...According to Leon Mann, conformity means "yielding to group pressures". Everyone is a member of one group oranother and everyone expects members of these groups to behave in certain ways. If you are a member of an identifiable group you are expected to behave appropriately to it. If you don"t confirm and behave appropriately you are likely to be rejected by the group. Like stereotypes, conforming and expecting others to conform maintains cognitive balance. There are several kinds of conformity. Many studies of conformity took place in the 1950"s which led Kelman to distinguish between compliance, internalisation and identification. Compliance is the type of conformity where the subject goes along with the group view, but privately disagrees with it. Internalisation is where the subject comes to accept, and eventually believes in the group view. Identification is where the subject accepts and believes the group view, because he or she wants to become associated with the group. Leon Mann identifies normative conformity which occurs when direct group pressure forces the individual to yield under the threat of rejection or the promise of reward. This can occur only if someone wants to be a member of the group or the groups attitudes or behaviour are important to the individual in some way. Apart from normative conformity there is informational conformity which occurs where the situation is vague or ambiguous and because the person is uncertain he or...
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...Conformity and Self Efficacy Have you ever been at a social gathering and acted in a particular way in order to fit in? This is called conformity; according to professor McAuliff, “it means a change in behaviors or beliefs due to real or imagined group pressure.” Conformity occurs all the time, whether we are aware of it or not. There are three forms of conformity. The first form is compliance, the second form is obedience, and last but certainly not least, the third form is acceptance. This subject matter relates to me because these three types of conformity have happened to me on numerous occasions; each time with a lack of awareness. The first type of conformity is compliance, this being defined as when a person is publicly agreeing with...
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...Our findings show that people in our study were far less likely to conform than we had originally expected. There are a few key reasons why we may not have seen as much conformity as Asch’s original experiment. Firstly, in our current society, originality and individualism are more valued. These have become an important trait that people value. Between the 1960’s and 2011, individualistic practices and values have increased 12 percent around the globe. In specific, the Western nations have been moving away from ideas that emphasize families values and fitting in, and moving towards more individualistic values such as personal choice, self-expression and independence (DePaulo). In school, we are taught to be confident in our answers, despite...
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...“Lead or Follow” Should I conform? Should I rebel? This has and always will be, a constant battle struggled individually, or as a society. A certain amount of conformity needs to exist in life in order to avoid disorder. This is the reason we have laws. Take those laws, rules, control, or even expectations, to an extreme, and some form of rebellion is probable. Struggle with these opposites, and you have a catalyst for war, or perhaps, being fired from a job. Literature represents life, and this theme can be found at the root of many literary works. “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, reflects blind conformity by the villagers with a hint of rebellion. Every June 27th the lottery takes place; the prize for winning is death. The villagers believe sacrificing one of their own will ensure a good harvest. The villagers are so blasé about the lottery it is said “the whole lottery took less than two hours, so it could begin at ten o’clock in the morning and still be through in time to allow the villagers to get home for noon dinner” (339/1). We get our first sense of possible rebellion when Mr. Adams says, “over in the north village they’re talking of giving up the lottery” (342/31) Mrs. Adams adds, some villages have already given it up. Old Man Warner’s retort is, “Pack of crazy fools…Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon. First thing you know, we’d all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns,” (342/32) summing up the villagers belief in the continued need of this tradition....
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...through his writing. One of the main themes in his piece is the idea of conformity. There are so many situations that people conform in, some of which include; trying to fit in, not knowing what is the right thing to do, and often time people conform due to fear. Fear is something that can cause you to make both good and bad decisions. In The Crucible, fear is one of the main reasons for conformity, there are many reasons for why this happens and all of those are explained in the play. While depending on the situation while conform, or choose not to conform, based on the conditions they are in. In some situations we will often accuse others of actions they did not do in order...
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...Conformity and School Environments conformity effects school environment. It also changes people. It makes people follow others choices. Conformity also brings negative attention to others. It also makes people feel different. It makes people do what they do not want to. By changing it also starts new behaviours. Like being mean to others. Also so, that they can get along with others. People want to conform, because they want experience new things. Conformity starts new traditions. A new way of fashion styles being. If that person was always a covered person, so that person would start to show body parts just like the others do. A new style of talking also beings. They want to be the same as the rest. People choose what they want to change...
