Social Psychology - Conformity

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  • Created by: HollyW
  • Created on: 06-02-18 11:53
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  • Conformity
    • Kelman (1985) found three types of conformity
      • Compliance
        • Going along with a group and changing public views and behaviour but not privately changing attitude
      • Identification
        • The individual adopts the groups attitude and change their private views
      • Internalisation
        • Individuals go along with a group due to acceptance of their views
    • Deutsch and Gerard (1955) discovered the two process theory that says there are two main reasons people conform and are based on two central human needs
      • Informative Social Influence
        • The need to be right so an individual info from others due to a need for confidence that their beliefs are correct. More likely when the situation is ambiguous or others are experts
      • Normative Social Influence
        • The need to be liked. An individual conforms due to a need for social reasons and fear of rejection. Most likely to occur in public situations.
    • Variables affecting conformity
      • Group Size
      • Unanimity
      • Task Difficulty
      • Confidence
      • Personality
      • Age
    • Agentic State
      • Milgram (1963) proposed the idea of the agency theory, where we are socialised from a young age to obey a hierarchy.
        • In order to achieve this, an individual has to give up their free will to an authority figure where they are de-individuated and the authority is to blame for the individual's actions
          • This may cause individuals to experience a MORAL STRAIN and high levels of ANXIETY
        • when a person has control of their actions, they are in an autonomous state
        • Binding factors are aspects of the situation that allows the person to ignore the damaging effect of their behaviour,
          • Such as shifting blame to the victim or denying the damage they were causing
    • Legitimacy of Authority
      • Societies are structured in a hierarchical way which is legitimate as it has been agreed by society
        • Our obedience to legitimate authority is because we have been socialised to obey during childhood
        • A consequence of this legitimate authority is that some have the power to punish others
          • People are willing to give up their free will and independence to people they trust to exercise their rights properly

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