Outline and Evaluate Research Into Conformity

describe and evaluate research into Conformity as an description of Human br oppositely Behaviour Conforming is when a mortal changes the way they act and think to delay in with the legal age of the great unwashed in a gathering to mount acceptance. Kelman (1958) said that thither argon 3 signs of pact, Compliance, which means exit on with others to gain approval and avoid rejection and accepting the conclave place in public only if non private. appellation is conformist to someone who is liked and respected and internalisation is accepting the free radicals beliefs and accepting it both(prenominal) publicly and in private. besides this es rank will be discussing the 2 main theories as to why people conform, Informational companionable Influence and Normative Social Influence as well as other factors that bay window regard as to why people conform. Informational Social mold is when an individual goes along with the majority because they believe that the majo rity is right and better informed then they atomic number 18. Sherif (1935) conducted a need to test this theory in which he put the instrumentalists in a darkened means with a stationary point of light and asked them to say how much the light seemed to move and in what direction, with the participants fully grown their individual dresss.Sherif then put them into groups of triplet and asked them to answer again. Sherif establish that the participants changed their answer to reflect the groups as they believed the group was better informed and line up, which is an example of Informational Social Influence. However Sherif used an ambiguous test, it was impossible for Sherif to measure how far the light moved, and because it was impossible to provide a correct answer, then it was in any case impossible to say for sure that the participants in the audition had actu everyy conformed.Also Sherifs examine lacked ecologic validity as the test wouldnt occur in everyday life and so the demeanour could be artificial. The other theory as to why people conform is Normative Social influence which is when an individual complies with the group, changing their behaviour and goes along with the majority publicly to avoid rejection but privately disagrees with their view. This was evidenced in Aschs (1951) think into conformity with an unambiguous task. Asch put the participants into groups f seven, with all but one participant universe confederates of the Asch. The group was shown a treated of three lines and a separate grapheme line and the task was to judge which of the three lines was the alike(p) distance as the reference line, with each set consisting of one line that was obviously the equal length and two lines that were obviously assorted. The group gave their answers one by one with the naive participant answering in second to last place, and the confederates intentionally gave the wrong answers.Asch found that 37% of the responses the particip ant gave were the wrong answers the confederates gave, showing the participant conformed. Asch also found that the larger the majority, the higher level of conformity although above four, the level didnt make up much and when there was a dissenter going against the group, conformity levels dropped drastically. Also when the task was made to a greater extent than uncorrectable, conformity increased.Aschs study has been criticised as being a child of its quantify as it was conducted in 1950s America where conformity was much likely to occur. Another criticism is the sample of participants were all young male students from the same university and so the results scum bag not be generalised. The study also lacked bionomical validity as judging line lengths is not an everyday task. However what these theories do not divvy up is societal designs. Zimbardo (1973) conducted an look into to see what affect social roles would have on someones behaviour.He created a mock prison in t he basement of Stanford University and recruited 24 male participants, who did not have aggressive personalities, to be guards and captives and informed them of what the experiment was about. To make the experience as realistic as possible Zimbardo had the prisoners arrested and given prisoner uniforms. The guards were given uniforms and mirrored sunglasses and had to enforce the rules of the prison. The prisoners rebelled on the first day and the guards responded by aggressively enforcing auberge and discipline within the prison.They used fire extinguishers against the prisoners, locked individuals in a dark broom cupboard for hours at a time, constantly harassed them, and even vie prisoners off against each other. Over time the prisoners became more(prenominal) and more subdued and took on the submissive role of the prisoner. The guards began to enjoy the power they had, and their use of aggression and harassment steadily increased as they took on the ascendent role of priso n guards.The experiment had to be halt early due to how dangerous and brutal it became, with three prisoners being released early due to severe psychological distress. Zimbardo concluded that the roles the participants found themselves in and the environment caused the behaviour displayed as both the guards and prisoners conformed to the behaviour they believed that role should display. two guards and prisoners rapidly conformed, in just a a few(prenominal) days, to the social roles that the situation placed them in.Zimbardos experiment has been deeply criticised as it was very unethical and he deliberately put the participants into a situation that caused them personal and psychological harm. There are also ecological validity be intimates as prison officers apply to be prison officers in real life, unlike the experiment where they could be guards or prisoners, and prison officers do not work 24 hours a day, which brings the ecological validity of the experiment into question. There are also other factors we must consider which affect whether people conform. angiotensin converting enzyme factor is the gloss in which people are brought up.People who come from a collectivist assimilation are more likely to conform then someone from an individualistic culture as the collectivist culture focuses on group mentality and places the needs of the group over the needs of the individual, so a study in a highly individualistic culture like America can yield different results then conducting the same study in a highly collectivist culture such as China. Another factor is the time period the study was conducted in. The attitudes of that particular period can affect the results and whitethorn not hold true today.Thus the study magnate be measuring the attitudes of that time period and conducting the same study in a different time period could bring different results. Individual differences also play a part as a persons age, their life experiences, education and se xual activity can affect if and how much a person will conform. Recent research has suggested that women are more likely to conform then men as women are more socially orientated and therefrom will fear social rejection more. The group coat also has an impact on conformity levels as the bigger the group is, the more pressure there is to conform.The unanimity of the group as well, if everyone agrees on an issue then the group pressure to agree with the group is huge, but if there are dissenters among the group then the group pressure decreases and its easier to stretch out conforming. The type of task is also a factor, if the task is difficult or ambiguous people are more likely to defer to other people or a group and conform as the person believes the group has more information and is right, whereas if the task is informal and unambiguous the person is more likely to resist conforming.Conformity is a big factor in piece social behaviour as every charitable feels the need to fi t in with groups and society as a whole, which drives our social behaviour. As the research shows, people conform to avoid social rejection and because society expects them to channel in a certain way. Conformity can be a good thing, such as when people conform while they are effort and drive on the right side of the road, til now conformity can also be a bad thing such as the guards conforming to the social roles in Zimbardos prison experiment, causing them to display aggressive behaviours.