Understanding Conformity

• Conformity is matching behavior and beliefs to fit in or navigate unusual situations.

Types of Conformity

• Compliance involves aligning with the majority publicly, without privately agreeing, to gain approval or avoid disapproval.
• Identification is when behavior and opinions are adjusted to align with a group whose membership is desirable.
• Internalization is true conformity, involving genuine adjustment of behavior and opinions to match a group; it leads to private and public acceptance of the group's views.

Influences on Conformity

• Normative social influence (compliance) arises from the need to fit in and be accepted.
• Informational social influence (identification) occurs when unsure how to behave in a situation.

Factors Affecting Conformity

Situational Factors

• Conformity increases with the size of the majority.
• Agreement within the majority strengthens influence.
• Conformity is more likely when a task is difficult or ambiguous.

Personality Factors

• Internal locus of control: Individuals in control of their thoughts and behaviors are less prone to conform.
• External locus of control: Individuals unable to control their thoughts and behavior are more likely to conform.

Deindividuation

• Deindividuation is losing personal identity within a crowd, leading to anonymity and diminished responsibility for actions.

Bystander Effect/Apathy

• Bystander effect is the failure to help others in need.

Situational Factors

• Diffusion of responsibility decreases personal responsibility when more people are present who could help.
• Noticing the event: individuals in large crowds are less likely to notice an emergency.
• Pluralistic ignorance: people react based on what others are doing.
• Cost of helping: perceived risk/danger reduces the likelihood of intervention.

Personal Factors

• Competence: Feeling capable increases willingness to help
• Mood: Those in a good mood are more likely to help; those in a bad mood focus on themselves.
• Similarity: People are more likely to help those they perceive as similar.

Crowd Behavior

• Crowd behavior can influence an individual's actions.
• Prosocial behavior is helpful, kind, cooperative, and peaceful.
• Antisocial behavior is unhelpful, aggressive, and destructive.
• Key ideas linked to crowd behavior include deindividuation where people lose their personal identity in large crowds, conformity, and obedience.

Obedience

• Obedience is complying with an authority figure's request or order, potentially causing actions that would not occur otherwise.
• Blind obedience is obeying orders from an authority figure without question, often with a negative outcome.

Situational Factors

• Proximity of authority figure increases obedience.
• Legitimacy of authority figure increases obedience
• Rebellious peers decreases obedience

Personality Factors

• Internal locus of control: More likely to resist obedience
• External locus of control: More likely to obey
• Authoritarian personality: More respectful to authority and more likely to obey.
• Momentum of compliance leads to feeling more obliged to complete a task once started.

Preventing Blind Obedience

• Social support: Resistance to obedience is more likely with others who resist.
• Familiarity of situation: Sufficient knowledge reduces reliance on others.
• Distance: Walking away from uncomfortable situations reduces likelihood to give in.
• Education about blind obedience makes individuals more resisting it.

Piliavin Study (Good Samaritanism)

Strengths

• High ecological validity due to naturalistic environment on a busy subway.
• Two observers enhanced reliability through cross-checking data.
• Large sample size (4450 commuters) improves generalisability.

Weakness

• Covert observation raises ethical issues regarding consent and discomfort.
• Limited generalisability due to male victims used.

Zimbardo Study (Simulated Prison)

• Ecological validity: Recordings showed prisoners talked about prison life rather than personal, suggesting their behaviour was real in response to the situation

Weakness

• The experiment caused severe physical and psychological harm to prisoners.
• Limited generalisability due to participants only being male students

Social and Cultural Issues (Essay Structure)

• Essays can include collectivistic/individualistic cultures, bystander apathy/intervention, conformity, and blind obedience.
• Paragraph 1 (AO1): Describe cultural differences in society, e.g., collectivist vs. individualistic cultures, and factors affecting blind obedience/bystander intervention.
• Paragraph 2 (AO2): Apply to the scenario with applicable factors.
• Paragraph 3 (AO3): Analyze strengths and weaknesses using studies like Piliavin for bystander intervention and Milgram for obedience.

Studies

• Kitty Genovese case: People in individualistic cultures show bystander apathy.
• Conformity: Asch (1951) showed that on average about one third of participants (32%) would change their response to conform with the majority over an obvious incorrect answer with 75% conforming at least once.