Conformity And Obedience Essay
Conformity and obedience are two types of social behaviours. These behaviours and influences are evident in human interactions and present within group formations.
Conformity involves adopting attitudes of a particular group of people or changing behaviour or personal opinions in order to ‘fit in’, also known as a group or social norm. Social norms can involve socially accepted rules, laws and standards. The act or behaviour may cause the individual to agree or disagree with their personal beliefs or attitudes due to the subtle pressure and indirect authority. This pressure may be a result of real or imaginative group pressure. There are three different types of conformity, these are known as compliance, identification or internalisation. …show more content…
Asch’s experiment may be seen as unethical as the participants were put in a situation where they could feel uncomfortable due to the pressure to go against their own judgements. Asch used 50 male participants from a college in USA, the results may have been different if both male and female participants were used. The age of the participants may have also had an effect on the results. It may lack cross cultural validity as the study was only conducted in the USA, if Asch were to repeat the study in a different culture the results may or may not be the same.
The main disadvantages to Sherif’s study is that he only used groups of three, if he were to change the variable and use a larger group the results may differ. It is unclear where the study was conducted and if the participants were male/female. Sherif’s study was conducted in 1935, the time is was conducted may have an effect on the findings. It was an ambiguous task as there was no wrong or right answer.
Obedience is a form of social influence where an individual acts in response to a direct order from another individual, who is usually an authority figure. It is assumed that without such an order the person would not have acted in this
Conformity involves adopting attitudes of a particular group of people or changing behaviour or personal opinions in order to ‘fit in’, also known as a group or social norm. Social norms can involve socially accepted rules, laws and standards. The act or behaviour may cause the individual to agree or disagree with their personal beliefs or attitudes due to the subtle pressure and indirect authority. This pressure may be a result of real or imaginative group pressure. There are three different types of conformity, these are known as compliance, identification or internalisation. …show more content…
Asch’s experiment may be seen as unethical as the participants were put in a situation where they could feel uncomfortable due to the pressure to go against their own judgements. Asch used 50 male participants from a college in USA, the results may have been different if both male and female participants were used. The age of the participants may have also had an effect on the results. It may lack cross cultural validity as the study was only conducted in the USA, if Asch were to repeat the study in a different culture the results may or may not be the same.
The main disadvantages to Sherif’s study is that he only used groups of three, if he were to change the variable and use a larger group the results may differ. It is unclear where the study was conducted and if the participants were male/female. Sherif’s study was conducted in 1935, the time is was conducted may have an effect on the findings. It was an ambiguous task as there was no wrong or right answer.
Obedience is a form of social influence where an individual acts in response to a direct order from another individual, who is usually an authority figure. It is assumed that without such an order the person would not have acted in this