Conformity Examples

6. An example of a study of conformity is the beans-in-the-jar experiment. In this study participants estimated the amount of beans in a jar. The experiment had three steps. First, the participants estimated individually. Second, they estimated in groups. Third, they estimated individually (Jenness 1932). The study found that during the third step participants shifted their estimate to be closer the estimate of the group. This study is an example of conformity because the changes in the third step are the result of conformity to the group of the second step. Furthermore, even though the third step occurred individually the participants were still demonstrating conformity to the group’s estimate even though the group was not present. The participants
of this study were university students and therefore the participants are not a statistically representative sample.
7. A study on the social identity theory would be “basking in reflected glory” by Cialdini et al. (1976), social identity theory is when in group we define ourselves in terms of our group members and seek to have our group valued positively relative to other fellow groups. In this study they examined what the researchers referred to as “basking in reflected glory” which is the tendency individuals have to associate themselves with successful other members of the group publicly. They took fans from prestigious football universities where they had them observe student clothing and other accessories on a Monday after a big football game occurred. The found that the fans tended to wear more apparel associating themselves with their own university when their team won compared to when they lost. Then also they called the participants back and interviewed them about the performance of their schools football team after a game. Then Cialdini and others found that the students more likely to use the pronoun “we” when their team won rather than when their team lost people tended to use the word “they” more. This shows that people want a positive social identity and when an identity is influenced by being a part of the group, people are more positive towards things the group they belong to represents. Also, displays that being a member of a certain group affects the behavior of an individual.

8.
A gender and culture role study example is the survey with adjectives. This study examined how gender roles might vary amongst different cultures. Using a survey with three hundred adjectives was distributed to college students in twenty-seven countries. These participants were instructed to assigned which adjectives where more closely associated with males and which were more closely associated with females. The study found that the participants from the twenty-seven countries came to similar conclusions of which adjectives were more closely associated with each gender (Williams & Best 1990). The study has low generalizability as the participants were university students and therefore are not statistically representative of the twenty-seven populations studied. As an etic study this study was culturally valid however the vast variances between the twenty-seven countries make it difficult to assess the differences and similarities of these countries’ cultures that may have had an effect on the data
set.
9. A proximity study is an example of a study on the socio-cultural factors of attraction. This study examined the relationship between proximity and marriage. This study calculated the distances of the married couples’ respective residences. The addresses of the residences were obtained from five thousand consecutive marriage licenses. This study concluded that there was a statistical correlation between proximity and marriage. Of the five thousand marriage licenses, one third lived within five blocks of the spouse. Additionally, the percentage of married couples decreased as the distance between the two increased (Bossard 1932). This study demonstrates a relationship between attraction and proximity. The study was conducted in Chicago and the results are therefore difficult to generalize to other locations. As a result, this study only provides information about the role of proximity and marriage in Chicago.
10.
An example of a schema theory study is one that examines the schema of memory. This study examined how cultural and social factors influence schemas and its affect on the distortion of memory. The participants of this study read a Native American folk tale, titled: The War of the Ghosts. The participants’ memory of the story was tested using repeated reproduction and serial reproduction. The participants were instructed to recall the story six or seven times over several retention intervals. This study concluded that both methods resulted in similar effectiveness, for instance, as the number of reproductions increased the story length decreased and specifics became more general (Bartlett 1932). The participants were of an English speaking background with limited familiarity with the Native American folk tale. This unfamiliarity could have affected the participants’ ability to recall and retain the
story.