...[pic] Definition “Conformity is a type of social influence in which individuals change their attitudes, beliefs or behaviours to adhere to existing social norms” Baron et al, 2006 Explanation of social norms (you must learn this for small mark answer) ➢ Social norms are one of the key causes of why people conform to the majority view. ➢ Social norms (group norms) are the standard rules of behaviour for individuals in any given society/culture. ➢ Unspoken rules develop spontaneously, unconsciously usually through force of habit and if you do not conform to these rules you will be excluded… ➢ For example, behaviour at a bus stop, the type of clothes that are popular, the type of drinks to be drinking, the type of music to listen to, the places to travel in the world Jenness (1932) The first informal experimental study of conformity where participants were asked to estimate how many beans the bottle contained. When asked for a group estimate they almost all changed their individual guesses closer to the group estimate. This persisted when asked again individually. They conformed. NB: Remember for every study in this topic and obedience try to give a methodological and ethical issue (or advantage) for each study |Methodological issues |Ethical issues | | ...
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...Outline and evaluate explanations of conformity. (12 marks) Normative social influence says people conform because they feel they need to be accepted and belong to the group. They accept the majorities’ views publicly, but privately they disagree – this type of conformity is compliance. The majority control the other group members, and use the fear of rejection to get others to conform. This is because humans are a social species and need companionship and are afraid of rejection. Research to support this explanation comes from Asch’s experiment, where participants knew the group was wrong privately but chose to conform in order to be accepted. This suggests that normative social influence is a valid theory of why people conform as it states we conform to be part of a social group, not because they believe the group to be right. On the other hand, in real life they aren’t part of that social group so don’t fear rejection, so factors other than the group may influence conformity. Another explanation of why people conform is informational social influence, where the individual changes their opinion both publicly and privately, which is described as internalisation. They do this as they believe the group are right. Conformity tends to increase when the situation is ambiguous, in matters of crisis or if they feel others are better qualified to make decisions. Fein et al found that participant’s opinions of political candidates in a debate were influenced by the reaction...
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...Conformity and Obedience in the 20th Century The desire to be accepted and belong to a group is an undeniable human need. But how does this need affect an individual? Social psychologists have conducted numerous experiments and concluded that, through various forms of social influence, groups can change their members' thoughts, feelings, and behavior. In her essay "Group Minds," Doris Lessing discusses our paradoxical ability to call ourselves individuals and our inability to realize that groups define and influence us. We, as humans, hold individualism in the highest regard yet fail to realize that groups diminish our individuality. Lessing writes, "when we're in a group, we tend to think as that group does... but we also find our thinking changing because we belong to a group" (p. 334). Groups have the tendency to generate norms, or standards for behavior in certain situations. Not following these norms can make you stand out and, therefore, groups have the ability to influence our thoughts and actions in ways that are consistent with the groups'. Lessing's essay helps set the context to understand the experiments that social psychologists Solomon Asch, Stanley Milgram and Philip Zimbardo conducted to explain conformity and obedience. Solomon Asch's experiment in "Opinions and Social Pressure" studied a subject's ability to yield to social pressure when placed within a group of strangers. His research helped illustrate how groups encourage...
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...several social psychological concepts. The one concept that stood out to me the most during this time was our chapters and discussions about conformity. Conformity is when a person relents their own beliefs or actions to satisfy those surrounding them. In society, human beings feel forced to change their opinions and judgements in order to fit in and not be an outsider. This type of behavior can be seen in numerous environments from one’s own house hold to their everyday social life with friends. I recently started a show called Thirteen Reasons Why, which shows how conformity can end up ending a person’s life. Thirteen Reasons Why was the most captivating, brutally authentic show I have seen in a while. Within the shows context there was no alleviating, it was straightforward, unaltered and honest. It showed how student, especially high school students, societies struggle with their experiences during their time in and out of school. This show is surrounded by two High School students, Clay Jensen and Hannah Baker who inevitably committed suicide. However, before she died she recorded 13 tapes, connecting her death to thirteen different students that attend the same school. Hannah is certain to make sure that the thirteenth people know that she left behind an ally who plans to release the tapes if they do not follow as...
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...deliberate or sometimes occur subconsciously and the individual in question may not be aware of them (Wood, 2000). There are various forms of social influence among which the most important and widely recognised ones are conformity and obedience. They are concepts that put into perspective how individuals’ behaviours are affected or influenced in a group or social circumstances. This essay looks to explore compliance and obedience in detail. It may seem sometimes these two concepts might be slightly similar in how they affect behaviour in such situations; however they are not to be confused for each other. This essay aims to clarify such perception and distinctively point out the similarities and differences between these two concepts by exploring how they come about and factors that influence them using relevant research evidence. Conformity can be defined as the inclination by individuals to modify their attitudes or manner of behaving to suit that of the social standards. It simply means to succumb to pressures of the society (Crutchfield, 1955) However, it does not necessarily mean that their opinion or perception has changed; it simply means that they have changed their behaviour just for the purpose of being considered acceptable by the society. Conformity is also known as the majority influence. It occurs as a result of informational social influence or normative social influence. Informational social influence is one in which individuals tend to change their behaviour when...
