Social Psychology - Social Influence

Conformity
1. The tendency to change what we do, think and say in response to the influence of others or social pressure
2. Compliance
  1. The most superficial type
  2. Person conforms publicly
  3. Continue to privately disagree
  4. E.g. - laughing at a joke while privately not finding it funny
3. Internalisation
  1. The deepest type of conformity
  2. Taking on the view of a group at a deep and permanent level - Conversion
  3. E.g. - A student who becomes a vegetarian whilst sharing a flat with animal rights activists at university
    1. They may retain these views and continue to be a vegetarian for the rest of their life
4. Research into Conformity
  1. Asch (1951)
    1. Unambiguous task
      1. Participants shown a series of lines
        Attachments:
        Asch Experiment
        Had to compare the line on the left with the lines on the right and state which ones matched (A, B, C, or D)
    2. 123 Participants
      1. All but one of the participants were "confederates"
    3. Instructed the confederates to give the same incorrect answer on 12 of the 18 trials
      1. "Critical Trials"
      2. The true participant was always the last or penultimate one to answer
    4. Found a mean conformity rate of 37%
      1. I.e - Participants agreed with the incorrect majority answer on just over one third of the critical trials.
      2. Very high considering the unambiguous and easy nature of the task.
      3. Within the 37%, there were wide individual differences as 5% conformed on every critical trial yet 25% remained completely independent, going against the majority and giving the correct answer on all 12 trials
    5. Asch's research suggests that people tend to conform to a majority group so that they don't stand out from the crowd
  2. Evaluation of Asch's Research
    1. - Low Temporal Validity
      1. McCarthyism
        During this era (1950s), thousands of Americans were accused of being Communists or communist sympathisers and became the subject of questioning before the government
        This would have made people a lot more reluctant to stand out from the crowd
    2. - Population Validity
      1. The participants in this study were all American male students
        Androcentric study
        As this is only a small percentage of the people in America, the results from the study cannot be generalised to a wider population that includes females
        Low ecological validity
    3. - Ethics
      1. Deception
        The participants were not informed about what the experiement would test them on whether they conform or not
        Justified as experiment would not work otherwise
    4. + Lab Experiment
      1. Easy to repeat (Test - Retest)
        More reliability
    5. - Perrin & Spencer
      1. Replicated Asch's study
        In their initial study, they obtained only one conforming result out of 396 trials
        Used a group of science and engineering students
        In a subesquent study, they found similar levels of conformity to the original Asch study
        Used youths on probation
      2. Showed that the "Asch effect" is not a stable phenomenon
    6. Smith & Bond
      1. Meta-analysis of conformity studies
        Using the Asch paradigm
      2. Found that there has been a steady decline in conformity since the original Asch study
      3. Independent cultures tended to show lower conformity rates than collectivist cultures
      4. The more ambiguous the task, the higher the levels of conformity rates in all cultures
5. Explanations of why people Conform
  1. Normative Social Influence
    1. Based on the desire to be liked
    2. Involves public compliance
    3. Individual does not privately comply or change their views
  2. Informational Social Influence
    1. Based on the desire to be right
    2. Involves an individual pubicly and privately changing their views
    3. More permanent

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Social Psychology - Social Influence

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	Created by ebramhall almost 11 years ago