Conformity

• Define compliance

  • shallowest level of conformity
  • person changes their public behaviour but not their private beliefs
  • short-term and often the result of normative social influence (NSI)
• what are the different types of conformity

  1. compliance
  2. identification
  3. internalisation
• define identification

  • person changes their public behaviour and private beliefs but only while they are in the presence of the group
  • short-term and normally the result of normative social influence (NSI)
• define internalisation

  • person changes their public’s behaviour and private beliefs
  • long-term and often the result of informational social influence (ISI)
• what are the two explanations for conformity?

  1. normative social influence (NSI)
  2. informational social influence (ISI)
• define NSI

  • person conforms to be accepted and to feel that they belong to the group
• define ISI

  • person conforms to gain knowledge or because they believe that someone else is ’right‘
• aims of Jenness (1932)

  examine whether individuals will change their opinion in an ambiguous situation, in response to group discussion
• results of Jenness (1932)

  • nearly all participants changed their answer
  • on average males changed their answers by 256 beans
  • on average females changed their answers by 382
  • range of the group went from 1875 before discussion to 474 (decrease of 75%)
• conclusion of Jenness (1932)

  results suggest individuals change their estimate due to informational social influence, as they believed that the group estimates were more likely to be correct, in comparison to their own
• aims of Asch (1951)

  • examine the extent to which social pressure to conform from unanimous majority affects conformity in an unambiguous situation
• method of Asch (1951)

  • 123 male undergraduates from Swarthmore College
  • line judgement task where he placed one real participant in a room with side to eight confederates. real participant was always seated second to last
  • each participant completed 18 trials and the confederates gave the same incorrect answer on 12 of the critical trials
• results of Asch (1951)

  • 32% conformed on all
  • 74% conformed at least once
  • 26% never conformed
• conclusion of Asch (1951)

  • Asch interviewed his participants after the experiment to find out why they conformed.
  • most participants said that they knew their answers were incorrect, but they went along with the group in order to fit in
  • confirms that participants complied due to NSI
• 
  

  strengths of explanations for conformity

  • Asch research supports NSI
  • Jenness research supports ISI
  • scientific methods used, usually highly-controlled laboratory studies, therefore key concepts can be replicated to test for reliablitity
• limitations of explanations for conformity

  • individual differences may play a role: Perrin and Spencer (1980) conducted Asch-style experiment and found only one conforming response was observed out of nearly 400 trials
  • could be due to the fact that the students felt more confident in their ability to judge line lengths due to their experience
  • alternatively argued that this difference is due to historical bias from comparing research conducted in a different era
• what affect does group size have on conformity?

  • 1 confederate - conformed 3% of the critical trials
  • 2 confederates - conformed 12.8% of critical trials
  • 3 confederates - conformed 32% of critical trials
  • same percentage as original experiment therefore demonstrates conformity reaches its highest level with just three confederates
• what affect does unanimity have on conformity?

  • 1 confederate giving correct answer - conformity dropped to 5%
  • 1 confederate giving a different incorrect answer to the majority - conformity dropped to 9%
• what affect does task difficult have on conformity?

  • conformity levels increase when the difference between lines because smaller and more ambiguous
• limitations of Asch (1951) (1)

  • biased sample of 123 male students from Swarthmore college: lacks population validity. also suffers from beta bias
  • low levels of ecological validity: line judgement task is an artificial task and therefore does not reflect everyday life which means the task lacks mundane realism.
• limitations of Asch (1951) (2)

  • lacks temporal validity: took place in 1950 when conformity levels where arguably higher. more recent research has found conformity to be as little as 1% therefore suggesting original conformity rates may not provide an accurate reflection of modern day conformity
  • ethical guidelines broken: deception and protection from harm. it is argued had the participants of known the true aims of the characteristics, they would of been more likely to display demand characteristics and therefore affect the validity of the research
• aims of Zimbardo (1973)

  • examine whether people would conform to the social roles of a prison guard or prisoner when placed in a mock prison environment
  • also wanted to investigate whether the behaviour displayed in prisons was due to internal dispositional factors or external situational factors.
• method of Zimbardo (1973)

  • 21 male university students who volunteered in response to a newspaper advert
  • each participant was randomly assigned to one of two social roles; prisoner or guard
  • turned the basement of Stanford University into a mock prison
  • guards were given uniform
  • guards were instructed to run the prison without using physical violence
• results of Zimbardo (1973)

  • prisoners and guards quickly identified with their social roles
  • within days the prisoners rebelled, but it was quickly crushed by the guards. who then grew increasingly abusive towards the prisoners
  • guards dehumanised the prisoners and prisoners became increasingly submissive identifying further
  • five of prisoners were released from the experiment early because of their adverse reactions to the physical and mental torment
  • although the experiment was set to run for two weeks, it was terminated after just six days
• conclusions of zimbardo (1973)

  • zimbardo concluded that people quickly conform to social roles, even when the roles goes against their moral principles
  • he concluded that situational factors were largely responsible for the behaviour found, as none of the participants had ever demonstrated these behaviours previously
• strengths of zimbardo (1973)

  • real-world application to improve US prison system as there were some beneficial reforms in the way that some prisoners were treated
  • acknowledges the role of situational factors such as the roles people play as members of certain social groups, in this case prisoner or guard, in determining human behaviour such as brutality or submission and withdrawal
• limitations of zimbardo (1973) (2)

  • protection from harm: 5 of the prisoners left the experiment early because of their adverse reactions to the physical and mental torment. furthermore, some of the guards reported feelings of anxiety and guilt as a result of their actions.
  • beta bias as only male sample