Conformity (psychology)
From Freepedia
In psychology, conformity is the degree to which members of a group will change their behavior, views and attitudes to fit the views of the group. The group can influence members via unconscious processes or via overt social pressure on individuals.
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Famous experiments in conformity
- Muzafer Sherif`s light dot experiment, which measured to what extent a participant, when asked to solve a difficult problem, would compare - and adapt - his answer to that his fellow participants (a kind of conformity called informational social influence);
- the Asch conformity experiments of Solomon Asch, whose development of the peer pressure theory aided greatly in the modern disciplines of psychology;
- the Milgram experiment of Stanley Milgram, which set out to measure the willingness of a participant to obey instructions from authority, even when the instructions (in this case, to 'torture' others by means of electric shocks) conflicted with the participant's personal conscience. :P
Subtypes
Herbert Kelman identified three subtypes of conformity:
- compliance - conforming only publicly, but keeping one's own views in private
- identification - conforming while a group member, publicly and privately, but not after leaving the group
- internalization - comforming publicly and privately, during and after group membership
Sociologists believe that
- compliance is conformity that is usually a result of a direct order,
- while internalization is conformity that comes from one's total and utter belief in his act.
Another distinction can be made between
- informational conformity (or informational social influence) - occurs when one turns to the members of his group to obtain information on an ambiguous siuation (e.g. solving a difficult math problem, deciding where to go to escape a fire)
- normative conformity (or normative social influence)- occurs when one conforms to be liked or accepted by the members of the group
See also
groupthink, mimetism, peer pressure
References
- Kelman, H. (1958). Compliance, identification, and internalization: three processes of attitude change. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 2, 31-60.
- Aronson, E.; Wilson, T. and Akert, R. Social psychology
