Conformity In Social Psychology

Milgrams obedience experiment is a series of famous social psychology experiments. The experiments sought to elucidate and measure the subjects' willingness to obey an authority who instructs the subject to perform acts that a person would not normally like to perform for reasons of conscience (Zimbardo, 2007). One of the Milgram experiment aims was to investigate obedience and authority, in the impact on a subject's ability to harm another person (Zimbardo, 2007). The experiment involved three participants. A facilitator and an actor who played a volunteer, then a subject, who voluntarily agreed to participate. The actor and the subject were then assigned different roles in the experiment trough a draw, one as a teacher and one as a learner. The draw was arranged so that the subject always came to be the teacher, and so the subject always had the impression that he and the actor had the same voluntary status. Milgram then separated the teacher and the learner using a wall. Then the teacher was told to give the student questions, and with each wrong answer the teacher would administer a shock which strength would increase for every wrong answer. As the voltage of the shocks was increased, the learner complained more vociferously and eventually became silent. The longer the test went on more of the subjects requested to abort and see how the learner was doing, but was then persuaded by the facilitator to continue. The majority of the subjects came to the stage of distributing

The article “Social Influence on Risk Perception during Adolescence” by Lisa j. Knoll, Lucia Magis-Weinberg, Maarten Speekenbrink, and Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, explores the relationship between social influence and risk taking. The authors acknowledge that adolescence is a time in life where risk taking is more likely to occur with peers than alone. However it is not just adolescence that are victims of peer pressure. People of all ages are constantly making decisions about whether they should take such risks. But what makes people take the risk? The article say that “adolescences are unaware of potential risks and feel invulnerable”. However that does not explain why they are more likely to engage

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.

Back in the year 1951, a psychologist by the name of Solomon Asch first began to investigate the theory of conformity. He opened up a whole new door in the field of psychology and his findings later influenced many other great psychologists such as Stanley Milgram (Slater 40) . Asch’s experiments made many heads turn and scientists began to wonder more and more about the human brain. However, I think the biggest question with Asch’s Conformity experiment would be: With so many small flaws, could his work really be considered credible in today’s society?

Venerated poet, Maya Angelou, once wrote, “few survive, if any, survive their teens. Most surrender to the vague but murderous pressure of… conformity.” This is especially true in the education system, where impressionable youth submit to a doctrine of doing simply what they are told, doing as others do. Nearly all schools rain down this ruling, as in many cases it is necessary to their functionality, so as to avoid a becoming a system that runs on a mild form of anarchy. However, in many cases, the conformist rule is unnecessarily strong, and grossly impeding on personal freedoms, as I’ve seen myself within our own school.

According to Webster, conformity is an “agreement in form, manner, or character” (Conformity, 2011). Usually associated with group pressure or bringing influencing by the majority, it can also be clarified as “yielding to group pressures” (Crutchfield, 1955). With these two definitions in mind, we can see that social influence, which tends to cause a change in belief system or even behavior, for the sole purpose of acceptance by the group, plays a large part in our every day lives. Dr. Herbert C. Kelman, the Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics, Emeritus, at Harvard University takes the definition of conformity a step further with his study, and claims that there are three different types

The human society contains certain cultural and social structures. Throughout the lecture, means of cultural norms and structures take the role within groups, or clusters of individuals. In this act, the development of group norms and conformity begins to cultivate. Professor Terry reveals that categorizing norms can also provide a way for students to understand or interpret a certain situation (Terry, 2017). This brings in the factor of conformity, which is viewed to social psychologist as placing impact on social value. This is not seen as one-sided; instead means of positive or negative attributes can occur (Terry, 2017). Conformity is a very common form of social influence. It is when members of a group begin to act or even deliberate

When we look back at a certain time or memory we can see our mistakes, but when you are currently in the situation things aren't so obvious. However, though if we think about things before we advance many problems can be avoided. This image by Tommy Ingberg, titled Army shows the effect conformity has on people, and how it makes us blind to everything around us since we are after being like everyone

A well known experiment that proves conformity is the Asch experiment that was conducted in the 1950s. Asch’s experiment involved a group of people, only one person in the group was actually a percipient in the experiment as the others had been told how to behave. The experiment involves the group viewing two sets of cards. One set of cards had one line and the other set of cards had three lines on. The subjects were asked which of the three lines matches the single line. The experiment starts out fine until most of the participants clearly get the answers wrong to see how the single subject reacts. The participant hears the others clearly giving the wrong answer but his opinion was influenced by them. Asch’s experiment proves that individuals are willing to ignore what they know as being right to give an incorrect answer to conform with the others in the group.

