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Definition

“Conformity is a type of social influence in which individuals change their attitudes, beliefs or behaviours to adhere to existing social norms” Baron et al, 2006

Explanation of social norms (you must learn this for small mark answer)

➢ Social norms are one of the key causes of why people conform to the majority view.

➢ Social norms (group norms) are the standard rules of behaviour for individuals in any given society/culture.

➢ Unspoken rules develop spontaneously, unconsciously usually through force of habit and if you do not conform to these rules you will be excluded…

➢ For example, behaviour at a bus stop, the type of clothes that are popular, the type of drinks to be drinking, the type of music to listen to, the places to travel in the world

Jenness (1932)

The first informal experimental study of conformity where participants were asked to estimate how many beans the bottle contained. When asked for a group estimate they almost all changed their individual guesses closer to the group estimate. This persisted when asked again individually. They conformed.

NB: Remember for every study in this topic and obedience try to give a methodological and ethical issue (or advantage) for each study

|Methodological issues |Ethical issues |
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|Problems with sample – size/gender/age etc |For each ethical issue explain why it was an issue in the study and how the |
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