Three situational determinants of conformity to social norms.

"The present study has been concerned with the determinants of conformity to group norms. The variables under investigation were: (a) the extent of initial disagreement between the individual's and the group's opinion (known as 'distance'); (b) the number of occasions the individual was exposed to the group norm (known as 'exposures'); and (c) the size of the group… . In general, greater distance makes for greater conformity… . Conformity occurs within the first few exposures to the group norm." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality correlates of social conformity.

A group of 89 female social welfare case workers were administered the Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey and a social conformity scale developed by the author. The latter comprised 37 items utilizing the direction of perception technique of attitude measurement. For the selected sample, the relationship between the two scales appeared to be limited to a correlation of -.47 between the social conformity scale and the Objectivity scale of the GZ. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Taylor MAS and group conformity pressure.

Ss with low anxiety "tend to question their own judgment more but still show 'normal conformity,' under strong pressure conditions… [those with high level of anxiety] become somewhat hostile and rigid and less amenable to conformity influence. Some general support is thus given to the findings… that increase in emotional tension reduces the effectiveness of persuasive communications." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of different conditions of acceptance upon conformity to group norms.

"In experimental groups of Ss, 2 different norms were developed: one concerning a social value judgment; the other, a simple perceptual judgment. The Ss were experimentally made to feel different degrees of being accepted by the other members and were then given opportunities and incentives to deviate from the norms. Subsequent conformity, participation, and attitudes toward the group were studied in relation to the different conditions of acceptance. The results point to 2 contrasting patterns of conformity evolved by different conditions of acceptance. The first appears to consist of a high degree of genuine adherence to the norms… . The second pattern is marked by high conformity only under public conditions." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Involvement and communication discrepancy as determinants of opinion conformity.

"This research studied the relationship between conformity and (a) the extent of the discrepancy between the opinions of a communicator and a recipient and (b) the degree of involvement of the recipient. These variables are central to a dissonance theory analysis of the social influence process, as well as to many previous investigations of attitude change. It can be derived from the theory that opinion change increases with increases in both involvement and discrepancy between communicator and recipient." "… opinion conformity [did increase]… as a function of involvement and discrepancy. This theory with its consideration of the tension-producing effects of these variables, provides a sound framework for the understanding of some of the dynamics of social influence." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Group participation and conformity.

Contends that the mass media perceive the treat of subliminal perception as a way psychologists are considered engineers of conformity. Psychologists who work with problems of groups and group development have received particular attention in this regard. In general the kinds of experience which people undergo in group training laboratories and in sensitivity training are said to make for slavish adhesion to the group. The author discusses conducting a 2-day group training laboratory for leaders of student organizations at a small college. Small groups with the trainer were thrown upon their own resources and allowed to work on the problems they chose. Intermittently the trainer interpreted what was going on in the way of group process. There were reports of a good bit of subjective involvement on the part of the student leaders who participated. The purpose of the training laboratory was to determine whether there were attitude changes concurrent with the training. It is concluded that this kind of group experience which is designed to open people's receptors to the reactions of others may actually make the persons more independent in their attitudes. Perhaps it was that these young people, who were all social acquaintances of each other, had enough doubt about where they stood with each other to inhibit the frankest kind of interaction. Once they developed more sensitivity to each other and clearer perceptions of other's feelings, their attitudes changed to favor franker and freer self-expression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality profile similarity as a function of group membership.

Students in 3 universities were compared in an investigation of the question as to whether personality similarity between Ss paired at random would increase as the homogeneity of the group from which they were drawn increased. Homogeneity was defined in terms of race, sex, social class, and field of study. The results failed to confirm the expectation but they furnished convincing evidence of the existence of a low, positive, and significant average profile similarity among Ss paired at random. Regardless of its source, this phenomenon of interperson profile similarity should be taken into account in future studies utilizing personality similarity as a variable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Group cohesiveness, communication level, and conformity.

"The predictions that both communication level and conformity behavior within groups vary positively with the degree of group cohesiveness were clearly confirmed. Measures of the three variables under investigation were obtained, in a laboratory setting… . Data pertaining to the validity of a cohesiveness index, derived from the conceptual definition of cohesiveness, were also obtained… . the obtained results lend support to attempts to predict group behavior on the basis of… general behavior principles." From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4GE08L. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality and situational determinants of leader behavior.

