types of conformity and explanations for conformity

• Conformity


  When a person changes their attitude or behaviour due to 'real' or 'imagined' group pressure
• Levels of conformity (Kelman, 1958)


  • Compliance - lowest level, changes public behaviour but not private beliefs, usually short-term
  • Identification - middle level, changes public behaviour and private beliefs while in group, usually short-term
  • Internalisation - deepest level, changes public behaviour and private beliefs, usually long-term
• Normative social influence


  Conforming to be accepted and belonging to a group as it is socially rewarding and to avoid punishment
• Informational social influence


  Conforming to gain knowledge and be right in order to act appropriately and avoid standing out
• Jenness (1932) found that nearly all participants changed their original estimate of the number of beans in a bottle when provided the group estimate, and then almost all changed their individual guesses to be closer to the group estimate
• Compliance – the lowest level of conformity. This is where a person changes their public behaviour but not their private beliefs. This is usually a short-term change.
• Identification – the middle level of conformity. This is where a person changes their public behaviour and private beliefs, but only whilst in the presence of the group they are trying to identify with. This is usually a short term change.
• Internalisation – the deepest level of conformity. This is where a person changes their public behaviour and private beliefs. This is usually a long term change.
• Normative social influence is conforming to be accepted and belonging to a group as it is socially rewarding and to avoid being perceived as deviant by the other members of the group. It is based on the desire to be liked. This drives compliance and occurs when a person wants to avoid disagreeing with the majority of the group.
• a strength is Asch’s research on conformity supports the NSI explanation of social influence. He found that when a group of confederates unanimously have the same incorrect answer on an unambiguous line judgement task, there was a mean conformity rate of 32%. It was concluded that they conformed to avoid standing out from the crowd. This is positive for the NSI explanation as it suggests we conform out of a desire to be liked as we will publicly conform to gain approval from a group even when we privately disagree.
• a strength supporting the NSI explanation of social influence is when Asch repeated his study asking participants to write down their answers rather than saying them out loud, conformity rates fell to 12.5%. this supports the NSI as it suggests conformity rates were much lower when writing answers down as there was less fear of social disapproval and rejection as the group did not have to hear their answers.
• The NSI explanation may struggle to explain individual difference. Although in Asch’s original research he found a mean conformity rate of 37%, there were wide variations between participants. For example, 25% remained completely independent going against the majority to give the correct answer on all 12 critical trials despite considerable group pressure. This is negative for the explanation as it does not consider the personality differences between people that might make some people more susceptible to NSI than others
• Informational social influence is conforming to gain knowledge and be right in order to act appropriately and avoid standing out. An example of this is wanting to have a right answer in a situation – when a person is uncertain or unsure they look to others for information. It usually leads to internalisation.
• Evidence to support ISI comes from one of Asch’s variations. He found that when he made the line judgement task more difficult by making the standard and comparison lines more similar, the conformity rate increased. It was concluded this was due to the participants having less confidence in their own judgement. This is positive for the ISI explanation as it suggests we conform in ambiguous situations because the group are seen as being better informed and we follow their lead out of a desire to be right.