social influence

• Types of conformity 


  Compliance, internalization and identification
• Internalization

  Occurs when someone genuinely accepts the group norms which results in a private and public change of opinions. Usually long term or permanent
• Identification 


  When someone publicly changes their opinions or behaviour to be accepted by the group because there is something about that group that they like. They usually don't agree with everything the group stands for
• Compliance 


  Going along with others in public but privately not changing their opinions or behaviours. Results in superficial change as soon as the pressure is gone, the behaviour is also gone
• Explanations for conformity 


  Informational social influence, ISI

  normative social influence, NSI
• Informational social influence 


  An explanation of conformity that says we agree with the opinion of the majority because we believe it is correct. We accept it because we want to be correct
• Normative social influence 


  An explanation for conformity that says we agree with the opinion of the majority because we want to gain social approval and be liked which may lead to compliance
• factors affecting conformity

  group size

  group unanimity

  task difficulty
• group size

  the bigger the number of confederates (majority group) the more people conformed, but only to a certain point
• group size statistics

  1 confederate = 3% conformity

  2 confederates = 13% conformity

  3 or more confederates = 32% conformity

  4 or more confederates = approx 32% conformity
• the optimal group size is considered to be 4 because conformity doesn't increase after that
• Brown and Byrne (1977) suggested that people might suspect collision if the majority rises between 3 or 4
• collision 


  they realise something is going on
• group unanimity

  more likely to conform when all members of the group are in agreement and give the same answer.
• group unanimity

  when one person in the group gave a different answer from the others, and the group was not unanimous, conformity dropped.
• the presence of one confederate that goes against the majority can reduce conformity as much as 80%
• difficulty of task

  when the comparison lines (A, B & C) were made more similar in length it was harder to judge the correct answer and conformity increased . When we are uncertain it seems we look to others for confirmation.
• the more difficult the task, the greater the conformity
• what explanation of social influence does task difficulty lead to?

  informational social influence
• how do you decrease conformity within a group?

  answers in private. when the participant is allowed to answer in private conformity decreases. this is because there are fewer group pressures and normative social influence is not as powerful as there is no fear of rejection from the group
• key points of Asch's research

  baseline procedure

  group size

  unanimity

  task difficulty
• baseline procedure

  1. 123 American men in groups with 5-7 confederates
  2. confederates gave wrong answers on some trials
  3. Naive participants conformed about 37% of the time
• group size

  1. 1 to 15 confederates
  2. with three confederates, conformity was 32% but little significant increase after that
• Unanimity

  1. conformity rate dropped with dissenter (whether they were right or wrong)
• task difficulty

  1. stimulus and comparison lines more similar in length
  2. conformity increased, mainly informational social influence (I.S.I)
• affiliate

  the want to be with other people
• nAffiliators

  the underlying need to be part of a group. they have strong need for affiliation and want to relate to others. they want to be liked
• nAffiliators are more likely to conform and therefore emphasizing the role of Normative Social Influence in their behaviour. this shows the importance of individual differences in conformity
• Lucas et al (2006) found that when presented with maths problems to solve, participants were more likely to conform to the majority answer when the problems were more difficult. this was increased with participants who rated their own maths ability as poor. this shows that people will conform due to the need for information when they don't know the answer, which is exactly what ISI predicts
• normative and infomational social influence 


  the majority influence the minority
• social roles are the part people play as members of a social group
• conforming to a social role is called identification
• when does identification occur?


  when someone conforms to the bahvaioural demands of a given social role in society as they value membership of that group
• identification extends over several aspects of external behaviour. However, there is still no change to internal personal opinion
• Who conducted the Stanford prison experiment (SPE)?


  Philip Zimbardo
• What was the setting of the Stanford prison experiment?


  A mock prison in the basement of the psychology department at Stanford University
• How many men participated in the Stanford prison experiment?


  21 men
• How were the participants assigned their roles in the SPE?


  They were randomly assigned to play the role of prison guard or prisoner
• What were the uniforms worn by the prisoners in the SPE?


  A loose smock and a cap to cover their hair, identified by number
• What items did the guards have as part of their uniform?


  A wooden club, handcuffs, and mirror shades