Conformity to Social Roles
Conformity to social roles refers to the tendency of individuals to adopt behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs that align with the expectations associated with their specific social roles. This concept is often studied in the context of social psychology, where researchers explore how individuals conform to the norms and expectations of their roles within various social groups and institutions.
7 Key excerpts on "Conformity to Social Roles"
eBook - ePub- Richard Gross, Rob McIlveen(Authors)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Two findings stand out: (a) authority exerts a powerful influence over everybody, more perhaps than we realise; and (b) destructive obedience may be reduced by the presence of certain variables, but is rarely eliminated. These experiments have been, and continue to be controversial among psychologists and those studying psychology. 8.6 The influence of roles So far social influence has been viewed from the perspective of one person or group of people either directly (compliance and obedience to authority), or indirectly (conformity), changing the behaviour of another in a desired direction. Often, social influence operates when a person takes on a role such as the role of parent, teacher, policeman, etc. All have expectations of behaviour associated with them. An important psychological effect of taking on a role is that individual identity is replaced by a group or role identity; this offers a person anonymity. This may lead to deindividuation (Zimbardo, 1969), which is the loosening of social, moral and societal constraints upon behaviour. Zimbardo et al. (1973) investigated the deindividuating influence of roles in a controversial study commonly known as the Stanford prison experiment. The basement of a university building was converted into a ‘prison’; there were three cells – a solitary confinement cell and an observational room for guards. Twenty-one participants were selected from a pool of volunteers. These were judged to be ‘stable’ (physically and mentally), mature and least involved in anti-social behaviour. Nine were randomly assigned to be prisoners and twelve randomly assigned to be guards. Prisoners were told they ‘would be under constant surveillance...
eBook - ePub- Kevin Wren(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...2 Conformity Introduction Mustafer Sherif and informational social influences Solomon Asch and normative social influences Informational and normative influences Richard Crutchfield Conformity/non-conformity and physiology Factors that may influence the degree of conformity Evaluation of conformity experiments Explaining the conformity effect Summary Introduction Throughout our daily lives we conform, i.e. we behave in response to the perceived pressure of others. We queue, wait at bus stops and conform to road signs. In other situations our conformity is subtler. When in a group we often ‘go with the flow’ while at the same time having some private reservations about what we are doing. In such face-to-face contact with a group we are under pressure to conform to the beliefs, actions and attitudes of the ‘greater’ group. In this respect our behaviour can be governed by a number of social influences of which obedience and conformity to group influences are examples. We need to be careful here not to confuse behaviour changed as a result of conformity and behaviour changed as a result of obedience. Although definitions differ slightly from psychologist to psychologist the following differences can be observed: • In conformity situations behaviour changes as a result of group pressure, despite there being no explicit requirement on the part of individual participants to change. In this respect behaviour within the group becomes more homogenous. • In obedience situations behaviour changes as a result of the explicit instructions of an authority figure, i.e. the experimenter. In this respect behaviour arises out of the fact that social structure is differentiated, i.e. the experimenter begins with a higher status. (after Evans, 1980) In this chapter we are going to examine material that deals with behaviour altered as a result of manipulating group pressure, i.e...
eBook - ePubSocial Psychology
The Basics
- Daniel Frings(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...We also explore the theory and practice of persuasion by investigating the extent to which we are rational thinkers, how irrelevant information such as mood and colour influence us, and how the science of persuasion is applied to marketing and public policy. As you read this, consider the sources of social influence in your own life and, perhaps, the ways in which you also exert your own influence on your social world. 6 Conformity and obedience Conformity versus obedience We can all think of times when we tried to get someone to behave the way we wanted them to. We can also think of times we may have conformed to comply with other people’s expectations. This chapter will examine the processes underlying conformity and obedience. Obedience is typically defined as following orders from someone in authority. Importantly, when someone is obedient they do not necessarily have to agree with the behaviour – rather, they must comply with it. Obedience can be a useful process: many organisations require that people do what they need to even if they don’t always agree with the actions (consider what would happen if a school full of children could do exactly what they liked!). However, as we will see, it can also lead to people behaving in ways that they feel very uncomfortable with – to the point that their actions clash with their core moral values. In contrast to obedience, conformity is usually seen as behaving in line with the way the group wishes or expects (i.e. the social norms the group has; see Chapter 5). Again, conformity has many benefits: recall that Festinger argued that having a sense of social reality (which requires conformity to some extent) is an important part of ‘being a group’, with all the psychological benefits that come with that. In this chapter, we’ll examine ideas around conformity and obedience by looking at a number of classic studies exploring how people conform, and are obedient to, authorities in groups...
