Conformity PDF Psychology

Conformity 1. Why do we all professionals have a similar kind of dressing? 2. Why do you often wear a blazer for a formal meeting even when you don’t like wearing blazer? 3. Have you ever done something just because everyone else does it? 4. Why do we follow dress codes even when there is no cl...

Conformity 1. Why do we all professionals have a similar kind of dressing? 2. Why do you often wear a blazer for a formal meeting even when you don’t like wearing blazer? 3. Have you ever done something just because everyone else does it? 4. Why do we follow dress codes even when there is no clear mention of dress codes? Conformity The tendency to change one’s beliefs or behaviours to match the behaviour of others.  Autokinetic effect, illusory movement of a single still object, usually a stationary pinpoint of light used in psychology experiments in dark rooms. As one stares at a fixed point of light, one’s eye muscles become fatigued, causing a slight eye movement. Without the usual reference points available in the everyday environment, the movement of the image on the retina is perceived as its actual movement in space. Muzafer Sherif’s (1935) experiment First Sherif studied how people reacted to the autokinetic effect when they were alone in the room. In the alone situation, the responses varied drastically. Next groups of subjects were put in the dark room, 2 or 3 at a time, and asked to agree on a judgment. Now Sherif noted a tendency to compromise. The participants were asked to share their judgements loudly with others. In a further variation, there were two persons. One person was real participant and the other was confederate.  The confederates were asked to make his estimates consistently higher/lower than the real judgement. By the end of the day, the responses of the real participants were similar to the confederates. Solomon Asch’s Study Asch (1951) gave groups of seven or nine college students what appeared to be a test of perceptual judgment. Participants had to match the length of a line segment to comparison lines. Each subject saw a pair of cards set up in front of the room, similar to the ones below. In a group of nine, eight subjects were actually confederates of the experimenter. The experiment was rigged so that the genuine (naÏve) subject was always the next-to-last to be called upon.  The pressure of the group had a dramatic effect. Although people could pick the correct line 99% of the time when making the judgments by themselves, when they were put into the group of nine, 75% went along with an obviously incorrect group judgment at least once. 1. Attractiveness of other members in the group (people tended to go along with a group of attractive people) 2. Complexity or difficulty of the task (people were more likely to conform if the judgment was difficult). 3. Group cohesiveness (people conformed more if friendships or mutual dependencies were set up beforehand).  Why do people conform? Informational Influence Normative Influence Conforming to others because the behaviour Conforming to be liked or accepted by of others provides useful information. others. Tourists from a different country. We want to gain social acceptance. Difficulty of the task A person’s confidence in the task. Faith on others/ group members.  When do people conform? 1. Group size: increases with the size of majority, at least up to a point. 2. Group unanimity: A person faced with a unanimous majority is under great pressure to conform. If one person dissents, conformity drops. This happens regardless of the position, influence, and/or charisma of the dissenter. the amount of trust in the correctness of the majority decreases. strengthens the confidence in one’s own opinion which might have been different from the majority’s opinion. 3. Commitment to the group: all the forces, positive/negative, that act to keep a person in a relationship/group. 4. The desire for individuation: A person’s willingness to do things that publicly differentiate him/her from others or make him/her stand out. Problems with conformity 1. Political conformity: Political participation can be influenced by the political preferences and political participation of peers. Some mechanisms may encourage individuals to participate when they live in areas with other like-minded individuals, a phenomenon that we dub political conformity.  Muscle dysmorphia: Type of body dysmorphic disorder Delusional belief that one’s body is not enough muscular Conformity to masculine gender roles including dominance, confidence, sexual success, and physical and emotional self-control places men at risk for muscularity-oriented body dissatisfaction and disordered eating  Masculinization, does it happen in male-dominated industry? Sheppard (1989) suggested that blending in through minimizing one's identity to feminine traits is one widely used strategy of "gender management" (Sheppard, 1989) among women in the male-dominated industry. Women might want to dress like men, talk like men, and show their conformity towards masculine identity. Powell (2009) found strategies like behaving like boys, accepting gender discrimination, even taking an anti-woman approach among women engineers. In the present study, there was a continuous effort to disown the feminine identity.  