Social Effects of Conformity

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Social Effects of Conformity

Social cognition is an area in social psychology concerned with social influences on thought, memory, perception and other cognitive processes. These other cognitive processes include individual behavior as well as group behavior. Social cognition relates directly to behavior and attitude in that it contains perceptions and beliefs as well as emotions about any given topic. All of these terms directly relate to the topic of this paper which is social pressure being directly linked to performance in school.

According to Rosabeth Kanter, the less minority members there are in a group the less likely they are to be academically successful. Contrastingly, the more minority members in a social group the more likely they are to be successful. This is an indirect example of the strengthening of the minorities' social identity. The " Us versus Them" frame of mind is shown in that with increase in the amount of members that consist of the minority their performance level also increases. This is shown in the Robbers Cave experiment, in that with the each child identifying with their group more and more they become more aggressive and competitive in order to defeat the enemy, which was the other clan of boys.

According to Spangler, Gordon and Pipkin the characteristics of social pressure on minorities in an academic and social environment include:

Ø A dramatic increase or decrease in grades

Ø Not volunteering to speak in class or other public forums

Ø Withdrawal from school itself

Ø Not participating in extracurricular activities

Spangler, Gordon and Pipkin concluded that these characteristics would innately influence the performance of students as well as their social status. In order for an in...

... middle of paper ...

...y, 33(2), 149-60.

Frith, C. (1997). "Motivation to Learn". University of Saskatchewan.

Kanter, R.M. (1977). Some effects of proposition of group life: Skewed sex ratio and responses to token women. American Journal of Sociology, 82, 965-70.

Luchins, A.S., Luchins, E.H. Conformity: Task vs. Social Requirements. The Journal of Social Psychology, 71, 95-105.

Robert, M. (1983). Observational learning of conservation: Its independence from social influence. The British Journal of Psychology, 74, 1-10.

Schlenker, B.R., Boneiki, K.A., Schlenker, D.R. (1995). Where is the home(shock)? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68(4), 649-52.

Spangler, E., Gordon, M.A., Pipkin, P.M. (1978). Token women: An empirical test of Kanter's hypothesis. American Journal of Sociology, 84(1), 160-69.

Tucker-Ladd, C.E. (1997). Psychological Self Help. Mental Health Net.

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