意見の変化に影響する集団規準効果の研究

抄録

Purpose : The aim of this study was to determine the effects of group norm upon the change of opinions in the group, namely to investigate the attitude of conformity to group norm of the members of the group.
Subjects : 12 experimental groups and 2 control groups were established. The experimental groups were divided into groups composed of five or ten or thirty members and they were, at the same time, vote groups or discussion groups, and intimate groups or unknown groups. The situation of each group was shown in Table I. (See the text)
Procedure : 1) Before the decision of group norm was established, all the subjects in each group were asked to fill the questionnaire made up of ten questions (opinions). This was to measure how the subjects evaluated “Group Activities in Students”.
2) In the discussion groups, each of them was asked to discuss and evaluate opinions in the above-mentioned questionnaire and to make final group decision in regard to the desirable opinion for each item about the group activities. And, after that, each member was asked to fill the same questionnaire again.
3) In the vote groups, the results of questionnaire were reported to each group and then the members were asked to fill the questionnaire again.
4) In the control groups the members were asked to fill the questionnaire again on the following day.
5) By this procedure, the writer examined the opinion change in each group which was to be found between the two questionnaires of the same type.
Results : 1) There were significant differences in the opinion change between control group and experimental group, namely the members of experimental groups changed their opinions more conformably to the group norm than those of the control groups.
2) The amount of conformity to the group norm varied with the following factors :
Group size : 10 members group>30 members group>5 members group
Group cohesiveness : Intimate group>Unknown group
Norm decision : Discussion group>Vote group.