Compliance A form of social influence involving direct requests from one person to another.  Techniques of compliance Foot-in-the-door technique: First, make a small request. When the person complies, make another, larger request, make another larger request. Freedman & Fraser (1966), women were asked to sign a petition by the committee of safe driving. at the second phase, they were asked to put in their front yards a large, unattractive sign that says ‘drive carefully’ 55% of women who agreed to the first request complied to the second request as compared to 17% of women who never faced the first request. Why does it work? 1. Self-perception theory: the individual’s self concept changes as a consequence of compliance. 2. The need to act consistently 3. when we agree to the first request, we become involved and committed to the issue.  Door-in-the-Face Technique First, make a really large request. When the person denies, make a small request. It works best when the small request is connected to the large request.  The Low-Ball Technique Obtain agreement with a modest request, then reveal hidden costs to the request. Cialdini and colleagues (1978)’s experiment. early morning experiment/experiment 25% agreed to participate in the early morning experiment as compared to 55% to the experiment when the time was not mentioned. Once agreed, almost all the participants participated in the morning experiment.  That’s-Not-All Technique Make a deal and then improve the offer Add a bonus or reduce the price.  The Pique Technique Making an unusual request to disrupt the target’s refusal script Burger and colleagues (2008) Passersby were asked for either a common amount of change or 37 cents. Participants who inquired about the unusual amount were given either a specific or an uninformative reason. Reactance theory When our sense of freedom is threatened, we often restore it by refusing to comply. Very strongly worded message might reduce the compliance 1) Legitimate Power Legitimate power is the authority to command, based on position. 2) Reward Power Reward power is the ability to award positive, desired outcomes. 3) Referent Power This type of power is based on the affiliations we make with others. 4) Expert Power Expert power is based on what the leader knows, the experience that they have, or their special skills. 5) Informational Power A leader will have informational power if they control access to or have possession of information that others need or want. 6) Coercive Power This is the threat of force to gain compliance from another. It could be economic, social, emotional, political or physical. Group decision-making Common knowledge effect: Group members spend more time on discussing information which are known to all rather than taking into account information, known by only a few. It reduces the advantage that we get from the diversity of the group members’ opinions. Confirmation bias: people prefer information that support their beliefs and opinions. Group Polarization Groups often make more extreme decision than do individuals alone. Group often takes riskier decisions, known as riskier shift. 1. Illusion of invulnerability: members display excessive optimism that Leader encourages open past successes will continue and will shield them, and hence they tend to expression of doubt by take extreme risks members 2.. Collective rationalization: members collectively rationalize away data Leader accepts criticism that disconfirm their assumptions and the beliefs upon which they base their of his/her opinions decisions 3. Illusion of morality: members believe that they, as moral individuals, are Higher-status members unlikely to make bad decisions offer opinions last 4. Shared stereotypes: members dismiss disconfirming evidence by Get recommendations discrediting its source (e.g. stereotyping other groups and their leaders as from a duplicate group evil or weak) 5. Direct pressure: imposition of verbal, nonverbal or other sanctions on Periodically divide into individuals who explore deviant positions, express doubts or question the subgroups validity of group beliefs 6. Self-censorship: members keep silent about misgivings about the Members obtain the apparent group consensus and try to minimize their doubts reactions of trusted outsiders 7. Illusion of unanimity: members conclude that the group has reached a Invite trusted outsiders consensus because its most vocal members are in agreement to join the discussion periodically 8. Mindguards: members take it upon themselves to screen out adverse, Assign someone to the disconfirming information supplied by ‘outsiders’ which might endanger role of devil’s advocate the group’s complacency  Attitudes Attitude can be defined as the way in which a person views and evaluates something or someone, a predisposition or a tendency to respond positively or negatively toward a certain idea, object, person, or situation. It is traditionally structured along three dimensions: cognitive (perceptions and beliefs), affective (likes and dislikes, feelings, or