psychology pape 1

• Conformity


  When an individual changes their behaviours/beliefs in order to fit in with the majority
• Majority influence


  Also known as conformity
• Types of conformity (Kelman, 1958)


  • Compliance
  • Identification
  • Internalisation
• Compliance


  Publicly, but not privately, going along with the behaviours/beliefs of the majority in order to gain approval from them
• Compliance is a weak and temporary form of conformity, as it is only shown in the presence of the majority
• Identification


  Publicly and privately accepting the behaviours/beliefs of the majority, feeling a strong sense of group membership
• The change in behaviour/belief with identification is temporary and not maintained when the individual leaves the group
• Internalisation


  Publicly and privately accepting the behaviours/beliefs of the majority, in a strong and permanent form of conformity that persists even when the majority is no longer present
• Informational social influence (ISI)


  Conformity based on the desire to be right, looking to the majority to give information about the right way to behave or think
• ISI is likely to occur in unfamiliar or ambiguous situations, and is likely to result in internalisation
• Normative social influence (NSI)


  Conformity based on the desire to be liked, changing behaviours and/or beliefs in order to be liked and accepted by the majority
• NSI is likely to occur in friendship groups and is likely to result in compliance
• Participants rated their own mathematical ability as poor


  There was greater conformity to incorrect answers when the problems were more difficult
• Adolescents were exposed to the message that the majority of their own-age peers did not smoke


  They were subsequently less likely to take up smoking
• Research has shown individual differences in ISI and NSI, with some people more affected by the desire to be right or the desire to be liked
• Asch (1956) conducted research into conformity, aiming to see if participants would conform to the majority and give incorrect answers in a situation where the correct answer was obvious
• Asch's procedure


  1. 123 American male undergraduate students took part

  2. Tested in groups of seven

  3. Only one participant in each group was a real participant, the others were confederates

  4. Shown two cards - a test card with a standard line and a comparison card with three lines

  5. Participants had to state aloud which comparison line was the same length as the standard line

  6. The real participant always answered second to last

  7. There were 18 trials, with the 6 confederates giving a unanimous incorrect answer on 12 of the trials (critical trials)
• Variables affecting conformity (Asch)


  • Group size
  • Unanimity
  • Task difficulty
• Zimbardo (1973) conducted the Stanford Prison Experiment to investigate conformity to social roles
• Zimbardo's procedure


  1. A mock prison was set up in the basement of Stanford University

  2. Male student volunteers were randomly assigned to be either guards or prisoners

  3. Prisoners were unexpectedly arrested, stripped, and given a uniform and ID number

  4. Guards were given a uniform and allowed to maintain order as they saw fit

  5. The study was planned to last 2 weeks
• Participants were required to stand in line and call out their ID numbers
• Prisoners were forced to carry out degrading activities, such as cleaning out the toilets with their bare hands and doing push-ups and jumping jacks
• The guards became so enthusiastic in their roles that they volunteered to do extra hours without pay
• The participants appeared to forget that this was only a study, and that they were merely acting
• When one prisoner had had enough, he asked for parole rather than asking to withdraw from the study
• Five prisoners had to be released early because of their extreme reactions (e.g. acute anxiety, uncontrollable crying and rage)
• One prisoner had to be released less than 36 hours after the study began
• The study was finally terminated after six days when a postgraduate student who arrived to interview the participants made clear her horror at the conditions in which the prisoners were living
• The postgraduate student reminded the researchers that this was a psychological study and therefore the abuse being inflicted on the prisoners could not be justified
• There is evidence that conformity to social roles is not automatic
• In the SPE, guard behaviour varied. There were some guards who acted sadistically, but others who were 'good guards'
• The 'good guards' did not harass or degrade the prisoners, and even did small favours for them
• This shows that the guards chose how to behave, rather than automatically and blindly conforming to their social role as Zimbardo suggested
• It has been suggested that the behaviour of the guards and prisoners in the SPE was a response to powerful demand characteristics
• Banuazizi & Movahedi (1975) presented some details of the SPE procedure to a large sample of students who had never heard of the study before
• The vast majority of these students correctly guessed that the purpose of the experiment was to show that ordinary people assigned to the role of guard or prisoner would act like real guards or prisoners
• The students also predicted that the guards would behave in a hostile and domineering way whilst the prisoners would act in a passive way
• This suggests that the findings of the SPE may lack internal validity, as they may be a result of demand characteristics
• The ethics of the SPE have been questioned
• The SPE was considered ethical, because it followed the guidelines of the Stanford University ethics committee and they approved it