Conformity
Q7- EVALUATE RESEARCH ON
CONFORMITY TO GROUP NORMS
Q8- DISCUSS FACTORS INFLUENCING
CONFORMITY
Conformity
 A type of social influence in which individuals
change their attitudes or behavior to adhere to
existing social norms (Baron, 2008)
 Types




Private conformity-private acceptance of social norms
Public conformity-overt behavior consistent with social norms
that are not privately accepted
Obedience
Compliance
Q7: Evaluate research on conformity to group
norms
 Intro


Background: define key terms
Thesis: command term evaluate
Strengths of research- important findings on social influence
 Limitations of research- experiments lack ecological validity

 Body

Conformity in an ambiguous situation


Sherif, 1935
Strengths and limitations
Conformity in an unambiguous situation

Asch, 1951
 Strengths and limitation
 Conclusion
Social influence
 Dual-process model: people conform because they
want to be right and because they want to be liked
(Deutsch & Gerrard, 1955)


Informational social influence
Normative social influence
 Referent informational social influence (Turner,
1981)


Linked to social identity theory- people conform because they
are members of a group
People conform to the ingroup norm (Abrams, 1990)
Q8: Discuss factors influencing conformity
 Intro
 Define key terms
 Thesis
 Body
 Social influence



Situational factors



Informational and normative
Referent informational
Group size (about 7)
 Variation on Asch- with 1 confederate-participant answered correctly; with
2-errors rose to 14%; with 3- to 32%
Group unanimity
 With support- errors reduced from 35% to 6%
Culture
 Conclusion