Some Current Issues in the Psychology of Conformity and Nonconformity

摘要

This paper presents an overview of some issues central to the conception and study of conformity as an influence process. It urges a rectification of the imbalance created by an emphasis on conformity at the expense of nonconformity. Both kinds of manifest responses are considered to have various goal properties which have instrumental value for the individual. Moreover, a further distinction is presented between movement conformity and congruence conformity in terms of responses to present versus past influence pressures. Though conformity and nonconformity have traditionally been treated as the opposite ends of a single dimension, a two-dimensional model is viewed as more appropriate to the actual response alternatives available to the individual.