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Reflection on cultural diversity
Features of conformity
Cultural diversity experience
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Power of Conformity
Have you ever found yourself acting a certain way when you are alone versus when you are with your friends? Why do we do this? We are conforming to the group whether we are aware of it or not. We all change when we are introduced to a new group of peers, whether we notice or not. The problem is when we are aware of the conforming; when we change our hair, clothes, or your beliefs, just for a group. The issue is when you drastically alter yourself. It is not worth it to alter ourselves, just to fit in, and in the end all it will lead to is pain.
Changing yourself to fit in really isn’t fitting in at all. Changing yourself is just masking who you really are. It can also lead to serious consequences. For example, if you conform to your peers who all have tattoos and get a tattoo, and you are Jewish, you can no longer be buried in a Jewish cemetery. Conforming would sacrifice culture. In “The Lottery”, Mrs. Hutchinson because everyone else was. (Jackson). “The philosopher Hannah Arendt famously argued that the atrocities of the Holocaust were not caused by psychop...
The novel, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley first published in 1932, presents a very bleak out look of what future society will be like. The novel presents a future of where almost total conformity is a carefully guarded aspect of society. Even before one is "decanted" they are conditioned to fill a specific roll and to act a certain way.
Pursuing a personal desire and choosing to conform to societal expectations is a challenging decision to make. A person must decide if their personal desire is worth risking the shame and judgment of others or is conforming the route to take because it is easier. When pursuing a personal desire one must ask itself if it is worth the hardship to accomplish one's desire or if it is best left alone and repressed, in hopes of finding comfort in conformity. John Laroche from The Orchid Thief expresses his personal desire without a care for conformity or societal expectations. Nevertheless, Laroche never stopped being strange as he grew up with fascinations of many objects such as orchids, turtles, old mirrors and fish tanks.
In society, it's difficult to go against the norm. Individuals are compelled to act a specific way, or look a specific way in order to be accepted. For instance, teenagers may encounter pressure from their peers to partake in specific exercises that may not be moral, since they feel the need to fit in. This weight of conformity isn't just present in reality; it can be found in literature as well. The story "St. Lucy’s Home For Girls Raised by Wolves" by Karen Russell depicts that in order to conform to society, individuals abandon their selflessness and compassion and become selfish and apathetic.
Conformity means a change in one’s behavior due to the real or imagined influence of other people. As a teenager, the pressure to conform to the societal “norm” plays a major role in shaping one’s character. Whether this means doing what social groups want or expect you to do or changing who you are to fit in. During class, we watched films such as Mean Girls, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and The Breakfast Club which demonstrate how the pressure to conform into society can change who you are. In the movies we have seen, conformity was most common during high school.
Everybody wants to be accepted, yet society is not so forgiving. It bends you and changes you until you are like everyone else. Society depends on conformity and it forces it upon people. In Emerson's Self Reliance, he says "Society is a joint stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater." People are willing to sacrifice their own hopes and freedoms just to get the bread to survive. Although the society that we are living in is different than the one the Emerson's essay, the idea of fitting in still exists today. Although society and our minds make us think a certain way, we should always trust our better judgment instead of just conforming to society.
According to Silvia Bellezza, a doctoral candidate in marketing at Harvard Business School in Boston, “Nonconformity leads to positive inferences of status and competence when it is associated with deliberateness and intentionality..” Intentional deviance from a norm can project heightened status and competence by signaling that one has the autonomy to act according to one’s own inclinations (Silvia Bellezza). For example, in one study she found that participants perceived an individual deliberately wearing a red bow tie at a black-tie party in a country club as a higher-status member of the club and a better golf player than a conforming individual wearing a black bow tie. This enhances one's sense of freedom which allows a person to have their own identity in the crowd. Amanda Chatel, a writer for Bustle, claims that “Being your darling and the bizarre self who does their own thing is the best thing you can be... in life… the dating world, online or otherwise.” Being yourself can increase one's charm. As stated in the second paragraph, “those who march to the beat of their own drummer,” or follow their own constitution are, “far more attractive than those who are just like...everyone else.” Although some conformists accept who they are, your true identity can encourage positivity within yourself. For instance, this can be beneficial for one's self-esteem and confidence, constructing that
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
As we grow up we are told to be individuals, but once we grow up we obey authority figures and change our beliefs to fit in with others. No matter what age we are we will always comply to a behavior or belief to fit in with a group different than ours or to be liked. We do not like to be judged or looked at as an outsider; this will remain the same in which ever situation we find ourselves in. Whether it be in a professional setting such as work or a social setting with friends. When thinking of conformity and obedience we mostly think of cults and prisons but it is not always the case.
The origins of the pressure to conform come from the people you surround yourself from. The individuals in my house are extremely involved in the concept of “fitting in with the crowd.” They endeavor to be accepted by their peers and regularly assure themselves they are. People also feel compressing pressure from modern society. Both genders are expected to behave a certain way and are looked down upon if they choose to innovate.
Conformity and Its Meaning This assignment focuses upon conformity and what it means to us. Conformity is defined by Zimbardo (1992) as "A tendency for people to adopt behaviour, values and attitudes of other members of a reference group". Why people conform is a topic of much debate. People don't always conform for the same reason's, in 1958 Kelman identified three main forms of conformity, each of which could produce conforming behaviour but in different ways.
Conformity, or going along with the crowd, is a unique phenomenon that manifests itself in our thoughts and behaviors. It’s quite simple to identify countless examples of the power of conformity in virtually all aspects of social life. Conformity influences our opinions and relationships with others, often to a higher extent than we realize. It is posited that people generally conform to the group in order to fit in and avoid rejection or because they truly believe the group is more knowledgeable than they are. After analyzing numerous studies and experiments on the nature of conformity, one will find that the motive of social acceptance is the greatest driver of conformity.
Conformity can often seem like the best path to take in a situation. Going along with everyone else will cause less conflict for the group as a whole. Unfortunately conforming simply to protect other people's feelings can lead to powerful internal conflicts if a person does not fully agree with the situation. Ruth from A Raisin in the Sun, Langston from "Salvation," and Mama from "Everyday Use," all felt internal conflicts resulting from conformity.
Conformity and Obedience in Society The desire to be accepted and belong to a group is an undeniable human need. But how does this need affect an individual? Social psychologists have conducted numerous experiments and concluded that, through various forms of social influence, groups can change their members’ thoughts, feelings, and behavior. In her essay “Group Minds,” Doris Lessing discusses our paradoxical ability to call ourselves individuals and our inability to realize that groups define and influence us.
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 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