What Is Conformity?

Conformity is often described as behaving the same way as everyone else to fit in. While it often has a negative connotation, conformity is an interesting phenomenon that is present in all parts of human society and can be both good and bad. Conformity is a theme present throughout many literary works, and there have been countless studies on it and its effects on people. Some of the most interesting examples can be seen in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The Lemming Condition, and the Milgram Experiment.

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 refers to an individual’s behavior that is performed because of group pressure, even though that pressure might not involve a direct request. Many people want to think that they are conformist enough so that they are not looked upon as strange to others and nonconformist enough to demonstrate that they are capable of thinking by themselves. For many years, psychologists have been interested in human conformity. Usually when people are in groups, they behave according to how those in the group behave. That indicates that conformity can affect a person’s behavior and make a person do things that may be against their ethics, attitudes, and morals. The study of

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.

According to Leon Mann, conformity means ‘yielding to group pressures’. Everyone is a member of one group or another and everyone expects members of these groups to behave in certain ways. If you are a member of an identifiable group you are expected to behave appropriately to it. If you don’t confirm and behave appropriately you are likely to be rejected by the group. Like stereotypes, conforming and expecting others to conform maintains cognitive balance.

Conformity is a form of social influence, when we conform we act and think like members of our group. Often people even alter or change their personal beliefs to match those around them. When we conform we feel pressured to fit in with others, to be a part of the majority. While we may still have contradicting beliefs towards things, we change our behaviors and actions to match what everybody else is

Conformity: “Agreement between an individual's behavior and a group's standards or expectations. A conformist is one who follows the majority's desires or standards.”Conformity is not always necessarily a bad thing, but can be when followed excessively. For instance, can you imagine what this world would be if everyone looked, dressed, talked, walked, and acted the exact same. This is what life is like at Mica High, and this paper analyzes the negative aspects, and consequences of conformity in Stargirl.

“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.

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

"Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth"~– John F. Kennedy. For many years young adults have been pressured to do things that they might not want to go through, even though the situation might be harmful to them or others. However they go through with it anyway because they feel the need to fit in with their peers. Conformity is defined as the change in behavior that arises from social influences that may be put on one in different situations, in order to fit in with a certain group. Although people may indulge with people who encourage good behaviors, but it usually ends with kids being encouraged to act with inhuman and savage actions.

Conformity is adjusting your behavior, thoughts, and actions, to fit in to the norms and values of your society. Conformity is enforced on individuals from birth; starting with the primary influences of their parents and continues through out life being effected by school, peers, and the workplace. The Asch experiment describes conformity because in most cases the people involved in the experiment were “willing to discount their own perceptions rather than buck a group on consensus.” I feel as though this attempt to conform is not as uncommon as people portray it to be. Many teens and other young adults tend to not stand by their own morals and values and sacrifice their own identity to conform to others around them, usually to those “so called” peers.

Conformity is the act of changing behavior as a result of real or imagined group pressure. Everyone at one point has experienced this type of pressure at one point in their life. I remember this one time when I was confirmed into doing something because everyone was doing it. This happened back in my high school years. There was a point in the eleventh grade that I felt kind of peer pressured into skipping school. I never really had the urge to be a bad kid and go skipping. I actually loved coming to school. I loved learning new things I was always that kind of person. But of course I started hanging out with the wrong group of people. Which I never should have but I wanted to be so called cool. I wanted and had the desire to fit in always, I always wanted acceptance and to be popular. I honestly regret ever going skipping. It wasn’t only once that it happened. It occurred multiple times until it got out of hand and I was caught by my parents. I never heard the last of it from them even until this day I still hear it. From that point on I was always brought to school; until the day I graduated. I regret these poor decisions I made, I feel like if I wouldn’t have done it I would have finished my schooling by now because I found it acceptable to skip school. All because I wanted to be accepted and be one

Group conformity is defined as the way people change their behavior or character when influenced by other people or by a certain social environment. A basic example of it will be a teenager whom friends are all smirking a cigarette, fear of not being part of the group our teenager will at his turn light a cigarette. Conformity in a group is in way copying what other members are doing to integrate the group, one can act totally out of character just for the group conformity. In this essay we will analyze how people are affected by group conformity and what kind of changes some are willing to make in their characters or behavior. We will also analyze how can group conformity be expressed in our society. Finally we will analyze what statistics and scientific research is telling us about group conformity.

Once someone starts talking about conformity we all think to ourselves about how we are never a conformist, we never conform, and we stand out from others. Though, this is false. In fact, everyone conforms almost always

Conformity is a powerful force that can take the form of social pressure, or unconscious influence. The general concept of conformity refers to any change in behavior caused by another person or group. Conformity is limited to changes in behavior caused by other people, it does not affect internal concepts such as attitudes or beliefs (Breckler,Olson,Wiggins,2005, p. 29). Dr. Gregory Berns stated “the two leading theories of conformity are that people look to the group because they are unsure of what to do, and that people go along with the group because they are afraid of being different” (Why So Many Minds Think Alike, 2009, [Online]).