Psychology - conformity

CONFORMITY = A change in behaviour or belief in a result of real or imagined group pressure
Compliance - Publicly conforms to view of others but privately maintains their own views. For example, Pedro pretending he supports Man City to all his friends that do but at homes remains loyally supporting Arsenal
Identification - Views adopted publicly AND privately as you value the views of the group but these are temporary and not usually maintained in the long run. For example, Goth as a teenager, not as an adult
Internalization - A conversion, a true and lasting change of views to match those of a group. For example, Do bad things when younger, like drugs but then converts to Christianity

There are TWO reasons why we conform...
1) Informational conformity - This is when we're unsure of a situation. E.g, Wait in the middle of a queue, not the front, in a canteen in a new school to see what happens
2) Normative conformity - When you conform to be liked or accepted by a group. E.g, smoke to fit in with friends even though you dont.

FACTORS AFFECTING CONFORMITY
When ppts can't see eachother
- Crutchfield 1995 thought face to face arrangement of ppts in the Asch procedure might be responsible for the levels of conformity
- He arranged ppts in booths out of sight of eachother but able to see stimulus cards
- He used switches/lights to indicate their answer. They thought other ppts could see their answers. The experimenter controlled lights and each ppt saw identical display
CRUTCHFIELD FOUND...
Conformity level = 30% using Asch's task. If the task was more difficult, conformity level increased

Research on individual differences
- Crutchfield was also interested in how individual differences affected conformity
- Higher intelligence... less conformity
- Crutchfield's studies criticised as little support of 'conforming personality' and in artificial setting
- Findings do support Asch
- Furman and Duke (1988) lack of confidence may make people more likely to conform.
- Some students majored on music and some in a different subject. Had to listen to 2 versions of 10 musical concepts
- Individually tested, each selected a preferred version, then 3 confederates unanimously stated a verbal preference
- Music majors not influenced to change their stated preference
- Non-music…