eBook - ePubPersuasion
Social Influence and Compliance Gaining
- Robert H. Gass, John S. Seiter(Authors)
- 2022(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...This is true not only in cults, a topic we revisit later in this chapter, but in other social collectives as well. Families, peer groups, workplaces, even classrooms, exert strong pressure on their members to behave in certain ways. For that reason, this chapter examines the role of groups in the process of social influence. We begin by discussing the topic of conformity. CONFORMITY AS PERSUASION: IN WITH THE CROWD During a lecture by a sociology professor, in a classroom that held more than 100 people, an undergraduate student, known by both of your authors, removed his shirt, pants, shoes, and socks. Then, almost naked, he stood in the aisle, waiting to be noticed. The professor, who had been looking down at his notes, did not notice our friend until other people in the classroom began gasping and laughing. When the professor finally did look up, he was stunned. Undaunted, the nearly naked student looked down at himself and asked, “Does this count?” Apparently, just before the student disrobed, the professor had been lecturing on the topic of norms and conformity. Norms are expectations held by a group of people about what behaviors or opinions are right or wrong, good or bad, acceptable or unacceptable, appropriate or inappropriate (Andrews, 1996). Once norms are understood, we feel pressure to conform to them. Of course, the professor had probably explained to our friend and his other students that some norms are explicit. Explicit norms are written or spoken openly. For example, road signs indicate how fast you are permitted to drive and game rules may send you to jail without collecting $200. Some norms, however, are implicit and not so openly stated. For example, we imagine that when you’re a guest in someone’s home, you don’t put your feet on the dinner table even though you’ve never read a rule saying you shouldn’t...
- Jessica Kuper, Jessica Kuper(Authors)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Conformity DOI: 10.4324/9781315677101-35 Early attempts to explain the many uniformities observable in human social behaviour in terms of either a limited number of instincts (McDougall) or some general principle of learning such as imitation or suggestion (Tarde, Le Bon) proved to be unsatisfactory because they were essentially circular explanations. Research on conformity per se did not commence until the question of accounting for regularities in behaviour was tackled experimentally in the laboratory. In the 1930s Sherif investigated, under laboratory conditions, the formation and functioning of social norms. He chose a task, based on the autokinetic effect, for which there were no pre-established norms or standards which might aid his subjects in making their judgements. When a fixed point of light is viewed in an otherwise totally darkened room it will appear to move. Sherif's subjects had to estimate, in inches, the extent of this apparent movement. Individuals, making a series of such judgements alone, established their own particular norm. When several such individuals subsequently performed the task in each other's presence, a convergence in their estimates was noted, i.e. the emergence of a group norm. Other individuals, who made their initial estimates under group conditions, subsequently maintained the group norm when responding alone. It was Durkheim who had first identified the state of ‘anomie’ or normlessness. Sherif, by selecting the autokinetic effect, was able to investigate scientifically this social phenomenon, and he demonstrated how a social norm acts as a frame of reference to guiding individual action. Enlightened liberals, who value the autonomy of the individual, disliked a possible implication of Sherif's findings: that humans are gullible. Asch, in the early 1950s, hoped to demonstrate individual autonomy by removing the ambiguity in the stimuli to be judged...
- Paul Seager(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Teach Yourself(Publisher)
...6 Social influence: conformity and obedience This chapter looks at the topic of social influence. It is an important topic given that hardly a day goes by (if ever) without someone trying to get us to do something – sometimes we want to do it, and sometimes we don’t. Likewise, we try to get other people to do things that we want them to do, and which they might not want to do. Sometimes the influence is relatively harmless, e.g. trying to persuade a friend to see the film that you want to see and not the one they want to see; but sometimes it is far more sinister, e.g. when a soldier carries out an act of torture on a prisoner of war because he is told to do so by his commanding officer. When asked to think about the topic of social influence, many people tend to produce sinister examples. However, we should not lose sight of the fact that social influence is usually a good and necessary thing in order to keep life functioning smoothly. For example, what would happen if one morning we woke up and decided that, just because everyone else stops at a red traffic light, and goes at a green light, today we are not going to do what everybody else is doing; today we will go on red and stop on green. In short, society needs a good degree of successful social influence on a daily basis. Key idea: Social influence An attempt by one or more people to modify the behaviour, perceptions, attitudes or beliefs of another individual or group. For example, a boss might tell his employee that things have to be done a certain way; a cult leader might recruit followers by informing them that if they join his group they will be saved, but damnation will surely follow if they don’t; a politician urges a group of undecided voters to back his party in an election. Social psychologists study why people are influenced by others and the mechanisms responsible. They also investigate what factors might affect people’s tendency to be influenced...
eBook - ePub- Matt Jarvis(Author)
- 2005(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...7 Social psychology Key assumptions of the approach Obedience and agency Prejudice and social identity Social constructionism Key application: tackling racism Contemporary issue: lesbian and gay psychology Contributions and limitations of social approaches Summary Key assumptions of the approach Think back to someone you have spoken to in the last 24 hours. In what ways was your behaviour influenced by that person, and how might you have influenced them? Did you find them attractive or cool? If so, why? Did they belong to a group that you have positive or negative feelings about? If so, did you show your feelings? If not, why not, and how did you conceal your reactions to them? You begin to see the complexity of social psychology, but also its relevance to all of us. Every time we interact with someone else we are potentially involved in a huge number of social processes. When most people say they are interested in psychology it is really social psychology—the study of human interaction—that they mean. The previous four chapters began with a typical study used to illustrate that particular approach. Trying to find a typical social-psychological study is a bit like trying to identify a typical person. They are simply too diverse. Social psychologists have used a tremendous variety of methods to investigate people’s social behaviour. In this chapter we will be looking at research ranging from experiments in which participants are ordered to give people fatal electric shocks in order to see whether they will obey a person in authority (Milgram, 1963), to an analysis of the political implications of the language people use to talk about rape (Doherty and Anderson, 1998)...