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...Rebellion or Conformity? These two words both totally opposites, one meaning to obey or agree with something and the other, open opposition toward a person or group in authority. These two choices are an evaluation throughout life, an individual is face with the conflict which he or she can adapt to, rebel against, move beyond, or conform to. People are usually labelled as a, conformist or a rebel. A conformist usually develop the tendency to conform within small groups or/and society, from subtle unconscious influences, or direct and overt social pressure. People often confine to conform from a desire for a sense of security without the risk of social rejection from peers. Whereas a rebel, refuse to obey rules or accept ‘normal’ standards of certain behavior or looks, usually motivated by a sense of freedom by self – determination aimed to revolutionize. Nonetheless the act of conformity and being rebellious can have its bad and good effects depending on the situation. A simple example of ‘good’ in conformity like driving on the correct side of the road to prevent confusion and accidents can be seen as a beneficial conformity. Positive conforming like this, allows one to learn and adopt appropriate behaviors required to relate and develop correctly within a society without being perceive as seclusion. There’s also ‘good’ in the act of rebellion as it can be seen in history during the Third Servile War (1098-71 BC), when Spartacus along with the slaves rebelled against the...
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...The Power of Conformity Conformity refers to an individual’s behavior that is performed because of group pressure, even though that pressure might not involve a direct request. Many people want to think that they are conformist enough so that they are not looked upon as strange to others and nonconformist enough to demonstrate that they are capable of thinking by themselves. For many years, psychologists have been interested in human conformity. Usually when people are in groups, they behave according to how those in the group behave. That indicates that conformity can affect a person’s behavior and make a person do things that may be against their ethics, attitudes, and morals. The study of conformity was first studied in the 1950s by Solomon Asch. His experiments were very important to the study of conformity. Asch wanted to find out how conformity could influence behavior. He did not want to focus on the general concepts like ethics, morals, attitudes, and belief systems. Instead, he focused on a more obvious concept which was perceptional conformity. Since he performed the experiment on a simple task, he was able to study conformity in a controlled environment. Asch wanted to apply group pressure to the experiment so he could manipulate a person’s behavior. For the experiment, he made three pairs of cards with three different lengths of vertical lines on one side. On the other side, there was a single line that was the same length ... Conformity and Obedience in Society...
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...Someone once said, “Conformity means doing what everyone else is doing, regardless of what is right. Morality means doing what is right, regardless of what everyone else is doing” (Unknown). Individuals are lead to believe that when an unpredictable situation may arise, they will stick to their morals and not be influenced by the people within society. Within a society, many individuals become too afraid to stick to their own morals and therefore result in following what everyone else does. Throughout Mark Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a young boy, Huck Finn, begins his adventure, with a slave named Jim, leaving a place where many people around have the intentions to “civilize” him. On his journey, Huck is faced with a...
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...Andrea Marshall Kim Palmore English 1B 30 May 2012 Conformity: A Concealed Identity Society is made up of predominately heterosexual people. Our instincts tell us in order to repopulate the world; a man and a woman must reproduce offspring. This is considered to be a social norm; mankind’s very survival depends on it. More recently, society has given people the ability to express themselves in ways they never thought possible. The American Gay Rights Movement in 1924 sparked animosity throughout the nation creating discrimination toward the gay community. This movement brought about significant change; unfortunately, not all people were willing to accept it. People’s resistance to change is usually based on ignorance or the desire to conform in an attempt to avoid becoming an outcast. In the novel, Stone Butch Blues, written by Leslie Feinberg, Jess Goldberg becomes an outcast because of her resistance to conformity. Since Jess was brought up in a straight environment, she grew up confused, without the understanding of her true nature. Her parents rejected her differences due to the fact that they were so focused on society’s view of the social norm. Having no one to confide in, Jess was forced to set out on her own to find people she could connect with and help her to explore identity. This book demonstrates both society’s demand for conformity and the pressures that queer people face in an unjust world; Jess’ success in battling this social pressure inspires people to...
