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Jenness's Theory Of Conformity Essay

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Jenness (1932) found that when experiment participants carried out the task in a group, they reported estimates of roughly same value even though they had previously quoted different estimates as individuals. Jenness’ study revealed the impact of majority influence, and established a direct correlation between a group influence on an individual’s behaviour and beliefs especially when participants are uncertain about the actual number of beans in the jar.
Another classical study on conformity was based on finding out how social norms are developed in social groups and how the influences of these norms when developed impact on an individual’s behaviour. The Autokinetic phenomenon study of Sherif (1937) according to Baron et al. (2008, p.277), illustrated vividly the impact of private acceptance of social influence. The Autokinetic phenomenon which was a laboratory experiment, involved placing people in a completely dark room, whilst exposing them to a single stationary point of light projected onto a screen, appearing to move, even though the light was still (giving a visual illusion).
Sherif (1937) tested individual participant’s estimate on how far the light had moved and observed that their estimates varied considerably. When participants were then tested in groups of three whose composition had been manipulated by putting together two …show more content…

(1973) used his research based on a mock prison which he set up at the basement of the Stanford University psychology building to investigate whether participants (guards and prisoners) all paid volunteers, would behave in real terms like real prison guard and real prisoners and in essence conform to the norms attached to these roles. This research was keen in determining whether the brutality exhibited by some prison guards was due to their sadistic personalities (dispositional) or related to the prison environment

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