Psychology revison- Social in uence
Conformity
De nition
A change in behaviour in response to group norms
Types-
Internalisation - genuinely accept group norms, private and public change in behaviour,
permanent
Identi cation - Identify with the group and become part of it, public change our opinions but
privately don’t agree with everything
Compliance - ‘Go along with others’ in public but privately not changing our opinion,
temporary
Explanations-
- Informational social in uence (ISI). Fit into be right, leads to internalisation
- Normative social in uence (NSI). Fit in to be liked, leads to compliance
Evaluation
Strength of NSI is research support
- Ash found many pps conformed as they were afraid of disapproval, conformity dropped when
they wrote down the answers
- Some conformity is due to desire not to be rejected from the group
Research support for ISI
- Lucas et al did a similar study to Asch but with maths problems.
- For hard problems, the situation was ambiguous so they relied on the answers they were
given
Counterpoint
It is unclear if NSI or ISI operate in studies, a dissenter may reduce the power of NSI or reduce
the power of ISI. They are hard to separate and operate together in most real-world situations
Individual di erences in NSI
- Some people are concerned about being liked by other- nA liators who have a strong need
for a liation (to be liked by others)
- Students who were nA liators were more likely to conform
- This shows NSI underlies conformity for some people more than for others- an individual
di erence not explained by a theory of situational pressures
Is the NSI/ISI distinction useful
- Lucas et al’s study shows that the distinction may not be useful. Because its impossible to
work out which one is working
- However, Asch’s research supports both NSI and ISI
- Overall, both concepts are useful as they can be identi ed and used to explain reasons for
conformity
Study- Asch’s line lengths
Variations-
- Group size. Conformity increases as the group size increases, 3 is the optimal group size
- Unanimity Reduced conformity, real pp behaves more independently
- Task di culty. Conformity increases, informational social in uence (ISI)
Evaluation
A child of its time
- The experiment was carried out in a conformist era
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, - Perrin and Spencer (1981) carried out Asch’s study 25 years later with engineering students
and only one student conformed in a total of 396 trials.
- This shows that it is possible that the 1950s were an especially conformist time in America and
therefore it made sense to conform to established social norms.
- This shows that his research may not be applicable today
Arti cial situations and task
- Participants knew they were taking part in research and so may have simply displayed
demand characteristics.
- Also this task is unlike groups that we are part of in everyday life.
- This is a limitation as we can’t generalise the ndings to everyday life
Limited application of ndings
- Only men were tested and therefore results are not generalisable to women.
- Asch carried out research in the USA, which is an individualistic culture making is less
generalisable again
High in reliability.
- Lab experiment-> Asch had a lot of control over extraneous variables,
- For example, he controlled where participants sat, the number of confederates and how the line
was presented.
- The experiment was repeated 18 times which shows it was reliable.
Collectivist VS individualistic
- Conformity studies in collectivist cultures have found that conformity rates are higher.
- This shows that conformity levels are sometimes higher than Asch found.
- Asch’s ndings only apply to American men so it is not generalisable because he didn't take
gender and cultural di erences into account.
Conformity to social roles
The Stanford Prison Experiment
- Yale uni, 12 prisoners, 12 guards, 6 days
Social roles were encourage by two routes:
1. Uniform. Prisoners were strip-searched, given a uniform and number, this encouraged
deindividuation
2. Instructions about behaviour. Prisoners were told they could not leave but would have to
ask for parole. Guard were told they had complete power over prisoners.
- Prisoners rebelled within 2 days: they ripped their uniforms, shouted and swore at the guards
- The guards behaviour threatened the prisoners psychological and physical health. Prisoners
became subdued and depressed, three prisoners were released early because they showed
signs of psychological disturbance
- Guards became brutal, prisoners became submissive
Evaluation
Control over key variables
- emotionally stable pps were recruited and randomly allocated roles, the guards and prisoners
only had those roles by chance so their behaviour was due to the role and not their
personalities
- This increased the studies internal validity
Lacked the realism of a true prison
- pps were play acting. Their performances were stereotypes of how prisoners and guards are
supposed to behave
- Prisoners rioted as they thought that’s what prisoners did
- This suggests the SPE tells us little about conformity to social roles
Counterpoint
- pps behaved as if the prison was real, e.g 90% of conversations were about prison life
- This suggests the SPE replicated the roles of guard and prisoner just as in a real prison,
increasing internal validity
Zimbardo exaggerated the power of social roles
- Only 1/3 of the guards behaved brutally, another third applied the rules fairly. The rest
supported the prisoners, o ering them cigarettes and reinserting privileges
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Conformity
De nition
A change in behaviour in response to group norms
Types-
Internalisation - genuinely accept group norms, private and public change in behaviour,
permanent
Identi cation - Identify with the group and become part of it, public change our opinions but
privately don’t agree with everything
Compliance - ‘Go along with others’ in public but privately not changing our opinion,
temporary
Explanations-
- Informational social in uence (ISI). Fit into be right, leads to internalisation
- Normative social in uence (NSI). Fit in to be liked, leads to compliance
Evaluation
Strength of NSI is research support
- Ash found many pps conformed as they were afraid of disapproval, conformity dropped when
they wrote down the answers
- Some conformity is due to desire not to be rejected from the group
Research support for ISI
- Lucas et al did a similar study to Asch but with maths problems.
