Conformity:The Greek Society

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Recommended: The phenomenon of conformity

Conformity:
The Greek Society
Conformity, on a daily basis we conform to the social norms set forth before us by our friends, family and past experiences. Group cohesiveness (the desire to which one has to be in and is attracted to the group) greatly increases conformity. Enter Greek life.
We have all seen them, parading down the halls, across campus, and in the Student Union. Strutting around with their number one symbols of pride across their backs or chests, on a sleeve, a pin or hat, GREEKS. Going Greek is a social decision as one enters college. You either are or are not a Greek, which creates a rather noticeable IngroupOutgroup situation, and millions of stereotypes between both Greeks and Independents.
To some Independents, Greeks are seen as followers, conformists, who joined simply to ?buy their friends? and some Greeks see Independents as ?GDIs (God Damned Independents, for lack of better definition), people who are losers because they won?t join, for whatever reason. It has been said that ?From the outside looking in you will never understand it, and from the inside looking out you can not explain it.?
Greeks more predominately create the sense of IngroupOutgroup. It is very simple to see who is part of the group and who is not. It is pretty obvious from the blaring letters, ringing chants, songs, and stories that you are part of the group. From the Greek point of view there are 3 types of groups, Fraternity Men& Sorority Women, Pledges, and everyone else. You are either in or out it is that, plain and simple. You have either chose to conform to the ideals of your perspective organization or you have chosen not to be a part.
There are sub divisions of the In-group, as far as the different organizations; you are a Sig-Kap, TKE, Skull, AST, etc. This is turn creates In-groups amongst the In-group. Each individual organization sees themselves as ?good? and in turn everyone else is ?bad.? Which is a predominate theme in IngroupOutgroup Theory.
Greeks call this ?pride?, conforming to these beliefs is part of the whole Greek concept. Through the pledging process you are taught the ways of the organization, how members are expected to ...

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..., Luigi, Katia Vanzetto, and others; The explicit and implicit perception of in-groups members who use stereotypes: Blatant rejection but subtle conformity. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Sep 2001, Vol 37, pp. 419-426.

Pendry, Louise; Carrick, Rachael, Doing what the mob do: Priming effects on conformity. European Journal of Social Psychology. Vol 31, Jan-Feb 2001. pp.83-92

Robinson, Frank; Campaigns for Conformity. Journal of American College Health. May2001, Vol. 49 Issue 6, pp. 316-318.

Rose, Randall L., Bearden, William O., Manning, Kenneth C. Attributions and Conformity in Illicit Consumption: The Mediating Role of Group Attractiveness. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing. Spring 2001, Vol. 20 Issue 1, p84, 9p

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