Social Psychology

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SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY CONFORMITY

The tendency to change your behaviour and attitudes due to influence of others or social pressure. This pressure can be real or imagined.

Dual-process dependency model

Normative Social Influence- This is when an individual conforms as they want to fit in and be accepted in the group. Belonging to a group is rewarding. Publicly agree but privately disagree. For example Asch experiment, participants conformed with the confederates to feel accepted and to not look wrong. Linked to Compliance.

Informational Social Influence- This is when an individual change their views due to an ambiguous situation. They believe the crowd knows best. They conform as they're unsure or unclear on how to behave.

TYPES OF CONFORMITY (KELMAN)

Compliance- When an individual changes his/ her behaviour in order to fit in with the group. They publicly agree but privately disagree. It is not a permanent form of conformity. An example is Asch study. The participants conformed with the confederates to fit in and to not stand out. This is linked to NORMATIVE SOCIAL INFLUENCE

Internalisation- When an individual changes their belief due to the influence of the group. They publicly and privately agree. This is a permanent form of conformity. This is because it lasts even when the group isn't present. This is linked to INFORMATIONAL SOCIAL INFLUENCE

Studies on Conformity

Sherif et al

Method: Used the auto-kinetic effect (spot of light appears to be moving in a dark room however it's stationary). Participants were placed in a group of three and were asked to estimate how far they thought the light had move.

Findings: Participants initial estimates varied from one another however when placed together their estimates was very similar to one another over successful trials

Conclusion: Participants conformed in an ambiguous situation as they're unsure on how to behave or to say (Linked to informational social influence). In the experiments the participants conformed to not stand out and to fit in by saying similar estimates as each other. Noticed that a group norm was formed by members.

Evaluation

Lab experiment = lacks ecological validity

Lab experiment = extraneous variables is controlled

Supporting research by Rohrer et al used Sherif method. Found out that when the participants were retested up to one year, their results were similar in the group and did not change to their initial estimates. This supports Sherif et al experiment as it shows that the power of the group to influence behaviour can be permanent and long lasting.

Asch

Method:Participants were shown a stimulus line and three other lines. The 123 male participants were put in a group of 7 / 8 people. There was only one naive participants and the remaining people were confederates. They were asked to choose what line they thought was similar to the stimulus line. Each participants completed 18 trials and there was 12 critical trials ( were the confederates gave the wrong answer) in the 18 trials.

Findings: 37% conformed in the critical trials

5% conformed on every critical trials

25% did not conformed in the critical trials

Conclusion: This show that the participants conformed in order to feel accepted and to fit in with the group of people. This is because they do not want to stand out from everyone else.

Evaluation

Lab experiment = replicated to test for reliability = procedures can be followed

Lab experiment = cause and effect is established = independent variable is manipulated (Social pressure) and is measured (conformed)

Ethics = Deception = Confederates = required to see if the participants will conformed