Profese Online, 2016 (vol. 9), issue 1

Profese online 2016, 9(1):9-16 | DOI: 10.5507/pol.2016.002

Conformity among Czech and American adolescents

Simona Dobešová Cakirpaloglu^1,2, Michaela Pečtová², Šárka Vévodová³

¹ Katedra psychologie a patopsychologie, Pedagogická fakulta, Univerzita Palackého, Olomouc, Česká republika

² Katedra psychologie, Filozofická fakulta, Ostravská univerzita, Ostrava, Česká republika

³ Ústav společenských a humanitních věd, Fakulta zdravotnických věd, Univerzita Palackého, Olomouc, Česká republika

Background: Conformity is generally defined as an individual way to adapt to the pressure of the referent group. The common characteristic of the different conceptions of conformity is that to this process precedes a conflict among the inner strengths of the personality who induce the individual to act according his own opinion and the strengths of the group who force the person to act according to the expectation of the group.

There are two main reasons which produce conform behaviour. Those are informative and normative influences. The informative influence indicates the people give in the group pressure because of the belief of the truth of the opinion which is urged by the members of the group. The normative influence is based on the emotional processes. The reason of the individual conformity is the fear of the consequences, which might arise from the situation when the authentic opinion of the individual is contrary to the view of the other members of the group.

Aim: The essence of the research is a trans-cultural analysis of conformity among two groups of adolescents. The prominent goal of the research was to take a look to the phenomenon of general conformity, peer conformity, peer pressure and popularity as well finding how risk behaviour is related to the mentioned manifestations of group behaviour.

Methods: To determine the empirical data we used the following research methods: peer pressure, peer conformity, popularity and general conformity scale by Santor, Messervey and Kusumakar and a scale of risk behaviours of adolescents, which was created in agreement with the US Youth Risk Behaviour Surveillance System.

Results: According to the statistical analysis we found out that between the Czech and American adolescents there is no significant difference in perceiving the group pressure. Men from both groups perceive the group pressure more than the girls. The other results showed that the American adolescents have bigger interest to be popular among the peers. Talking about conformity, for the American adolescent is typical noticeable submisivity to the adult authorities and their demands. On the other hand the Czech adolescents incline to peer conformity and risk behaviour while their desire to be popular is lower. However the peer conformity refers more to the Czech girls because the comparison of the results among the men didn't show any differences.

Conclusion: The comparison of the result among the adolescents of a different sex has shown some interesting information. The statistical analysis showed that men perceive the peer pressure more than the girls. The young men are predisposed to the risk activities than the young girls. We understand that as a manifestation of identification of the young men with the adults while the often experiment with situations and activities marked as risk like alcohol, smoking etc. On the other hand the girls are more submissive than the men which can explain the presence and the domination of the both phenomenon of conformity, peer conformity and general conformity.

Keywords: conformity, group pressure, popularity, risk behaviour

Published: April 2016  Show citation