Social influence - conformity

• Social influence


  the effect that the words, actions, or mere presence of other people have on our thoughts, feelings, attitudes, or behaviour
• Compliance Conformity


  The person conforms publicly but continues privately to disagree. It is the shallowest form of conformity.
• Identification Conformity


  The person conforms publicly as well as privately because they have identified with the group and they feel a sense of group membership.
• Internalisation Conformity


  The person conforms publicly and privately because they have internalised and accepted the views of the group
• What was the aim of Asch's line study?

  To investigate whether people would conform to a majority's incorrect answer in an ambiguous task.
• What was the procedure of Asch's line study?

  123 male students were tested. Asked to look at three lines of different lengths. In groups of 8, participants judged line length by saying out loud which comparison line (1, 2 or 3) matched the standard line. Each group had one real participant and the rest were confederates. Although answers were obvious, 12 of 18 trials the confederates were told to give the same incorrect. Asch also had a control group, where participants judged the line lengths alone.
• What were the results of Asch's line study


  Real participants conformed on 32% of the critical trials where confederates gave the wrong answers. Additionally, 75% of the sample conformed to the majority on at least one trial.

  In the control group, participants gave the wrong answer 1% of the time.
• Conclusions of Asch's study


  The study showed normative conformity as majority of the participants conformed to the rest of the group in critical trials.
• Evaluation of Asch's study


  + = One strength of Asch's study is that it has high internal validity. This is because the study was conducted in a lab setting. This means that there is a standardised and controlled environment. The implication of this is that it minimises the effects of extraneous variables making results not be made by chance and validifying the findings.

  
  

  + = One strength of Asch's study is that it is high replicable. This is because a standardised procedure was used. This means that all participants were either last or second to last and the line task was always the same. The implication of this is that the study can be easily tested again and checked for its reliability.

  
  

  - = One limitation of Asch's study is that it has ethical implications. This is because the participants were deceived as they believed the confederates were real participants. This means that participants may have felt embarrassed or angry when finding out the true nature of the study meaning protection of participants were broken. The implication of this is that the study breaks ethical guidelines. However, participants were debriefed after the study meaning any issues were resolved and reducing demand characteristics if the participants knew the true aim of the study.

  
  

  - = One limitation of Asch's study is that it lacks generalisability. This is because it was conducted on 123 male college students. This means that study suffers from gender bias. The implication of this is that the study lacks population validity as it can't be generalised to the conformity of women or older males.
• Variables which affect conformity


  - Group size

  - Unanimity of the group/ social support

  - Task difficulty

  - Confidence and expertise

  - Gender
• informational social influence


  When a group give up agree with a group because they are unsure of a situation.
• Research for informational social influence


  Psychologists demonstrated how judgements of candidate performance in the US Presidential debate could be influenced by the knowledge of other reactions. Participants saw a video of what they thought were other people reactions to the candidates speeches during the debates. This produced a large shift in participants views on each candidate because they thought that the other group of participants were right, which supports informational social influence.
• Normative social influence


  When you agree with a group because you have a need for social approval.
• Research support for normative social influence


  Psychologists found that hotel guests exposed to the normative message that '75% of guests reused their towels each day rather than requiring a fresh one' reduced their own towel use by 25. This supports that people do want to change their behaviour to fit in with what the majority of people are seen to be doing. This means that people reused their towels.