Preview

Discuss the Factors Affecting the Rates of Conformity

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
662 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Discuss the Factors Affecting the Rates of Conformity
Discuss the factors affecting the rates of Conformity
Conformity is the process of yielding to the majority influence and it has been researched for the past years by many great psychologists. However, evidently how much an individual conforms. Firstly dating back to the experiment of Solomon Asch-1951 whereby he manipulated Sherif’s experiment by making sure the participants’ conformity can be measured without the confounding element of ambiguity. Asch’s experiment initial experiment at the time was to measure the conformity under the social pressures of the majority influence. He carried out his experiment by seven participants; only having one real subject seat on the end of the row and the rest confederates who called out the letter of the line out of three of which was identical to that of the first. The conformity was evident as the confederates answered with the wrong answer during 12 out of the 18 trials carried out known as the critical trials ,of which blatantly was dissimilar to that of the one they were comparing to however the subject conformed. The results finally proved that 32% went along with the confederates who meant that they conformed to majority influence when they knew their answers were wrong.74% conformed only once and to only 26% of the participants who never conformed at all. He concluded that this was because of either normative social influence which is that the subjects felt compelled to conform as they would otherwise be rejected. The other of which were due to informational pressures, where they believed that perhaps the others knew more than them. Fortunately Asch continued his experiment further by altering the procedure where the independent variable was changed.
One of which is when one other participant didn’t conform and this decreased the level of conformity by 5%. This shows that when not alone the levels of conformity levels fall so the individual is no longer following the majority. Also when the size of majority affected

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    One strength of this theory is that it has research to support it from Asch's 1951 study into conformity. The interviews that were taken after the experiment had finished, stated that there were two main reasons that the participants conformed. The first reason was that they didn't want to be ridiculed by the rest of the group from differing in opinions. They wanted to fit in so went along with the majority group, typical of normative social influence. The second reason was that they honestly thought that the rest of the group knew better than them and that their own judgements were incorrect, typical of informational social influence.…

    • 348 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    There are two major studies in which we can look, at these are Asch and Zimbardo. Asked our student volunteers to take part in the vision test, all but one of the volunteers were colleagues of the experimenter. the volunteers were shown 3 lines the free lines were all different sizes and there was a fourth line which was the same size as one of the 3 lines. All the volunteers had to do was to say Which line was the same size as the separate fourth line. Altogether there were 123 American undergraduates being tested. Asch showed a series of lines to participants seated around a table, participants always answered in the same order. The colleagues were instructed to give the same incorrect answer on 12 of the 18 trials. On 12 critical trials 36.8% of the participants got the answer incorrect in other words they conformed with the majority. A quarter of the participants did not conform on any of the trials. Although people did conform the size of the group depended on how many people conform e.g. if there was a large group and they all said the wrong answers the participant will become suspicious and not conform. Also the participants profession could make a difference on whether they conform e.g. a maths teacher will realise that the size of the line is the same as they work with this sort of thing every day. When the difference between the sizes of the lines decreased, making it harder to distinguish the difference between the lines, the level of conformity increased. this study was only conducted on American men during a period of time when people were scared to be different. another weakness is that only one third of participants conformed the other participants stuck and gave the right answer or the answer they thought was right The next study is Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiment. To conduct this experiment a mock correctional facility was constructed in the basement of Stanford University, an advert was…

    • 780 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Why did Sherif’s participants change their estimates when they had to call out their answers in the presence of other people?…

    • 127 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Asch conformity experiments were a series of laboratory experiments directed by Solomon Asch that demonstrated the magnitude to which an individual's own opinions is influenced by those of a majority group. In Asch's experiments, students were told that they were participating in a “vision test.” The other participants in the experiment were all confederates, or assistants of the experimenter. At first, the confederates answered the questions correctly, but later began delivering obvious incorrect answers. The results revealed that participants did conform to the majority group thirty seven percent of the time, and also for particular reactions.…

    • 1814 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    W4A1

    • 379 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Review the section on Asch's Research from your textbook. Describe why the individuals in the Asch experiment usually gave the same answer when they probably knew that it was wrong. How do social control and social bonding explain conformity?…

