Which of the following occurs when an individual accepts others influence because of the positive or negative outcomes tied to it?

Peer influence is when you choose to do something you wouldn’t otherwise do, because you want to feel accepted and valued by your friends. It isn’t just or always about doing something against your will.

You might hear the term ‘peer pressure’ used a lot. But peer influence is a better way to describe how teenagers’ behaviour is shaped by wanting to feel they belong to a group of friends or peers.

Peer pressure and influence can be positive. For example, your child might be influenced to become more assertive, try new activities or get more involved with school.

But it can be negative too. Some teenagers might choose to try things they normally wouldn’t be interested in, like smoking or behaving in antisocial ways.

Peer pressure and influence might result in teenagers:

• choosing the same clothes, hairstyle or jewellery as their friends
• listening to the same music or watching the same TV shows as their friends
• changing the way they talk or the words they use
• doing risky things or breaking rules
• working harder at school or not working as hard
• dating or taking part in sexual activities
• smoking or using alcohol or other drugs.

Being yourself: a balance for peer pressure and peer influence

It’s normal to worry that your child is being influenced too much by their peers, or that they’re compromising on their values (or yours) to fit in with their friends. It’s also normal to worry that your child won’t be able to say no if they get pressure to try risky things, like wagging school or smoking.

But listening to the same music and dressing in the same way as friends doesn’t necessarily mean that your child will also do antisocial or risky things.

If your child is happy with who they are and their choices and values, they’re less likely to be influenced by other people. Your child might choose to do some things that their friends do, but not others. And your influence is important here – it’s the biggest factor shaping your child’s values and long-term choices.

With your influence and a strong sense of themselves, it’s more likely your child will know where to draw the line when it comes to peer pressure and influence.

Helping pre-teens and teenagers manage peer pressure and peer influence

Coping well with peer influence is about getting the balance right between being yourself and fitting in with your group. Here are some ideas to help your child with this.

Build teenage confidence
Confidence can help teenagers resist negative peer influence. That’s because confident teenagers can make safe, informed decisions and avoid people and situations that aren’t right for them.

You can build your child’s confidence by encouraging them to try new things that give them a chance of success, and to keep trying even when things are hard. Praising your child for trying hard is important for building confidence too.

You can also be a role model for confidence, and show your child how to act confident as the first step towards feeling confident.

Build teenage self-compassion
Self-compassion is being kind to yourself and treating yourself with the same warmth, care and understanding you’d give to someone you care about. When teenagers have self-compassion, it can help them handle any stress and anxiety related to peer influence.

A strong relationship with you helps your child feel loved, accepted and secure. It’s important for teenage self-compassion.

Keep the lines of communication open
You can do this by staying connected to your child. This helps your child feel they can come to you to talk if they’re feeling pressured to do something they’re uncomfortable with.

Suggest ways to say no
Your child might need to have some face-saving ways to say no if they’re feeling influenced to do something they don’t want to do. For example, friends might be encouraging your child to try smoking. Rather than simply saying ‘No, thanks’, your child could say something like, ‘No, it makes my asthma worse’, or ‘No, I don’t like the way it makes me smell’.

Give teenagers a way out
If your child feels they’re in a risky situation, it might help if they can text or phone you for back-up. You and your child could agree on a coded message for those times when your child doesn’t want to feel embarrassed in front of friends. For example, they could say that they’re checking on a sick grandparent, but you’ll know that it really means they need your help.

If your child does call you, it’s important to focus on your child’s positive choice to ask you for help, rather than on the risky situation your child is in. Your child is more likely to ask for help if they know they won’t get into trouble.

Encourage a wide social network
If your child has the chance to develop friendships from many sources, including sport, family activities or clubs, it will mean they’ve got plenty of options and sources of support if a friendship goes wrong.

When you’re worried about peer pressure and peer influence

Encouraging your child to have friends over and giving them space in your home can help you get to know your child’s friends. This also gives you the chance to check on whether negative peer pressure and influence is an issue for your child.

Good communication and a positive relationship with your child might also encourage your child to talk to you if they’re feeling negative influence from peers.

If you’re worried your child’s friends are a negative influence, being critical of them might push your child into seeing them behind your back. If your child thinks you don’t approve of their friends, they might even want to see more of them. So it’s important to talk and listen without judging, and gently help your child see the influence their peers are having.

