Conformist behavior

"Why are we born? What is the meaning of life? Who am I really? "- these questions have occupied many people at all times. Modern psychology also tries to find answers to them, exploring the nature of the personality, as well as the mechanisms of its formation.

Social psychology was closely involved in the peculiarities of personality behavior in the community in the middle of the twentieth century. This was due to the historical peculiarities of that period. In Europe and the United States began to develop informal youth movements, which had a protest character, the cold war between the USSR and the West was in full swing. Social values were changing before our eyes. Without exaggeration, we can say that the construction of a new society has begun. In this situation, the scientists faced the task of investigating the interaction of an individual and society.

What makes people give up their own opinion and take the side of the majority? Why is it easier for a person to accept someone else's point of view rather than his own? The search for answers to these questions was devoted to work on the study of the concept of "conformist behavior."

Experimental research

Experiments began in the 1950s in the United States, Solomon Ash received the first results. He created a study that became classic. The group of subjects was asked to compare the length of the segments to the eye. In the experience participated in advance warned people and one person who did not know about the conditions of the experiment. Participants sometimes gave incorrect answers to the question posed. The reaction of the subject was interesting. In 37% of cases, people gave the same wrong answer as all the "duck ducks". If the opinions in the group were divided, the subjects often gave the correct answer. I must say that it is impossible to make a mistake in this experiment. It was only necessary to compare the segments, the difference between which was obvious.

A little later, a similar experience was conducted in the USSR, in Kiev, as part of a program to study behavior in society. One of the experiments involved preschoolers, who were offered to try the porridge, and to say whether it was well cooked. In a group of six children, five received sweet porridge, and one child - salty. The results were amazing. Only 60% of children were able to show independence of judgment and said that porridge is salty. The rest is preferable not to break away from the collective.

By the way, this experiment was repeated in Russia in 2010. Accurate data have not been published, but judging from the video, children in our time demonstrate greater freedom from the opinion of the majority than in the era of the Soviet Union.

So, experimentally it has been shown that such a phenomenon as conformist behavior really exists. It is extremely important for people in a difficult situation when they need to confront the opinion of the majority. Sometimes a person is ready not to believe their eyes and doubt their own feelings if they contradict what other people say. Such a phenomenon underlies all possible techniques of influence on consciousness.

Conformism as a phenomenon

What is the basis for conformist behavior? It is necessary for the survival of society. In times of crisis, this mechanism allows us to maintain unity, the time of adaptation of a person in a new collective is reduced, the group becomes one and more resistant to external influences.

For any society, it is important that people's actions correspond to a limited range of rules, norms and regulations, so throughout life a person experiences the influence, hidden or obvious, which is aimed at the formation of his attitudes, opinions, beliefs.

Many psychologists stressed that the person's personality is of a social nature. We form it for survival among people, relying on the experience of parents. But in every personality there is a part of the soul of man, the true "I", which can and must be revealed in itself.

Vivid and unusual manifestations in the behavior of the individual are dangerous for the integrity of society, therefore they are reduced to a minimum even in the process of education. Thus, parents raise "decent" boys and girls, who later can not go beyond the generally accepted rules.

Conformist behavior is the behavior of a person who passively accepts the dominant opinion in the group. Lack of activity and creativity is the main feature of such a person who survives, having adapted to the existing order of things.

Thus, the phenomenon of conformism is negative for those people who are striving for creative self-realization and want to develop independent judgments.

Moreover, it is useful for society, as it is one of the mechanisms that ensure its survival.

To resolve the question of how to resist the influence of society and not be thrown out of it, the concept of lawful behavior will help .

Behavior, built in accordance with the rights and freedoms of other people, is not conformist, it is reasonable. A mature person who understands the need to consider other people in his life, does not feel dependent on their opinion, such a person can agree on ways of achieving his goals in a collective environment, where everyone has the right to his own judgment.

It can be added that the question of how much public pressure restricts our creative aspirations and independence of thought has always occupied philosophers, and the information and fear of hidden manipulation of the consciousness of the masses has not lost relevance in our century.

In order to understand where the society ends in a person and his "I" begins, it is necessary to understand the mechanisms that create the personality, and also to learn to follow the manifestation of one's true nature.