Types of conformity and explanations fro conformity

Types of conformity AO1 - compliance

Individuals may go along with the group in order to gain their approval or avoid disapproval

when exposed to views or actions of the majority, individuals may engage in a process of social comparison, concentrating on what others say or do so that they can adjust their own actions to fit in with them.

fitting in = desirable = what motivates conformity

compliance DOES NOT result in any change in the persons underlying attitude, only in the views and behaviours they express in public.

Publicly AGREEING, privately retaining THEIR OWN BELIEFS AND OPINIONS

Types of conformity - AO1 internalisation

the individual takes on the behaviour, attitudes and beliefs of the majority.

look to others for infromation

individuals may go along with the the group because of an acceptance of their views

when exposed to the views of other members of the groups, individuals are encourage to engage in a validation process, examining their own beliefs to see if they or others are right.

close examination of the groups position may convince the individual that they are wrong and the group is right - particularly right if the group is generally trustworthy in their views and the individual has tended to go along with them on previous occasions.

acceptance of groups point of view both publicly and privately - group norms become personal norms - permanent

types of conformity - AO1 - identification

in some instances, an individual might accept influence because they wanted to be associated with another person or group.

by adopting the groups attitudes and behaviours, they feel more a part of it.

has elements of both compliance and internalisation

as the individual accepts the attitude and behaviours they are adopting as right and true (internalisation), but the prise of adopting them is to be accepted as a member of the group (compliance)

e.g a child may start smoking because that’s whats ‘cool’ kids do and they want to be seen as a ‘cool kid’

Explanations for conformity - normative social influence

• emotional

• public only need to be liked

• possible to go along with the majority without really accepting their point of view.

• usually referred to as compliance

• humans = social species, they have fundamental need for social companionship and fear of censure and rejection

Explanations for conformity - informational social influence

• need to be right

• internalisation

• cognitive

• accepts information from others as evidence of reality.

• right course of action not clear or others are experts - as a result the individual does not just comply in behaviour alone but also changes their behaviour in line with the group position

• because this involves changing both public and private attitudes and behaviour, this is an example of internalisation.

AO3 - difficult to distinguish between compliance and internalisation

Criticms of this is the difficulty to distinguish between compliance and internalisation

the relationship between compliance and internalisation is complicated because of difficulties in knowing when each is actually taking place

for example, it is assumed that a person who publicly agrees with a majority yet disagrees with them in private must be demonstrating compliance rather than internalisation however it is also possible that acceptance of the groups views has occurred in public yet dissipates later when In private

this could be because they have forgotten information given by the group or because they have received new information that changes their mind. this demonstrates the difficulty in determining what is and what is not, simple compliance rather than internalisation

AO3 - Research support for normative influence

There is research support for normative influence. US research has supported the important role played by peoples normative beliefs in shaping behaviours such s smoking and energy conservation.

Linkenbach and Perkins 2003 found that adolescents exposed to the simple message that the majority of their age peers did not smoke were subsequently less likely to take up smoking.

Likewise, Schultz et al 2008 found that hotel guests exposed to the normative message that 25% of guests reused their towels each day (an indication of energy conservation behaviour) reduced their own towel use by 25%

these studies support the claim that people shape their behaviour out of desire to fit in with their reference group, and as such demonstrate the power of normative influence

AO3 - however, normative influence may not be detected.

Although normative influence has a powerful effect on the behaviour of the individual, it is possible that the do not actually recognise the behaviours of others as a casual factor in their own behaviour.

there is some support for this claim - Nolan et al 2008 investigated whether people detected the influence of social norms on their energy conservation behaviour. When asked about what factors had influenced their own energy conservation, people believed that the behaviour of neighbours had the least impact on their own energy conservation, yet results showed that it had the strongest impact.

this suggests that people rely on beliefs about what should motivate their behaviour, and so under-detect the impact of normative influence