In the story “Groups and Conformity" by Michael R. Solomon, it talks about how people in groups are more influential than an individual person would be. In the opening it talks about a guy whose name is Zachary. Zachary is a business man during the week and on weekends you can find him riding his motorcycle or with his group of motorcycle friends. You see Zachary is a part of the many individuals who are in a reference group. A reference group is based on an individual or groups; evaluations, aspirations, and or behaviors. Reference groups are important because of two reasons. Reason one is because of the recent research on the smoking cessation: And the powerful impact it has on reference groups. According to the author, Michael Solomon, smokers …show more content…
One of the examples that Michael Solomon (author) gives us is that when we go to buy different products others might not influence us, but on the other hand knowing what products other people like might just influence us to a great deal. There is also three types of reference groups. They are; the Name-Letter Effect, the Normative Influence, and the Comparative Influence. The Name-Letter Effect is when we bond faster with people who share our names or something as simple as our initials then we do with others who don 't. One of the examples that the author uses is that people whose surname is Lane tend to have addresses that include the word Lane, not street. The second one is Normative Influence: this group has standards of conduct that they set and enforce. According to the author our parents may play an important part in this group. Two of the important issues are attitudes on marriage or where to go to college. The third one is Comparative Influence: because it affects members ' decisions about specific motorcycle purchases. According to the author, Zachary talks about how he has already spent thousands of dollars on parts and accessories sine he has been in his …show more content…
The author states that the reason we do this is because we want our behavior to be like the group wants us to be, and if anybody disagrees we stay away from them. The final group is we like to do it in groups. The first point is Phenomenon Deindividuation. Phenomenon Deindividuation is where an individual identities becomes lost with in a group. The second point is Group shopping. Group shopping and behavior and home shopping parties: People more likely to buy more when shopping in a group, where pressure to conform may be intense (bandwagon effect). The reason we do this is because if we don’t buy what everyone else is buying then we can become an outcast. The last part of the story is Conformity. Conformity is a change in beliefs or actions as a reaction to real or imagined group. The norms of conformity are unspoken rules that govern many aspects of consumption. There are five factors that influence of conformity. They are: Cultural Pressures, Fear of Deviance, Commitment, Group Unanimity, Size, and Expertise and finally Susceptibility to Interpersonal Influence. Cultural Pressures is when different cultures to the greater good or lesser degree encourage
Conformity refers to an individual’s behavior that is performed because of group pressure, even though that pressure might not involve a direct request. Many people want to think that they are conformist enough so that they are not looked upon as strange to others and nonconformist enough to demonstrate that they are capable of thinking by themselves. For many years, psychologists have been interested in human conformity. Usually when people are in groups, they behave according to how those in the group behave. That indicates that conformity can affect a person’s behavior and make a person do things that may be against their ethics, attitudes, and morals. The study of conformity was first studied in the 1950s by Solomon Asch. His experiments were very important to the study of conformity. Asch wanted to find out how conformity could influence behavior. He did not want to focus on the general concepts like ethics, morals, attitudes, and belief systems. Instead, he focused on a more obvious concept which was perceptional conformity. Since he performed the experiment on a simple task, he was able to study conformity in a controlled environment. Asch wanted to apply group pressure to the experiment so he could manipulate a person’s behavior. For the experiment, he made three pairs of cards with three different lengths of vertical lines on one side. On the other side, there was a single line that was the same length ...
Cialdini, Robert B, & Trost, Melanie R. (1998). Social Influence: Social Norms, Conformity, & Compliance. Interpersonal Phenomena. Retrieved from: angel.elmira.edu/section/default.asp?id=w114_PSY3010_01.