This might mean talking with your child about behaviour you don’t like rather than the people you don’t like. For example, you might say, ‘When you’re with your friends, you often get into fights’. This can be better than saying, ‘You need to find new friends’.

It can help to compromise with your child. For example, letting your child wear certain clothes or have their hair cut in a particular way can help them feel connected to their peers, even if you’re not keen on blue hair or ripped jeans. Letting your child have some independence can reduce the chance of more risky choices.

Having friends and feeling connected to a group gives teenagers a sense of belonging and being valued, which helps them develop confidence. Friendships also help teenagers learn important social and emotional skills, like being sensitive to other people’s thoughts, feelings and wellbeing.

When to be concerned about peer influence and peer pressure

If you notice changes in your child’s mood, behaviour, eating or sleeping patterns, which you think are because of their friends, it might be time to have a talk with your child.

Some mood and behaviour changes are normal in pre-teens and teenagers. But if your child seems to be in a low mood for more than 2 weeks, or their low mood gets in the way of things they normally enjoy, they might need support for their mental health.

Warning signs include:

• low moods, tearfulness or feelings of hopelessness
• aggression or antisocial behaviour that’s not usual for your child
• sudden changes in behaviour, often for no obvious reason
• trouble falling asleep, staying asleep or waking early
• loss of appetite or over-eating
• reluctance to go to school
• withdrawal from activities your child used to like
• statements about wanting to give up, or life not being worth living.

If you’re concerned, start by talking with your child. The next step is to talk to your GP, who can put you in contact with your local child and adolescent health team or another appropriate professional.

By Dr. Saul McLeod, updated 2016

Conformity is a type of social influence involving a change in belief or behavior in order to fit in with a group.

This change is in response to real (involving the physical presence of others) or imagined (involving the pressure of social norms / expectations) group pressure.

Conformity can also be simply defined as “yielding to group pressures” (Crutchfield, 1955).  Group pressure may take different forms, for example bullying, persuasion, teasing, criticism, etc.  Conformity is also known as majority influence (or group pressure).

The term conformity is often used to indicate an agreement to the majority position, brought about either by a desire to ‘fit in’ or be liked (normative) or because of a desire to be correct (informational), or simply to conform to a social role (identification).

Jenness (1932) was the first psychologist to study conformity.  His experiment was an ambiguous situation involving a glass bottle filled with beans.

He asked participants individually to estimate how many beans the bottle contained.  Jenness then put the group in a room with the bottle, and asked them to provide a group estimate through discussion.

Participants were then asked to estimate the number on their own again to find whether their initial estimates had altered based on the influence of the majority.

Jenness then interviewed the participants individually again, and asked if they would like to change their original estimates, or stay with the group's estimate.  Almost all changed their individual guesses to be closer to the group estimate.

However, perhaps the most famous conformity experiment was by Solomon Asch (1951) and his line judgment experiment.

Types of Conformity

Kelman (1958) distinguished between three different types of conformity:

Compliance (or group acceptance)

This occurs 'when an individual accepts influence because he hopes to achieve a favorable reaction from another person or group. He adopts the induced behavior because....he expects to gain specific rewards or approval and avoid specific punishment or disapproval by conformity' (Kelman, 1958, p. 53).

In other words, conforming to the majority (publicly), in spite of not really agreeing with them (privately). This is seen in Asch’s line experiment.

Compliance stops when there are no group pressures to conform, and is therefore a temporary behavior change.

Internalization (genuine acceptance of group norms)

This occurs 'when an individual accepts influence because the content of the induced behavior - the ideas and actions of which it is composed - is intrinsically rewarding. He adopts the induced behavior because it is congruent [consistent] with his value system' (Kelman, 1958, p. 53).

Internalization always involves public and private conformity. A person publicly changes their behavior to fit in with the group, while also agreeing with them privately.

This is the deepest level of conformity were the beliefs of the group become part of the individual’s own belief system. This means the change in behavior is permanent. This is seen in Sherif’s autokinetic experiment.

This is most likely to occur when the majority have greater knowledge, and members of the minority have little knowledge to challenge the majority position.

