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Significance of conformity in social psychology
What factors lead people to conform psychology
Situational and personal factors of conformity
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Why do people follow the crowd? This is something that happens everyday and few notice it . Sometimes people follow the crowd because it is easier or we don’t want to be made fun of for being different . The article “The Third Wave,” by the commonLit Staff is the very definition of following the crowd. The book “The Third Wave,” was an experiment happened in April 1967. The experiment was thought up by a history teacher named Ron Jones. Jones basic idea was to make a group that followed certain rules. After a few days the experiment had gone out of control and was then stopped. The reason many of the students thought of joining the so called Third wave because they thought it was cool. Also any students that were not in the group were shunned
Another point I agree with is that it's a lot easier to just fit in and not lead the train and being yourself. I personally know from experience. Growing up I always tried to conform just to fit in with the people that surrounded me. It's not just me that i've seen conform to fit in, i've seen many of my friends conform to fit in with the crowd. All around me, everyday people are conforming and changing to fit in with the society.
Then, there was The Wave which was a classroom experiment gone wrong that was created by a teacher who was trying to give his students an idea of what the Holocaust was like. In this experiment, the teacher, Mr. Ross, used militaristic styles and methods of teaching like making the students stand up to speak and speak formally and shortly similar to that of a drill sergeant and much like the methods that were used in the Holocaust. All the followers looked up to Mr. Ross as Nazis did to Hitler.
Many people assume that being a conformist is fine because you fit in into groups. Even though being a conformist might be okay have you ever thought about being an individual ? Quit being a follower and start being a leader. Think about it if you were in a classroom and all of a sudden there is an earthquake but you see no-one moving, what do you do ? do you move for your safety or do you stay so that you won't look like a fool.
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
Common sense tells us to go with the crowd not to go against it. What would you do, go with it or be different and stand out?
Why do people sometimes feel that they need to socially conform to what is going on around them, even if they do not want to?
In 1972, Irving Janis presented a set of hypothesis that he extracted from observing small groups performing problem solving tasks; he collectively referred to these hypotheses as groupthink¹. He defined groupthink as “a quick and easy way to refer to a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when the members’ striving for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action²” A successful group brings varied ideas, collective knowledge, and focus on the task at hand. The importance of groups is to accomplish tasks that individuals can not do on their own. The Bay of Pigs, Watergate, and the Challenger disaster are all forms of failure within a group. Specifically, you can see the effect of groupthink of Americans before September 11, 2001. The thought of harm to the United States was unfathomable, but only after the attacks did they realize they were not invincible. When a solid, highly cohesive group is only concerned with maintaining agreement, they fail to see their alternatives and any other available options. When a group experiences groupthink, they may feel uninterested about a task, don't feel like they will be successful, and the group members do not challenge ideas. Stress is also a factor in the failure of groupthink. An effective group needs to have clear goals, trust, accountability, support, and training. Some indicators that groupthink may be happening are; making unethical decisions, they think they are never wrong, close-minded about situations, and ignore important information. Many things can be done to prevent groupthink from happening. One way is to make each person in the group a “critical evaluator”. The leader must ...
In society it is hard to break away from boundaries, people like to stick with majorities vote. Ever notice why people follow the crowd? Even though they probably don’t agree with what they stand for. This is because people do not want to stick out and be the odd one. They like to feel secure and the fact that they’re not alone. People tend to just follow the crowd due to their lack of
The author of A & P, John Updike, uses the grocery store as a vehicle to represent conformity present in the 1950’s, and to show how the main character Sammy, and the three girls breaks this barrier of conformity. The story takes place within a small-town grocery store called A & P during a period where conformity is at an all-time high- which is shown throughout the various observations and decisions Sammy makes at work. Seeing how three girls were uninfluenced by society sparks Sammy’s intuition.
The Wave, a short film, presents how students are easily influenced by authority and not bothered of what they think of themselves. David Collins and Laurie Saunders are high school students who at first are lured into the thought of being apart of discipline and community but later on realize how this affects themselves and their fellow classmates. They confront their teacher, Mr. Ross and point out that The Wave is limiting people’s freedom to do or believe in anything they choose. Mr. Ross’s “belief” in The Wave is teaching students to devote themselves only to the group
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
“Social conformity has been practiced in societies around the world since ancient times,” and the reason it is so effective is that humans have an inherent need to be accepted as part of a group (Sadat). Furthermore, Hossna Sadat reports that:
The Third Wave may have occurred as a result of Black women’s criticisms of the Second Wave as a strictly white, middle class women’s movement.(Page 64) Canada supports the idea of meritocracy, where everyone has an equal chance of success. This belief undermines the fact that racism was still very evident in the women’s movements. Also an issue that arose from the Second Wave, was the exclusion of transgendered people from the movement.
Several factors affect conformity. The larger the group, the more likely people are to conform, although this effect levels off at around seven group members. If there is even one dissenter in a group other than the participant, conformity drops dramatically. If the participant is in face-to-face contact with the group, he or she is more likely to conform. And finally, the more ambiguous the solution to the problem, the more likely the participant is to conform to others’ opinions (McLeod,
In the social process theory, three areas are covered. The three are social learning theory, social control theory, and social reaction theory.