I always felt like I had to be like everyone else. That I would be shamed for being who I was. Being a teen is a really scary stage of our life's. We don't know what to expect but to be like everyone else. Scared to be yourself because of what others might think. People who stand out, the ones who are different, and look strange seem to get picked on like they were asking for it to happen. In my opinion conformity truly destroys our individuality. We can't be who we are without someone looking at us like we're odd.

What is conformity? Conformity is a change in one’s behavior due to the real or imagined influenced of other people. The acts of conformity can be a form of bravery to tragedy. Many people conformed because they did not know what to do in a confusing or unusual situation. The social influence effects the behavior of the people around them served as a cue to how someone will respond and act in a situation (Aronson, Wilson, Akert, Sommers, 2016, 230).

“ Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth” was a quote stated by John F. Kennedy, expressing the way we have come to hold ourselves captive underneath a society that revolves around prejudice and the automatic mindset of conforming. People living in this time period are oblivious to the changes that they are enforcing on their own, having them fit this flawless portrayal that every person desires to meet. Although it takes time to realize, conforming to society has the world entirely consumed and yearning for more in which is never viewed as a halt to growth. Satisfaction, although a state of mind is a temporary one that never seems to loosen its grip on our way of thinking and actions to best fit the “norm” that is allowed and confided into. Though it is felt that after reaching full potential in everyone else’s eyes, the need to necessitate will disappear, however, our society evolves, keeping youth from being their own human beings, having limits in growth of maturity and individualism as well as having others consumed to the point where stress is inevitable for one’s sake.

Milgram’s study of obedience was conducted in order to observe the conflict between personal morality, and the word of authority(McLeod 2007). In this study, Stanley Milgram set up a group of unsuspecting people to determine whether they will shock another human being(50th… 2011). These participants were men aged from twenty to fifty years old, all ranging in different professions(McLeod 2007). Milgram had them randomly select a role, either teachers or learners; however, this was deception, as it was set up so that the participants would always receive the “teacher” role(McLeod 2007). The learners, who were actually part of Milgram’s group of researchers, sat in a chair with electrodes strapped to them(). “Teachers” would ask a series of questions, and every time the “learner” would answer incorrectly, the participants were instructed to give them an intense shock of electricity by the push of a button(50th...2011).No matter how many times the learner pleaded for them to stop, the teacher was encouraged to continue giving the shocks(50th...2011).

The experiment dealt with 40 subjects who were tricked into shocking a “student” so that they may “learn”. The point was to see how far a person will follow authoritative figures while another human is being tortured.  Consequently, this experiment showed that people have the capacity to obey authoritative figures even though they may have otherwise morally opposed (and by inference adhere to social hierarchy even if they oppose). This leads one to believe that they are letting the blind-obedience that is associated with authoritative figures influence their decisions. This is observed by the outstanding sixty-three percent who choose to go beyond the fatal point (the point at which a person will die due to the electric shocks) even though they objected outwardly (Milgram’s experiment as cited in McDermott et al. 139

Studies show that diffusion of responsibility accounts for results in bystander hypothesis studies. As Baron et al. explain, the bystander effect occurs when the number of persons willing to help decreases with the number of people present. Darley and Latane (1968) assert that in the presence of others, bystanders reduce the individual feelings of personal responsibility and lower the speed of reporting an incident. Thus, in prosocial situations an individual's willingness to intervene or assist someone in need is inhibited by the presence of other people. The individual is under the belief that other people present will or should intervene, and does not perceive it as his or her responsibility to take action. In addition, diffusion of responsibility