Conformity - Compliance
Compliance (Majority influence) = Conforms publicly but privately does not agree.
- Conforms with the majority, shallowist form of conformity.
E.g. Laughing at a joke someone tells you even if secretly you dont think it is funny at all.
Conformity - Identification
Identification = Conforming privately and publicly with a group but as soon as they move away they change their view.
- conforming to the demands of a given role
-Temporary conformity - feel a sense of group membership
e.g. a person may support a new football team everytime they move to a new town.
Conformity - Internalisation
Internalisation (Minority influence) = conform privately and publicly with a group, continue to share the same beliefs after they have moved away from the group.
-Becomes deep rooted as its the deepest type of conformity and it never changes
-conforming with majority because you have accepted their point of view
E.g. a person may become a vegetarian after sharing a flat with a group of freinds and continue to stay vegetarian for the rest of their life.
Research into conformity - ASCH 1956
Aim: To see how many people would go along with the judgement of others and give the wrong answer.
123 male students.. 'visual perception'
Groups 7-9 and seated round a large table, experimenter has 2 cards, 1: One line 2: Three lines. PP Asked to match line on card 1 to one of the lines on card 2. 6/7 participants were instructed to give the wrong answer and there was a total of 18 trials. FOUND: 37% Conformed 25% Independant.
-didn't want to satnd out -Doubted themselves
:) Lab experiment so highly controlled. :( Lacks ecological validity (unlikely to happen in everyday life. :) Sample size. :( All American males, not representing the general public.
Research into conformity - ZIMBARDO (1973)
Aim - Reduce sense of individuality
24 male students, 10 prisioners, 11 guards for mock prision. Prisioners arrested at their homes and put through a procedure i.e. being searched. Prisoners had certain rights 1) Three meals 2) Three supervised toilet trips 3) 2hours reading and letter writing. The whole experiment ended after 6 days and 5 prisoners released early for extreme reactions. He found that all the guards conformed.
:( psychological harm - debriefing required :( were they acting or playing roles? (prisoners)
- Demand characteristics -Trying to make Zimbardos character come true.
Research into conformity - CLARKE 1998
Aim - Test whether the minority could influence the majority through information and persuasion.
Asked PP to play role of jurors and make up their mind avout guilt or innocence of a young man. They were given a booklet based on the the plot '12 angry men' and it contained evidence for defendants guilt (knife purchased) and varied info given to defendant the defendant. He found that people changed their mind if one person provided eveidence for not being guilty.
:) High ecological validity
:( no deception - not fully informed and showed a little stress and it lacks mudane realism