Group conformity is defined as the way people change their behavior or character when influenced by other people or by a certain social environment. A basic example of it will be a teenager whom friends are all smirking a cigarette, fear of not being part of the group our teenager will at his turn light a cigarette. Conformity in a group is in way copying what other members are doing to integrate the group, one can act totally out of character just for the group conformity. In this essay we will analyze how people are affected by group conformity and what kind of changes some are willing to make in their characters or behavior. We will also analyze how can group conformity be expressed in our society. Finally we will analyze what statistics and scientific research is telling us about group conformity.
Group conformity can be
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The difference between these two is that while informational conformity is when an individual is trying to find help and answers and is put in a situation where he or she does not know how to react, normative conformity happens when somebody deeply wants to be part of a group or society and is willing to make all the necessary changes to adapt. The latter will most likely act our of fear, the same fear we were talking about earlier, of failing to adapt to a group or society, those individuals are willingly prepared for anything to be accepted and be considered fully part of the group. On the other hand with informative conformity the individual is usually so puzzled of the whole situation just try to adapt and mimic the social norms to feel more comfortable. These two types of conformity also have different effects on its subjects, through informational conformity individuals implicitly adapt with the normal views and behaviors while with normative conformity, the changes are easy to be seen in the person character or just way of
Conformity is a concept that has been heavily researched in the field of social psychology. Conformity is defined as a change in behavior, beliefs, and attitudes due to group pressure perceived as real (encompassing the presence of others) or imagined (encompassing the pressure of social standards) (Myers, 2010, p. 192). The concept of conformity is a powerful influence on the tendency for people to arrange their thoughts, perspectives, and ideas with others, especially when in a group. This takes away from a person’s individuality because they want to feel accepted by others and therefore, a person will accomplish this basic need of approval through conforming.
Conformity: “Agreement between an individual's behavior and a group's standards or expectations. A conformist is one who follows the majority's desires or standards.”Conformity is not always necessarily a bad thing, but can be when followed excessively. For instance, can you imagine what this world would be if everyone looked, dressed, talked, walked, and acted the exact same. This is what life is like at Mica High, and this paper analyzes the negative aspects, and consequences of conformity in Stargirl.
Have you ever known someone that follows your every move, not literally following, but mimicking your decisions? For example a friend in High School who constantly dresses like you or wants to look like you. Well, that person would be a conformist. Have you ever had big plans for your life, but because your whole family went to Med School you feel that you have to also, so you do? That would be acting as a conformist. Conformity is a process by which a person’s attitudes and beliefs become influenced by other people. Peer pressure is an example that often occurs quite openly. It can also be an occurrence that that takes place over several years. These people that we call conformists are often called “sheep”, because sheep and conformists express
Have you ever imagined living in a world where everyone is the same? A famous example of conformity is in 1919, when Hitler rose to power in Germany. The website “History.com” says, “Hitler’s “final solution”–now known as the Holocaust–came to fruition under the cover of world war, with mass killing centers constructed in the concentration camps of occupied Poland.” Hitler killed “imperfect” people in concentration camps. Being the same is not a good thing because it prevents you from being your own person.
There are many ways to be a non-conformist in today’s world. Most people think that a non-conformist is someone who has extreme views or does drastic things. A major example is in religion; the current “popular” religion is either Muslim or Atheism, or even no religion at all. Many people reject Christianity because it is considered “unpopular” and there might be bad connotations associated to that name to some people. Although doing something radical like this is the case sometimes, many things we do today are considered non-conformist. Becoming a vegetarian, driving a hybrid car, or owning a tiny house are still non-conformist ideas that many people practice.
In order to conform his individuality and to develop his personality the individual needs to associate himself with a certain group. This association does not necessarily implicate that the individual will follow the group attitudes or even if he will abide the group's norms, it simply means that the individual has reference or a set of directives that will guide him through his life based on the characteristcs of the group that he identifies himself with. Therefore, social groups could take the form of a copious amont of disparate institutions, such as family, school friends, soccer team supporters or a group of rock band fans. It does not matter the nature of the group or if the level of obeyance of the individual towards the group, individuals seek mainly to assit them to develop their character and their social personality.
