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?
Sherifs Studies of Norm Formation (Muzafer Sherif 1935 1937)
Autokinetic Phenomenon
Sherif and others have used this technique to answer questions about
peoples 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 usrecorded here at La
Trobe University in one study by Michael

Plato and colleagues (2004)rather than a group thats 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.
Aschs 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?
Milgrams Obedience Experiments
Milgrams (1965, 1974) experiments tested what happens when the demands
of authority clash with the demands of conscience. These have become social
psychologys 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,
lets 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
Universitys 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 persons 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 psychologys 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 ones 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.