types and explanation of conformity

• Kelmann: types of conformity

  • compliance
  • identification
  • internalisation
• what is conformity?


  a change in behaviour and/or beliefs due to real or imagined group pressure
• compliance

  • shallowest level
  • change in behaviour to fit into group and to avoid rejection
  • it lasts as long as the group is present
• identification

  • intermediate level
  • adopts behaviour, may not necessarily agree with them
  • wants to be associated with the group
• explanations for conformity

  • normative social influence (NSI)
  • informational social influence (ISI)
• normative social influence (NSI)

  • occurs when an individual is unsure of their belief system and turns to the group for guidance
  • it may also occur when an individual wants to fit into the group
  • the individual has a need to be liked by the group
  • this involves compliance
• informational social influence (ISI)

  • occurs when an individual is unsure of an answer and turns to the group for guidance, if the individual believes they have more knowledge and thus more authority
  • the individual has a need to be right
  • this involves internalisation
• research support for NSI


  In Asch’s experiment the participants stated that they conformed due to feeling self-conscious giving the correct answer due to being afraid of the disapproval from the confederates. When the participants had to write the answers down, conformity fell to 12.5%, as the participants did not engage in a conversation decreasing the chances of social pressure. This shows that an explanation for why an individual conforms is due to societal pressure and the need to be liked.
• research support for ISI

  A study conducted by Lucas et al. displayed that when the maths problems became increasingly more difficult, the rate of conformity also increased. This is because the participants knew ‘their own mind’, so when the problems were easy they did not have to rely on the group. However, once they became harder the participants looked onto the group for answers, due to the fear of failure and getting the answers wrong. This shows that ISI is an adequate and valid explanation for conformity because the results are what ISI predicted.
• ISI and NSI work together
• It is unclear whether ISI and NSI work separately, and most of the time it is difficult to differentiate whether it is ISI or NSI working
• Participants may have been unclear on what the answer was or just felt self-conscious choosing the answer that the rest of the group did not choose
• It is difficult to separate ISI and NSI
• The explanations do not take into the account of individual differences, nor that some individuals simply do not conform