The discussion of norms and the rules a society sets brings to question those actions that are considered to be outliers. The subject of nonconformity is more than a mere steer-away from society, but rather a full deviation from the expectations and actions people are typically used to seeing around them. Members of a society can deviate from cultural norms in two different situations. Most might think that when one commits a crime, they are exemplifying the meaning of deviance. Violating formal laws are those deviant behaviors considered to be a crime. We are placed into situations that enable our actions. Sometimes we rely on human nature to establish the decisions we make. We come across an example of moral relativism in a situational context. A story was told about a plane crash that led the survivors to eat the flesh of those who died after they realized they would be stranded for a while. A contrasting story is told about an individual, Jeffery Dahmer, who would lure people into his apartment and would kill them to cook and consume their flesh. The context and the situation that people are in changes the view of whether or not something is considered deviance. In both situations, the flesh of humans was being eaten, but only one situation is seen as something that was necessary for survival. Anderson and Taylor (2013), mention that the nature of deviance does not only derive from the personality of a person and the action they commit but also factors in a significant amount of the social structure they belong to.
Earlier this semester, some friends and I were talking loudly and before we were about to step outside we saw other Midshipmen were standing at attention. Though we did not directly hear colors, we recognized from the people around us that we should also come to attention. Conformity in this case was good because if we did not come to attention then it could have been a sign of disrespect even if it was not intentional. Though there is no way to make this example “better,” I think conformity in situations outside of this example can cause people to lose their individuality. Sometimes people are scared to be different, and because of that, they try to do what is normal.
Informational Influence and Normative Influence are both categorized under conformity in sociology. Informational is basically when we conform to others behavior because we believe it provides information about reality. It is often when we care about getting the right answer and trying to be rational. It also deals with the "Maybe they know something I don't know" phenomenon. An example, could be choosing to eat at a busier restaurant opposed to the empty one, or imitating the locals when outside your country. In contrast, Normative Influence is when we conform to others behavior because they expect us to. This is when we believe conforming may have positive consequences, such as approval or the enhancement of our reputation, or when we believe not conforming may have negative consequences, such as disapproval or punishment. An example of Normative Influence is laughing at a joke you don't get, or agreeing with an opinion you believe in others.
Conformity makes us want to be in a group or want to fit in, like if hobo needs some money, no one is going to get him money until someone breaks that wall of conformity and give him money, then more people will do it because someone else did it. Historical, humans have stayed in groups for numbers of reasons food, safety, and a home to say in. Society should promote nonconformity because as humans we can be more productive and live more harmoniously. Conformity can have a negative effect on humans.This illustrates that conformity can affect humans and how they interact and act in a social environment.Another example, in a article “Friends' Pictures on
Conformity is when your asked to do something you don’t agree with but you do it anyway for a reward or social gain, however, it is not always the right decision. Firstly, people listen to others and follow their directions not necessarily because it’s what they agree with most of the time but it’s what they have to do in order to be liked by that person. For example, high schoolers will tend to pick classes that their friends are picking in order to be with them and to not lose that friendship or liking they receive from that person. They do the same extracurricular activities that are popular amongst their friends to fit in regardless of how they feel towards it. Secondly, our parents influence many of our decisions but at some point in our
Group conformity is a kind of social impact, including an adjustment in conviction or conduct keeping in mind the end goal to fit in with a gathering. This change can happen because of genuine or envisioned gathering weight.
Conformity, as defined by Simply Psychology, is “a type of social influence involving a change in belief or behavior in order to fit in with a group”. The term conformity is a term that’s common place in the psychology community because of how applicable the idea is to the common person and their actions. Conformity can be caused by a myriad of different things, some of which being because the individual desires to either fit in with the majority of the group or because they genuinely feel the popular within the group is the correct one. Both of these phenomena are known as social normative and social informative influence respectively. If we go further into detail, social normative influence is caused by real and imagined group pressure. For example, if one were to stop reading a certain book series because their classmate viewed it as immature and tacky that would be conformity in response to real group pressure.
Conformity is the act of matching attitudes, beliefs and behaviours to group norms. Factors that has an effect on conformity can be culture, age, gender or larger group size. Zimbardo, Johnson, & Hamilton (2014) explained that culture includes language, beliefs, customs, values and traditions. They mentioned that the social and cultural situation in which the person is rooted to can sometimes be the strongest factor that influences behaviour. For example, some culture places importance on punctuality which in turn influences behaviour, such as procrastination or lack of thereof. Indeed, one of the psychology perspective that psychologists focus on is sociocultural perspective, whereby social and cross-cultural psychologists have been studying how these social processes differ from one culture to another.
“Every person, society, culture, and environment is located in a period of time and is changing with time” . Consequently, it is my belief that patterns of both normative and informational conformity have similarly changed through time, in response to the change in the surrounding environment, culture, and society. In my opinion, these changes have subsequently resulted in higher rates of conformity in today’s society, partially due to the rise of social media in our daily lives. To understand the nature of this change, the context and history of social conformity must be addressed. Past studies on conformity and nonconformity establish such a history. Through analysing the Solomon Asch conformity experiment of 1951, I am provided with such a basis to judge the extent which conformity has changed through time.