Conformity is when one would yield their own opinions or actions to appeal to those surrounding them. Sometimes people may conform to match their environment without being aware of their actions. Humans feel pressured in society to change their beliefs to fit in and not be the oddball one out. This is seen in many different environments. For example, in schools if multiple people agree with something, others would start to change their answers to match the group because they do not want to feel rejected. When being the only participant in the experiment, one would feel weird, hesitant, or intimidated to disagree with the group; however, if one were to have another participant alongside them, they would feel a great amount of reassurance and confidence in themselves to disagree with the agree. The saying “stronger in numbers” is significant and holds to be true to many conformity experiments.
There have been many experiments done to test this theory. One of them takes place in an elevator. Multiple confederates were used, one would be the leading confederate and there would be one participant unaware of the experiment taking place. In the elevator the confederates would all be facing to the back and act as if it were normal. The psychologists in charge of the experiment would observe the reactions and actions of the participant to the confederates’ actions. For most of the trials, the participants followed the actions of the confederates when they knew they were odd or abnormal.
Another conformity experiment is the “smoke-filled room” experiment which depends on the pressure individuals feel in a situation where they may stand out of the group. The experiment is first conducted in a room set up for a discussion between...
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...was not enough. Another limitation is that the participants were not randomly assigned as the participants or the confederates, this may lead to biased outcomes.
Based on this experiment and data collected, the next step would be to first send out a survey to the confederates and participants and ask them questions to analyze their personalities and categorize them as introverts, extroverts, shy, a follower, a leader, etc. People’s personalities contribute to the way they interact with others so mixing and matching personalities in different trials might show very different results.
Works Cited
"The Asch Experiment Hilarious! Or Is It?" YouTube. YouTube, 10 June 2012. Web. 21 Mar. 2014.
"The Smoke-Filled Room." The Smoke-Filled Room. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2014.
"What Is Conformity?" - Simply Psychology. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2014.
Milgram's study however did not entirely lack in validity since it had good ecological validity. This is because Milgram created several variations for the experiment. For example he created situations where the victim (confederate) could not be seen or heard, or when the victim could be heard, or also when the victim could be both seen and heard. These variations were also carried out in a run-down office instead of a laboratory, therefore changing the results they got dramatically.
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
We conducted this experiment two times: once at night and the other in the late afternoon. The first group, during the night, consisted of Crance, Curtis, and Medici. The confederates entered the gym five minutes before the experimenter and observed and recorded the reactions of the other patrons. We observed that many people discretely watched the experimenter. When she first walked in, the bystanders at the front ...
The participants’ right to withdraw was disabled as the prods given by the experimenter (such as “please continue” etc) made the participants feel that they had no choice but to continue. The were also involved in deception as they thought they had administered real shocks and were not informed of the confederate being present. This study, however, was conducted in the 1950’s and the ethical guidelines were not in position and therefore this study may be published in modern day t... ... middle of paper ... ...
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
In 1951, Solomon Asch carried out several experiments on conformity. The aim of these studies was to investigate conformity in a group environment situation. The purpose of these experiments was to see if an individual would be swayed by public pressure to go along with the incorrect answer. Asch believed that conformity reflects on relatively rational process in which people are pressured to change their behaviour. Asch designed experiments to measure the pressure of a group situation upon an individual judgment. Asch wanted to prove that conformity can really play a big role in disbelieving our own senses.
Conformity can be useful when in unfamiliar surroundings or activities. Several examples make their appearance everyday like dancing. Dancing is a fun activity, but when it’s unclear what kind of dancing to do. What happens then? It’s in everyone’s best interest to mimic the people who know what they’re doing to avoid embarrassment. In some way or another, everyone has done it throughout their life but it is really handy in the right
Why do we feel the need to be accepted by certain groups even if that means that we have to do or wear stuff we wouldn’t normally like? How far are we willing to go to try to mold ourselves to those standards? Sociologist today call this behavior conformity. Conformity is defined as “action in accord with prevailing social standards, attitudes and practices, (conformity)”. People tend to conform to group standards so they can feel like they are accepted and have a stable spot in society. Although some examples of this are fairly innocent, dressing in “trendy” clothes or behaving how your friends are acting so as not to be perceived as strange, conformity can easily turn into a dangerous situation. For example, say everyone in your primary group
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 conformity. During a typical experiment, members of the group were asked by the experimenter to claim two obvious mismatched lines were identical. The single individual who was not privy to this information was the focal point of the experiment. Twelve out of eighteen times the unsuspecting individual went along with the majority, dispelling his beliefs in favor of the opinions of the group.
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.
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
Conformity is defined as a change in behavior or belief to accord with others. (Meyers 170) What other people do and say can gradually influence others to deviate from ones beliefs and conform to others. One of the most famous documented studies to better illustrate this was a procedure performed by social psychologist, Solomon Asch.
Conformity involves the changing of one’s attitudes, opinions, or behaviours to match those of the ‘norms’. The “norms”, established by society, are what we should or ought to be thinking, feeling, or doing if we wish to be accepted into a group. This desire to be accepted and belong to a group is an undeniable human need.
Conformity, compliance and obedience are behavioural consequences of social influence (real or imagined social pressure) that occur in the presence of a group or other individuals (Elsenbroich & Xenitidou, 2012). Often these concepts are misinterpreted as being the same or even synonymous and while they do have similarities they are also very dissimilar. In social psychology conformity, compliance and obedience are distinct concepts that coincide due to their effect on behaviour in the presence of others. Pascual, Line Felonneau, Guéguen & Lafaille (2013) define conformity as an altering of behaviour and beliefs in an individual in order to reflect the behaviour and beliefs of the group that holds influence, though Myers (2014) emphasises that
Conformity is defined as 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. Normative conformity is motivated by 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 are smoking,