Introduction
This study deals with the area of social psychology and the topic of conformity. Conformity is a type of social influence (occurring when one's emotions, opinions, or behaviours are affected by others) involving a change in belief or behaviour in order to fit in with a group. As Myers stated in (1999), Conformity is “a change in behaviour or belief as a result of real or imagined group pressure.” An active form of social influence is Compliance which is when an individual changes his or her behaviour in response to an explicit or implicit request made by another person. There have been many experiments in psychology investigating conformity and group pressure.
Jenness (1932) was one of the first psychologist to study conformity. His experiment was an ambiguous situation involving a glass bottle filled with beans as their was no clear answer on how many beans were actually in the jar. Jenness wanted to see whether an individual would conform in a group situation when he asked participants to guess the number of beans the bottle contained. He found that when he asked the participant individually to estimate how many beans the bottle contained and then later introduced the individual into a group situation. Asking them for the group as a whole to give an estimate. Jenness found that once he had reinterviewed the individual, asking the participant if they would like to change their original estimates, or stay with the group's estimate. He found that almost all of the participants changed their individual guesses to be closer to the group estimate. This research is similar to the present research, which although a group was not actually present. it inferred the presence of others by stating “Most people prefer to work in a warm room of about 29*C’’ and asks participants to make a judgement in an ambiguous situation - providing an exact preferred room temperature is ambiguous because most people are unaware of the precise room temperature they prefer. Asch’s lab experiment in 1955, used 50 male students in the USA who participated in a study which involved putting a participant in a room with several confederates. The study involved the participant having t choose which line was the longest. However, while the participant may have wanted to chose the correct line, all of the other confederates choose a completely different line. This allowed Asch to see whether or not the participant would conform amongst complete strangers. He found that over the trials around 75% of the participants conformed. Asch also produced a control group in which there was no pressure to conform and he found that only 1% conformed. Therefore, leading him to the conclusion that conformity will occur amongst complete strangers. This differs from the present research as in the present research it was concluded that while …show more content…
In each group, the confederates wore identical glasses, with the participant/subject wearing a different set of glasses. This caused them to observe a different answer. This allowed Mori and Arai to view whether the participant would conform or not. Mori and Arai found that while the minority of women conformed, the minority of men did not. The study also found that “conforming behaviour among acquaintances is more important as a psychological research topic than conforming among strangers” they said. As “Conformity generally takes place among acquainted persons, such as family members, friends or colleagues, and in daily life we seldom experience a situation like the Asch experiment in which we make decisions among total strangers.” This current research therefore builds upon the Mori and Arai study in thaat it compares the conformity to a task between male and female participant who were all known personally by the …show more content…
Meta - analysis being a statistical approach that combines the results from multiple studies. Which allows the researcher to improve estimated and resolve any issues in a disagreeing report. They found that women are more persuadable and more conforming than men in group pressure situations that involve being watched by the researcher. In situations not involving surveillance, women are less likely to conform. Eagly has proposed that this sex difference may be due to different sex roles in society. The current research builds upon the findings of Eagly and Carli in that it compares the level of conformity in a perceived group situation between male and female participants completing a task while being watched by the
This study deals with the area of social psychology and the topic of conformity. Conformity is a type of social influence (occurring when one's emotions, opinions, or behaviours are affected by others) involving a change in belief or behaviour in order to fit in with a group. As Myers stated in (1999), Conformity is “a change in behaviour or belief as a result of real or imagined group pressure.” An active form of social influence is Compliance which is when an individual changes his or her behaviour in response to an explicit or implicit request made by another person. There have been many experiments in psychology investigating conformity and group pressure.
Jenness (1932) was one of the first psychologist to study conformity. His experiment was an ambiguous situation involving a glass bottle filled with beans as their was no clear answer on how many beans were actually in the jar. Jenness wanted to see whether an individual would conform in a group situation when he asked participants to guess the number of beans the bottle contained. He found that when he asked the participant individually to estimate how many beans the bottle contained and then later introduced the individual into a group situation. Asking them for the group as a whole to give an estimate. Jenness found that once he had reinterviewed the individual, asking the participant if they would like to change their original estimates, or stay with the group's estimate. He found that almost all of the participants changed their individual guesses to be closer to the group estimate. This research is similar to the present research, which although a group was not actually present. it inferred the presence of others by stating “Most people prefer to work in a warm room of about 29*C’’ and asks participants to make a judgement in an ambiguous situation - providing an exact preferred room temperature is ambiguous because most people are unaware of the precise room temperature they prefer. Asch’s lab experiment in 1955, used 50 male students in the USA who participated in a study which involved putting a participant in a room with several confederates. The study involved the participant having t choose which line was the longest. However, while the participant may have wanted to chose the correct line, all of the other confederates choose a completely different line. This allowed Asch to see whether or not the participant would conform amongst complete strangers. He found that over the trials around 75% of the participants conformed. Asch also produced a control group in which there was no pressure to conform and he found that only 1% conformed. Therefore, leading him to the conclusion that conformity will occur amongst complete strangers. This differs from the present research as in the present research it was concluded that while …show more content…
In each group, the confederates wore identical glasses, with the participant/subject wearing a different set of glasses. This caused them to observe a different answer. This allowed Mori and Arai to view whether the participant would conform or not. Mori and Arai found that while the minority of women conformed, the minority of men did not. The study also found that “conforming behaviour among acquaintances is more important as a psychological research topic than conforming among strangers” they said. As “Conformity generally takes place among acquainted persons, such as family members, friends or colleagues, and in daily life we seldom experience a situation like the Asch experiment in which we make decisions among total strangers.” This current research therefore builds upon the Mori and Arai study in thaat it compares the conformity to a task between male and female participant who were all known personally by the …show more content…
Meta - analysis being a statistical approach that combines the results from multiple studies. Which allows the researcher to improve estimated and resolve any issues in a disagreeing report. They found that women are more persuadable and more conforming than men in group pressure situations that involve being watched by the researcher. In situations not involving surveillance, women are less likely to conform. Eagly has proposed that this sex difference may be due to different sex roles in society. The current research builds upon the findings of Eagly and Carli in that it compares the level of conformity in a perceived group situation between male and female participants completing a task while being watched by the