Conformity: A Social Contextual Analysis

Many individuals is faced with the decision of conforming or choosing personal desire, and it is not an easy decision. It is hard because being shunned by others for being different is not a good feeling. Choosing to conform over personal desire, often leads to loss. On the other hand, personal desire is what sets others apart and gives them joy. In the poem, “The Jackhammer Syndrome”, Al Purdy discusses the good and bad memories he has experienced. He goes through his memories of when he had fun and made mistakes, but he reflects on what he could have done better. The author of “The Jackhammer Syndrome informs against choosing the welcoming joy of conformity over the long-term gains of personal desire. Making the decision to pursue conformity over personal desire may seem easy at first, but if the choice is to conform, the joy it gives will not last. Making the decision to pursue conformity over personal desire Conformity may seem to give joy at first, but it does not last. When Al is playing pool with his brother, he wants to win badly, but losses. However when he did not care to win, Al wins! Conforming can lead to loss but personal desire has much to gain. If the choice is to conform, personal identity may be lost. In my life, I recognize several instances in which I found several similarities between Al and myself. I have made decisions that were not always good ones such as swimming across long distances with friends.

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.

Conformity wouldn’t be so bad if what there was to conform to was positive. In this great land of the free and home of the Big Mac, forgive me for not putting my admiration or faith into the general public. The society we live in is built on hate and oppression. It dates back all the way to the genocide of the native population by the European invaders----excuse me, “settlers” that allowed this country to be established in the first place, and the slavery that allowed this country’s economy to start up and prosper. Institutionalized racism continues to be prevalent in everyday life; articles on police brutality from twenty years ago might as well have been written last week. Ethnic minorities are targeted and shot down in the streets; young

As readers, we see how the analysis of conflictive themes has been taking over literature scenarios. When reading between the lines of certain books we can perceive themes such as conformity and rebellion. Mostly these themes can be seen in writings from times of social upheaval. According to The Oxford Dictionary, the word conformity means “behavior in accordance with socially accepted conventions or standards”, while rebellion means “the action or process of resisting authority, control, or convention.” These terms create a constant battle among societies. A certain amount of conformity needs to exist in life in order to avoid disorder. This is the reason society has laws, rules and expectations. Literature represents life, and these themes can be found at the root of many literary works. Conformity can also be considered as silence. This silence is based on the restrictions of real feelings and thoughts in some literary pieces. During the sixteenth century, the emphasis on conformity was at its height. Works of literature from this time period have often reflected a fascination and frustration with this particular characteristic. People do not want to be restricted in terms of expressing opinions and developing certain activities. When facing oppression, denial of their freedom, they rebel, and that contributes to the part of the process of change in society. Not all kinds of rebellions are rationally fundamental, but when they are, it can transform society for the

To understand why we have a sense of conformity, we must first understand value. “Values are used to learn people’s culture, ideas, and what they want out of life (Henslin 49). Every culture has similar and different values. “Norms are the expectations a group develops concerning the ‘right’ way to reflects its values” (Henslin49). An example of a norm would be personal space and speaking quietly in certain places such as a library. When norms are violated people often begin to question the person’s sanity and well-being based on how extreme the norm violation was.

In this dystopian world the people are dependant upon soma at anytime when unpleasant thoughts, feelings or emotions are shown. Soma can drive any bad thoughts out of mind. Doctors declare that one cubic centimeter of soma cures ten gloomy sentiments. Like soma drug in Brave New World, in The Giver, there is a relief-of-pain medication that is provided to community members to relieve their pains so that no one can suffer. Whenever there is any kind of unpleasant thought or pain or disease, people are immediately given this unnamed medication.

