Margaret Drabble's Theory Of Human Conformity

In 1932, Jenness became the first psychologist to study conformity, which involved an experiment with basic materials and little ethical treatment (Jenness). The participants were asked to examine a jar of beans. They were then told to make an estimate of how many beans were inside of the jar. The participants were not informed of intentions of the study, thus full consent was invalid. When they were exposed to the estimates of other participants before making an individual guess, most participants’ estimations differed from the norm, and a shift occurred from the first estimates to the cluster of numbers within the pool of peer responses. This result led Jenness to form the idea of informational conformity,

In pyschology conformity can be descibed as an indiviual’s tendency to follow the unspoken rules or behaviours of the social group to which he/she belongs to or wants to be apart of. Many psychologists including , Jenness (1932), Sherif (1935) both experimented in psychology, investigating conformity and group pressure. However, perhaps the most famous conformity experiment was done by Solomon Asch (1951) and his line judgment experiment. (McLeod 2007)

In 1951, Solomon Asch carried out several experiments on conformity. The aim of these studies was to investigate conformity in a group environment situation. The purpose of these experiments was to see if an individual would be swayed by public pressure to go along with the incorrect answer. Asch believed that conformity reflects on relatively rational process in which people are pressured to change their behaviour. Asch designed experiments to measure the pressure of a group situation upon an individual judgment. Asch wanted to prove that conformity can really play a big role in disbelieving our own senses.

Ever been in a room, know the answer, and feel hesitation to respond because nobody else knows the answer? Ever complete multiple-choice group assignments and go with the popular answer, despite your correct knowledge? The Asch Conformity Experiment is the study of conformity when in groups or large crowds. My interest in this study comes from personal experience. Some studies, like Pavlov or Zimbardo, require certain situations to see the effects, but the natural reaction and ability to recreate this study drew me in.

Psychologists have long wondered about the power of conformity and social norms on human behavior, whether or not an individual will act outside of their beliefs in order to fit in. In the 1950s, Solomon Asch decided to research this question. However, instead of researching vague concepts, such as attitudes, ethics, morals, and belief systems, he chose to focus on perceptual conformity, the extent to which humans tend to conform with one another’s perceptions of the world. Asch chose to study a simple visual comparison that could easily he and other researchers could easily construct and repeat in a laboratory setting. He theorized, along with many other researchers of his time, that one could manipulate another’s behavior by applying group

Though he knows his answer is correct, he starts getting anxious. None of them chose the answer he did. If he knows his answers are correct, why is he worried? To solve this and many other problems like it, Solomon Asch created the Asch Conformity experiment. With help from participants and actors, Asch discovered how that when placed in a social group, we conform to whatever the group views as normal (“Asch Experiment”).

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.

Even with our many unique traits, interests, personalities, and appearances, everyone has this urge to want to fit in and to comply with everyone else. Everyone and anyone has dealt with this natural need to appeal to certain trends, behaviors, and styles in order to avoid standing out. People tend to avoid standing out to avoid the risk of exclusion, alienation, and possible embarrassment. In an excerpt from one of her talks, English author Margaret Drabble goes on to discuss conformity. Both Drabble

The ASCH experiment demonstrated that humans conform easily, and it is scary to know that. Humans do not want to feel left out or alone. In groups or large numbers of people, we

An individual’s need to conform stems from our mental psychology, which is something we cannot usually change because it is in our nature. Guandong Song et al described conformity as “…a subject’s behavior or attitudes following those of the object. The subject is the individual who conforms. The object can be external or internal factors that cause conforming actions, in the form of individuals, groups, organizations,

Salomon E. Asch in his essay “Opinions and Social Pressure” conducted an experiment to determine effects of group pressure towards an individual and concluded that there is a very strong tendency to conformity even when doing so conflicting with their own senses of morality. In the experiment a group of young students have to compare length of lines on two different sheets of paper. On one of them there is a sample single line and on the other one there are three lines only one of which is same size as the sample line from the first sheet. People taking part in this experiment are instructed to point at lines that are the same length. At first, during the experiment the group is

On average, about thirty-two percent of the participants conformed to pick the blatantly wrong answer and over the twelve trials seventy-five percent of the students conformed at least once, and twenty-five didn’t conform at all. Many of the participants afterward admitted they conformed to give the wrong answer because they wanted to avoid being ridiculed and some thought the group really was correct. Is was the results of this experiment that led Asch to conclude that whenever people conform it’s to either fit in or because they believe that since they’re in the minority their conclusion is incorrect. Another influential experiment concerning conformity is the Stanford Prison Experiment. Conducted in 1973, Phillip Zimbardo wanted to determine if brutality in prison systems was due to the

We can see from these forms of conformity that people act in accordance with others for many different reasons and also that conformity isn't necessarily a bad thing. However our likelihood of conforming to others is partly dependant on our own opinion of ourselves as well as other people's demands on us. There have been many studies over the years by various psychologists, including: Triplett (1898) and his "fishing reel" experiment, Sherif (1936) and the "Autokinetic effect" experiment involving the various moving lights,

In fact, this also applies to the situation of understanding what social conformity is. This subject has been around for centuries, forcing many to behave in a certain way that the society expects. The influence of peer pressure is still a topic has an impact to the world, especially the adolescents. The “[s]ocial psychologists have suggested that one core function of compliance and conformity is to maintain group harmony”(“Social Influence and the Brain:Persuasion, Susceptibility to Influence and Retransmission” Cascio,Scholz,Falk) and this applies to many individuals who value public opinions more than their own. They seek to be “good” people and make an effort to follow the trend of the crowd. More often than not, this also relates to the confidence level of an individual, “If those others agree with one’s beliefs, one gains confidence in them; if they disagree, one loses confidence” (“Conformity,” Levine). This is indeed what many people face today from all different phases of life. Daisy, one of the characters in the book The Great Gatsby, is a perfect example of a person soaked into social conformity. From the beginning of her marriage life with Tom to the end of the book, she progresses into immoral stages of life. Day after day she conforms herself into a world filled with corruptions, such as adultery and murder. Although, she is an adult, she is a character that is stuck in a stage that her age group have already

According to an article by Saul Mcleod in Simple Psychology, “conformity is a type of social influence involving a change in belief or