...‘THE CATCHER IN THE RYE’ AND ‘IGBY GOES DOWN’ – NON-CONFORMITY Both J.D Salinger’s 1951 Bildungsroman novel The Catcher in the Rye and Burr Steer’s film Igby Goes Down, demonstrate that regardless of context, the youth will choose not to conform to socially held values. We can see that this is the manifestation of the vulnerability and hesitation experienced as adolescents like us grow up. Ultimately both these texts explore the search for identity and individualism as a cause for non-conformity. The Catcher in the Rye was written during a post war era and a time of drastic social change. However, many of its conservative values remained and most importantly, the notion of youth conformity was held in high regard. On the other hand, Igby Goes Down is set in the 1980s -1990’s American era, a time of expanding multi national corporations, materialism and commercialism. Salinger and Steers utilise the characterisation of their young, sardonic and rebellious protagonists, Holden and Igby to epitomise non-conformity. The composers allude to the recurring theme of isolation and alienation in both texts. As a result of their non-conformity, the protagonists experience rejection and depression as they search for their selfhood. Similarly, the national ethos of the American Dream is explored as a mere fallacy, and both composers portray this through their protagonist’s wealthy backgrounds and opulent upbringings and yet money doesn’t bring them happiness. Salinger, through literary...
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...What is Conformity? Conformity is a type of social influence involving a change in belief or behavior in order to fit in with a group. This change is in response to real (involving the physical presence of others) or imagined (involving the pressure of social norms / expectations) group pressure. Conformity can also be simply defined as “yielding to group pressures” (Crutchfield, 1955). Group pressure may take different forms, for example bullying, persuasion, teasing, criticism, etc. Conformity is also known as majority influence (or group pressure). The term conformity is often used to indicate an agreement to the majority position, brought about either by a desire to ‘fit in’ or be liked (normative) or because of a desire to be correct (informational), or simply to conform to a social role (identification). Jenness (1932) was the first psychologist to study conformity. His experiment was an ambiguous situation involving a glass bottle filled with beans. He asked participants individually to estimate how many beans the bottle contained. Jenness then put the group in a room with the bottle, and asked them to provide a group estimate through discussion. Participants were then asked to estimate the number on their own again to find whether their initial estimates had altered based on the influence of the majority. Jenness then interviewed the participants individually again, and asked if they would like to change their original estimates, or stay with the group's...
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...in Mark Twain’s book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Huck Finn is a book about a boy growing up , and his flight down the Mississippi River. Through his actions and thoughts Huck is able to survive the dangers of the river and in doing so develops self reliance and independence as well as non-conformity to what is acceptable to society. Huck Finn is definitely a non-conformist in the truest sense of the word. Non-conformity means to go against what all other people think and do. In the book Huck chooses not to go to school,. and therefore it makes him a non-conformist because everyone else goes to school. Another example of non-conformity that Huck shows is running away with Jim. No one ever would think about running away with a black man. It is absurd ,because it is going against the rest of society and what they believed about slavery. Huck’s actions definitely makes him a non-conformist. A third example of non-conformity in Huck is not wanting to be civilized. Huck says,”Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I can’t stand it. I been there before.” (294) This quote shows that Huck doesn’t like to be civilized like the rest of society making him an outcast and non-conformist. Huck Finn is a very self-reliant person and he shows it in his thoughts and actions throughout the book. Self reliance is to use your mind on your own to be able to do things. Just as Emerson said, “A weed is a plant with wise virtues which have not yet been discovered.” Huck throughout...
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...stressful life by being self-reliant. The opposite of this is someone who conforms to everyone else’s behaviors and doesn’t have a strong opinion or impact of this or her own. In order to live a successful life one needs to be self-reliant. Along with these self-reliance a person will also live with inner peace and happiness, trusting his or her self.of self-reliance. Emerson makes some very good points about non-conformity and the negatives that can come with it. In Emerson’s “Self-Reliance” essay, he believes that self-reliance is the unbreakable trust in one’s own intuitions. He states this when he says, “To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men,—that is genius” (3). He believes that if a person believes that his or her belief is true for everyone, then that person is self-reliant, and in his eyes, that makes this person a genius. Emerson also believes that it can be hard to be self-reliant because of today’s world and the harsh society that it harbors. An example of this is when he says, “For non-conformity the world whips you with its displeasure” (6). His belief is that if someone has strong trust in his or her own intuition, which is known as self-reliance, then they will not conform to something. Now in return a person might feel displeasure from society’s reaction. However at least that person can be happy that they didn’t let the world around them break their self-reliance. There are many...
