Types of conformity and Asch

type of conformity

a way in which people conform

explanation of conformity

a reason why people conform

internalisation, deepest

Which type of conformity is this?

Conforming to the group because someone accepts its norms - they will also agree privately as well as publically (? level of conformity)

Identification, moderate

Which type of conformity is this?

Conforming to the group because someone values it – prepared to change views to be part of it (? level of conformity)

compliance, shallow

Which type of conformity is this?

Superficial agreement with the group – going along with it publicly but holding a different view privately (most ? level of conformity)

two-process, human needs, liked, right, informational, normative

Two explanations to why we conform

two psychologists put forward a ‘?? theory’. The theory argued that people conform due to two central ??: the need to be ? and the need to be ?. The two types of social influence are ? and ?.

informational social influence

Agreeing with the majority view/behaviour because we believe they know better or are more likely to be right.

normative social influence

Agreeing with the majority because we want to be liked and/or do not want to be rejected.

American, mathematical, easy, difficult, incorrect, difficult, easy, own mathematical ability, poor, someone else, research support, informative, external validity, mundane realism, valid, generalise, target population, culture bias, American, unrepresentative, biased, validity, generalisability, target population

A03 of explanations of conformity - strength and c/a

A psychologist asked ? students to give answers to ? problems that were ? or ?. There was greater conformity to ? answers when they were ? rather than ?. This was especially true for those who rated their ??? as ? and these students looked at ?? for the answer.

This is a strength as this evidence offers ?? for ? influence. This means that the research has high ?? as a result of the theory successfully portrayed in the real world. In addition, the theory has high ?? as the experiment used a realistic stimulus. Therefore, this means that the ? theory has greater opportunities to ? to the ??.

C/a - however, the theory has ?? as the sample consists of ? students. This means the sample characteristics are ? and ?, lacking ?. Therefore, this limits ? to the ?? as the findings do not represent people from other cultures.

oversimplified, group, referent social influence, norms of the group, reductionist, validity, generalise, target population

A03 of explanations of conformity - weakness

A psychologist argued that the two-way process is ? as it ignores the human desire to belong to a ?. He therefore proposed a third explanation of conformity – ???. This argues we conform because we want to maintain the ???? we see ourselves as belonging to.

This is a weakness as the two-way process theory simplifies conformity as it ignores a third explanation of conformity. This means that the theory takes a ? approach as it ignores the complexity of conformity. This means that the theory lacks ? , therefore limiting the opportunities to ? the theory to the ??.

male, America, lines, wrong, self-conscious, rejection, privately, reduced, rejection, research support, normative, rejection, reliability, internal validity, extraneous variables, screw u, please u, generalise, target population, culture bias, gender bias, male Americans, populations, female behaviour, validity, generalise, target population

A03 of explanations of conformity - strength and c/a

Asch asked ? participants from ? to compare the length of ? in a group setting. He found that many of his participants conformed to a clearly ? answer. Many of the participants said it's because they felt ?? giving the correct answer and facing ? from the rest of the group. When participants were asked to ? write their answer down conformity level ?; suggesting people conform due to fear of ?.

This is a strength as the evidence offers ?? for ? influence as Asch’s participants conformed to avoid ?. This means that the theory has high ? as a result of consistent findings being portrayed in psychological research. In addition, the theory has high ?? as Asch controlled ?? which prevented the ?? and ?? effect from occurring. Therefore, this means that the theory has opportunities to ? its findings to the ??.

C/a - however, Asch’s study suffers from ?? and ??, as the sample consisted of ??. This is a weakness as Asch’s study ignores characteristics of other ? and ??. Therefore, this means that the two process theory lacks ?, consequently limiting the opportunities to ? the findings to the ??.

unambiguous situation, 123 male undergraduates, naïve, 6, 8, confederates, 18, 12, wrong answer, critical trials, 75, naïve, once, 25, situational, individual differences

Asch’s line study - method

Asch was interested to see how people would conform in an ??. His sample consisted of ??? and each ? participant was tested individually with a group of between ? and ? ?. Each participant took part in ? trials and on ? trials the confederates gave the ?? (called ‘??’). Overall ?% of the ‘?’ participants conformed at least ?. ?% never conformed.

Based on his manipulations of variations, he concluded that majority influence is dependent upon ? factors and ??.

small, same way, majority, doubtful, unsure, judgement, privately, public, disapproval, rejected

Why did Asch’s participants conform?

