Independent Behaviour and Social Change

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Independent Behaviour and Social Change

Situation factors
conformity

Aschs
influenced bu
Group size
Very small
resist than larger
Influence doesnt
the size of the
Social support
When one
with the
others rate of
Someone who
majority made it
participant to
conform

Other factors that

Confidence,
can also have an

Confidence and

When Asch
he found a
confidence in
conformed
Wiesenthal et
Aschs line task
of sample
Found no effect
students
Could have been
had confidence in
In a follow up
group of young
Probation officers
The level of
to Aschs results

Inde
pen
dent
Beh
avio
ur
and
Soci
al
Cha
nge

that affect
participants were
situational factors
majorities are easier to
ones
keep increasing with
majority
confederate agreed
participant rather than
conformity fell
disagrees with the
easier for the
resist the pressure to
affect conformity
expertise and gender
effect
expertise
debriefed participants
common factor in
those who hadnt
al (1976) replicated
but used different type
of conformity in the
because the students
their skills
study sample was a
people on probation
used as confederates
conformity was similar

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Independent Behaviour and Social Change

Factors such as expertise, personality and power relationships that

can effect results

Gender

Until mid-1970s dominant view was that females conformed more

than males
Eagly and Carli concucted lots of research that suggests its not
like that
Eagly (1987) argued that men and women different social roles
were responsible for the difference in conformity rates
Women are more concerned with group harmony and relationships
Assertiveness and independence are male attributes
Maintain own opinion under pressure fits with perceived social role
Ties in with Becker (1986) findings that women conform in public
settings but not when their opinions are private
Eagly and Carli (1981)did a meta-analysis of conformity research
Did find some sex differences in conformity
However differences were inconsistent
Gender bias by researchers

Aspects of personality

Personality can affect whether someone will conform or show

independent behaviour
Rotter (1966) developed a questionnaire to measure personality
characteristics
this is called locus of control
How much personal control people believe they have over events in
their lives
Questionnaire involved choosing between paired statements
E.g. 1. Misfortune is usually brought about by peoples own actions
2. Things that make un unhappy are largely due to bad luck
If you agree with first statement you have an internal locus of
control
Categorised by belief that what happens in your life is from your
own actions
If you agree with the second statement you have an external locus
of control
Belief that events are caused by external factors
People with internal locus of control are more likely to show
independent behaviour

Minority Influence

People dont always go along with the majority

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Independent Behaviour and Social Change

Sometimes small minorities will gain influence and change the way
the majority think
In minority influence it seems that a form of internalisation is
taking place
Members of the majority take on the beliefs and views of the
minority
Moscovici et al (1969) researched minority influence that
compared inconsistent minorities with consistent minorities

Resisting the pressure to obey authority

Some can resist pressure to obey authority

Can be affected by several factors e.g. situation and individual
differences

The Situation

More of Milgrims participants resisted orders if there were other

participants present who refused to obey
Suggests that people find it easier to stand up to authority if they
have support
Gamson et al (1982) found that participants were more likely to
resist pressure to conform if one confederate agrees with them
People are more likely to display independent behaviour if they have
support
25% of Aschs participants did not conform
35% of Milgrims participants disobeyed the authority figure
Milgrim found that when he conducted the experiment in a more
run-down setting, obedience rates dropped
Might be because participants more likely to question state of
authority

The role of individual differences

If an individual has a high level of moral reasoning they may be able

to resist an order that goes against their conscious
One of Milgrims participants experienced a WWII concentration
camp
She refused to administer any level of shock

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