KONFORMITAS & PERUBAHAN SOSIAL PSIKOLOGI SOSIAL I

Social Influence Process whereby attitudes and behaviour are influenced by the real or implied presence of other people (Robert Cialdini and Noah Goldstein, 2004)

QUESTIONS What purpose do social norms have and why do people conform to them? Does compliance with the demands of others mean that we accept their views? Why do people obey commands that can be extreme and sometimes destructive?

NORMS Attitudinal and behavioural uniformities that define group membership and differentiate between groups. Norms and stereotypes are closely related. Norms referring to behaviour that is shared in a group, and stereotypes to shared generalisations about other groups. Norms can take the form of explicit rules that are enforced by legislation and sanctions

NORMS Group norms can have a powerful effect on people. Norms are inherently resistant to change because their function is to provide stability and predictability. However, norms initially arise to deal with specific circumstances. In general, norms relating to group loyalty and to central aspects of group life have a narrow latitude of what is acceptable.

HOW NORMS FORM Muzafer Sherif (1936) explored this idea in one of the classic experiments in social psychology. He showed that when people made perceptual judgements alone, they relied on their own estimates as a reference frame; however, when they were in a group, they used the group’s range of judgements to converge quickly on the group mean.

CONFORMITY Deep-seated, private and enduring change in behaviour and attitudes due to group pressure. Solomon Asch (1952). He believed that conformity reflects a relatively rational process in which people construct a norm from other people’s behaviour in order to determine correct and appropriate behaviour for themselves.

WHO CONFORMS? The existence of large individual differences in conformity led some social psychologists to search for personality attributes that predispose some people to conform more than others. Those who conform tend to have low self-esteem, a high need for social support or social approval, a need for self-control, low IQ, high anxiety, feelings of self-blame and insecurity in the group, feelings of inferiority, feelings of relatively low status in the group, and a generally authoritarian personality (Costanzo, 1970; Crutchfield, 1955).

WHO CONFORMS? Conformity among men and women in relation to tasks that are sex-stereotyped. When a task is related to a male stereotype, more women conform. When the task is related to female stereotype, more men conform. (Based on data from Sistrunk & McDavid (1971).

CULTURE AND CONFORMITY This kind of cultural variation suggests that COLLECTIVIST peoples conformed more to their group than did those from INDIVIDUALISTIC peoples.

INFLUENCE PROCESSES Social psychologists generally believe that two processes of social influence are responsible for conformity: INFORMATIONAL INFLUENCE and NORMATIVE INFLUENCE. (Deutsch & Gerard, 1955). Informational Influence: An influence to accept information from another as evidence about reality. Normative Influence : An influence to conform with the positive expectation of others, to gain social approval or to avoid social disapproval.

COMPLIANCE The literature on social influence sometimes uses the term compliance interchangeably with conformity. Compliance to refer to a behavioural response to a request by another individual, whereas conformity refers to the influence of a group upon an individual.

COMPLIANCE Superficial, public and transitory change in behaviour and expressed attitudes in response to requests, coercion or group pressure. INGRATIATION: Strategic attempt to get someone to like you in order to obtain compliance with a request. Reciprocity Norm: The principle of ‘doing unto others as they do to you’. It can refer to returning a favour, mutual aggression or mutual help.

OBEDIENCE TO AUTHORITY