Describe and Evaluate One Piece of Research Into Conformity or Compliance. What Factors May Account for the Results of this Research?

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Describe and Evaluate One Piece of Research Into Conformity or Compliance. What Factors May Account for the Results of this Research?

The concept of compliance is similar to conformity, yet slightly different. For compliance to occur within groups, one must adapt his/her actions to another's wishes or rules. A person that conforms must have a disposition that allows him/her to yield to others. Requests for and acts of compliance occur in everyone's lives. Simply asking someone to perform a task is a request for compliance. The most effective method to gain compliance is through rational persuasion and inspiration. Although this person is asking another to perform a task, he/she is not asking the person to agree or disagree with the task in question. The person requesting the performance of the task is not necessarily attempting to change the other's beliefs, but simply needs or wants the task to be performed. This notion is what sets conformity and compliance apart. The central aspect of conformity is that the person being influenced by the group changes his/her attitudes and/or beliefs while the main point of compliance is the achievement of some specified task.
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Research on the topic of conformity began in 1951, with Solomon Asch. Asch wanted to investigate whether people could be influenced by what other people did. He did this in a very simple way by having a single subject make a very simple decision. Normally, this would be a very simple task, but the single subject found him/herself outnumbered by 7 other people who deliberately make the incorrect choice.

Asch was interested in what the eighth member of the group (the subject) would do when faced with seven other group members who clearly chose the wrong option. ...

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