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...Emily Dickinson believes that conformity limits one’s ability. She has written poems about societies’ views on conformity and the containment society has on different ideas and people. She even gives examples of this by explaining how society expected women to act as a wife. Through her poems, Emily Dickinson portrayed her views of conformity through the explanation of domesticated housewives in “She Rose to His Requirement” and the views of conflicting new ideas in society in “Much Madness is Divinest Sense.” “She Rose to His Requirement” explores what women during Emily Dickinson’s time had gone through. As the title suggests, women were expected to become a domesticated housewife to their husband. The first stanza describes that these housewives have to give up everything for the husband, “to take the honorable Work / Of Woman, and of Wife“(line 3-4). The “honorable work” Dickinson writes about is that women were relied upon to be in charge of the house. The ironic tone sets up the following stanza. It talks about everything a woman gives up when she becomes a wife. The wife loses things, “Of Amplitude, or Awe – / Or first Prospective – Or the Gold” (6-7). She loses her potential of becoming a great person when she decides to marry. She is also not given the chance to experience new things or even get a job for herself. The last stanza expresses the wasted potential of the wife. Dickinson compares a wife’s potential to a pearl that, “lay unmentioned… But only to Himself”...
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...Conformity and Obedience in the 20th Century The desire to be accepted and belong to a group is an undeniable human need. But how does this need affect an individual? Social psychologists have conducted numerous experiments and concluded that, through various forms of social influence, groups can change their members' thoughts, feelings, and behavior. In her essay "Group Minds," Doris Lessing discusses our paradoxical ability to call ourselves individuals and our inability to realize that groups define and influence us. We, as humans, hold individualism in the highest regard yet fail to realize that groups diminish our individuality. Lessing writes, "when we're in a group, we tend to think as that group does... but we also find our thinking changing because we belong to a group" (p. 334). Groups have the tendency to generate norms, or standards for behavior in certain situations. Not following these norms can make you stand out and, therefore, groups have the ability to influence our thoughts and actions in ways that are consistent with the groups'. Lessing's essay helps set the context to understand the experiments that social psychologists Solomon Asch, Stanley Milgram and Philip Zimbardo conducted to explain conformity and obedience. Solomon Asch's experiment in "Opinions and Social Pressure" studied a subject's ability to yield to social pressure when placed within a group of strangers. His research helped illustrate how groups encourage...
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...several social psychological concepts. The one concept that stood out to me the most during this time was our chapters and discussions about conformity. Conformity is when a person relents their own beliefs or actions to satisfy those surrounding them. In society, human beings feel forced to change their opinions and judgements in order to fit in and not be an outsider. This type of behavior can be seen in numerous environments from one’s own house hold to their everyday social life with friends. I recently started a show called Thirteen Reasons Why, which shows how conformity can end up ending a person’s life. Thirteen Reasons Why was the most captivating, brutally authentic show I have seen in a while. Within the shows context there was no alleviating, it was straightforward, unaltered and honest. It showed how student, especially high school students, societies struggle with their experiences during their time in and out of school. This show is surrounded by two High School students, Clay Jensen and Hannah Baker who inevitably committed suicide. However, before she died she recorded 13 tapes, connecting her death to thirteen different students that attend the same school. Hannah is certain to make sure that the thirteenth people know that she left behind an ally who plans to release the tapes if they do not follow as...
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...for people in Fahrenheit 451. Fahrenheit 451 is book set in the future in an unknown country. The government has censored material so much that most of society conform and become oblivious to what the government has done. Although there is a presence of individuality in Fahrenheit 451, the presence of conformity is more prevalent. Conformity is when a person complies with rules, regulations, and social normalities. Individuality is a quality or character that makes a person different from others. Through the use of individuals, such as Clarisse and Mildred; the government; and media and technology Fahrenheit 451 highlights the key elements of both individuality and conformity....
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...The famous civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemy but the silence of our friends.” This seems very relevant to what our society has been in the past as well as how it is in the present. As history depicts, conformity has allowed many actions and events that would be frowned upon, with very few challenging, condemning, or actively speaking out against it. For example, take a look at the many genocides that have been allowed to occur. When a person or group of authority establishes an idea, very seldom do people challenge to defy or deter. Literature, which lives forever as a critique of our past mistakes and errors, reveals the negative consequences of our conforming...
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