Conformity is a type of social influence which involves a change in behaviour and belief of a minority to fit in with the group concerning real or imagined group pressures. This behaviour could be defined as the pressure to behave in ways that are viewed as acceptable by a particular group, brought about either by a desire to ‘fit in’ or be liked. The main factor that influences conformity are social norms. Social Norms are a pattern of expected behaviour in certain situations either implicitly or explicitly. Conformity exists in two categories, normative influence where the individual’s desire is to gain social approval and acceptance from the group to make a favourable impression. And informational social influence where a person is looking for guidance in an ambiguous situation as the individual listens to other member 's views and opinions to be guided to an answer. Conformity is distinguished in three different types; Compliance is the most superficial type of conformity. It refers to a person who conforms publicly with the views and attitudes expressed by the group but still continue to privately disagree. This temporary short term behavioural change which often results normative social influence. For example, It is a student 's first day of college, but has arrived late and missed the induction to which he doesn 't know where to go. He then sees a group of students filing off towards a corridor and

“Group conformity scares the pants off me because it’s so often a prelude to cruelty towards anyone who doesn’t want to-or can’t-join the Big Parade.” The style of text I have chosen to focus on is individuality, as I believe that uniqueness of an individual is essential for freedom. Through analysing the texts Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Equilibrium by Kurt Wimmer, Blind Faith by Ben Elton, The Machine Stops by E.M. Foster and I Always do what Teddy Says by Harry Harrison. I have noticed that societies are being controlled through the idea of conflicts and religious symbolism and conformity, which are prominent in all the societies. The intent to trigger us of the dystopias that could arise in our world today is prominent. I have also

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

As one of the countries in the world that prides itself in uniqueness, even Americans find themselves caught in webs of social influence. When this happens, we change our behavior and conform to the expectations of others (O’Gorman et al., 2008). Research on conformity was first

The researcher chose this project because the different reasons people conform to someone or something’s standards interests the researcher greatly. The person running this experiment would like to

Our primary aim lies in discovering how some social structures exert a definite pressure upon certain persons in the society to engage in nonconformist rather than conformist conduct (Cullen, Agnew & Wilcox, 2014, pg. 178). Among the elements of social and cultural structure, two are important for our purposes (Cullen, Agnew & Wilcox, 2014, pg. 179). These are analytically separable although they merge imperceptibly in concrete situations (Cullen, Agnew & Wilcox, 2014, pg. 179). The first consists of culturally defined goals, purposes, and interests (Cullen, Agnew & Wilcox, 2014, pg. 179). The second phase of the social structure defines, regulates, and controls the acceptable modes of achieving these goals (Cullen, Agnew & Wilcox, 2014, pg. 179). To say that these two elements, culture goals and institutional norms, operate jointly is not to say that the ranges of alternative behaviors and aims bear some constant relation to one another (Cullen, Agnew & Wilcox, 2014, pg.

The behavioral pattern of conformity affected each of us at one time. It’s the unspoken rules of a group, and the most critical time is being a teenager. They have a willingness to please, and want to be a part of the popular group. Their behavior may not be appropriate by society standard, but because they want to fit in or belong, they may see it as the social norm. In any phases of life, a person’s own opinion may be an influence by those of groups. Especially if they are associated with university's scholars, baseball teams or any organization deals with social groups. In Dr. Solomon, Asch’s conformity experiments he used psychological terms, which conformity refers to a person’s predisposition. Meaning they would follow the unspoken

For some, conformity is an unthinkable evil in American society. All individuals living within a community conform in some way to social norms, yet to label someone a conformist is akin to labeling them ignorant and unoriginal. However, conformity - and its associated impacts - are as integral to the functioning of society as the principles of nonconformity. Conformity is often positively utilised to induce positive social change nationally and internationally. It prompts dissemination of workload, provides protection (‘strength in numbers’), and encourages strict rule enforcement. Although less appreciated than non conformists, conformists and their resulting principles play a vital role in the smooth conduction of society.

“Conformity occurs when the subject demonstrates the same behavior or attitude as the object. The subject is the individual who conforms. The object(s) may be individuals, groups, organizations, policies, rules and regulations, or the experience or natural instinct of the subject. Conformity is divided into 2 categories: irrational conformity (herd behavior) and rational conformity (abidance, compliance, and obedience). In this study we explain the meaning of abidance, compliance, obedience, and herd behavior. The conclusions have implications in the fields of commerce, education, service, politics, management, religion, and more.” (3)