TCRP1G6

**Social conformity __Definition-__**__Behavioral or attitudinal compliance with recognized social patterns or standards.__

When your baby was born, did you buy a crib for it to sleep in? **Why?** Some possible reasons are: 1. Everyone you know bought a crib for their baby to sleep in. 2. In the media, parents are pictured putting their babies to sleep in cribs, which promotes the idea that "it's what all parents do." 3. Your pediatrician advised you that it was best for your baby. 4. You have heard somewhere that if you let your baby sleep with you, they will never want to leave your bed and will become dependent upon you. 5. You've heard that sleeping in a crib is best for babies. 6. It's fun to decorate the nursery, and it's the American way for every family member to have their own room. 7. You don't know of any good reason not to. 8. If you let your child sleep in bed with you, you are afraid of what people will say or think. 9. You've been told its the only safe way for babies to sleep.
 * Examples of accepted social conformity: **

Conformity
 * Conformity can be defined as a change in a person's behavior or opinions as a result of real or imagined pressure form a person or a group of people.
 * Group membership can increase conformity because a person wants to fit stay a part of that group and belong.
 * Compliance is the behavior of a person who is motivated by a desire to gain a reward or avoid punishment.
 * Identification is a response to influence brought about by and individual's desire to be like the influencer.

-People have the natural need to be part of a group, so they conform to the norms of the groups, so that they will be accepted and not rejected......

Social Pressure and Perception
Imagine yourself in the following situation: You sign up for a psychology experiment, and on a specified date you and seven others whom you think are also subjects arrive and are seated at a table in a small room. You don't know it at the time, but the others are actually associates of the experimenter, and their behavior has been carefully scripted. You're the only real subject. The experimenter arrives and tells you that the study in which you are about to participate concerns people's visual judgments. She places two cards before you. The card on the left contains one vertical line. The card on the right displays three lines of varying length. The experimenter asks all of you, one at a time, to choose which of the three lines on the right card matches the length of the line on the left card. The task is repeated several times with different cards. On some occasions the other "subjects" unanimously choose the wrong line. It is clear to you that they are wrong, but they have all given the same answer. What would you do? Would you go along with the majority opinion, or would you "stick to your guns" and trust your own eyes? In 1951 social psychologist Solomon Asch devised this experiment to examine the extent to which pressure from other people could affect one's perceptions. In total, about one third of the subjects who were placed in this situation went along with the clearly erroneous majority.