Group Pressure Essay Example for Free

Group Pressure Essay Groups influence the behavior of their members, often promoting conformity. The tendency to match one’s behavior to that of others is called conformity. Some amount of group conformity provides a secure feeling of belonging; group pressure, however, can be considerable and sometimes unpleasant. Even groups of strangers can foster conformity, as a classic experiment by Solomon Asch (1952) showed. This empirical study is a classic investigation that revealed the power of group conformity. It’s always been known that our social world not only involves making attributions, it also involves our tendency to conform to or not to conform to the attitudes and behaviors of others. The story of Okiki is one of the reasons why further study is needed in this field. She’s a thirteen-year-old honors student at a Lorain, Ohio, middle school. She sat in class, her arms and legs shaking nervously. In her book bag she had a twelve-inch kitchen knife. Her plan was to wait for the bell to ring and then rush to the front of the classroom and, with the help of another student, stab her teacher to death. Why?  To settle a grudge against the teacher and to show her classmates (at least a dozen of whom placed bets as to whether or not she would â€Å"chicken out†) that she was worthy of their respect. Hearing about the plot, an assistant principal broke up the plan only minutes before it was to be carried out (Gregory, 1993). The fact that young teens are anxious about fitting in surprise no one, although many people might be amazed at the lengths some will go to gain acceptance. Sociologists have confirmed the power of group pressure to shape human behavior and found that it remains strong in adulthood as well as in adolescence. Hence further study regarding this problem is needed. Another reason is that, more people nowadays, conform by adopting the social norms or customs of the larger group. Changing fashions in dress and hair style illustrate conformity. I t would have been extremely unusual in the 1950s, for example, for a young man to wear an earring, but it is commonplace today. Most people feel pressure to go along with the fashion trend that is operative at the time for their group. Hypotheses Solomon Ach conducted this classic study with the hypothesis that: There would be little yielding to group pressure. Hence the hypothesis being tested is that group pressure affects perceptual judgments. Specifically, the study seeks to answer the following questions: 1. Could anything persuade a person to choose others` choice other than what the person have selected is the correct choice? 2. Do opinions of the majority have an extremely powerful influence on an individual? Type of research A controlled experiment was conducted by Asch in his famous study. The controlled experiment allows the researcher to manipulate an independent. The experimenter forms an experimental group, which will experience a change in the independent variable (the â€Å"treatment†), and a control group, which will not experience the treatment but whose behavior will be compared with that of the experimental group. It is important to take note that the control group is similar to the experimental group in every other way. ) This type of experiment is especially characteristic of studies at the micro level of sociological research. Participants The participants are college students recruited by the researcher. Asch`s control participants/group consisted of subjects who looked at the lines in a room where they were seated together but were allowed to make their judgments independently. In this group the subjects invariably matched the correct lines, just as you no doubt have. But in the experimental group a different result was produced by the introduction of an independent variable: group pressure. Procedure Solomon Asch (1952) conducted a classic investigation that revealed the power of group conformity. He formed groups of six to eight people, allegedly to study visual perception. His technique required the use of confederates, all of whom stated an obviously incorrect judgment prior to the turn of the individual whose behavior was being investigated. He arranged with all but one member of the group to create a situation in which the remaining subject would be pressured to accept conclusions that were quite unreasonable. Asch asked group members, one at a time, to match a â€Å"standard† line on â€Å"Card 1,† to one of three lines on â€Å"Card. † Anyone with normal vision could see that the line marked â€Å"A† on â€Å"Card 2† was the correct choice. Initially, everyone gave correct answers. Then, Asch`s secret accomplices began responding incorrectly, making the naive subject bewildered and uncomfortable. Results and Conclusions So what happened? Asch found that more than one-third of subjects placed in this awkward situation chose to conform to the others by answering incorrectly or they went along with the incorrect group judgment. His study suggests that many of us are apparently willing to compromise our own judgment to avoid the discomfort of being different from others, even from people we do not know. The independent variable in the study was group pressure. Asch varied the degree of group pressure experienced by the subject. The independent variable (group pressure) thus produced more â€Å"errors,† or choices (dependent variable) of the wrong line (Asch, 1966). Methodological or ethical flaws Yes, an ethical flaw in the study is evident. In Asch experiment, the subject is duped and may feel embarrassed. Since this is a sociological research, it deals with the personal lives and inner thoughts of real human beings. Although this research seems relatively innocent, there are many times when the question asked or the behaviors witnessed may be embarrassing or even more damaging. Moreover, the study did not mention informed consent. So, the researcher did not take precautions to protect the fundamental rights of human subjects. More or less, the study has good internal validity as it clearly measures what it intends to measure. Moreover, external events and contamination may cause causal conclusions of the study to be invalid. For example, when the experimental group was interviewed, something might happen which is unrelated to the result or something in their surrounding might influence the subjects in answering the questions and thus might affect the result of the survey. On the other hand, external validity is not measured in the study. Alternative Explanation An alternative explanation for the results found in this research, not related to the effects of an independent variable is the foot-in-the-door technique (Dillard, 2001). This technique can produce extraordinary degrees of compliance. Here, the experimental group will conform to the confederates not by group pressure but by voluntarily conforming to the incorrect response. This is best explained by self-perception theory, which assumes that we infer our attitudes from observing our own behavior, and provides an answer. Here, if someone freely comply with a small, worthwhile requests, the person will somehow his self as someone who has positive attitude toward worthwhile requests. As one wish to be consistent with his self-perception, he may be more likely to comply with other requests. But supporters of this alternative explanation have been mixed (Dillard, 2001). One variations of the Asch experiment suggest that the social impact of the group varies as a function of its size, the degree of unanimity in the group, and the degree to which one’s nonconforming behavior can be hidden from scrutiny. People evaluate their opinions and behavior against the standards of a reference group. If they find major differences, they feel pressure to conform – or to change reference groups.