Conformity and commitment to the group.

As reported by Asch (1956), an individual who asserts his independence at the outset, in the face of successive disagreement with others, tends, over time, to remain independent. This tendency, it was hypothesized here, is due to the commitment to one's stand when confronting the others publicly. Data were examined from an experiment in which the individual experienced the same sequence of discrepant judgments used by Asch either with or without public confrontation. These data indicate that continued adamance occurs only with public confrontation. Also, with confrontation, the individual who tends to yield to the others does so with greater frequency as compared with the no confrontation situation. This bimodal reaction occurring with confrontation, it was suggested, offers evidence for the effects of a stronger commitment to behavior in a public situation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conformity, veridicality, and self-esteem.

Prior to the application of group pressure to conform to an erroneous consensus in the Blake-Brehm procedure of counting auditory clicks, a control series was administered in the absence of social pressure to ascertain sheer counting accuracy in 2 groups of experimental Ss selected to differ in the degree of their measured self-esteem. Low self-esteem Ss were found to be significantly less accurate than high self-esteem Ss in counting accuracy under the nonsocial conditions. The results highlight the importance of controlling for competency in conformity research, particularly in studies utilizing such personality variables as self-esteem. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of personal work goals in newcomers' job satisfaction and organizational commitment: A longitudinal analysis.

This study examined the importance of 3 characteristics of personal work goals (i.e., commitment, attainability, and progress) in accounting for changes in newcomers' affective job attitudes (i.e., job satisfaction and organizational commitment) during the 1st months of employment. Twenty weeks after organizational entry, 81 newcomers provided a list of their personal work goals. Goal attributes and job attitudes were assessed at 3 testing periods covering 8 months. Goal commitment was found to moderate the extent to which differences in the attainability of personal goals at the workplace accounted for changes in job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Goal progress mediated the interactive effect of goal commitment and attainability on newcomers' job attitudes. Findings are discussed with respect to their relevance for proactive approaches to organizational socialization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Religious commitment and expectations about psychotherapy among Christian clients.

To assist psychotherapists in understanding client religiousness, Richards and Bergin (2005) have suggested assessing clients' religiousness at a broad level initially, using ecumenical measures, followed by a more detailed assessment that uses measures particular to the client's religious affiliation. In this study, the utility of this approach was tested in predicting expectations about psychotherapy of Christian clients (N = 176). Their religious commitment was considered in comparison to religious beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviors. Client religiousness was positively associated with ratings of therapist expertise and attractiveness, desire to discuss religious issues in psychotherapy, and desire to see a Christian therapist. This suggests that assessing religious commitment is important, and that measuring religious beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviors add accuracy to assessment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conformity and achievement-related characteristics of depressed patients.

Conformity and achievement-related characteristics of 10 hospitalized depressed patients and 11 matched acute schizophrenics were studied in an Asch-type conformity situation, and by the use of self-report inventories. It was found that in the conformity situation, depressed Ss showed a greater tendency to conform to social pressure than did the controls. When conformity and achievement were assessed by the use of self-reports, the results were either nonsignificant or opposite to those found in the conformity situation. The results were compared with recent theory and research dealing with cyclical affective disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conformity and character.

In 1953 "… one hundred men visited the Institute of Personality Assessment and Research… to participate in an intensive three-day assessment of those qualities related to superior functioning in their profession." Conformity is discussed with regard to individual differences, relations to personality variables, conformity behavior in different populations, psychological processes involved in expressions of conformity to group pressure, and the reinforcement of conformity behavior. The author suggests that "… we have what appears to be a powerful new research technique, enabling the study of conformity behavior within a setting which effectively stimulates genuine group interaction, yet preserves the essential requirements of objective measurement." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conformity and problem solving.

Tests of problem solving, conformity, and intelligence were given to 77 women and 64 men introductory psychology students to investigate the possibility that conformity, a nonintellectual variable, contributes to the variability in achievement in problem solving. The results show a negative correlation between tendency to conform and achievement in problem solving when the influence of intelligence is statistically removed. 17 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

College students’ social justice interest and commitment: A social-cognitive perspective.

In this study, the authors examined the degree to which social-cognitive career theory (SCCT; R. W. Lent, S. D. Brown, & G. Hackett, 1994) explained the development of social justice interest and commitment. Data from 274 college students and latent variable path modeling were used to test theoretically and empirically derived SCCT direct and indirect effects structural models. The direct effects model estimated the direct effect of social supports and barriers on social justice commitment and the indirect effects model estimated the effect of social supports and barriers indirectly through self-efficacy. Overall, the present findings supported the use of SCCT within the social justice domain, as social justice self-efficacy and outcome expectations were useful in explaining the development of college students’ social justice interest and commitment. The present findings supported the indirect effects model of social justice interest and commitment over the direct effects model. Finally, unique to prior tests of SCCT in vocational and academic domains, social supports and barriers exhibited an indirect effect on commitment through outcome expectations. Study limitations, future directions for research, and implications for facilitating college students’ social justice interest and commitment are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Beyond change management: A multilevel investigation of contextual and personal influences on employees' commitment to change.

