AQA A Level Psychology Your notes

Conformity
Contents
Types of Conformity
Explanations for Conformity
Asch & Variables Affecting Conformity
Conformity to Social Roles: Zimbardo

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 Types of Conformity
Your notes
Compliance, identification & internalisation
One type of social influence in A Level Psychology is conformity
Conformity is a phenomenon which involves someone changing, adapting or taking on
new behaviours in order to fit in with the group
Conformity could also be known as majority influence as people tend to want to
conform to larger groups (safety in numbers)
Minority influence does happen but it is less common

Compliance
Compliance is a type of conformity which involves:
agreeing with or behaving like the group publicly but disagreeing with or having
different opinions to the group privately, e.g.:
Eating only vegetarian food with a particular group of friends, but continuing to
eat meat when the group is not present
Laughing at a joke which the person does not find funny (and may in fact find
offensive) because everyone else is laughing
Compliance is the weakest type of conformity as it only involves surface and superficial
change and it ceases when someone is not with the group

Identification
Identification is a type of conformity which involves:
temporarily adopting the habits or attitudes and behaviours of a group if someone
values the group and wishes to be included in it
conforming to the expectations required of a specific social role (e.g. police
officers, nurses, teachers)
Some examples of identification include:
Dressing in the same style as a group of people at college
Using similar verbal expressions and body language as a group of social
influencers
Identification results in short-term change as the individual is still not completely in
agreement with the group (if only in private)

Internalisation
Internalisation is a type of conformity which involves:
accepting and agreeing with the group publicly and privately

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 internalising the group's norms,e.g.:
Becoming wholly involved in the norms of a group, renouncing former beliefs Your notes
(e.g. political, religious), possibly cutting ties with people from the past
Meeting a new group of people at college and changing personal styles,
hobbies, attitudes etc. to align with the group
Internalisation is the strongest type of conformity, leading to long-term change

Examiner Tips and Tricks

You may be asked to identify a specific type of conformity from an example supplied
in the exam question (AO2 - a 'stem' question).
Before you begin to write your answer either highlight or underline the examples from
the stem that demonstrate that type of conformity: this will ensure that you do not
forget to include reference to the stem in your response.

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 Explanations for Conformity
Your notes
Normative social influence
Conformity can be explained as stemming from two different motivations:
Normative social influence (NSI): the need to be liked/accepted by the group (the
fear of rejection)
Informational social influence (ISI): the need to know what to do (fear of social
disapproval/humiliation)
NSI occurs when an individual is keen to adopt the social norms of a specific group, e.g.:
Going to church every week because that is what the group do
Wearing black all the time because that is what the group do
Professing to dislike a particular person because that is what the group do
Someone is more likely to be affected by NSI if they feel that their behaviour and
attitudes do not align with those of the group, e.g.:
' I stopped going to church years ago but the group goes every week'
This lack of cohesion with the group may cause anxiety which in turn may lead to an
adjustment in behaviour, e.g.:
'I'm going to start attending church with the group so that they feel that I am one of
them'
NSI may involve an individual going against their inner beliefs, ideals or opinions in order
not to be rejected by the group, e.g.:
Agreeing with the group that a new film is rubbish while secretly having enjoyed it
Ignoring a school friend because this is what everyone else in the group is doing but
privately believing that this behaviour is cruel and wrong
NSI as an explanation of conformity is linked to compliance and identification
The essence of NSI is emotional as it is based on the need to be liked and accepted

Examiner Tips and Tricks

Make sure that you don't confuse the two explanations for conformity in the exam i.e.
don't mix up normative social influence with informational social influence.
Additionally, don't confuse explanations for conformity with types of conformity e.g.
compliance, identification, internalisation.

