Explanations for Conformity

Question 1

What are the 2 explanations of conformity?

Answer 1

Informational Social Influence

Normative Social Influence

Question 2

What is informational social influence?

Answer 2

When a person conforms to the majority as they are unaware of the correct answer/how to behave - look to others for info as we believe they have more knowledge

Question 3

Why do people find Informational Social Influence good?

Answer 3

If the majority are correct, the conformer is too

If the majority is wrong, the conformer won’t stand out

Question 4

When is Informational Social Influence most likely to occur?

Answer 4

Ambiguous situation

New situations

When we believe others to be experts

Question 5

What is Informational Social Influence most likely to lead to?

Answer 5

Internalisation - didn’t know what to do, and so change your views both publicly and privately so they know what to do in the same situation in the future

Question 6

What is Normative Social Influence?

Answer 6

When we conform to the behaviours of the majority to “fit in” and be liked by others

Question 7

When is Normative Social Influence more likely to occur?

Answer 7

When talking to strangers - fear of rejection

When in a stressful situation

Peer pressure or fear of embarrassment

Question 8

What is Normative Social Influence most likely to lead to?

Answer 8

Compliance - you don’t act on personal views, you only copy others to fit in

Question 9

What are some strengths for Informational Social Influence?

Answer 9

Lucas’s study (2006)

Jenness’s study

Question 10

What is a strength for Normative Social Influence?

Answer 10

Asch’s study (1951)

Question 11

What was Lucas’s study (2006)?

Answer 11

Asked students to solve math problems
Some hard and some easy
Conformity occurred more on harder questions and in students who said they weren’t good at maths

Question 12

How does Lucas’s study support Informational Social Influence?

Answer 12

It suggest conformity is more likely to occur in ambiguous situations

Question 13

What was Asch’s study (1951)?

Answer 13

Participants asked to judge length of lines
Confederates told real participant that blatantly wrong answer
75% participants still conformed at least once to the wrong answer that the confederates chose

Question 14

How does Asch’s study support Normative Social Influence?

Answer 14

People conformed to the majority opinion, even if the answer was obvious so they wouldn’t stand out and would be liked more by the majority

Question 15

What are the weaknesses of ISI & NSI as explanations for conformity?

Answer 15

1. Individual differences in NSI & ISI (LACKS POPULATION VALIDITY, universality & predictive validity)
2. Both lab studies lack ecological validity

Question 16

How are there individual differences in NSI & ISI?

Answer 16

Not everyone shows NSI or ISI

Individuals who don’t care about being liked are unaffected by NSI

McGhee & Teevan (1967) - found that students with higher need of affiliation (Naffiliators) were more likely to conform

Lucas (2006) - conformity moderated by self-efficacy - those better at math less likely to conform

Certain students said they wouldn’t conform no matter how hard the question was

LACKS POPULATION VALIDITY

Question 17

How do the lab studies for ISI and NSI lack ecological validity?

Answer 17

Carried out in lab conditions - doesn’t match real world
People rarely judge the lengths of lines in real life, or guess how many jelly breaks are in a jar
Demand characteristics might have also been seen
Low external validity