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...Alexis Serrano Introduction to Psychology Paper 3 Conformity is another term for peer pressure. Women seem to want to stand out instead of to conform whereas men are more likely to conform then stand out. Deindividualization makes people more vulnerable to conform because people are forced to be or act like a different person than what they are confortable with. Obedience is when orders are taken from someone in authority, or someone is higher than us. I am thankful for obedience or else the world would never function properly. In high school, I witnessed so many different examples of conformity and obedience, whether or not I was the one involved or I saw it happen to other people. It may happen to you even if it is an accident. I was on the school’s varsity soccer team all four years of high school and there were several times when the girls wanted to me to do something they were doing and most of the time I refused because I knew it was wrong or it just was not something I wanted to participate in. I was always considered the good kid and would usually never do anything wrong. I never cheated on a test, or let anyone cheat off of me intentionally, talk back to the teacher or bully anyone. One example for conformity, that I denied, that I will never forget is on a Wednesday night at a team dinner, the coach had already left and one of the girls took us outside and pulled out a few bottles of alcohol and suggested we drink, knowing we had a big game the next day. I took...
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...The Studies of Non-Conformity Brandon Connell Colorado Technical University Professor: Ashraf Esmail SOCL102-1404B-08 Phase 3 IP The Studies of Non-Conformity Conformity is a normal in this day and age. This is largely due to aggressive marketing campaigns, however those campaigns target a natural human flaw. The majority of the population holds this flaw, but we are starting to see many more break free. Influence without Marketing During the Asch experiment, the line test showed that about one third conformed to the majority opinion despite the fact that the answer was wrong. (McLeod, 2008). Keep in mind that these results were achieved by just having the participant in the room with others who influenced their opinions. The results that could have been achieved if the participants were brainwashed with marketing could have been unimaginable. Consider the fact that every year, millions of people we call “sheep” line up for the latest release of the iPhone. Consider also that hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on political advertising, and there is weight supporting the fact that people are easily influenced. Following Orders During the Milgram experiment, unethical tests were done using shock therapy. The findings showed that participants would allow themselves to be severely shocked simply because they were told to continue by someone with an air of authority. (McLeod, 2007). This brings to mind the litmus tests given to American Generals by the Obama...
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...stressful life by being self-reliant. The opposite of this is someone who conforms to everyone else’s behaviors and doesn’t have a strong opinion or impact of this or her own. In order to live a successful life one needs to be self-reliant. Along with these self-reliance a person will also live with inner peace and happiness, trusting his or her self.of self-reliance. Emerson makes some very good points about non-conformity and the negatives that can come with it. In Emerson’s “Self-Reliance” essay, he believes that self-reliance is the unbreakable trust in one’s own intuitions. He states this when he says, “To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men,—that is genius” (3). He believes that if a person believes that his or her belief is true for everyone, then that person is self-reliant, and in his eyes, that makes this person a genius. Emerson also believes that it can be hard to be self-reliant because of today’s world and the harsh society that it harbors. An example of this is when he says, “For non-conformity the world whips you with its displeasure” (6). His belief is that if someone has strong trust in his or her own intuition, which is known as self-reliance, then they will not conform to something. Now in return a person might feel displeasure from society’s reaction. However at least that person can be happy that they didn’t let the world around them break their self-reliance. There are many...
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...Outline and evaluate explanations of conformity. (12 marks) Normative social influence says people conform because they feel they need to be accepted and belong to the group. They accept the majorities’ views publicly, but privately they disagree – this type of conformity is compliance. The majority control the other group members, and use the fear of rejection to get others to conform. This is because humans are a social species and need companionship and are afraid of rejection. Research to support this explanation comes from Asch’s experiment, where participants knew the group was wrong privately but chose to conform in order to be accepted. This suggests that normative social influence is a valid theory of why people conform as it states we conform to be part of a social group, not because they believe the group to be right. On the other hand, in real life they aren’t part of that social group so don’t fear rejection, so factors other than the group may influence conformity. Another explanation of why people conform is informational social influence, where the individual changes their opinion both publicly and privately, which is described as internalisation. They do this as they believe the group are right. Conformity tends to increase when the situation is ambiguous, in matters of crisis or if they feel others are better qualified to make decisions. Fein et al found that participant’s opinions of political candidates in a debate were influenced by the reaction...
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...I had to perform social deviance, or break socially established norms, then observe my society to see how they reacted to my “misconduct.” The experiment that I conducted was an example of informal deviance, where no one punished me and there was no risk of any punishment. It involved me riding a walled elevator (not one of those elevators that have all-glass walls) at Towson Mall in Towson Maryland multiple times, but riding it backwards, or, backwards as our current society would have it deemed. I had a friend with me that helped me monitor the reactions of eight different experiment groups and got various reactions where people confronted me about my lack of normality. This contradicted my hypothesis and proved it wrong, which was, “Even if I stand the wrong way in the elevator and go against the social norm, people will go about their business and not react outwardly.” The experiment proved a lot about social norms and breaking them. It showed the significance of social norms, how much social norms play a role in society, and how people, as individuals, act when these norms are broken....