Informational social influence

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 Informational social influence (ISI) tends to take place when the individual is unsure
and/or lacks knowledge about what to do or how to behave in a specific situation, e.g.:
Your notes
On someone's first day at work they will look to others for cues as to how to behave
in the office, where to go at lunchtime, the appropriate dress code etc.
In a new university class, the professor sets a difficult equation to solve
someone unsure of the answer may listen to what others are saying and agree
with their answer (even if the answer turns out to be incorrect)
ISI occurs when the individual looks to the group for guidance
ISI can occur when there is a crisis and a decision needs to be made quickly
The assumption that follows is that the group knows what to do
If everyone in the group assumes that everyone else knows what to do, then this can
result in faulty decision-making which could potentially be disastrous (e.g.
mistakes in piloting a passenger plane or large-scale financial lending)
Someone is more likely to be affected by ISI if they are insecure about what is deemed
'right/wrong' behaviour, e.g.:
Someone collapses in the street but no one stops to help them, so the individual
assumes that the situation is not serious, thus no help is given
ISI as an explanation of conformity is linked to internalisation
The essence of ISI is cognitive as it is based on information processing

Evaluation of explanations for conformity

Strengths
There is good research support for ISI:
Jenness (1932) asked participants to estimate the number of beans contained in a jar
Participants then discussed their estimates in a group and then each participant
made a second independent estimate
The findings showed that the second estimate moved closer to the group estimate,
indicating ISI, thus the theory has validity
NSI has good application to real behaviour in real settings (high ecological validity):
Schultz et al. (2008) - used a sample of hotel rooms in one city to test NSI
Half of the hotel rooms displayed a sign stating that, ‘75% of guests choose to
reuse their towels each day’
The results showed a 25% reduction in the use of fresh towels in the rooms which
displayed the sign, compared to the control condition (no sign)
Thus, guests had conformed to the norms of the majority group

Limitations

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Neither explanation for conformity explains why some people resist both NSI and ISI,
e.g. freedom fighters, rebels, iconoclasts
Your notes
The above observation means that both explanations for conformity cannot be
generalised to everyone
to this extent they cannot account for individual differences
It is rare for both NSI and ISI to be tested in real conditions
Most research in this field is lab-based
Lab-based research is low in mundane realism which reduces the scope of its
external validity

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 Asch & Variables Affecting Conformity
Your notes
Asch's study of conformity
Asch (1951, 1955) set up a study to investigate majority influence (conforming to the
group)
Asch was interested in seeing the extent to which group pressure could influence an
individual to go against what their eyes were telling them
Would the pressure of being in a group, who all agreed as to the wrong answer
force someone to also give an (obvious) wrong answer to a simple question?
Asch’s study is outlined below:
123 male students from the USA made up the sample of naive participants
Each participant sat at a table with 6-8 other male students who were
confederates of Asch
The group was shown a series of cards with lines shown on them:
Their task was to say which of the three lines on the right of the card was the
same length as the line shown on the left of the card

Asch's study involved participants studying lines on a card

Each participant (including the confederates) was asked in turn to say which of the three
lines on the right was the same length as the line on the far left of the slide
'Is line A, B or C the same length as line X?'
There were 18 trials per group
The confederates gave the right answer on the first few trials, e.g. in the above
example the correct answer is ‘line B’
There were 12 critical trials within the total of 18 trials
On each critical trial, the confederates all gave the same incorrect answer to the
question of line length, e.g. in the above example an incorrect answer would be ‘line
A’
The results showed that participants gave the wrong answer on 36.8% of the critical
trials; 75% of participants conformed at least once

