introduction Conformity is the process of understanding to majority influence and is defined by David Myers (1991) as a change in behavior or belief a result of real or imagined group pressure Conformity is one kind of psychology behavior .The behavior often happened in the group .Also the behavior always happen in the people life or study !There are 3 types response to social influence in the psychology zone .first is compliance ,scorned one is identification ,last one is internalization .Compliance is publicly conforming to the behavior or views of others in a group but privately maintaining one’s own views.For example:when the personal with a group of friends who support a particular basketball team ,the personal might not reveal that you support a different one ,even if asked directly .Identification is adopting the views of or behavior of a group both public and privately cause you value membership of that group .For example:when the people from long away move to the university ,they may begin to question the life style ,they had previously taken for granted .New students often enthusiastically adopt the dress and behave again aways young student do this .internalization is a conversion or true change of private views to match these of the group .For example :a person seating for some greater meaning to life maybe influenced to convert to a religious faith if the member of that faith seem able to provide the answers being searched for There are two reason can explain why people conform .First one is normative social influence and information social influence . Normative social influence is one kind of type for social influence leading conformity ,people think that oth... ... middle of paper ... ...e and what level they confirm .they also want to check how quickly people conform and to what level to do there job. Zimbardo just want to see that in american prison the brutality was due to the guards or the prisoner For this they have made up a artificial jail, and than have hired some people to act as a prisnor and than they have have others that were like jailed for some days . than they guards started usings punishment to the people, which were in jail. and the punishment was to get worse each day, zimbado just want to see that to want level the hired guards conform. so that they get some information. the prisonors thought that they were in real jail. the result was normative influence. because the prisnors want to leave there job because to the punishment was getting worst each day, so the zimbardo found out that at certain level every people conform.
Although controversial, and at times unethical, Zimbardo’s study found that an individual would easily conform to their assigned social role. The experiment displays that when an individual is confronted with a powerful figure of authority, they resort to a positing of submission, resulting in an increased level of obedience. Zimbardo’s explanation for the ‘prisoners’ “final submission” was credited to the concept of “deindividuation”, meaning the dehumanizing (such as being strip searched and being assigned and referred to as a number) that the ’prisoners’ went through (McLeod, 2008). This caused them to “become so immersed in the norms of the group that you lose your sense of identity and personal responsibility” (McLeod, 2008). The prisoners obedience to the guards was due to their complete submersion into prison life. They disconnected from the person they were before the experiment, doing anything they could, including complete submission, in order to show
Subjects became so entranced in these roles that the guards started to behave as if they really were the guards of a true prison. Zimbardo had told them to think of themselves in this way and it led to the guards mentally abusing the prisoners with their cruel and degrading routines. In Romesh Ra...
The definition of conformity is the compliance with social standards and laws in a particular culture, environment, society and time. If this occurs the individual changes their attitudes, beliefs or actions to align more holistically with those in the surrounding groups and environment, as a result of real or perceived group pressure. This is ultimately a direct result of the power which a group has over the individual. There are two types of conformity, normative conformity, and informational conformity. The motivation behind normative conformity is the desire to be liked and accepted in society. This is most widely known as peer pressure. For example, a student begins smoking because their peers
...at person’s belief but is carried out to achieve rewards or to avoid punishment (Winner 2011:287). Conformity is behaviour that blends with the behaviour of the majority of the group needed to function effectively in a large group (Winner 2011:290). Conditioning the members of a cult is an effective way to change attitudes of the members to ones that are approved by the cult’s social standards and ideas.
Conformity is something like changing a behaviour or belief to fit in with a crowd or group. There are two studies which support conformity and one of the studies that support this concept is the Solomon Asch study conducted in 1951 to see if a social pressure from a group in the majority could affect someone to conform. The other study which supports conformity is the 1969 Moscovici Study in which Serge Moscovici wanted to see if a group of the minority could make the majority give an incorrect answer in a colour slide test.
