Types & explanations of conformity

Compliance AO1

• Where an individual publicly changes their behaviour to fit in with the group, while privately disagreeing

• Lowest level of conformity

• Change is temporary & not maintained when group isn’t present

• Driven by the need to be liked/gain social approval (NSI)

Identification AO1

• Where an individual adopts behaviours or beliefs because they want to be associated with a particular person or group

• Moderate level of conform

• Public & private change but only in group context

• Temporary & not maintained when group isn’t present

Internalisation AO1

• Where an individual genuinely adopts the beliefs or behaviours of the group because they see them as correct

• Deepest level of conformity

• Change is permanent & maintained when group isn’t present

• Driven by desire to be right (ISI)

ISI AO1

• Driven by the desire to be right

• Occurs in ambiguous situations where individuals lack knowledge & look to others for guidance as they see them as more knowledgeable

• Change permanent & leads to genuine private change as they believe the group is correct (internalization)

• Sherif

NSI AO1

• Driven by the desire to be liked

• Individuals conform in order to gain social approval or avoid social rejection

• Usually temporary & not maintained when the group isn’t present (compliance)

• Occurs even if the individual privately disagrees

• Most likely to occur in public situations with unfamiliar groups where there is pressure to fit in

• Asch

Strengths AO3

• P - research support (NSI)

• E - participants were placed in a group with confederates and asked to state aloud which of three comparison lines matched a standard line. The confederates unanimously gave the same incorrect answer. Despite the correct answer being obvious, around 75% of participants conformed at least once, suggesting that participants conformed to seek social approval and fit in with the rest of the group, rather than believing the group was genuinely correct. Asch also conducted a variation where participants were required to write their answers down privately rather than say them aloud. In this condition, conformity rates dropped significantly to 12.5%. This is important because it shows that when the pressure of public judgement and fear of social rejection is removed, individuals are less likely to conform

• T - provides strong empirical support for NSI, as it demonstrates that conformity is driven by the desire for social approval, resulting in compliance rather than internalisation. Increases validity of explanation

• P - research support (ISI)

• E - Lucas et al conduced a study where participants were asked easy and difficult maths questions. He found that conformity increased significantly when the questions were more difficult, indicating that participants were more likely to rely on others when they were uncertain about the correct answer. This supports the idea that ISI is strongest in ambiguous situations, where individuals lack clear evidence and therefore look to others as a source of accurate information. Additionally, the study found that participants who rated their own mathematical ability as low showed higher levels of conformity than those who rated their ability as high. This suggests that individuals who lack confidence in their own knowledge are more likely to assume that others are correct and adopt their answers.

• T - Therefore, findings provide strong empirical support for ISI, as they demonstrate that conformity is driven by a desire to be correct, particularly in situations of uncertainty, leading to internalization. This increases the validity of ISI as an explanation of conformity

Limitations AO3

• P - reductionist

• E - reduces the complex phenomenon of conformity down to 2 overly simplified explanations of either NSI or ISI. This fails to acknowledge the powerful influence of situational factors in conformity, as found by Asch. He found that conformity is influenced by group size, unanimity and task difficulty. For example, conformity increased as group size rose up to about three confederates, but adding more confederates beyond this had little additional effect. He also found that conformity decreased when there was even one dissenting confederate, breaking group unanimity.

• T - findings suggest that conformity is not simply the result of ISI and NSI, but is heavily influenced by the social context and structure of the group. Therefore, NSI and ISI may be incomplete explanations because they underestimate the powerful role of situational variables in shaping whether people conform, therefore reducing the explanation’s validity

• P - difficult to distinguish between 2 in real-world contexts

• E - although NSI is defined as conforming to gain social approval and ISI as conforming to gain accurate information, in practice both processes can operate at the same time within the same situation, making it unclear which is responsible for the behaviour. For example, in ambiguous group situations, an individual may conform partly because they believe others are more knowledgeable (ISI), but also because they do not want to appear different and seek social approval (NSI).

• T - This overlap makes it methodologically difficult for researchers to isolate and measure each type of social influence separately as they may be present at the same tine, reducing the validity of the distinction between them and explanatory power.