Conformity

• (AO1) Define conformity

  A type of social influence that describes how a person changes their attitudes or behaviour in response to group pressure.
• (AO1) Define compliance

  Shallowest level of conformity

  A person changes their public behaviour / the way they act but NOT their private beliefs.

  Short term change, is often due to normative social influence.
• (AO1) Define identification

  Middle level of conformity

  A person changes their public behaviour + their private beliefs but ONLY in the presence of a group.

  Short term, usually due to normative social influence
• (AO1) Define internalisation

  Deepest level of conformity

  A person changes their public behaviour + private beliefs

  Long term change, often due to informational social influence
• (AO1) Define normative social influence (Explanation for conformity)

  A person conforms to be accepted / feel that they belong in a group
• (AO1) Define informational social influence (Explanation for Conformity)

  A person conforms to gain knowledge / because they believe that someone else is 'right'.
• (AO3) Give a strength point for explanations for conformity

  Point: Asch = support for NSI

  Evidence: Found that many ppts went along with the obvious wrong answers of the other group members. In the post-experimental interviews, Asch asked the ppts why they did that, their response was that they changed their answers to avoid disapproval from the rest of the group to fit in = compliance occurred.

  In a variation in 1955 that demonstrated that conformity rates fell to 12.5% as fear of rejection decreased when ppts wrote answers on paper.
• (AO3) Give a strength for explanations for conformity

  Point: Jenness = support for ISI

  Evidence: Ppts asked initially to make an independent judgement about number of beans in jar and then discuss their answer in a group. Ppts then made a second individual guess. Found that the second guess answer moved closer to group estimate answer and females tended to conform more.

  Evaluate: Shows that internalisation of groups beliefs will occur, especially in ambiguous, unfamiliar situations
• (AO3) Give a limitation

  Point: Individual differences may play role in explaining social influence, the processes will not affect everyone's behaviour in same way.

  Evidence: Perrin & Spencer (1980) conducted an Asch-style experiment using UK engineer students. Only 1 conforming response was observed out of nearly 400 trials. Could be because (1) students felt more confident in their ability to judge line lengths due to experience in engineering.

  (2)Historic bias, 30 years ago, in 1950 US people conformed more due to McCarthyism and public hysteria.
• (AO1) Give the aim and method of Jenness's 1932 study 


  Aim = To examine whether individuals will change their opinion in an ambiguous (unclear) situation, in response to a group discussion.

  Method = Glass bottle filled with 811 white beans. 26 students ppts. Guessed individually, then split into groups of 3 to guess, then guess again individually - to see if answers would change.
• (AO1) Give the results and conclusion of Jenness's 1932 study

  Results = Almost all students changed their original answer (decreased)

  Conclusion = Changed their initial answers due to ISI since the studnets believed that the group estimation was more likely to be correct than their own (unfamiliar/ambiguous situation)
• (AO1) Give the aim and method of Asch 1951 study 


  Aim = To examine the extent to which social pressure to conform from unanimous majority affects.

  Method = 123 male US undergraduate students from Swarthmore College. Tricked into thinking taking a vision test. Placed one naive student in a room with 6-8 confederates to complete a line judgement task. Each person had to say which line (A,B, or C) was most like the target line length (very obvious). The confeds gave same incorrect answer on 12 (out of 18) critical trials.
• (AO1) Give the results and conclusion of Asch 1951 study

  Results = conformed to the incorrect answer on 32% of critical trial.

  Conclusion = Knew the answer was incorrect but went along with the group in order to fit in / not be ridiculed. Complied due to NSI
• (AO3) Give a limitation of Asch

  Point: Biased sample

  Evidence: 123 US male students from colleges. Cannot generalise results to other populations e.g. female students, unable to conclude whether females would conform in a similar way.

  Evaluate: Asch sample lacks population validity & further research is required to determine whether males and females conform differently.
• (AO3) Give a limitation of Asch

  Point: Research took place at particular time in US history when conformity was higher. Since 1950 numerous psychologists have attempted to replicate Asch's study, e.g. Perrin & Spencer (1980) using engineering students who were found to have low levels of conformity. Evaluate: Asch experiment lacks historical validity & conformity rates in 1950 may not provide an accurate reflection of conformity in modern times.
• (AO3) Give a limitation of Asch + challenge

  Point: Ethical guidelines

  Evidence: Deception and protection from harm. Deliberately deceived his ppts, saying they were taking part in vision test. In addition, many reported feeling stressed when they disagreed with majority.

  Evaluate: However, Asch interviewed all ppts after to overcome this issue

  Challenge: Deception required in order to achieve valid results. If ppt knew true aim = demand characteristics / acted differently.
• (AO1) Give the three variations of Asch

  Size, unanimity and task difficulty
• (AO1) Describe Asch variation - size

  1 confederate = ppt conformed on only 3% of critical trial.

  2 condederates = 12.8%

  3 confederates = 32% = (same % to his og experiment with 6-8 confederates = conformity reaches highest with 3 confederates once a majority pressure is created)

  YET conformity rates drop when real ppt becomes sus about the experiment when too many confederates are used.
• (AO1) Describe Asch variation - unanimity

  Unanimity refers to the extent that members of a majority agree with each other.

  1 confederate was told to give the correct answer throughout = rate of conformity dropped to 5%.

  This shows that if the real ppt has support for their belief, they are more likely to resist pressure to conform.
• (AO1) Describe Asch variation - task difficulty

  He made the task more difficult by making the difference in the lengths smaller = therefore appear closer together (more ambiguous)

  Rates of conformity increased due to ISI.