Identification (or group membership)

This occurs 'when an individual accepts influence because he wants to establish or maintain a satisfying self-defining relationship to another person or group' (Kelman, 1958, p. 53).

Individuals conform to the expectations of a social role, e.g. nurses, police officers. It is similar to compliance as there does not have to be a change in private opinion. A good example is Zimbardo's Prison Study.

Man (1969) identified an additional type of conformity:

Ingratiational

This is when a person conforms to impress or gain favor/acceptance from other people.

It is similar to normative influence, but is motivated by the need for social rewards rather than the threat of rejection, i.e., group pressure does not enter the decision to conform.

Explanations of Conformity

Deutsch and Gerrard (1955) identified two reasons why people conform:

Normative Conformity

• Yielding to group pressure because a person wants to fit in with the group. E.g. Asch Line Study.
• Conforming because the person is scared of being rejected by the group.
• This type of conformity usually involves compliance – where a person publicly accepts the views of a group but privately rejects them.

Informational Conformity

• This usually occurs when a person lacks knowledge and looks to the group for guidance.
• Or when a person is in an ambiguous (i.e. unclear) situation and socially compares their behavior with the group. E.g. Sherif's Study.
• This type of conformity usually involves internalization – where a person accepts the views of the groups and adopts them as an individual.

Sherif (1935) Autokinetic Effect Experiment

Aim: Sherif (1935) conducted an experiment with the aim of demonstrating that people conform to group norms when they are put in an ambiguous (i.e. unclear) situation.

It was discovered that when participants were individually tested their estimates on how far the light moved varied considerably (e.g. from 20cm to 80cm).

The participants were then tested in groups of three.  Sherif manipulated the composition of the group by putting together two people whose estimate of the light movement when alone was very similar, and one person whose estimate was very different.  Each person in the group had to say aloud how far they thought the light had moved.

Results: Sherif found that over numerous estimates (trials) of the movement of light, the group converged to a common estimate.  The person whose estimate of movement was greatly different to the other two in the group conformed to the view of the other two.

Sherif said that this showed that people would always tend to conform.  Rather than make individual judgments they tend to come to a group agreement.

Conclusion: The results show that when in an ambiguous situation (such as the autokinetic effect), a person will look to others (who know more / better) for guidance (i.e. adopt the group norm).  They want to do the right thing, but may lack the appropriate information.  Observing others can provide this information.  This is known as informational conformity.

Non Conformity

Not everyone conforms to social pressure.  Indeed, there are many factors that contribute to an individual's desire to remain independent of the group.

For example, Smith and Bond (1998) discovered cultural differences in conformity between western and eastern countries.  People from Western cultures (such as America and the UK) are more likely to be individualistic and don't want to be seen as being the same as everyone else.

This means that they value being independent and self sufficient (the individual is more important that the group), and as such are more likely to participate in non conformity.

In contrast, eastern cultures (such as Asian countries) are more likely to value the needs of the family and other social groups before their own.  They are known as collectivist cultures and are more likely to conform.

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How to reference this article:

McLeod, S. A. (2016, Jan 14). What is conformity? Simply psychology: https://www.simplypsychology.org/conformity.html

APA Style References

Asch, S. E. (1951). Effects of group pressure upon the modification and distortion of judgments. In H. Guetzkow (Ed.), Groups, leadership and men. Pittsburg, PA: Carnegie Press.

Crutchfield, R. (1955). Conformity and Character. American Psychologist, 10, 191-198.

Deutsch, M., & Gerard, H. B. (1955). A study of normative and informational social influences upon individual judgment. The journal of abnormal and social psychology, 51(3), 629.

Jenness, A. (1932). The role of discussion in changing opinion regarding a matter of fact. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 27 , 279-296.

Kelman, H. C. (1958). Compliance, identification, and internalization: three processes of attitude change. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 2, 51–60.

Mann, L (1969). Social Psychology. New York: Wiley.

Sherif, M. (1935). A study of some social factors in perception. Archives of Psychology, 27(187) .

Smith, P. B., & Bond, M. H. (1993). Social Psychology Across Cultures: Analysis and Perspectives. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf.

 Download this article as a PDF

How to reference this article:

McLeod, S. A. (2016, Jan 14). What is conformity? Simply psychology: https://www.simplypsychology.org/conformity.html

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