Social influence: conformity

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  • Social Influence: Conformity-
    • The change in a persons behaviour or opinions as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or a group of people
    • Three ways to conform:
      • Identification
        • Publically changing our beliefs/behaviour because we value the group, but privately we don't always agree with the group
          • Moderate type of conformity
          • Group needs to be present
      • Internalisation
        • A permenant change in a persons opinions/behaviour because they genuinely accept the group norms
          • Deep type of conformity
          • Group does not need to be present
      • Compliance
        • Going along with others in public, but not changing anything privately, resulting in only a superficial change
          • Temporary type of conformity
          • Group needs to be present
    • Explanations of conformity-
      • Informational Social Influence
        • Who has the better information, you or the group?
          • Not wanting to be wrong and being wrong and looking for group support
            • Cognitive
              • Situations that are new or ambiguous
                • Or when a member of the group is regarded as an expert
        • Normative Social Influence
          • What is normal behaviour for a social group?
            • Prefering to gain social approval rather than be rejected by a group
              • Emotional
                • Situations where there are new people or friends, looking for social approval
      • Normative Social Influence
        • What is normal behaviour for a social group?
          • Prefering to gain social approval rather than be rejected by a group
            • Emotional
              • Situations where there are new people or friends, looking for social approval
    • Case Study- Asch
      • Participants were shown the stand line and then three comparison lines and had to identify the standard from those three
      • 123 American male undergraduates
      • 1951
        • Especially conformist time in America
          • Individualist culture- more worried of their own success than the groups
      • 6 confederates and one naive participant
      • Group size-
        • Up to 3 confederates conformity rose to 31.8%, more confederates made little difference afterwards
      • Unanimity-
        • The presence of a dissenter meant the naive participant could be more independent and conformity decreased
      • Task difficulty-
        • Conformity increases when the task is more difficult, we look for more social guidance
      • Could've been demand characteristics in the lab setting
        • Gender and cultural influences were not taken into account
      • Answering out aloud increases conformity to privately answering
      • Ethical issues regarding deception

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