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  • Essay / Psychology of Conformity and Resistance in Society

    Early research on conformity was conducted in the early 1900s and concluded that conformity is the way in which a person or group changes under pressure from external forces; usually other people. This is not necessarily irrational behavior, as it is based on a herd instinct. Compliant action can therefore be divided into rational compliance and irrational compliance. Rational compliance is behavior controlled by rational thought and judgment, while irrational compliance is controlled by instincts, even if they are not always right. It can be further divided into generalized and narrow compliance. Close conformity means that the actions or attitudes of the individual are consistent with those of the majority. The reason for conformity can come from both external persuasion and internal factors such as experiences and personal history. Behavior can derive from different factors that turn into a subconscious or conscious reaction. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essayConformity is something that is considered an external change of someone. According to some studies conducted, four elements constitute conformity: the cause, the goal, the theoretical hypothesis and the function. The cause is what is happening around someone, and an uncertain condition increases the subject's confidence in the information provided. The goal is when the unknown condition leads to following a broader social cue or doing what others are doing. The theoretical hypothesis follows the goal, as they will later compare the gut instinct of following the crowd with their reasoning and judgment. The last is function, where the concept of respecting instinct is classified as reliable. Compliance is an important factor in compliance because it is a positive response to something that is asked of someone. Even after thinking about actions, people may choose to implement them, even if it doesn't seem quite right. Conformity is seen in daily life, often simply to maintain homeostasis in a workplace or home instead of arguing. The most common examples would be doing what your boss tells you to do and having children who listen to their parents when they are told to do something. The idea is that compliance is commonplace in maintaining good relationships. Obedience is similar to compliance, but it is defined as taking a command either to avoid punishment or to seek rewards, such as what is commonly seen in dog training. Obedience, compliance, and obedience are three different presentations of rational compliance (Guandong et al., 2012). These three actions constitute what we call compliance. This brings us to a second article about how these character traits can lead to conformity even in terrible situations such as 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 a group. It's not that people had a distinctive trait that made them do inhumane things. Muzafer Sherif led one of the first studies on this question. He did this by dividing a group of young boys, who were friends, and then fighting each other. As if a switch had flipped, they became rude and violent towards each other. Anyone who didn't have them.