1. Conformity

2. Conformity
A form of social influence that results from exposure to the majority position, the tendency for people to adopt the behaviour, attitudes and values of other members of a reference group.
Wiliamson et al, p. 190.

3. Conformity and Obedience Booklet
Page 4

4. Social norms
Generally accepted ways of thinking, feeling and behaving that are shared by other members of our social group – examples? Conformity Pressure to maintain the norms of the group

5. 1. Informational Influence
Why do people conform?
1. Informational Influence
“Accepting the majority’s point of view”
People conform because they believe the majority is right. Behaviour AND point of view are in line with the majority viewpoint.
Deutsch & Gerard, 1955

6. Why do people conform?
2. Normative Influence “following the crowd” People conform in order to be liked and accepted by a group Majority may control group members by making it difficult for them to deviate from the majority point of view

7. Classwork Booklet page 6 Work in pairs to talk through
A definition for conformity
An answer for the 2014 Past Paper Question
10 minutes

8. TYPES OF CONFORMITY
Compliance: Conforming to majority opinions and behaviour in public but privately maintaining one’s own attitudes
Identification: Taking on majority beliefs and behaviours both publicly and privately – may change when individual leaves the group
Internalisation: An individual privately accepts the majority view. New attitudes and behaviours become part of the individual’s personal value system

9. Memory work: STM -> LTM
Name three kinds
of conformity and give
an example for each.

10. Research into Conformity – Jenness (1932)
Individual guesses
Discussion
Individual estimates again
Individual estimates tended to converge to a group norm
In ambiguous situations one looks to others for a reasonable answer

11. Early experiments on group norms Sheriff (1935)
AIM: To demonstrate that people conform to group norms when put in an ambiguous situation METHOD: Autokinetic effect – tested individually, then after hearing estimates from others, retested RESULTS: Estimates became similar to those heard See page 10 in booklet

12. Asch (1955) Booklet page 11
AIM: To investigate the effect of majority influence METHOD: 123 male undergraduates tested seated around a table & shown a series of lines All but one of the participants was a confederate of the researcher.

13. Asch (1955)
Confederates were instructed to give the same incorrect answer on 12 trials. There were 18 trials in all for each participant.
The true participant was always the last or last but one to answer.

14. Asch (1955)
RESULTS: 36.8% of responses made were incorrect, that is they conformed to the incorrect response given by the unanimous confederates. 25% of the participants never gave a wrong response so 75% conformed at least once. A control trial – with no confederates giving wrong answers – found that mistakes DO occur but only 1% of the time.

15. CONCLUSION
Although the answers were clear, participants felt a surprisingly strong tendency to conform to group pressures. For Asch, the important finding was that there was any conformity at all, but also saw that on 2/3 of the trials p’s remained independent therefore people could resist pressure to conform

16. Evaluation of Asch
What does Asch’s study actually tell us about real life?

17. Asch 1955
Length of lines = insignificant task P’s asked to answer aloud and in a group of strangers Tells us about conformity in special circumstances Sports Club: Williams and Sogon, 1984

18. More to think about
P’s were all male, all American 1950’s McCarthyism – highly conformist society Science students – 1980 England – 396 trials Other studies – some support Asch, some did not