Social Psychology
Types of Conformity:
Compliance: individuals adjust their behaviour/opinions to
those of a group because of a desire to fit in.
Involves public, but not private, acceptance of group’s
behaviours
Temporary – only shown in presence of the group
E.g. Favourite songs – you say you like a certain song in
the presence of friends, but you wouldn’t listen to it by
yourself
Identification: individuals adjust their behaviours/opinions
because membership of the group is desirable
Involves public and private acceptance
Temporary – not maintained when you leave the group
E.g. Army
Internalisation: individuals genuinely change their private
views to match those of the group because they believe them
to be right
New attitudes become part of your value system and not
dependant on group presence
E.g. Converting to a new religion
Explanations for Conformity:
DEUTSCH & GERARD – DUAL PROCESS MODEL
Informational Social Influence (ISI): a motivational force to
look to others for guidance in order to be correct. They follow
, the majority because they assume the majority know the
correct answer (safety in numbers) and this occurs in
unfamiliar situations or ambiguous situations.
Normative Social Influence (NSI): a motivational force to be
liked and accepted by a group. The best way of gaining
acceptance of others is to agree with them (however, this
doesn’t necessarily mean that we truly agree with them). The
person may publicly change their behaviours but privately
disagree (compliance).
Classic research:
The role of discussion in changing opinion regarding a matter of
fact – Arthur Jeness (1932)
Originally conducted as an investigation into social facilitation
(the effect of how the presence of others on performance).
Jeness’ research is now regarded as a ground-breaking study
into informational social influence. The original focus was on
how group discussion influenced the accuracy of judgment, but
the most interesting result concerned how majority influence
caused individuals judgments to converge (move together).
The task Jeness gave his participants, estimating the number
of jellybeans in a jar, had no obvious answer, it was difficult to
assess the amount. Therefore, the conformity, produced was
motivated by informational social influence, where individuals
in uncertain situations look to others for guidance as how to
behave.
AIM:
To investigate whether individuals judgments of jellybeans in a
jar was influenced by discussion in groups.
PROCEDURE:
1. Participants made individual, private estimates of the
number of jellybeans in a jar.
Types of Conformity:
Compliance: individuals adjust their behaviour/opinions to
those of a group because of a desire to fit in.
Involves public, but not private, acceptance of group’s
behaviours
Temporary – only shown in presence of the group
E.g. Favourite songs – you say you like a certain song in
the presence of friends, but you wouldn’t listen to it by
yourself
Identification: individuals adjust their behaviours/opinions
because membership of the group is desirable
Involves public and private acceptance
Temporary – not maintained when you leave the group
E.g. Army
Internalisation: individuals genuinely change their private
views to match those of the group because they believe them
to be right
New attitudes become part of your value system and not
dependant on group presence
E.g. Converting to a new religion
Explanations for Conformity:
DEUTSCH & GERARD – DUAL PROCESS MODEL
Informational Social Influence (ISI): a motivational force to
look to others for guidance in order to be correct. They follow
, the majority because they assume the majority know the
correct answer (safety in numbers) and this occurs in
unfamiliar situations or ambiguous situations.
Normative Social Influence (NSI): a motivational force to be
liked and accepted by a group. The best way of gaining
acceptance of others is to agree with them (however, this
doesn’t necessarily mean that we truly agree with them). The
person may publicly change their behaviours but privately
disagree (compliance).
Classic research:
The role of discussion in changing opinion regarding a matter of
fact – Arthur Jeness (1932)
Originally conducted as an investigation into social facilitation
(the effect of how the presence of others on performance).
Jeness’ research is now regarded as a ground-breaking study
into informational social influence. The original focus was on
how group discussion influenced the accuracy of judgment, but
the most interesting result concerned how majority influence
caused individuals judgments to converge (move together).
The task Jeness gave his participants, estimating the number
of jellybeans in a jar, had no obvious answer, it was difficult to
assess the amount. Therefore, the conformity, produced was
motivated by informational social influence, where individuals
in uncertain situations look to others for guidance as how to
behave.
AIM:
To investigate whether individuals judgments of jellybeans in a
jar was influenced by discussion in groups.
PROCEDURE:
1. Participants made individual, private estimates of the
number of jellybeans in a jar.
