Types of conformity

Conformity is a type of social influence where we choose to go along with the majority(majority influence). For example, peer pressure or fashion trends. We can do this publicly or privately.

Crutchfield described conformity as yielding to group pressure.

Compliance= going along with others in a group setting in public, but not privately changing personal beliefs/behaviours. Lowest level of conformity and liked to nsi

Identification= conforming to a groups beliefs as we identify with them/ you see yourself like the person in some way. May involve some private acceptance but usually only temporary and not maintained when we leave the group. Moderate level.

Internalisation= Genuinely accepting and adopting a groups behaviours in public and in private. Links to isi (we take on majority’s view because we believe it to be correct). Beliefs are internalised causing attitude change. The deepest level of conformity.

Sherrifs study (. Study showing internalisation)

He aimed to investigate whether people are influenced by others in a situation where the answer isn’t clear. (Ambiguous)

It was a lab experiment with a repeated measures experimental design.

He used auto kinetic effect (an optical illusion) where ppts were in a dark room and a spot of light was projected onto a screen. The spot of light appeared to move even though it was stationary. Ppts were then asked t estimate the distance the light had moved. In the first condition they were asked individually and in the second condition they were asked in group of two or three.

When asked individually, ppts answers were less similar then when asked in groups, and ppts who’s answers were greatly different from the other two in their group of three conformed to the view of the other two. Therefore, people conformed to the majority view suggesting that in an ambiguous situation, people are influenced by others beliefs.

This could be due to NSI (need to be liked and accepted within the group) or ISI (need to be correct).

Since Sherrif didn’t ask for the group to arrive at a group estimate, it is a good example that people conform to group when there is no direct or explicit pressure to change behaviour.

Evaluation of study

One strength is that the study is high in internal validity. Due to being a lab experiment, it means the researcher had control over any extraneous variables like light. This is a strength since it means we can establish cause and effect between conformity and group size.

One weakness is that the study lacks mundane realism. The task of guessing the distance a light has moved across a screen is artificial and therefore cant be applied to real life. This is a weakness since it means the tidy is low in ecological validity.

A further weakness is that there are ethical issues. For example, deception is an issue since ppts dint know they were being tested on conformity (werent aware of the studies aims). This is a weakness since it breaches the ethics followed in psychology. However, due to cost benefit analysis, it was worth deceiving the ppts since if they knew the aim it would mean they could respond to demand characteristics and the findings have helped advance research on conformity.