Topic > Psychology of Conformity and Resistance in Society

The first research on conformity was conducted in the early 1900s and led to the conclusion that conformity is the way a person or group changes due to pressure from external forces ; usually other people. It is not necessarily irrational behavior, as it is based on herd instinct. Conforming action can therefore be divided into rational conformity and irrational conformity. Rational conformity is behavior controlled by rational thought and judgment, while irrational conformity is controlled by instincts, even if they are not always right. It can be further divided into generalized compliance and narrow compliance. Narrow conformity means that the individual's actions or attitudes are consistent with those of the majority. The reason for conformity can derive from both external persuasions and internal factors such as experiences and personal history. Behavior can result from several factors that turn into a subconscious or conscious reaction. We say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Conformity is something that is seen as an external change in someone. Based on some studies conducted, four things constitute conformity: the cause, the purpose, the theoretical assumption and the function. The cause is what happens around someone and a condition of uncertainty increases the subject's confidence in the information provided. Purpose is when the unknown condition leads one to follow the larger social signal or do what others do. The theoretical hypothesis follows the purpose, as they will later compare the gut instinct to follow the crowd with their reasoning and judgment. The last one is function, where the concept of respecting instinct is classified as reliable. Conformity is a huge factor in conformity, as it is a positive response to something being asked of someone. Even after thinking about actions, people may choose to do it even if it doesn't seem entirely right. Compliance is seen in everyday life, often simply to maintain homeostasis is a workplace or home instead of arguing. The most common examples would be doing what your boss tells you and children listening to their parents when they are told to do something. The idea is that conformity is commonplace for maintaining good relationships. Obedience is similar to compliance, but is defined as following an order to avoid being punished or getting rewards, such as what is commonly seen in dog training. Abiding, conformity, and obedience are three different presentations of rational conformity (Guandong et al., 2012). These three actions make up what we know as compliance. This leads to a second article about how these traits can lead to conformity even in terrible situations like the Nazi Holocaust. This particular article states that conformity contains two elements: we do horrible things because they are determined for us and we become inattentive to the results of our actions when we are in groups. It's not that people had a defining trait that drove them to do inhumane things. Muzafer Sherif conducted one of the first studies on this topic. He did this by dividing a group of young boys, who were friends, and then having them race against each other. As if a switch was flipped, they became rude and violent towards each other. Anyone who hadn't met them before would have simply thought they were rude kids when in fact they were perfectly fine and friendly before the study began. After the sheriff came the experiments of Soloman Asch. His study showed that if everyone else ignores him,.