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 Asch concluded that people will conform to the majority even when the situation is
unambiguous
Your notes
It was clear what the correct answer was per trial yet (some) participants still gave
the wrong answer after hearing the confederates give the same wrong answer
Asch also concluded that:
people conform due to NSI (fitting in with the group) and ISI (because they believe
the group is better informed than they are)
conformity to the majority is common but not inevitable
25% of participants did not conform on any of the trials, i.e. they showed
resistance to social influence in the form of group pressure
Evaluation of Asch's study of conformity
Strengths
Asch used a standardised procedure (e.g. same group number per trial; same number
of trials; same question asked)
A standardised procedure means that the study can be replicated many times over
Repeated replications should show consistent results which equals high
reliability
Replications of Asch's study (Smith & Bond, 1996) have been used to identify cross-
cultural differences in conformity which gives validity to the idea that conformity is
linked to group cohesion
The highest rates of conformity in the study were from collectivist cultures
These cultures value the needs of the group above individual needs

Limitations
Asch’s research took place in the 1940s/50s, when conformity was arguably higher,
directly after World War II and pre-civil rights and the feminist movement
This observation has led to the study being labelled ‘a child of its time'
thus, the study lacks temporal validity
It is possible that some of the participants may have guessed the aim of the study due to
the easiness of the task
If any participants had guessed the aim then they may simply have gone along with
giving the wrong answer as this is what they thought was required of them (known as
response bias)
Response bias reduces the validity of the findings

Asch's variable: group size

Asch conducted variations of his original line-length procedure to test how conformity
changes depending on the condition

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 To test the effect of group size Asch instigated the following procedure:
With one confederate (i.e. just one person giving the wrong answer) conformity Your notes
dropped to just 3% of the critical trials
When the group size increased to two confederates conformity was 12.8% of the
critical trials
In a group containing three confederates conformity rose to 31.8% of the critical
trials
The above finding is the same percentage as in Asch’s original experiment, in
which there were six to eight confederates
Thus, conformity peaks with three confederates, once majority pressure is
established
Asch's variable: unanimity
Unanimity refers to the extent of agreement/consensus across a group
In Asch’s original procedure the confederates all gave the same incorrect answer on
the critical trials i.e. they were unanimous in the answers they gave
To test the effect of unanimity Asch asked one of the confederates to give the correct
answer (i.e. the non-conforming answer) throughout, resulting in conformity dropping
to 5%
This finding shows that support from another person makes it easier to resist the
pressure to conform to the majority
In another variation, one of the confederates gave a different incorrect answer to
the majority, resulting in conformity dropping to 9%
Disrupting group unanimity is therefore one way to reduce conformity

Asch's variable: task difficulty

In Asch’s original experiment, the correct answer was obvious i.e. it was an unambiguous
task
To test the effect of task difficulty Asch instigated the following procedure:
The task was made more difficult by minimising the difference between the length
of the lines i.e. it was not as easy to detect which line was longer, shorter etc
In other words, the task becomes more ambiguous
Asch found the rate of conformity when faced with the ambiguous task increased
(he didn’t report the percentage)
Thus, when a task is difficult (ambiguous) and people conform to the incorrect
answer, it can be explained by ISI (the need to be right; looking to others for the
answer)
When a task is easy (unambiguous) and people conform to the incorrect
answer, it can be explained by NSI (the need to be liked; realising the answer is
wrong but they won't risk rejection by going against the group)

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 Conformity to Social Roles: Zimbardo
Your notes
Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiment
Zimbardo's (1973) famous (some would say infamous) study used the idea that people
will conform to social roles if they are assigned a distinct social identity
The social identity of a teacher requires someone to dress smartly, reinforce school
rules and procedures and be assertive
The social identity of a nurse requires someone to wear the appropriate uniform,
attend to medical tasks and have a caring demeanour
Zimbardo wanted to investigate how readily people would conform to the assigned
social roles of guard and prisoner in a role-playing exercise that simulated prison life
Zimbardo et.al. (1973) converted a basement of the Stanford University psychology
building into a mock prison
The study proceeded as follows:
24 male students were recruited via volunteer/self-selected sampling
The participants were tested for psychiatric vulnerabilities and were deemed
'emotionally stable'
The participants were randomly assigned to either the role of prisoner or guard
The 'prisoners' were 'arrested' in the early hours of the morning at their homes and
taken off to the 'prison' (they were unaware that this was going to happen)
Prisoners and guards were encouraged to conform to their social roles which was
reinforced by the uniforms which were as follows:
the guards wore a standard khaki uniform with mirrored shades and each of
them carried a nightstick, keys and handcuffs
the prisoners wore a shapeless smock with a sock cap covering their heads and
no shoes
The guards were instructed to set prison rules, hand out punishments (although
physical punishments were not allowed) and control the prisoners (e.g. deciding
who could go to the toilet, when they could exercise etc.)
The prisoners were referred to by their assigned number rather than their name
The uniforms were designed to erode personal identity and to emphasise each
participant's social role (a process known as deindividuation)
The study's findings are as follows:
Both guards and prisoners settled into their new roles very quickly
The guards adopted their social role quickly, easily and with enthusiasm

