Social Influence

Compliance: conforming publicly but not privately

Identification: conforming to act like a group because we share the same beliefs and values as them but this is often temporary

Internalisation: conforming publicly and privately because we have internally accepted the views

Normative: conforming to fit into a group because we have a desire to be liked 

Informational: conforming as we have a desire to be right and believe that they are correct

Aim: To study conformity to social roles

Procedure: 18 University students were arrested and taken to a fake prison in the basement of Stanford Uni. They were randomly assigned to prisoners or guards, with the result being 6 guards and 12 prisoners. The prisoners were stripped and deloused and then heavily regulated by the guards who were given authority to control the prisoners and keep force without being physical.

Findings: All particiapants conformed - guards took to their roles within two days and the prisoners soon rebelled to the harsh treatment.

Conclusion: Revealed the power of the situation influences peoples behaviour 

Evaluation: bias participants - androcentric - cant generalise                                                                               lacks temporal validity                                                                                                                         deception - demand characteristics                                                                                                     confidentiality

Aim: 

Procedure: 6 confederates to 1 real participant were asked to identify the matching lines out of 4. Confederates said the wrong answer in order to see whether the participant would conform.

Findings: 75% of participants conformed 

Conclusions:

Evaluation: bias participants - androcentric - cant generalise                                                                               lacks temporal validity                                                                                                                         deception - demand characteristics                                                                                                     confidentiality