Conformism

A conformist is a person just accepts the normal behavior of others without speaking out. These people affect their environments positively and negatively. They can impact their environments in a positive way by not saying anything and going through the motions. This prevents their “leaders” from retaliating harmfully due to their willingness to speak out. But with the positive it is also a negative in the situation. The conformist and his or hers will continue to be disrespected as a whole.

Conformity is when a person changes him or herself to fit into a group. In order for someone to do this, he or she usually has to give up one of their personal qualities. It is highly argued over whether this is a good or a bad thing. One such book called Stargirl, demonstrates both the negative, and positive side of conformity. In the novel, author Jerry Spinelli suggests that conformity isn’t necessarily a bad thing, many just use it to become a leader.

Conformity is a concept that has been heavily researched in the field of social psychology. Conformity is defined as a change in behavior, beliefs, and attitudes due to group pressure perceived as real (encompassing the presence of others) or imagined (encompassing the pressure of social standards) (Myers, 2010, p. 192). The concept of conformity is a powerful influence on the tendency for people to arrange their thoughts, perspectives, and ideas with others, especially when in a group. This takes away from a person’s individuality because they want to feel accepted by others and therefore, a person will accomplish this basic need of approval through conforming.

“I don’t believe we were put here with all of our differences to conform to a uniform state of mind” ~Sonya Teclat. Conformity is when people change to act the same as other people in their society. The government, media, and social groups are a big part of the society. These things encourage people to conform. One of the books that have people conforming is Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson. In Among the Hidden Jen, one of the characters is very outgoing and brave. Luke another character is very shy, once he meets Jen he conforms to be brave like her. In addition, society encourages conformity through government, media, and social groups.

Often times in life people will feel it necessary to conform in order to fit into certain groups of people. When a person conforms it usually leads to them changing the way they behave. This

According to Aronson (1985), conformity is “a change in a person’s opinion or behaviour as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or a group of people”.

As Dr. Seuss once said, “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don 't matter and those who matter don 't mind.” Through this quote, the foundation of conformity is uprooted from its murky hovel and is disputed with. Despite, though, how many people preach these words, they still succumb to the mind numbing effects without even realizing it, because they are not fully aware of the causes of this topic. That is why one needs to understand the causes of conformity before preventing the effects. The three causes of conformity include: changing how one acts to avoid the rejection of their peers, depending on other people 's’ opinions because they are oblivious to a certain topic, and conforming to something based on social characteristics.

Conformity, compliance with others, and standards, rules or laws and behavior in accordance with socially accepted conventions or standards. Non conformity, Failure or refusal to conform to a prevailing rule or practice. These were the topic we talked about in my English II CP class. We read a lot of articles about nonconformity and conformity and watched videos on YouTube of experiments on the topic; One of the videos we watched was the elevator experiment where they tested if majority of random people would conform or not conform to what the group of actors in the elevator were doing. What they did to test this was they put a group of actors in a elevator facing the back of the elevator with a video camera and see when random people walked in the elevator if they would conform and face the same way the actors were out of pressure. Or if they did not conform. In this experiment majority ended up conforming. At the end of the video all the random people that participated were asked why they faced the same way the group of actors were.

Humans make all sorts of implications, different types directed to variant people. However, in this case three sources go in depth and analysis how conformity can create boundaries or barriers between you and society. Today, the influences of social pressure on rejection or acceptance can drastically modify someones perception or behavior. Moreover, we tend to oblige to norm. With limitations and boundaries authoritatively mandating us to differentiate right from wrong or whether to look left or right, it is almost to easy to blend along side of others. It seems like society's standards control our future actions. It is almost impossible to sustain a pristine thought.

To conform or to not conform is the real question. Google defines conformity as “Compliance with standards, rules, or laws.” I define conformity as someone going along with society although they may or may not believe it’s the right thing to do. The people who refuse to conform to society are called nonconformist. Although both conformity and nonconformity has its benefits, it can also be unfavorable for you. In other words, IT SUCKS!! And this demonstrated through both fictional stories and in real life. Two very good examples are Snowball the pig (conformist) from the book “Animal Farm” By George Orwell and Summer Pimp (nonconformist) who used to be one of my good friends.

Humans conform to society’s demands naturally as a way to survive, but not all seem to “fit in.” Conformists are people that follow the cues of society. Nonconformists are people that do not follow specific ideas or laws of society. Determining whether or not nonconformists really exist may differ with each individuals’ definition of conformity and nonconformity. Nonconformists are separate from conformists because they escape society’s pressures, consider themselves as individuals, and live happier lives than if they were conformists.

What is it to Conform or to not conform? Conformity is compliance with standards or rules. Non- conformity is to think freely. To be the one square in a room with a bunch of circles. With conformity, you are either one of the many standing in line with the others or the one standing out amongst the crowd. Boxer is what we would call a conformist, while Mr. Leonardo was non-conformist. Boxer was a fine horse who did what he was told. Mr. Leonard was a nice kept man who simply loved to take walks.

Do I conform, or in other words do I follow. As a general whole I don’t conform, I don’t follow. Like I had said, I create my own thoughts and follow my own path, I don’t follow the trends and I don’t strive to be someone else. To be a conformist is to be passive and not make a change, but I strive to make some type of change. I would always prefer to branch out and to be different then to be like everyone else, because what kind of life is that. To be just like everyone else, where your life is no more than different the person next to you. A life like that means that your life is insignificant and anyone can replace you, because they will just like you. Their experience will match the ones you will have or had. At that point you are no longer

“We do not wish to imply that conformity itself is something bad. This is one of human properties which facilitate social life” (Efros, Pg. 2). To a certain extent I do agree with this idea. Conformity is natural and something that cannot be completely abolished. It is normal to feel a sense of pressure for being different, but I want to argue that it is not okay.

People in society can benefit for conformity in many ways but there are also some bad outcomes. Conformity can can make our society safer by following laws and rules, but it can make our