How Does Conformity Affect Individual Behavior

Introduction The phenomenon of conformity is among the most basic ways that social influence impacts personal behavior. Studies done as far back as the 1940’s have shown that a need to please one’s peers and to fit into a group will affect everything from a person’s fashion choices, to certain brands they use, and even their preferred parenting styles and religious beliefs. Children most often have their first social interaction with their parents, and will begin to form their own identity largely based on their parents’ choice in disciplinary techniques. From there, they will form their social roles based, in large part, on their peers’ opinions of them. As students grow older and exercise their own opinions, teenagers often rebel, and these extroverted personalities often go on to join sororities or fraternities, which further impact a person’s decision to comply through specific actions. Throughout a person’s life-cycle, the propensity to conform will often be so strong that people frequently learn to express their own opinion only when they have the

This technique involves being accepting and tolerant of a child’s behavior (Baumrind, n.d., p. 889). This style became more popular as wars ended, economies grew more fruitful, and Baby Boomers of the 1950’s became parents. As a whole, society influences parents, and they, in turn, conform to communal ideals of disciplinary roles.

As society grew more tolerant of disrespect for authority than they were of a parent’s strict rules and ample punishment, some began to argue for firm, yet fair, means of discipline. After all, if a child touches a stove, he or she must learn as quickly as possible that that behavior is unacceptable, lest the stove be hot the next time the child touches it (Feldman, 2011, p. 187). In recent years, a compromise between authoritarian and permissive parenting styles has become