Methods Conformity
Methods Conformity
Methods Conformity
Social influence-conformity
Jenness 1932
Method
-Students individually were asked the number of beans in a bottle first
-he then put students in a small group and asked each student to estimate the number
of beans again
-finally, he asked the same students on an individual basis to estimate the number of
beans in a bottle.
Results
-in group condition students went with majority view
-which then persisted when students were asked individually again.
Aim
-demonstrating that people conform to a majority view/ social norms when put in an
ambiguous situation
Method
-individuals on their own made judgements whether light was moving in a darkened
room
-Estimates from 20-30cm, 60-80cm were common
----
-sheriff then put 3 people in a room together
-put together 2 people whose estimate of the light movement when alone was very
similar, and one person whose estimate was different
-Each of the three people said aloud how much they thought the light moved-they did
this a number of times.
Results
-the persons whose estimate of movement was greatly different to the other 2
conformed to their view.
Conclusion
- Deviant
in the group conformed to the majority view- this took place over a small
number of trials of the autokinetic task.
Evaluation of autokinetic effect- sherif 1936
- Asch1955 -Shows some aspects of conformity but did not demonstrate how
social or group pressure would affect the judgements people make when there
is clearly a right or wrong answer.
Method
- asked 36 people on an individual basis to match target line with one of the
comparison lines.
- Each person did this 20 times with slightly different versions to the task
Result
-720 judgments were made
- 717 correct responses
Conclusion
-task is clear and easy
* Asch 1951
Aim
- Investigating the influence of an incorrect majority view on an individual
exposed to this view.
Method
- (Asch was interested whether the naïve would conform to the unanimous but
wrong majority answer/view.)
Rusults
-measured the number of times the naïve gave a correct answer or conformed to
incorrect answer
Conclusion
Methodolog Deceived
Ethical about the
Difficult to generalise i-cal issues issues reasons of
the findings of conducting the
conformity to the real Evaluation of experiment e.g
world perception
asch’s study
Informed consent-participant
has had the procedure and purpose of the Told true
experiment fully explained to them before purposes of
taking part- and therefore give their study after
Line judgments is not task
consent after their knowledge of
a task we do everyday
BPSC-unless informed consent experiment
given study should be restricted
to observation s.
No informed consent
was given
Demand
characteristics- Harm to
when participant tries Participants with
to guess what the low self esteem may participants
experiment is about have had an after
effect
e.g.
unsure of their own
Was told cover story however judgements
participant may not have
believed this
Therefore
Naïve- Thought experimenter
wanted them to agree with
Aim
-to show that women’s ideal body size is related to reliability of food supply in a
culture.
-hypothesised that In cultures where women had a reliable food supply the ideal body
size would be ‘slender’
Method
- women from 54 countries were asked about their ideal body size in relation to
the categories:
- Slender, moderate, and heavy body size.
- Each culture was categorized to the above as well.
Results
Conclusion
-Where food supplies are very reliable, there is evidence of normative social influence
*Baron et al 1996 (novel variation of ash’s study)
Aim
-hypothesised that conformity would be greater where people have less confidence in
their judgment
Method
-participants were shown a drawing of a person then asked to match it with one of the
other 3 drawings.
Before being asked to match the drawing pps heard the wrong judgements of two
assistants of the experimenter
Results
-Conformity to the wrong matching of the drawing by the assistants was higher in the
half a second condition.
Conclusion
• one study: one of the confederates always gave the right answer = conformity level of the
naïve dropped by 10%
-small groups of 2-3, 1or2 confederates giving wrong answer = 10% decrease in conformity
levels
• Asch did the same process as the original method but then asked the naïve to write the answer-
conformity levels were very low.
Cruthfield 1955
Aim
-investigate levels of conformity when other people are not present.
Method
Results
Conclusion
Stang 1973
-attractiveness of group belonging to a group affects conformity
- More attractive a group is the increase of conformity
Latane and L’Herrou 1996
- Collectivist cultures e.g. china, asia- value good of the group over individual
achievement
Adorno et al 1950