Conformity and Alienation

1. Conformity and Alienation

2. Conformity What is a group? The answer to that question may see extremely obvious considering we are surrounded by groups every day. Most human beings do things where they are involved with others in order to get things done; for example, with families, friends and colleagues. However, when social scientists examine the topic of groups, they state that a group is two or more people that have these 4 characteristics:

3. They interact regularly and influence each other They believe that have something in common They have an informal or formal social structure with leaders and followers They have a group consensus on certain values, behaviours, and goals

4. By looking at those characteristics you can probably think of the several areas in your life where you see other people talk and where you see other people influence thinking and emotions. • People who just happen to be waiting in a line at the same time would not be considered a social group. They are a collection of people or what social scientists call an aggregate. They interact only briefly, if at all, and have little influence on one another.

5. Which of these photographs show a social group?

8. Not only do people tend to adopt the values and ideal from their families, friends and other groups to which they belong, they also tend to adopt the values of the society in which they live. The great majority of people in Canadian society tend to have similar ways of thinking. Ex: Even though everyone may not agree on which political party should be in power, most do believe in the fundamental freedoms of democracy.

9. Social scientists coined the term “subjective validity” which means that all people believe that their attitudes are right and proper. Being with groups helps to strengthen the idea of subjective validity and that is why humans tend to enjoy being around like-minded people. Social scientists further argue that without subjective validity people would experience uncertainty, a feeling most people do not like.

10. Roots of Conformity Social scientists M. Deutsch and H.B. Gerrard identified two types of conformity. Informational influence is the human desire to accept information from another, admired person who indicates that the information is valid. For example, a parent may tell a young child that smoking is bad. That child will conform to what the parent states because the child admires the parent. Normative influence is the pressure to conform to the positive expectations of others. For example, some young adults will take on the same job as a parent because it has always been expected that they would.

11. Alienation The experience of anyone who does not share the major values of society and who feels like an outsider. The reason why people are alienated or may experience alienation can differ from person to person. Ex: a person may experience alienation from being discriminated against or from the dissatisfaction of being an unhappy teenager. Sometimes people who reject societal values join together to form gangs or cults. Some even go as far as creating armed conflict in the hope to create a purer society and destroy the old one. These extremely alienated groups are called anarchists

12. Most people feel alienated from society at some point in their life. Ex: if you were to lose your job and become unemployed you might feel alienation toward a society that seems to value wealth and success. For some alienation becomes so severe that they simply can give up and turn to crime or poverty. Suicide and substance abuse can be both the result of, and an explanation for, alienation

13. But not all alienation is bad; some people may become reformers and lobby to change an aspect of society. • Ex: Some women in the 1920s and 1930s experienced significant alienation from the prevailing social attitudes towards what was a woman’s role.

14. This alienation led many individuals to challenge the accepted view and to become leaders in the fight to achieve legal, financial, and political reforms to benefit women. The alienation of certain women became a powerful motivator to change the nature of society.

15. Social Change and Conformity Conformity has the ability to discourage social change. People tend to do the same thing the same way year after year and resist the temptation to do things differently. Conformity also allows people to feel as if they fit in , and this can have serious consequences especially if it encourages people to accept practices they know are wrong.