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 Within hours of beginning the experiment, some guards began to harass prisoners
and treat them harshly
Your notes
Two days into the experiment the prisoners rebelled by ripping their uniforms and
shouting and swearing at guards
The guards employed an array of tactics to bring the prisoners into line:
they used fire extinguishers to bring the prisoners to order
they used psychological warfare, harnessing the 'divide-and-rule' principle by
playing prisoners off against each other
they instigated headcounts, sometimes at night, by blowing a whistle loudly at
the prisoners
punishments were meted out for the slightest transgression
The prisoners soon adopted prisoner-like behaviour, e.g.:
they became quiet, depressed, obedient and subdued
some of them became informants, 'snitching' to the guards about other
prisoners
they referred to themselves by number rather than by name
one prisoner had a mental breakdown to the extent that Zimbardo had to
remind the participants that the prison was not a real prison
As the prisoners became more submissive, the guards became more aggressive
and abusive
A colleague of Zimbardo's visited the study and was horrified at the abuse and
exploitation she saw
Zimbardo ended the experiment after six days instead of the 14 originally planned
Zimbardo came to various conclusions as a result of running the study:
Social roles exert a strong influence on individual identity
Power corrupts those who wield it, particularly if environmental factors legitimise
this corruption of power
Harsh institutions brutalise people and result in deindividuation (for both guards
and prisoners)
A prison exerts psychological damage upon both those who work there and those
who are incarcerated there

Examiner Tips and Tricks

Zimbardo's prison study is a NAMED STUDY on the AQA AS/A level specification which
means that you could be asked specific questions on it.

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Evaluation of Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiment
Strengths Your notes
A good degree of control was exerted over the procedure:
The 'vetting' of participants to factor out prior psychiatric conditions
The random allocation to role
both of the above measures ensured that individual differences did not
confound the results e.g. it was pure chance who ended up as prisoner or guard
The study may have genuine mundane realism (which is rare for an experiment)
90% of the prisoners’ private conversations revolved around prison life
The guards talked about ‘problem prisoners,’ or other prison topics on their breaks;
they never discussed home life or other topics

Limitations
The study is (rightly) known for its atrocious ethics
Informed consent did not cover all aspects of what the participants could expect
about the procedure (e.g. the arrests at night)
The right to withdraw was given but the routines and mechanisms of the prison
world set up by Zimbardo made this difficult for all involved
Protection from harm was almost absent:
Zimbardo actively encouraged the guards to be cruel and oppressive prior to
the start of the study
the prisoners suffered in their role, both physically and psychologically
the guards had to live with the knowledge of their potential for brutality after
the study was over and the prisoners may have suffered PTSD as a result of their
experience
Some, or possibly all, of the participants, may have been acting according to demand
characteristics
The participants may have been able to guess the aim and behaved accordingly e.g.
'I am a guard therefore I must behave brutally'
If the participants were playing out expected roles then this lowers the validity of
the findings (e.g. the prisoner who appeared to be having a mental breakdown
immediately snapped out of it when Zimbardo reminded him that the prison wasn't
real)

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