Conformity AS AQA Psychology

Conformity AS AQA Psychology

1. Types of Conformity

   • Compliance
     • Publicly going along with majority influence to gain approval
   • Identification
     • Public and private acceptance of majority influence in order to gain group acceptance
   • Internalisation
     • Public and private acceptance of majority influence, through adoption of the majority group's belief system

2. Explanation for conformity

   • Normative Social Influence (NSI)
     • A motivational force to be liked and accepted by a group
   • Informational Social Influence (ISI)
     • A motivational force to look to others for guidance in order to be correct
   • Research
     • Jenness 1932
     • Asch 1955

3. Variables affecting conformity

   • Situational Variables
     • Features of an enviroment that affect the degree to which individuals yield to group pressure
       • Size of Group
         • Conformity rates increase to a certain point
       • Unanimity
         • Conformity rates decrease when maj influence is not unanimous
       • Task Difficulty
         • Task Difficulty increases ->more conformity
           • ISI is dominant

4. Conformity to social roles

   • The parts individuals play as members of a social group, which meet the expectations of that situation
   • Research-Zimbardo
   • De-individuation
     • individuals have lower self-awareness and weaker sense of personal responsibilty for thier actions
   • Dehumanisation
     • Degrading people by lessening of their human qualities