Social Psychology (Chapter 6) Conformity and Obedience

University of Rizal System Taytay, Rizal Written Report in Social Psychology Chapter 6 Conformity and obedience Matawaran, Joice Muni, Jennie Mae Ochavo, Catherine Umandac, Jeruel Vitor, Sarah Mae

BS Psychology III - A

Conformity and obedience What is Conformity?  A change in behavior or belief as the result of real or imagined group pressure.  Conformity can also be simply defined as “yielding to group pressures”. Group pressure may take different forms, for example bullying, persuasion, teasing, criticism, etc. Conformity is also known as majority influence (or group pressure).  Jenness (1932) was the first psychologist to study conformity 3 Several Varieties of Conformity  Compliance  Obedience  Acceptance Compliance  Acting in accord with a direct order or command. Obedience  Acting in accord with a direct order or command. Acceptance  is believing as well as acting in accord with social pressure. What Are the Classic Conformity and Obedience Studies?  Sherif’s Studies of Norm Formation (Muzafer Sherif 1935 – 1937) Autokinetic Phenomenon  Sherif and others have used this technique to answer questions about people’s suggestibility. When people were retested alone a year later, would their estimates again diverge or would they continue to follow the group norm? Remarkably, they continued to support the group norm. (Does that suggest compliance or acceptance? In everyday life the results of suggestibility are sometimes amusing. One person coughs, laughs, or yawns, and others are soon doing the same. Comedyshow laugh tracks capitalize on our suggestibility. Laugh tracks work especially well when we presume that the laughing audience is folks like us—“recorded here at La Trobe University” in one study by Michael

Plato and colleagues (2004)—rather than a group that’s unlike us. Just being around happy people can help us feel happier, a phenomenon that Peter Totterdell and his colleagues (1998) call “mood linkage.” In their studies of British nurses and accountants, people within the same work groups tended to share up and down moods.  Asch’s Studies of Group Pressure (Solomon Asch 1907 – 1996) The next comparison proves as easy, and you settle in for what seems a simple test. But the third trial startles you. Although the correct answer seems just as clear-cut, the first person gives a wrong answer. When the second person gives the same wrong answer, you sit up in your chair and stare at the cards. The third person agrees with the first two. Your jaw drops; you start to perspire. “What is this?” you ask yourself. “Are they blind? Or am I?” The fourth and fifth people agree with the others. Then the experimenter looks at you. Now you are experiencing an epistemological dilemma: “What is true? Is it what my peers tell me or what my eyes tell me?”  Milgram’s Obedience Experiments  Milgram’s (1965, 1974) experiments tested what happens when the demands of authority clash with the demands of conscience. These have become social psychology’s most famous and controversial experiments. “Perhaps more than any other empirical contributions in the history of social science Although you may therefore recall a mention of this research in a prior course, let’s go backstage and examine the studies in depth. Here is the scene staged by Milgram, a creative artist who wrote stories and stage plays: Two men come to Yale University’s psychology laboratory to participate in a study of learning and memory. A stern experimenter in a lab coat explains that this is a pioneering study of the effect of punishment on learning. The experiment requires one of them to teach a list of word pairs to the other and to punish errors by delivering shocks of increasing intensity. Teacher and experimenter then return to the main room ( Figure 6.4 ), where the teacher takes his place before a “shock generator” with switches ranging from 15 to 450 volts in 15-volt increments. The switches are labeled “Slight Shock,” “Very Strong Shock,” “Danger: Severe Shock,” and so forth. Under the 435- and 450- volt switches appears “XXX.” The experimenter tells the teacher to “move one level higher on the shock generator” each time the learner gives a wrong answer. With each flick of a switch, lights flash, relay switches click, and an electric buzzer sounds. What Predicts Conformity?

 Group - People conform most when three or more people, or groups, model the behavior or belief.  Unanimity – Conformity is reduced if the modeled behavior or belief is not unanimous.  Cohesion – Conformity is enhanced by group cohesion.  Status – The higher the status of those modeling the behavior or belief, the greater likelihood of conformity.  Public Response – People also conform most when their responses are public.  Prior Commitment – A prior commitment to a certain behavior or belief increase the likelihood that a person will stick with that commitment rather than conform. Why Conform? Experiments reveal two reasons people conform  Normative influence - results from a person’s desire for acceptance: We want to be liked. The tendency to conform more when responding publicly reflects normative influence.  Informational influence - results from others’ providing evidence about reality. The tendency to conform more on difficult decision-making tasks reflects informational influence: We want to be right. Who Conforms?  The question “Who conforms?” has produced few definitive answers. Personality scores are poor predictors of specific acts of conformity but better predictors average conformity. Trait effects are strongest in “weak” situations where social forces do not overwhelm individual differences.  Although conformity and obedience are universal, different cultures socialize people to be more or less socially responsive.  Social roles involve a certain degree of conformity, and conforming to expectations is an important task when stepping into a new social role. Do We Ever Want to Be Different?  Social psychology’s emphasis on the power of social pressure must be joined by a complementary emphasis on the power of the person. Reactance  A motive to protect or restore one’s sense of freedom. Reactance arises when someone threatens our freedom of action. Asserting Uniqueness  Though not wishing to be greatly deviant, most of us express our distinctiveness through our personal styles and dress.