Social Psychology: Chapter 6: Conformity and Obedience

Conformity

-change in behavior or belief as the result of real or imagined group pressure

-acting differently due to the influence of others and being affected by how we act

-can be bad or good depending on culture

types of conformity

-acceptance

-compliance

-obedience

Acceptance

-conforming that involves acting and believing

-genuinely believing groups actions are correct

-ex: religious institutions

Compliance

-involves public acting with an applied or implicit request while privately disagreeing

-ex: work

Obedience

-involves acting in regards to a direct order or command

-ex: military, school

Types of Social influences

-normative influence

-informational influence

Normative Influence

-influences that produces conformity when a person fears the negative social consequences of appearing deviant

-based on a persons desire to fulfills others expectations, often to gain acceptance

-the desire to be liked and the fear of rejection

Informational influence

-influences that occur when people accept evidence about reality provided by other people

-produced by the desire to be correct

-people conform because they believe others are correct in their judgments

-the desire to be right

Sherifs Studies of Norm formation

-the study that used autokinetic phenomenon to study the development of group norms

-groups of men were asked to determined how much the point of light had moved

-the responses changed markedly but the point of light never moved

-showed that our views of reality are not ours alone and we can be very suggestible

chameleon effect

-copying ones behavior annoyingly and unconsciously

-speech, posture, motion, movement

mass hysteria

large scale susceptibility

Asch's studies of group pressure

-perceptual judgement experiment

-six confederates gave incorrect answers to see if the participant would agree even if he knew it was the incorrect answer

miligrams obedience experiments

-experiment when he tested what happens when the demands of authority clash with the demands of the conscience

-teacher shocks learner at the insistence of experimenter

-65% of participants continued beyond expectations

milgram

-he examined the power of obedience to authority in social psych

-his results indicated the powerful tendency people have to obey authority figures even when their orders go against peoples values and morals

Factors that breed obedience

-victims distance

-closeness and legitimacy of the authority

-institutional authority

-liberating effects of group influence

Victims distance regarding obedience

obedience is greatest with least compassion when the learner couldn't be seen by subjects

Closeness and legitimacy of the authority regarding obedience

-when one is physically close with commands, compliance increases

-perception of authority is important

institutional authority

the setting in which they are affects the conformity

asch and milgram similarities

-compliance can take preference over moral sense

-succeeded in pressuring people to go against their own consciences

-sensitized us to moral conflicts in our own lives

-affirmed two familiar social psychological principles: link between behavior and attitudes and the power of the situation

predictions of conformity

-group size

-unanimity

-cohesion

-status

-public response

-prior commitment

Unanimity regarding conformity

observing another's dissent, even when wrong, can increase our own independence

Cohesion regarding conformity

the more the crowd is bound together the more power it gains over its members

Status regarding conformity

-prestige begets influence

-people that have a higher____ tend to have more of an impact

public response regarding conformity

people conform more when they must respond in front of others rather than writing their answers privately

prior commitment regarding conformity

most people having made a agreement stuck to it , thus restraining persuasion

People who conform

-those who are high in agreeableness and openness

-those who feel less powerful

Reactance

-negative feelings people have when their freedom is reduced

-arises when someone threatens our freedom of action

Reactance Theory

-people are distressed by the loss of freedom or options and seek to claim them

-people go against threats to their freedom by asserting themselves and perceiving the threatened freedom as more attractive

Reactions when told not to do something

-it becomes more attractive

-you start to reassess your freedom

-feel aggression