Tested hypotheses derived from F. Fiedler's (see record 1973-20908-001) motivational hierarchy interpretation of least preferred co-worker (LPC) by observing the behavior of high- and low-LPC leaders of 32 3-man laboratory groups. High-LPC leaders showed greater variability in their behavior as a function of situational differences than did low-LPC leaders. Leader behavior differed as a function of leader attributes (LPC), situational factors (leader-member relations and task structure), and LPC * Task Structure interactions. Results do not clearly support motivational hierarchy predictions. U. Foa, T. Mitchell, and F. Fiedler's (1971) cognitive analysis of the LPC, suggesting that the greater flexibility in behavior of high-LPC leaders is a consequent of a more complex cognitive structure, appeared more capable of accounting for these data. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Group size, prior experience, and conformity.

An effort was made to validate the findings of 2 previous workers regarding the effect of the size of a group (Asch, 1952) and prior experience (Mausner, 1953, 1954, 1957) upon conformity in the judgment of the length of lines. The results of Asch and Mausner were reproduced; there is a curvilinear relationship between size of a group (from 2 to 5) and influence on S to conform to what he believes are the estimates of the lines made by others. Prior experience in making judgments of the lines was also found to influence the accuracy of judgment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Two determinants of conformity: Age of independence training and n achievement.

36 undergraduates at the University of North Carolina took part in the experiment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Competence and conformity in the acceptance of influence.

"A study was conducted to test the relationship between competence on a group task and conformity or nonconformity to procedural norms in determining a person's ability to influence other group members… . Influence was measured by the number of trials… in which the confederate's recommended solution was accepted as the group's choice… . a significant increase in his influence occurred as the trials progressed… . Past conformity… was also found to be positively and significantly related to the acceptance of his influence… . there was a statistically significant interaction between past and current nonconformity." From Psyc Abstracts 36:02:2GE65H. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality similarity and friendship.

Using the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule, "personality similarity or similarity of affect needs and of ways of expressing and receiving affect" was found to be a significant factor in interpersonal attraction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Determinants of conformity and attitude change.

"College males varying in affiliative motivation were subjected to a group-influence situation where their previously measured attitudes toward divorce was either unanimously opposed, or opposed with the exception of one supporter. The subject's public reaction (conformity) was measured, and also his private response (attitude change). The results indicated conformity to be a joint function of affiliative motivation and conditions of social support, with roughly similar but less significant results for attitude change." 19 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality characteristics related to leadership behavior in two types of small group situational problems.

Using male United States Air Force Officer Candidate School Ss several hypotheses implied in the "great man" theory of small group leadership were focused on small group behavior and situational testing. "The results… personality traits associated with successful performance in two types of small group activity do not differ in relative importance." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of person-group relationships on conformity processes.

"An experiment was designed to test hypotheses derived from assuming distinctive processes called social reality and group locomotion, each of which generates forces to conform under specified conditions. Four types of person-group relations were created by experimentally varying subject's attraction to the group and acceptance as a member. A modification of Asch's line problem and experimental situation was used to test the conformity behavior of subjects. The results are in accord with hypotheses advanced about the conformity behavior of highly accepted persons, thus supplying evidence in favor of the assumptions about social reality and group locomotion processes." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of perceived dependency relationships upon conformity to group expectations.

The study was designed to test the hypothesis that "group members perceiving themselves as interdependent for their reward attainment become highly motivated toward the group task." Results generally are in accord with several predictions, one of which is that: "Members of groups who are instrumentally interdependent become more highly motivated toward the group task than Ss who can achieve their goals independently of the others in the group." Another prediction supported by results is that: "Under conditions of instrumental independence, Ss who are told that both they and their teammates can attain a valued goal through the group activity become more highly task motivated than Ss who are told either that only S or Ss partner can attain this goal." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some effects of situational threat on group behavior.

It was found that situational threat affected behavior in three main areas of functioning: interpersonal relations, utilization of actors' and other group members' resources, and effectiveness of the group. An attempt was made to analyze and interpret these results within the framework of a competing response theory of anxiety. 20 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conformity to groups as a function of group success.

"Three person groups were given different degrees of success and failure in a collaborative group task. Following this, individuals twice judged the number of flickers of a light, receiving a purported average judgment prior to the second estimate." Persons in groups given all successes showed significantly more movement of the second judgment in the direction of the purported group average than did members of all failure groups or persons having no group experience. Persons in groups having partial success were intermediate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Two forms of social conformity: Acquiescence and conventionality.

The "study was designed to obtain some objective measure of both kinds of conformity… the dynamic process of immediate conformity, termed acquiescence; and long term results of conformity to cultural norms, termed conventionality." 22 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)