Conformity Questions

1.a) Define “conformity”, “compliance”, and “obedience”. What are the differences between them?

b) Describe a relevant example for each.

2.Define informational social influence. Then, identify:

a)the situations where this type of conformity is likely to occur (hint: 3 )

b)why it occurs (the motive for conformity)

c)what happens to the person’s private belief after the conformity.

d)the experiment(s) that illustrated this type of conformity.

3.Define normative social influence. Then, identify:

a)the situations where this type of conformity is likely to occur (hint: social impact theory, and others)

b)why it occurs (the motive for conformity)

c)what happens to the person’s private belief after the conformity.

d)the experiment(s) that illustrated this type of conformity.

4.What is the difference between private and public acceptance? When are they elicited?

  1. What are the two dramatic forms of informational social influence? Describe each, point out when each tend of occur, and give an example. (hint: both start with C)
  1. In 1945, many people in Mattoon, Il claimed that they have been attacked by an “anesthetist” that would go to their homes and spray them with anesthetics. In reality, there were no such person and all of the attacks were imagined. Which social psychological principle(s) is(are) applicable in explaining this phenomenon?
  1. Research has found that group size is an important factor in social influence. Discuss the following issues:

a)In normative influence, how does group size affect the degree of conformity?

b)According tot eh Social Impact Theory, what characteristics of the group can increase conformity?

c)What happens when it is the minority of the group that is trying to influence the majority? Which type of social influence (normative/informational) does it involve? What does it take for a minority to be influenctial?

8. Ellen Langer did an experiment where secretaries were sent either a signed (signed “sincerely, John Smith”) or an unsigned memo that said, “This paper is to be returned immediately to Room 238 through interoffice mail”. Room 238 was the sender’s office on the same floor. What were their finding? And what is the main point of this experiment?

9a. What is the door in the face technique? Why does it work? Describe an example.

9b. What is the foot in the door technique? Why does it work? Describe an example.

9c. Which one of the above techniques for eliciting compliance lasts longer?

  1. A few specific questions about the design of Milgram’s study:

a)What were the participants asked to do (cover story)?

b)What happens when they express that they want to stop?

c)Before the experiment, what results did people predict?

d)What are the actual results (general…. Not actual %)

  1. What was the role of normative influence in Milgram’s study (original design)? What did they find when they added confederates to the study?
  1. What was the role of infomational social influence in Milgram’s study? What did they do in 2 modifications of the experiment to investigate the role of informational social influence? What were the results?
  1. What additional factors made people obey the experimenter even when they were asked to administer extreme shocks?

Exercise:

Address the following 4 questions.

1.What is the nature of the task/decision? (ambiguous? difficult? easy? obvious?)

2.Why does this person conform? (need to .....?)

3.What type of conformity?

4.Is the attitude change public/private? Is the acquired attitude/behavior going to persist? Explain.

a.Sherif was in an experiment where he had to estimate how much a light spot is moving. There was another participant in the room who said his estimate first, and Sherif made a very similar estimation.

b.Asch was in another experiment where he was asked to match the length of a template line to some “target” lines. He was the 6th participant in a row. All 5 of the people before him answered “A”. Asch also answered “A” even though he saw that the objectively correct answer was B.

  1. Selena, who is visiting China for the first time. She got invited to an Chinese dinner and found out that all the entrees are placed in the middle of the big round table on top of a “turntable”. She looks at Xin-jung to see how he behaves and imitates him.
  1. Louka is at a frat rush party. They invited a comedian to entertain the crowd. Everyone was laughing and Louka also laughed hysterically, even though he didn’t think the comedian show was that good.
  1. This is Eric’s first year in college. He kind of knew that people drink alcohol, but he wasn’t sure how much and how often people drink. He goes to his first Halloween party this weekend and he looks around to see how much the Juniors and Seniors drink, and whether they look comfortable in the drinking environment. He saw the people were mostly relaxed and drank about 5 beers, and so he does so as well. He concluded that drinking is very common and that 4-6 beers are about the right amount to drink.
  1. Elenor joined a sorority last year. When she entered the sorority, she did not have any eating disorders. But as the year went by, she started to binge eat and purge (bulimia). It turns out that most members of her sorority (especially the most popular ones) also binge and purge. However, as soon as she left school, her symptoms went away.