Types of Conformity

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  • Types of Conformity
    • Compliance
      • Going along with others to gain their approval or avoid their disapproval
      • Individuals may engage in a process of social comparison
      • So that they can adjust their own actions to fit in with them
      • Identification with the majority is desirable
      • Will simply go along with the majority without analysing why such a difference exists
      • Results in public compliance, with little or no private attitude change
    • Internalisation
      • Going along with others because you have accepted their point of view because it is consistent with your own
      • Individuals are encouraged to engage in a validation process
      • The examining of their own beliefs to see if they or the others are right
      • Close examination of the group's position may convince the individual that they are wrong and the group is right
      • Can lead to acceptance of group's point of view both publicly and privately
    • Identification
      • Going along with others because you have accepted their point of view but only because of a desire to be like them
      • An individual might accept influence - they want to establish a relationship with another person or group.
      • By adopting their attitudes and behaviours - they feel more a part of the group
      • Both compliance and internalisation - individual accepts what they are doing as right and true - the purpose of adopting them is to be accepted as a member of the group
    • Majority Influence - Asch (1956)
      • Procedures
        • 123 male American undergraduates
        • Showed a series of lines
        • Participants seated at table
        • Participants always answered in same order
        • Incorrect answer on 12 of the 18 trials (confederates)
      • Findings
        • 12 of the critical trials - 36.8% conformed
        • One quarter didn't conform on any of the trials
        • Control trial - no confederates giving wrong answers mistakes 1% of the time
    • Why did people conform?
      • Interviewed some of the participants - gave 1 of 3 reasons
        • Distortion of perception -a small number of participants came to see the lines in the same way as the majority
        • Distortion of judgement - they felt doubt about the accuracy of their judgement and therefore yielded to the majority view
        • Distortion of action - the majority of participants who conformed continued privately to trust their own perceptions and judgements, but changed their public behaviour, giving incorrect answers to avoid disapproval from other group members

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