoid disapproval, but privately not accepting the group's behaviours and beliefs
• Identification


  Publicly and privately changing behaviour and beliefs to fit a group, but only as long as associated with that group
• Internalisation


  Publicly and privately changing behaviour and beliefs to those of a group, permanently
• Asch conformity experiments


  1. Participants shown lines and asked to identify the one closest in length to a reference line

  2. Participants put in groups with confederates who all give the same incorrect answer

  3. Participant asked to give their answer last
• Across all critical trials, participants conformed to the incorrect group consensus 32% of the time
• 75% of participants conformed to at least one incorrect answer
• 5% of participants conformed to every incorrect answer
• In the control trials, the error rate was just 0.04%
• Explanations given by conforming participants

  • Distortion of perception
  • Distortion of judgement
  • Distortion of action
• Asch conformity experiments


  • Demonstrate the extent to which humans follow the herd
  • May have practical applications, e.g. encouraging scientific researchers to think outside the current paradigm
• Weaknesses of Asch conformity experiments

  • Questions of ecological/external validity as the task is specific and unusual
  • Gender bias as all participants were male
  • Ethical concerns as participants were not given informed consent
• Variables affecting conformity


  • Unanimity
  • Group size
  • Difficulty
• Conformity declines from 32% to 5.5% when one 'partner' confederate gives the correct answer
• Increasing group size tends to increase conformity, up to a point
• Increasing the difficulty of the task increases conformity
• Other variables affecting conformity

  • Mood
  • Gender
  • Culture
• Informational social influence


  People's desire to be correct motivates them to act on information provided by the group
• Normative social influence


  People's desire to be accepted by the group motivates them to conform to the group's beliefs and opinions
• Conformity to social roles

  People conform to the expected behaviours associated with different social situations and roles
• Stanford prison study


  1. Participants randomly assigned to roles of 'prisoner' or 'guard' in a fake prison environment

  2. Guards became increasingly sadistic, prisoners increasingly submissive

  3. Experiment stopped after 6 days instead of 2 weeks
• The results suggest people conform to social roles to a significant extent
• Strengths of Stanford prison study

  • Practical applications, e.g. prompting reform in juvenile prisons
• Weaknesses of Stanford prison study

  • Questions of ecological/external validity as participants knew they were in an experiment
  • Ethical concerns over high levels of stress and lack of full informed consent
• Obedience


  Complying with the orders of an authority figure
• Milgram obedience experiments


  1. Participant told they are a 'teacher' and must administer electric shocks to a 'learner'

  2. Shocks increase in voltage despite learner's protests

  3. Experimenter gives successive verbal prods to continue
• 26 out of 40 participants (65%) administered shocks all the way up to the maximum of 450 volts
• A learner was given a list of word pairs. For each wrong answer, the teacher gave the learner an electric shock. The shocks increased in power from 15 volts up to 450 volts.