Due to the nature of our own biology we are social animals who continuously desire companionship, seek approval from others, and aspire to fit in. However this conformity prohibits individuals from expressing their true thoughts and instead actively engages them into peer pressured situations, subconsciously following social norms. Hence, the individual succumbs to groupthink. Groupthink occurs when groups are highly cohesive and are aware they must make a quality decision under considerable pressure. It is a process of rationalization that sets in when group members start thinking alike (Sims & Sauser, 2013). Eight symptoms of groupthink exist – illusion of invulnerability (group thinks they are invincible), collective rationalization (no reconsiderations to assumptions), belief in inherent morality (ignore ethical or consequences of their decisions), stereotyped views of out-groups (“enemy” is too evil, weak, or stupid to bother with), self-censorship (doubts from group consensus are not expressed), illusion of unanimity (everyone agrees with everyone else), and self-appointed mindguards (members protect group from information that is contradictory or problematic to group’s cohesiveness) (Janis, 1972). If a group of individuals came together they would engage in these symptoms of groupthink, resulting in a “bad” decision-making process producing less than optimal outcomes.
Conforming is the act of bending to perceived group pressure and mimicking the actions or adopting the beliefs of others bringing the individual’s behavior within the constructs of a societal standard including law, etiquette, or fashion (Brownlee, 2004). Conformity can be an automatic response to situational norms. When unsure of their own ability to define “normal” accurately an individual will observe and take cues from those who appear confident (Franzoi, 2008). Situational factors that influence conformity include, the size of the influencing group, the cohesiveness of the group, and social support. On a personal level, the individual’s degree of independence, self-awareness, self-presentation, personal desire for control, and gender affect conformity.
In the story " Groups and Conformity" by Michael R. Solomon, it talks about how people in groups are more influential then a individual person would be. In the opening it talkes about a guy whos name is Zachary. Zachary is a business man during the week and on weekends you can find him riding his motorcycle or with his group of motorcycle friends. You see Zachary is a part of the many individual 's who are in a reference group. A reference group is based on a individual or groups; evaluations, aspirations, and or behaviors. Reference groups are important because of two reasons. Reason one is because of the recent research on the smoking cessation: And the powerful impact it has on reference groups. According to the author, Michael Solomon,
These reference groups helped shape us by providing us the means of how to behave in group settings in the proper way, communication among people from all social classes, and gave us the ability to identify other social norms. My friends and their families taught me soft skills that I had not been exposed to within my family. “Soft skills are the character traits and difficult to teach interpersonal skills that characterize a person’s relations with other people. Soft skills have more to do with who we are than what we know. As such, soft skills encompass the character traits that decide how well one interacts with others, and are usually a definite part of one 's personality (www.investopedia.com).” “Soft skills are things like knowing how to dress, act and present oneself or the ability to work well with other people”. (Manza Pg. 417) In part, I learned proper table etiquette and dressing appropriately for different situations from some of my friends and their families. The benefits of these soft skills became invaluable later and into adulthood by helping me in the real world. I learned what to say and when to say it in conversational circumstances, a skill that I might have been otherwise unprepared for had I not been given this guidance when I was young. This allowed me to carry on conversations and interact with people of greater importance than myself later in
In this essay it will be argued that the concept of deindividuation theory is not always straight forward as they are many perspectives and beliefs that form such a theory. Various social psychologists like Gustave Le Bon, Festinger and Diener to name a few have explained deindividuation as a process whereby the individual ceases to identify with their selves but starts to act and think similar to one another. They all go on to further explain behaviour within crowds from different point of views but this is the starting point and for the sake of this essay I shall look at the different explanations surrounding deindividuation theory in relation to crowd behaviour as each of them have strengths and weaknesses and it is quite impossible to only
Group conformity can be defined as a change in a person’s behavior or opinions as a result or imagined pressure from a person or group of people. Conformity is basically just a type of social influence involving a change in belief and behavior in order to fit in with the group. There are different forms of conformity, for example, bullying, persuasion, teasing, and criticism. There have been many experiments in sociology investigating conformity or group pressure. One of the experiments that stood out to me the most was the Solomon Asch’s experiment. The experiment was tested to demonstrate the power of conformity in groups. This topic is very interesting because it makes me aware how society really is these days. It makes me wonder if I am
The influences of environment and situation continuously grow as people become more and more invested in society. From doing what friends do to dressing similar to the crowd they identify themselves with, everyone is influenced by society and the atmosphere around them. In Ian Parker’s article, “Obedience,” he talks about the influence of situation which oftentimes is derived from society as people are pressured into certain situations by cliches. In Doris Lessing’s article, “Group Minds,” she talks about the effect of groups, that people often place themselves in, and how they control individuality, which is a result of social pressure to “fit in” and “make friends” that lead people into situations that place them in group minds. Society’s control on people grows as they begin to look for ways to become more accepted and acknowledged by their environment and others.
