Conformity (psychology) - Definition and Overview

In psychology, conformity is the degree to which members of a group will change their views and attitudes to fit the views of the group. The group can influence members via unconscious processes or via overt social pressure on individuals.

Famous experiments in conformity include:

• the Asch conformity experiments of Solomon Asch, whose development of the peer pressure theory aided greatly in the modern disciplines of psychology;
• the Milgram experiment of Stanley Milgram, which set out to measure the willingness of a participant to obey instructions from authority, even when the instructions (in this case, to 'torture' others by means of electric shocks) conflicted with the participant's personal conscience.

Herbert Kelman identified three subtypes of conformity:

• compliance - conforming only publicly, but keeping one's own views in private
• identification - conforming while a group member, publicly and privately, but not after leaving the group
• internalization - comforming publicly and privately, during and after group membership

See also groupthink, mimetism.

References

• Kelman, H. (1958). Compliance, identification, and internalization: three processes of attitude change. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 2, 31-60.

External links

• Changingminds: Conformity (http://changingminds.org/explanations/needs/conformity.htm)
• What is conformity? (http://www.cannockchase-high.staffs.sch.uk/pyscology/conf.htm)