types and explanations of conformity

• 3 types of conformity are:

  • internalisation- when a person accepts group norms. It results in a private as well as public change of opinions/behaviour
  • identification- when we identify/admire with a group that we value, we want to become part of it. We publicly change our opinions/behaviour, even if we don’t privately agree
  • compliance- involves going along with others in public, but privately not changing our opinions/behaviour. This results in only a superficial change and the opinion/behaviour stops as soon as group pressure ceases
• 2 explanations of conformity are:

  • informational social influence- a desire to be right. For example, if you dont know the answer to a question in class and most of your class gives a answer, you go along with them because you feel they are probably right. Most likely to occur in situations which are new, where there is some ambiguity or decisions need to be made quickly
  • normative social influence- a desire to behave like other and not look foolish. It is most likely in situations where you dont know the norms and look to others about how to behave. Most likely to occur with strangers
• One strength of normative social influence is that there is research support. Asch found many participants conformed rather than give the correct answer because they were afraid to disproval. When participants wrote down answers (no normative pressure), conformity fell to 12.5%. This shows that at least some conformity is due to a desire not to be rejected by the group for disagreeing with them
• One strength for informative social influence is research support. Lucas et al. found that participants conformed more to incorrect answers when maths problems were difficult. For hard problems the situation was ambiguous so they relied on the answers they were given. This supports the informative social influence because the results are what informative social influence would predict.
• One limitation of normative social influence are individual differences. Some people are concerned about being liked by others. McGhee and Teevan found that students who have a strong need for affiliation were more likely to conform. This shows normative social influence underlies conformity for some people more than for others. This is an individual difference not explained by a theory of situational pressures