Asch argued there were four reasons why people conformed:

1. Distortion of perception - A ? number of participants came to see the lines in the ?? as the ?.

2. Distortion of judgement - They were ?/?of their own ?.

3. Distortion of action - Most participants continued to ? think differently from the group, but changed their ? answer to avoid ?

4. Fear of rejection - participants were scared they would be ? by the group

distortion of perception, distortion of judgement, distortion of action, and fear of rejection

list the four reasons why Asch’s participants did not conform

distortion of perception

Which reason here is described to say why Asch’s participants conformed?

A small number of participants came to see the lines in the same way as the majority.

distortion of judgement

Which reason here is described to say why Asch’s participants conformed?

They were doubtful/unsure of their own judgement. 

distortion of action

Which reason here is described to say why Asch’s participants conformed?

Most participants continued to privately think differently from the group, but changed their public answer to avoid disapproval

fear of rejection

Which reason here is described to say why Asch’s participants conformed?

participants were scared they would be rejected by the group

size of the majority, unanimity of the majority and difficulty of the task

list Asch’s different variables that impacted conformity

little, three, 30, increase, optimal point

Asch’s variables affecting conformity - size of the majority

There was ? conformity when the majority was only one or two people. However, under the pressure of a majority of ? conformity increased to ?%. BUT further increases did not ? the levels of conformity. Size of the majority is important but only up to an ??.

wrong, right answer, dropping, consensus

Asch’s variables affecting conformity - unanimity of the majority

Originally all the confederates gave the same ? answer. So Asch instructed one confederate to give the ??. This lead to conformity ? considerably. He concluded that breaking the group’s ? was one of the main influences in conformity.

line lengths closer, harder, increased, self-efficacy, confident

Asch’s variables affecting conformity - difficulty of the task

Asch made the ??? together and therefore the task ?. He found conformity to the majority ?. This is often influenced by the ?? of the individual (how ? the participant is with the task).

one student, 396, English, 1950, conformist, America, social norms, reliability, temporal validity, culture bias, England, America, individualistic, unrepresentative, target population, generalisability, more, representativeness, characteristics, validity, generalising, target population.

A03 of Asch’s study - weakness and c/a

Two psychologists replicated Asch’s research and found that only ?? out of ? ?participants conformed to the group. It may be that the ?’s were a particularly ? time in ? at the time of Asch’s research so it made sense to follow the ??.

This is a weakness as the research has conflicting evidence, therefore having low ? as a result of conflicting research findings in the two studies. In association with this, the study has low ?? as the results were not consistent over time. Furthermore, there is ?? in both studies as ? and ? are ? cultures. Therefore, this means that the characteristics of the sample in both studies are ? of the ??, limiting the ? of the results.

C/a - however, in this replicated study, the sample consisted of significantly ? people, meaning that there is greater ? of sample ? in this study compared to Asch’s study. This means that this study may have greater ? as a result of the quantity of participants in this study, consequently leading to greater possibilities of ? the findings to the ??.

deceived, informed consent, negative psychological, stress, anxiety, humiliation, ethical issues, artificial stimulus, study, real world, mundane realism, validity, reliability, minimal, deception, reliability, true nature of the study

A03 of Asch’s study - weakness and c/a

Participants were ? as no ?? was obtained. In addition, they may be exposed to ?? consequences (?, ?, ? etc).

This is a weakness as numerous ?? such as informal consent and psychological harm were breached in Asch’s study. Additionally, due to the ?? in the study, participants may conform differently in the ? rather than in the ??, resulting in low ?? and ?. Therefore, this means that the chance for other psychologists to repeat this study is low, resulting in no opportunities for the study’s ? to be assessed.

C/a - however, the harm caused to participants in this study was ?, and it is impossible to test social influence properly without small ?. This means that the opportunities to assess ? in new studies is possible as long as the researchers inform participants of the ????? after the experiment is conducted.

men, women, more, women, gender bias, female behaviour, validity, generalise, target population

A03 of Asch’s study - weakness

In Asch’s original research, only ? were tested. Studies show ? are ? likely to conform so conformity may have been higher if ? were tested.

This is a weakness as there is ?? in Asch’s study as the research does not offer an explanation for ??, limiting the ? of the study. Therefore, this reduces the opportunities to ? the findings to the ??.