confo
Makenzie Robertson illustrated by Conformity is the act of people changing their behaviour or beliefs to fit in with a group’s standards, rules, or laws. This change can be caused by real (involving the physical presence of others) or imagined (involving the pressure of social norms/expectations) group pressure. This group pressure may occur in various ways such as bullying, persuasion, teasing, and criticism. A study performed by Herbet Kelman in 1958 concluded th at there are three types of conformity: compliance, identification and internalisation. Compliance is only temporary and occurs when an individual conforms to the ma jority publicly even if they don’t agree in private. Identification is when an individual conforms to the expectations of a social role, e.g. nurses, police officers. Internalisation is when a person publicly changes their behaviour to fit in with the group, while also agreeing with them privately and is a permanent change. In 1955 Deutsch and Gerrad identified two reasons for why peopl e conform: normative co n for m i t y a nd i n for m a t i o n a l conformity. Normative conformity is giving in to group pressure because a person wants to fit in with the g ro u p , w h ere a s i n f or m a t i ve conformity occurs when a person lacks knowledge and looks to the group for guidance or if a person is
026 028
in an uncl ear situation and compares their behaviour to their peers. Conformity is an important factor in making our society run smoothly as it helps keep people in line and is one of the ma jor reasons humans evolve and progress at such a fast ra te. Fo l l owi n g th e r ul e s and regulations when living within a society allows the group to progress and grow. Conformity is a lso i m p o r ta n t w h e n i t c o m e s t o following the rules as without the rules society would be a haphazard environment where no one would or could benefit. If there were no rules or consequences for breaking the rules then no-one in the group living in h armony or success so it’s important that people conform and abide by the rules. For example, people conform to the road rules nearly every day through things like driving on the left side of the road and following the speed limits. C o n f o r m i t y re s u l t s i n a f a i r distribution of the workload among a society’s citizens. When everyone does their “fair share”, pays taxes and works towards a common goal it allows society to be successful. When people abide by the rules, work and pay taxes it makes it possible for “safety nets” to be a thing within a society. Safety nets assist in improving the lives of vulnerable families and individuals.
features and human interests