evoked emotions), and behavioral (actions or expressed intentions toward the object based upon the “cognitive” and “affective” responses). Attitude Formation Classical Conditioning: A basic form of learning in which one stimulus, initially neutral, acquires the capacity to evoke reactions through repeated pairing with another stimulus. In a sense, one stimulus becomes a signal for the presentation or occurrence of the other The direct route Positive stimuli (e.g., attractive models) are repeatedly paired with the product, with the aim being to directly transfer the affect felt toward them to the brand. Operant Conditioning Law of Effect (Thorndike,1898) B. F. Skinner If the response of a behaviour operates in the environment, it might produce consequences that increases the likelihood of the behaviour. Instrumental Conditioning Learner’s action is instrumental in producing change in the environment that increases the likelihood of a behaviour. Skinner’s box Skinner Box/ Operant Chamber A lever/key for pressing for food/water delivery Pressing of key determines the delivery of food Food ‘reinforces’ the key pressing behaviour  Reinforcement Any stimulus to increase the strength of a specific behaviour. Application or removal? Positive Reinforcement Negative Reinforcement Application of a desirable stimulus (e.g., food, Removal or postponement of an undesirable sexual pleasure, praise) (aversive) stimulus (e.g., heat, cold, harsh Increases the likelihood of a behaviour criticism) Increases the likelihood of a behaviour Cognitive Consistency Tendency for people to seek consistency among their attitudes. Balance Theory (Heider, 1958): A theory addressing the need to maintain consistency among our feelings and beliefs about what goes together. Three evaluations: The first person’s evaluation of the other person The first person’s evaluation of the attitude object The other person’s evaluation of the attitude object Balanced Situations P=You O=another person; X=Social Psychology Course X O O O P X P X P Imbalanced Situations P=You O=another person; X=Social Psychology Course O O O P X P x P x Balance theory suggests; 1. Changes are made towards a balanced system 2. We minimize the number of changes required to be made 3. Balance pressures seem to be weaker when we dislike the other person than when we like him/her/them. Cognitive dissonance theory A theory of attitude change proposing that if inconsistency exists among our attitudes, or between our attitudes and our behavior, we experience an unpleasant state of arousal called cognitive dissonance, which we will be motivated to reduce or eliminate. Dissonance is defined as an aversive motivational state that results when some behaviour we engage in is inconsistent with our attitudes. Counterattitudinal Behaviour Indulging in behaviour that is inconsistent with one’s own attitude. Joining social sciences to help the society and then realising that not much can be done there. Attitude-discrepant behaviour: joining a job to get paid, rather than to do social work. We cannot really always change our actions, so we often change our beliefs. Person Perception Person perception is the process of forming impressions about others and understanding others. Basic Rules 1. We form impressions quickly, based on minimal information. 2. Special attention to salient feature than attending everything. 3. We do consider the context of a behaviour while interpreting a behaviour or forming an impression. 4. We focus on categorizing. Rather than seeing each person as a separate individual, we tend to see people as members of groups. We tend to have existing cognitive structures for making sense of different groups. 5. Our own goals are important while we are perceiving. Self-presentation Deliberate efforts to act in ways that create a particular impression of the self Might be deliberate or automatic Self-promotion: conveying positive information about oneself to others (say good things like intellectual accomplishments only when you are asked) (egoistic, less likeable) Ingratiation: Flattering/ doing favours for a person to get that person to like you. (you are liked, but your competence might be questioned) Modesty ‘I could not have done it without…..’ Modesty works better when you are successful at something Modesty boosts one’s public image only when the audience knows the full extent of one’s success Ineffective self-presentation Don't drop big names and your association with them. Discrepancy between what you say and how you behave. Don't make excuses. External attributions for failures and internal attributions for success is considered to be a red flag.  Self-handicapping Engaging in actions that provide obstacles to success, so that failures can later be attributed to these obstacles. In evaluative situations that threaten failure, people tend to claim to have symptoms like learning, disability, shyness, depression, history of traumatic incidents.  Types Behavioral self-handicapping: genuine handicaps are created, Drug abuse, fatigue, lack of punctuality, inattention. More common among men. Self-reported handicapping: one claims to be ill, shy, low and so on. No gender difference.