In our modern day society we have this perception that we must fit into a group. This is often seen through the potency of peer pressure in all levels of school, but largely during high school (AACAP). This can be done though subtle methods or even to the point of bullying a peer into doing something (Antoni Calvó-Armengol, 63). A more broad idea is also presented in the studies on mob mentality, where those who are in a large group will often follow what others are doing, and not always thinking about what is actually happening (Megan Donley). A large part of our current society is that those who are seen as different are put into a different group of people entirely. So we often pressure those or a pressured into a niche, but if we don’t
Reference groups help us to realize something about ourselves when we compare ourselves to others. This comparison can be minuscule or monumental in self-meaning. It may be a comparison that is permanent or superficial/fleeting. A superficial comparison may be how some feel in grade school when a group of children have a new toy that others did not. This feeling of being left out is momentary since it only lasts until the popularity of that toy is lost and another gains more popularity. Another way it may be fleeting is if a child’s parent caves in and buys the child that new toy. And so, that child, who once did not have that toy, is now apart of that reference group. I always remember myself having these fleeing feelings
For people working in the psychological field it is important to understand and acknowledge all aspects of psychology. This includes social psychology, which is a very interesting and important part of the psychological world. Within social psychology there is a concept called conformity, which is a form of social influence. Conformity can be defined “as a change in a person’s behavior or opinions as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or a group of people” (Aronson, 2011, p. 19). Specific behaviors that occur in groups tend to be viewed as accurate behaviors. Therefore, these behaviors are seen as rewarding to take part in by the individual because the feel included (Güngör, Karasawa, Boiger, Dinger, & Mesquita, 2014).
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.
There are several different factors that play into why someone conforms. Group size is a large part of why a person will conform, while other factors are informative and normative. The Sherif and Asch studies demonstrate that people conform for two very different reasons: informative and normative (Kassin, Fien, & Markus, 2011 p. 257). Think about a big game, football, baseball, soccer. A group stands up and starts yelling defense, then others join in, soon the entire section is yelling defense. Everyone that joined in was influenced by the group of people that stood up. When there is more than one person doing something there is higher possibilities that people with conform to what that group of people is doing. Going to the bathroom, if all the toilets are taken, a line forms, this a social norm and people conform to standing in a line. Informative influence is when people want to be right because the rest of the group agreed on it, this is them wanting to make a correct judgment on a topic. This is why when a crime happens the police want to separate the witnesses before they begin talking with others, once they talk to another witness their interpretation of the event get skewed because of the informational influence from the other. Normative influence is a person wanting to feel they are normal in a group. The person does not want to be wrong so they agree with the rest. This fear of being
Conformity is a way to make your way into a group. One can conform to positive or negative behaviors or mindsets. To conform one must change their beliefs or their behaviors in order to fall into a social norm. There are two main motives for conformity, informative and normative. Informative social influence is doing the right thing, this influence helps individuals to make the decision to follow the correct behavior instead of doing what the majority of people are doing. Normative social influence is following the behaviors of a group in order to be liked by them and to fit in. Both of these main motives for conformity influence everyone’s interactions with others, even my own personal relationships with others.