First of all, the data was skewed from the start of the operation. Zimbardo was guilty of selection bias. As the newspaper advertisement provided in Source A suggests, Zimbardo sought male students to participate in his “psychological study of prison life”. This advertisement contributed to the experiment’s invalidity by disclosing
(Myers, 651) It is the result of the human need and desire to fit in and not stray from societal standards. After Solomon Asch’s experiments, it became evident that there was a certain discomfort affiliated with being outside of the group’s popular idea that causes the uncomfortable person to conform to the ideas of the group. This is more likely if the group has more than three people, they are unanimous, and they are admired by the conforming person. Social influence is also a contributing factor as to why people conform. Roles and norms are set out for society and make it hard for people to veer from them. The normative social influence causes people to follow these norms to avoid their drastic fear of being left out. (Myers, 653) Another type of social influence would be the informational social influence, which results in people adopting others’ opinions and beliefs of the world around them. These two influences show the ominous presence of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. In order to satisfy a person’s higher level needs, such as self-actualization and esteem, the lower level needs must first be met, such as hunger and safety. (Myers, 330) A low level need is belongingness. People want to feel like they belong and feel loved in order to avoid isolation. This desire is one factor that directly causes conformity. In order to avoid being left out and lonely, a person willingly accepts another person’s opinions and thoughts even if they are the opposite of their own or if they know they are wrong. Conformity is due to the person being in an unfamiliar situation, being ignorant on the topic, wanting to impress and be liked by the members of the group, and being willing to conform their opinion on themselves. (Zimbardo, 2006) To avoid conformity, the person must identify what their actual
All participants had an equal chance of becoming either prisoner or prison guard. Within a few hours of the experiment beginning, both prisoners and prison guards began enacting into their specific roles. Prison guards took away all of the prisoners individuality and harassed them. They felt a true sense of power over the prisoners. As the prisoners became more and more obedient to their authority figures, the prison guards became more and more harsh. It was unfortunate to see how contempt the prison guards truly were watching the prisoners act so subordinate. After a couple days, a few prisoners had to be released as they were expressing unhealthy amounts of stress and anger. Zimbardo ended the experiment early for this reason. Milgrim and Zimbardo had similar goals in terms of what they were researching. While Milgrim was solely researching levels of obedience of an authority figure, Zimbardo was seeing how prisoners would obey the prison guards as well as how the prison guards would intern treat the prisoners. In terms of scientific method, both experiments asked a question, did necessary background research, constructed a hypothesis, tested their hypothesis by executing an experiment, analyzed data and came to a
Social influence is the process whereby attitudes and behaviour are influenced by the real or implied presence of other people (Hogg & Vaughan, 2011). There are three types of social influence compliance, obedience, and conformity. This essay will focus on conformity and obedience. These issues will be examined by considering classic studies and contemporary implications.
Were the roles predetermined for both guards and prisoners by manipulation? Was the environment designed to encourage and require them to act in a certain way? Did the subjects feel the sense of being watched encouraged them to perform in a certain way? Did Zimbardo himself carry the power because he acted as the warden? Was the psychological test a key factor in choosing who would perform what, and how? Were the findings about a prison setting only or about life in general? If it was about prisoners and guards, I do not believe it would be that easy for individuals to conform so quickly unless they already harbored those types of feelings. If it was about life in general, history shows us that Hilter, David Koresh, Warren Jeffs, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffery Dahmer, Jim Jones and Charles Manson had evil within them way before they changed the lives of so many people in the worse way. I am sure some would say these individuals did have some position of power. Power? No! Manipulation? Yes. If someone is already dealing with aggressiveness, authoritarianism, narcissism, social dominance, diminished empathy, and antisocial behavior, being in a position of manipulation could give them the excuse or desire to feed off those negative
The most basic concept in social psychology is conformity. Conformity is the idea that behaviour or a belief is changed in order to follow, or conform, to what is considered the “norm.” One of the oldest experiments to support this notion was conducted in 1935 by Muzafer Sherif (Song, Ma, Wu, Li, 2012 p. 1366). There are two different types of
Subjects became so entranced in these roles that the guards started to behave as if they really were the guards of a true prison. Zimbardo had told them to think of themselves in this way and it led to the guards mentally abusing the prisoners with their cruel and degrading ro...
Conformity is defined as behavior in accordance with socially accepted conventions or standards. This is not a good or bad thing, this just is. It exists as a compliment to earlier humans congregating into larger groups, using agriculture and domestication to create sustenance. Also, conformity is essential for life. We need people to share the same ideas, ideologies and a way of thinking in order to work efficiently and effectively. There many examples that exist like, at work or in your house and even within yourself. Sigmund Freud has explained the phenomena of group psychology in a piece titled, Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego. Using Freud’s theory of conformity I will explain the self, what we call “me”,and its different constituents using The Principles of Psychology by
The definition of conformity is the compliance with social standards and laws in a particular culture, environment, society and time. Conformity happens when a person changes their attitudes, beliefs or actions to align more closely with those in the surrounding groups and environment, as a result of real or perceived group pressure. There are 2 types of conformity, normative conformity, and informational conformity. Normative conformity is conformity that occurs because of the desire to be liked and accepted, this is most widely known as peer pressure. For example, a student begins smoking because their peers are smoking, and feels the need to do this in order to gain acceptance. Informational conformity,
Elliot Aronson (2012) provides a definition of conformity, two social psychological processes that underlie a conformity and cited examples of reasons why people conform in the book, The Social Animal. Aronson (2012) defines a conformity as “a change in a person’s behavior or opinion as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people” (p.19). In accordance with Aronson’s (2012) definition of conformity, people do conform owing to the social influence, which are two main social psychological processes: belonging and getting information.