Conformity And Obedience

Front 1

Conformity

Back 1

Change in behavior or belief as the result of real or imagined group pressure

Front 2

Three types of conformity

Back 2

Compliance
Obedience
Acceptance

Front 3

Asch’s Studies of Group Pressure

Back 3

Perceptual judgment experiment
Six confederates gave incorrect answers to see if participant would agree even if he knew it was the incorrect answer

Front 4

Milgram’s Obedience Experiments

Back 4

Tested what happens when the demands of authority lash with the demands of conscience
Teacher “shocks” learner at the insistence of experimenter
65 percent of participants continued beyond expectations

Front 5

Ethics of Milgram’s Experiment

Back 5

Critics said the Milgram’s experiment stressed the participants against their will
They argued that the participants’ self-esteem may have been altered
Milgram stated that the critic’s controversy was “terribly overblown”

Front 6

Breeds Obedience

Back 6

Victim’s distance or depersonalization
Closeness and legitimacy of the authority
Institutional authority
Liberating effects of group influence

Front 7

Group Size

Back 7

3 to 5 people will elicit more conformity than just 1 or 2
Groups greater in size than 5 yields diminishing returns

Front 8

Unanimity

Back 8

Observing another’s dissent can increase our own independence

Front 9

Cohesion

Back 9

“We feeling”; extent to which members of a group are bound together, such as by attraction for one another
The more cohesive a group is, the more power it gains over its members

Front 10

Status

Back 10

Higher-status people tend to have more impact

Front 11

Public Response

Back 11

People conform more when they must respond in front of others rather than writing their answers privately

Front 12

No Prior Commitment

Back 12

Most people having made a public commitment stick to it
Example:
Teens who make a public virginity-till-marriage pledge become somewhat more likely to remain sexually abstinent

Front 13

Normative Influence

Back 13

Based on a person's desire to fulfill others’ expectations, often to gain acceptance
Produced by social image

Front 14

Informational Influence

Back 14

Occurring when people accept evidence about reality provided by other people
Produced by desire to be correct

Front 15

Reactance

Back 15

Motive to protect or restore one’s sense of freedom
Arises when someone threatens our freedom of action

Front 16

Asserting Uniqueness

Back 16

We act in ways that preserve our sense of individuality
In a group, we are most conscious of how we differ from others

Front 17

Compliance

Back 17

conformity that involves publicly acting in accord with an implied or explicit request while privately disagreeing

Front 18

obedience

Back 18

acting in accord with a direct order or command

Front 19

acceptance

Back 19

conformity that involves both acting and believing in accord with social pressure

Front 20

autokinetic phenomenon

Back 20

the apparent movement of a stationary point of light in the dark