    • 379 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    In “Opinions and Social Pressure,” social psychologist, Solomon Asch, concludes his findings of numerous experiments conducted to reveal the impact of peer pressure among the individual. His experiments consisted of seven to nine college students; one who was the focal subject of the experiment and the rest who were members of the group instructed to answer accordingly. After many trials and the introduction of different variables, Asch finds that a person who is presented with a partner in his independency, has a higher chance not to conform to the majority. Asch concludes, “With [the partners] support the subject usually resisted pressure from the majority: 18 of 27 subjects were completely independent. But after six trials the partner joined the majority. As soon as he did so, there was an abrupt rise in the subject’s errors” (Asch 181). The subjects do not conform once a partner resists conformity as well, however, as soon as their partner joins the majority, then they begin to join also. Author, Catherine Sanderson, provides reasoning as to why the subject conforms as soon as his partner does. In her book, “Social Psychology,” she presents strategies for resisting obedience. Sanderson claims, “People who are aware of the situational pressures that lead people to obey authorities are more likely to stand up to…

    • 1780 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Asch’s conformity study made participants tell differences in length of lines when the majority answered incorrectly. These people did not receive any explanation why the majority disagreed and it dealt with an issue that was unimportant. Confusion would have been an issue and it is “hard to act independently when things don’t make sense”. People actively construe and act in response to their subjective interpretation of the experience. It is imperative to imagine oneself in the experiment to understand why someone would not have spoken up.…

    • 1593 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Conformity is the convergence of individuals’ thoughts, feelings, or behavior toward social norms. One of the most influential conformity researchers in psychological history is Muzafer Sherif, who researched the reason why people conform. Conformity can occur for two different reasons, such as, informational influence and normative influence. Normative influence is when people want to be liked and so by being in a group they gain social approval that leads to compliance. On the other hand, informational influence is when people want to be right, so they join a group that they perceive to be correct, which leads to acceptance.…

    • 761 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Causes Of Conformity

    • 73 Words
    • 1 Page

    Some people might disagree the cause of conformity, although they consider conformity as to act more appropriately. It’s because they stereotype nonconformist as bad influences by breaking laws or rules. In fact nonconformity can give an idea to rebel uniquely, roam and express freely, and make better decisions that would change other perspectives in society. Don't not let other people judge, just by looks. Humans are supposed to be different so be yourself…

    • 73 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Asch Conformity

    • 1351 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Imagine the following situation: you are in a classroom and the teacher has asked the class a question. You have got one answer to the question, but you see majority of the students raising their hands for a different answer to the same question. What would you do? Would you go along with your own answer or would you change your mind and go along with the majority thinking that if majority of the people have the same answer then the answer must be correct? Most of the people would change their minds and follow the majority. In psychology, conformity is defined as the tendency to change our perceptions, opinions, or behavior in ways that are consistent with group norms (Brehm, Kassin, and, Fein 213), also simply known as “following the crowd”.…

    • 1351 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Prescription Stimulants

    • 5338 Words
    • 22 Pages

    References: Asch, S. E. (1956). Studies of independence and conformity: A minority of one against a unanimous majority. Psychological Monographs, 70 (Whole no. 416)…

    • 5338 Words
    • 22 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Compliance – going along with others to gain their approval or to avoid their disapproval…

    • 810 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Why Do People Conform?

    • 1372 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The causes of conformity among individuals have long been debated and researched in recent decades. It is for this reason that conformity is an intriguing psychological concept. It causes sound-minded individuals to go against their best judgement, to engage in behaviour which they usually would not engage in, even accept and welcome an idea they internally disagree with, all in order to not be a deviant from the group. It is thus interesting to look at the factors which cause people to conform, to do what they see others doing, to rely on the judgements of the group, and to ignore their own senses and perceptions. It is the reasons for the individual's desire to conform that I will be discussing in this paper.…

    • 1372 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Psychological researchers have been interested in the degree to which people follow or rebel against social norms for a long time. Solomon Asch conducted a series of experiments designed to demonstrate the power of conformity in groups. According to some critics, some of the individual subjects may have been motivated to avoid conflict instead of a desire to conform to the rest of the group. Nevertheless, many social psychology experts believe that while real-world situations may not be as clear cut as they are in the lab, the actual social pressure to conform is probably much greater, which can dramatically increase conformist…

    • 896 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays