Variables Underlying Sociometric Status. Ⅲ. Conformity Behavior: A Psychological Reinterpretation

摘要

In this paper we have examined those conceptions taking account of the fundamental problem posed by the very definition of conformity behavior. Thus we have noted that conformity and non-conformity, as regrards process, arennot necossarily established by the simple cri¬terion of manifest behaviors;that conformity must have, at bottom, a basis in a realistic awareness of the norm by the individual actor;and that the notion of a fixed norm is very likely misleading insofar as it may not apply to all individuals comprising the group of refer¬ence.