Conformity

What are the 3 types of conformity?

Compliance, Identification & Internalisation

Define Compliance

Publicly conforming to group norms while privately maintaining personal beliefs; a temporary change.

Define Identification

Adopting behaviours or beliefs to be associated with a group; change may persist only while in the group

Define Internalisation

Deep, permanent acceptance of group norms, both publicly and privately

Evaluate the distinction between the types of conformity

The types may overlap in practice, making it difficult to distinguish between them in real-life situations

What is Normative Social Influence (NSI)?

Conforming to be liked or accepted by the group; leads to compliance

What is Informational Social Influence

Conforming due to the desire to be correct; leads to internalisation

Provide research support for NSI

Asch (1951) found that participants conformed to incorrect answers to avoid disapproval.

Provide research support for ISI.

Sherif(1935) demonstrated that individuals conform to group norms in ambiguous situations

Evaluate NSI and ISI explanations

Both have empirical support, but it’s often difficult to distinguish which influence is at play in real-life scenarios.

How does group size affect conformity?

Conformity increases with group size up to a point; Asch found that three confederates led to optimal conformity.

How does unanimity affect conformity?

Presence of a dissenting confederate reduces conformity significantly

How does task difficulty affect conformity?

Increased task difficulty leads to higher conformity due to uncertainty

Evaluate Asch’s study on conformity

Lacks ecological validity and may not generalise beyond the specific sample used

Summarise Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment

Participants adopted assigned roles of guards and prisoners, leading to extreme behaviours

Evaluate Zimbardo’s study

Demonstrated the power of social roles, but faces ethical criticisms and questions about demand characteristics