Conformity and Obedience

CONFORMITY AND OBEDIENCE * CONFORMITY * A change in behavior or belief as the result of real or imagined group pressure. – Meyer * is a type of social influence involving a change in belief or behavior in order to fit in with a group. * can also be simply defined as “yielding to group pressures”. * is often used to indicate an agreement to the majority position, brought about either by * a desire to ‘fit in’ * or be liked (normative) * or because of a desire to be correct (informational), * or simply to conform to a social role (identification).
For Example: There have been many experiments in psychology investigating conformity and group pressure. * Jenness (1932) was the first psychologist to study conformity. * His experiment was an ambiguous situation involving a glass bottle filled with beans. He asked participants individually to estimate how many beans the bottle contained. Jenness then put the group in a room with the bottle, and asked them to provide a group estimate through discussion. Participants were then asked to estimate the number on their own again to find whether their initial estimates had altered based on the influence of the majority. Jenness then interviewed the participants individually again, and asked if they would like to change their original estimates, or stay with the group's estimate. Almost all changed their individual guesses to be closer to the group estimate. * Conformity is the tendency to align your attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors with those around you. * As much as we like to think of ourselves as individuals, the fact is that we're driven to fit in, and that usually means going with the flow.
More examples of conformity can include: * criminal gangs * opinions from friends involving peer pressures, * complusions of social life

* conformity is basically a process by which people's belief or behaviors are influenced by others.