The extent to which attitudes toward organizational changes may be affected by contextual (other changes going on) and personal (self-efficacy) factors was investigated with a multilevel design involving 25 different changes. Even after aspects of the change itself were controlled, the interaction between the context and the individual difference explained significant variance in attitudes toward those specific changes. The positive relationship between self-efficacy and commitment to the change was stronger as the amount of simultaneous and overlapping change in the surroundings increased. The implications for research and practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Human resources management and firm performance: The differential role of managerial affective and continuance commitment.

In this study, the authors developed a dual-concern (i.e., maintenance and performance) model of human resources (HR) management. The authors identified commonly examined HR practices that apply to the middle manager level and classified them into the maintenance- and performance-oriented HR subsystems. The authors found support for the 2-factor model on the basis of responses from 2,148 managers from 463 firms operating in China. Regression results indicate that the performance-oriented HR subsystems had a positive relationship with firm performance and that the relationship was mediated by middle managers' affective commitment to the firm. The maintenance-oriented HR subsystems had a positive relationship with middle managers' continuance commitment but not with their affective commitment and firm performance. This study contributes to the understanding of how HR practices relate to firm performance and offers an improved test of the argument that valuable and firm-specific HR provide a source of competitive advantage. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of personal and shared threats upon social prejudice.

The effects of varying types of threat-arousing communications upon the expression of social prejudice was examined. Personal threat groups showed a greater increase in social prejudice than did the control group. Shared threat groups showed a decrease in prejudice in comparison with the control group. (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)     

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)     

Self-appraisal, personal desirability, and perceived social desirability of personality traits.

200 college sophomores took the MMPI 3 times. Analysis showed the following results: (1) Variation of order or time of testing in the personal or social condition seemed to make no difference. (2) Intercorrelations between the 3 forms were low enough to show that the 3 tasks were different. (3) Variance on all 3 forms was lower than in the standardization of the MMPI. (4) The mean profiles were highly similar in all 3 groups. (5) The clinical scales were in general highest on self, as were the Si, A, and obvious scales. The L, K, and subtle scales were in general lowest on self. (6) Results based on analysis of item discrepancies rather than scale comparisons showed that the discrepancies tended to be very sizable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Facilitating personal growth.

The theory of multiple self-states postulates the coexistence of various discrete organizations of self, each with a particular perspective on reality and each prevailing in a specific intersubjective context. The present article suggests some applications of the theory to clinical psychoanalytic practice and focuses on the state of personal crisis. The approach presented here proposes that there is a total or partial destruction of a state of the self in a particular intersubjective context. It is also proposed that, in addition to traditional analytic work, there be exploration of the parameters of the damaged self-state and of the contexts in which this state is ascendant, and that the dialogue between the damaged self-state and other intact self-states be encouraged. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-discrepancy and distress: The role of personal growth initiative.

Higher levels of personal growth initiative (PGI; C. Robitschek, 1998) are associated with lower negative and higher positive affect (e.g., C. Robitschek & S. Kashubeck, 1999; C. Robitschek & C. L. M. Keyes, 2004). Two hypotheses that have been suggested for such findings are that (a) PGI moderates the relation between problems and affect and (b) successful resolution of potential problems mediates the relation between PGI and affect (C. Robitschek & S. Kashubeck, 1999). The current research tested these two hypotheses, using self-discrepancies (E. T. Higgins, 1987) as problems or sources of distress. Using a sequential design and a sample of predominantly European American college students (N = 134), the authors found that PGI was associated with lower social anxiety and negative affect, higher positive affect, and lower self-discrepancies. No support for the first (moderation) hypothesis was found. However, there was partial support for the second (mediational) hypothesis. The results suggest that those higher in PGI experience less social anxiety in part by maintaining lower self-discrepancies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rigidity of attitudes regarding personal habits and its ideological correlates.

"It was predicted that under present social conditions, urban American college students would show substantial individual consistency in the degree to which they manifest rigidity of attitudes regarding personal habits (hypothesis 1). Further, on the basis of previous research findings, it was predicted that rigidity of attitudes regarding personal habits would be significantly associated with acceptance of fascist or antidemocratic ideology (hypothesis 2)." The data are interpreted as supporting both hypotheses. 19 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some personal and social attitudes of habitual traffic violators.

"The results indicate that the negligent operators do not constitute a homogeneous group with respect to either the personal variables or the attitudes expressed toward the law, the police, or themselves… [they] therefore, fail to support the common belief that drivers who have unfavorable attitudes toward self or society become serious traffic violators and that such violators have developed unfavorable attitudes toward traffic laws, enforcement agencies, or themselves as a result of frequent apprehension for traffic violations… . In conclusion, it appears that the drivers used in this study are not different from other drivers in the characteristics considered, except in the frequency of traffic violations on their records." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conformity to group pressure in relation to the value of the task material.

This study was an investigation of the effect of varying the value content of a perceptual task under conditions of group pressure, when factual anchorage was held constant. 20 Ss, each with both high and low scores on the Allport-Vernon Study of Values, were exposed to a group pressure situation in which task materials were of both high and low values for each S. The results showed that group pressure is resisted when highly valued material (particularly economic) is utilized, and that, in general, susceptibility to influence increases with pressure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)