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...Research Report Conformity due to Social Pressure _________________________________ ABSTRACT- Social influences can be a strong cause in conformity. The more people doing a particular thing, the harder it is for more people not to conform. This study explored whether more people would turn another direction if there were only one person facing that other direction and if there were three people facing that other direction. _________________________________ The hypothesis that my group and I tested was that if three or more people were faced another direction in an elevator rather than one person turned a different direction that they were more likely to conform. The independent variable in this experiment would be the control groups of one or three people standing in the elevator that were in on the experiment and the dependent variable would be the people in the elevator conforming due to the independent variable. I think the independent variable (one or three people) will influence the dependent variable (people conforming) by people conforming more to the group of three people rather than the group of one person because there is more social group pressure to conform to more and more people doing it. Experiments have shown that the most people will conform in an experiment with 3-5 people doing it and usually levels off around 10 people. Sometimes in an experiment unanimity will happen where one brave person will resist to the group pressure and if that happens...
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...mostly known for his contributions in social psychology and his experiments on conformity through the Asch Conformity Experiments, he set the foundation for the elaboration of social psychology today. Before the numerous contributions to the field of psychology, Asch went through quite a long journey of education. Asch graduated from the City College of New York in 1928, where he earned his Bachelor of Science. Although he majored in both literature and science, his interests in psychology only became apparent towards the...
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...Social Influence Social facilitation – The tendency for people to perform better on tasks in the presence of people than when alone. Triplett 1898 found that cyclists rode faster when racing together than when alone because of the competitive element. He also tests this with children and how long it took them to turn a fishing wheel 150 times. Sometimes they were alone and sometimes together, and found that many children worked in co-action CO-ACTION- people working together on the same task. Allport also found college students work in co action completing more multiplication problems together and when Chen looked at ants he found they dig 3 times as faster Allport said that competition is not always affects us if we do better and that sometimes it could just be the presence of an audience that could result in social facilitation. Though audience effect could also affect people in a negative way and cause them to do worse, this is known as social inhibition. AUIDENCE EFFECT – the impact of the individual task performance of the presence of an audience SOCIAL INHIBTION- The tendency for an individual to perform less well in the presence of others than when alone. AROUSAL THEORY OF SOCIAL FACILIATION Zajonc said that arousal acts as a drive that will bring out the most dominant response. In an easy or well-practised task our dominant responses tend to be correct so social facilitation occurs but in a unfamiliar task the dominant responses tend to be incorrect so social...
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...Discuss two explanations for conformity. Refer to Polly and Jed in your discussion. Normative social influence is a form of conformity. It is when an individual conforms because they want to be liked or respected by a group even whilst knowing the difference between right and wrong. This is linked to compliance because it is the action of ‘going along with others’ and publically agreeing with their opinions although not privately; this is why the individual’s behaviour stops as soon as group pressure stops. Polly is seeking acceptance from her friends in order to not be the ‘odd one out’ and therefore goes along with what her friends wear although she may not privately agree with what they are wearing. Here, Polly is complying with her friends and is Normative socially influenced. Asch’s research investigated whether people would conform to a majority in situations where the answer was obvious using a ‘line perception’ test. 7 confederates and 1 naïve participant were shown lines and asked to name a corresponding line from the listed answers; when the 7 confederates all gave the same answer, the naïve participant usually conformed. In fact the average conformity rate was 33% from the 12 trails Asch created. However, Asch’s control group showed that less than 1% of participants made a mistake when answering. This shows that participants conformed and gave the wrong answer in order to be liked and accepted by the confederates. This supports Normative Social Influence because...
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...definitions, if we are persuaded by an individual, we are said to be obedient to that individual. If we are persuaded by a group, we are said to have conformed to that group’s objectives. Compare and contrast the core differences between these two concepts. In what ways do group and individual persuasion techniques differ? As social beings, why are we naturally prone to conformity and obedience? For this discussion, please review Solomon Asch’s (1958) study of conformity. The results of this study, demonstrate how many of the individual participants conformed to the group despite the fact that the group was clearly wrong, and the individuals were clearly right. In addition, watch the video on the ABC New Primetime: Milgram Experiment Update video. Through this experiment we observe how perceptions of authority directly influence obedience. For example, even when the action ordered by the authority figure caused physical harm, the participants were still obedient. What are some explanations for this type of behavior? Can you think of an example of when you disregarded your own desires or values for the sake of obedience or conformity? Conformity is defined in our text as, “as going along with a group in actions or beliefs.” (Feenstra, 2013). Obedience, on the other hand, is something that is deeply engrained in us and we are taught to be obedient from a very early age. For most of the time, obedience is a very positive behavior. If we are persuaded by an individual, we are...
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