AQA Psychology for A Level Year 1 & AS - Student Book
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• Conformity is a change in the behaviour of an individual as a result of real or imagined
pressures from a person or group of people
Type Intensity Description
Compliance Lowest Accepting the group norms
in public but privately
disagreeing with them. This
results in a superficial
change that ends as soon as
group pressure stops
Identification Moderate The individual values a
group and wants to be a
part of it. The individual
accepts its norms in public
even if they privately
disagree with them
Internalisation Highest The individual accepts the
group norms in public and in
private. This results in a
permanent change that
persists even when group
pressure stops. The
individual’s way of thinking
has changed
,Explanations for Conformity
Explanation Type of Process Description Usually results in…
Informational Social Cognitive Accepting group Internalisation
Influence (ISI) norms because we
genuinely believe
they are correct,
and we want to be
correct too
Normative Social Emotional Accepting group Compliance
Influence (NSI) norms to gain
acceptance, social
approval and to be
liked
Research Support for ISI and NSI
○ Lucas et al. found that the conformity of participants was greater on more difficult maths
questions, especially if they rated their own mathematical ability as poor. This demonstrates
ISI
○ Asch found that 75% of participants conformed (at least once) to a wrong answer given by
confederates in an unambiguous line length judgement task. This dropped to 12.5% when
participants were asked to write their answers privately rather than give a verbal response.
This demonstrates NSI
○ Also, Asch found that conformity increased when the line lengths were more similar
(increasing the ambiguity and difficulty of the task). This also demonstrates ISI
Individual Differences in ISI and NSI
○ Asch found that students were 9% less conformist compared to other participants
○ Perrin and Spencer found very little conformity with science and engineering students
○ McGhee and Teevan found that students who were nAffiliators (people who have a
greater desire for social approval) were more likely to conform
, ISI and NSI Overlap
○ Asch found that introducing a dissenting confederate to his experiment reduced
conformity
○ This could be because the dissenter provides social support to the participant (reducing
NSI)
○ However, this could also be because the dissenter provides an alternative source of
information (reducing ISI)
○ This suggests that both ISI and NSI work together in most situations
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