- For hard problems, the situation was ambiguous so they relied on the answers they were
given
Counterpoint
It is unclear if NSI or ISI operate in studies, a dissenter may reduce the power of NSI or reduce
the power of ISI. They are hard to separate and operate together in most real-world situations
Individual di erences in NSI
- Some people are concerned about being liked by other- nA liators who have a strong need
for a liation (to be liked by others)
- Students who were nA liators were more likely to conform
- This shows NSI underlies conformity for some people more than for others- an individual
di erence not explained by a theory of situational pressures
Is the NSI/ISI distinction useful
- Lucas et al’s study shows that the distinction may not be useful. Because its impossible to
work out which one is working
- However, Asch’s research supports both NSI and ISI
- Overall, both concepts are useful as they can be identi ed and used to explain reasons for
conformity
Study- Asch’s line lengths
Variations-
- Group size. Conformity increases as the group size increases, 3 is the optimal group size
- Unanimity Reduced conformity, real pp behaves more independently
- Task di culty. Conformity increases, informational social in uence (ISI)
Evaluation
A child of its time
- The experiment was carried out in a conformist era
ff fiffifi ffi ff fl flffi fl fi ffi fl
, - Perrin and Spencer (1981) carried out Asch’s study 25 years later with engineering students
and only one student conformed in a total of 396 trials.
- This shows that it is possible that the 1950s were an especially conformist time in America and
therefore it made sense to conform to established social norms.
- This shows that his research may not be applicable today
Arti cial situations and task
- Participants knew they were taking part in research and so may have simply displayed
demand characteristics.
- Also this task is unlike groups that we are part of in everyday life.
- This is a limitation as we can’t generalise the ndings to everyday life
Limited application of ndings
- Only men were tested and therefore results are not generalisable to women.
- Asch carried out research in the USA, which is an individualistic culture making is less
generalisable again
High in reliability.
- Lab experiment-> Asch had a lot of control over extraneous variables,
- For example, he controlled where participants sat, the number of confederates and how the line
was presented.
- The experiment was repeated 18 times which shows it was reliable.
Collectivist VS individualistic
- Conformity studies in collectivist cultures have found that conformity rates are higher.
- This shows that conformity levels are sometimes higher than Asch found.
- Asch’s ndings only apply to American men so it is not generalisable because he didn't take
gender and cultural di erences into account.
Conformity to social roles
The Stanford Prison Experiment
- Yale uni, 12 prisoners, 12 guards, 6 days
Social roles were encourage by two routes:
1. Uniform. Prisoners were strip-searched, given a uniform and number, this encouraged
deindividuation
2. Instructions about behaviour. Prisoners were told they could not leave but would have to
ask for parole. Guard were told they had complete power over prisoners.
- Prisoners rebelled within 2 days: they ripped their uniforms, shouted and swore at the guards
- The guards behaviour threatened the prisoners psychological and physical health. Prisoners
became subdued and depressed, three prisoners were released early because they showed
signs of psychological disturbance
- Guards became brutal, prisoners became submissive
Evaluation
Control over key variables
- emotionally stable pps were recruited and randomly allocated roles, the guards and prisoners
only had those roles by chance so their behaviour was due to the role and not their
personalities
- This increased the studies internal validity
Lacked the realism of a true prison
- pps were play acting. Their performances were stereotypes of how prisoners and guards are
supposed to behave
- Prisoners rioted as they thought that’s what prisoners did
- This suggests the SPE tells us little about conformity to social roles
Counterpoint
- pps behaved as if the prison was real, e.g 90% of conversations were about prison life
- This suggests the SPE replicated the roles of guard and prisoner just as in a real prison,
increasing internal validity
Zimbardo exaggerated the power of social roles
- Only 1/3 of the guards behaved brutally, another third applied the rules fairly. The rest
supported the prisoners, o ering them cigarettes and reinserting privileges
fi
fi fffi ff fi
