Conformity Questions (for those who are only capable of reading Eysenck)

1. Define conformity.

2. Does the pressure to conform have to be real?

3. Is conformity a good thing or a bad thing? Give reasons for your answer.

4. What do Asch and Jenness tell us about why people conform?

5. Describe and evaluate Sherif's conformity experiment.

6. What did Asch find in his main experiment and then in various versions of it?

7. What criticisms can be levelled at Asch's experiment?

8. What three types of conformity does Kelman say there are?

9. What does Zimbardo's prison experiment tell us about conformity to social roles?

10. Are critics of this study justified in the comments they make? Explain your answer.

11. Outline Moscovici's criticisms of research into conformity to the majority.

12. Explain the difference between compliance and conversion.

13. Describe Moscovici's major study into conformity to a minority.

14. When is conversion most likely to occur?

15. Explain social impact theory.

16. To what extent is this theory valid?

17. Outline how cultural factors might affect conformity.

18. Outline how dispositional factors may affect conformity.

19. How might deindividuation affect conformity?

20. What is meant by reactance, and how has it been studied?

21. What is the difference between obedience and conformity, and how does the way they have been studied differ?

22. Describe Milgram's research in some detail.

23. Does this research have experimental and ecological validity?

24. Describe an obedience study with high ecological validity.

25. What are the main weaknesses of this study compared to that of Milgram?

26. What situational factors are involved in obedience?

27. What dispositional factors are involved in obedience?

28. What situational factors are involved in disobedience?

29. What dispositional factors are involved in disobedience?

30. How might fundamental attribution error explain people's surprise at Milgram's findings?

31. What are ethics, and why is psychology particularly subject to debates regarding them?

32. Give arguments for and against deceiving Ps.

33. How might we avoid or compensate for deceiving Ps?

34. Under what circumstances is obtaining informed consent difficult?

35. How might informed consent be gained without getting it from actual Ps?

36. Discuss issues raised by the ethical guidelines on protecting Ps from harm.

37. By what two main means are ethical conduct controlled?

38. What limitations do ethical guidelines have?

39. Is the cost-benefit argument valid?

40. Compare different countries' psychological ethical guidelines.