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...attitudes, beliefs and behaviours. It is an important force keeping groups together and facilitating communication (Bond & Smith, 1996). Disposing of rubbish in a bin is a pro-environmental behaviour which can be categorised as a positive social norm. Social norms are defined as ‘rules and standards that are understood by members of a group, that guide and/or constrain social behaviour without the force of law’ (Cialdini & Trost, 1998). Adhering to these social rules is described in terms of conformity or adversely conversion. Various social norms can alter an individual’s response to a specific situation depending on their environment and individual gains from doing so. For example to judge whether a person will dispose of their rubbish one must account for their personal norms and perceived social norms within the culture. Cialdini et al., (1991) developed the norm focus theory stating that only those norms which are focused on a given situation predict behaviour. For example if a person in a food court see’s a ‘Don’t waste Victoria, do the right thing’ then they have the focus of rubbish and the willingness to abide by the social rules to dispose of their waste. Even considering recycling in the home, social norms have been...
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...How can we explain conformity? Draw on at least two examples Scott and Marshall (2005) explain conformity with people’s attempts on complying with other’s norms and rules in order to fulfill their expectations. But is it really that simple? Conformity is one of these terms in sociology that have too much different tones and shades, and thus requires deep examination. This essay looks at in detail at a number of classical studies on the subject of conformity as well as it analyzes a particular type of conformity, i.e. gender conformity. Examples and case studies given from both academic experiments and everyday life help this essay in arguing that conformity is a complex process happening to all of us most of the time even without our knowledge. Moreover, this essay provides information about why people actually conform. Every person is an individual. However, every person belongs to a group. The nationality of a person, their sex, their age, the colour of their skin, and even their hobbies are all different kinds of groups to which this person belongs to. Group membership helps building a type of social identity, while applying its norms and rules upon the individual (Brown 2000). Moreover, even in cases in which a clear hierarchy and roles are absent because of the instant development of the group, social influence remains existent. Social influence definition given by Allport (1968) is as it follows, ‘an attempt to understand and explain how the thought, feeling, and...
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...relation to individual differences • Skills of analysis, evaluation and application in relation to individual differences • Knowledge and understanding of research methods associated with this area of psychology • Knowledge and understanding of ethical issues associated with this area of psychology. |Content outline | |Social influence |Conformity (majority influence) and explanations of why people conform, including informational | | |social influence and normative social influence | | | | | |Types of conformity, including internalisation and compliance | | | | | |Obedience to authority, including Milgram’s work and explanations of why people obey | |Social...
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...Conformity defeats Non-conformity: The Conformist, Bernardo Bertolucci Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist (1970) is a denunciation of the individual cowardice and moral paralysis during the ‘Black Twenty Years’. The protagonist, Marcello, spies on his former professor while working for Benito Mussolini’s political police. He accepts the assignment because he is eager to build a so-called normal life. He always keeps silent about his conformity and the deep space utilized in the scene when he walks though the huge building to meet the Minister reflects the lack of individuality in fascist era. The diegetic sound of Marcello’s steps without verbal communication illustrates that he is a copycat and always chooses to be silent so to conform and to belong. These footsteps reveal that he just follows the path of society; for example, he wants nothing more than to conform to the upper-crust expectations, join the Italian Fascist movement and marry to a middle-class woman. Actually, the people surrounding Marcello are both conformists: Manganiello states that one should just follow orders; Italo’s blindness expresses the blind faith of Fascism to a high degree. People conform to the ‘normality’ of Italy society and live in their own world as reflected by the two people who walk on two sides of the oversized building without any physical and mental connection. Especially, the marble floor creates the only loud sound of the steps in the scene and its echoing is due to the large...
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...proves that he is very unfocused and strayed in his thoughts. He also loves detail. The descriptions he gave within the story shows of how particular he sees every detail. ...read more. Middle Another struggle his has is his immaturity that leads to his infatuation over Queenie, who at the end does not even notice him. He never was able to show his rebellion as he quit his job only to prove to the girls that he was too like them. Lastly, his conflict with the life he leads. The manager tells him at the end that he would regret his decision of quitting and that his parents would be disappointed. This enables as us readers to understand he had financial issues in his life that he struggled with. Sammy has a struggle between conformity versus non-conformity in his life. This conflict he endures leads him to quit his job. He describes his working condition as very poor and low as he calls his cashier lane a âslotâ. He does not really conform to his working conditions. He explains how he is not like Stokes, a married...
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...I. INTRODUCTION On May 21, 2004, the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, made a decision in the matter of Chicago Prime Packers, Inc. v. Northam Food Trading Co., et al [1] under the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (hereinafter "CISG"). Notably, the decision references sources available from the Internet and cites to more foreign jurisprudence than any prior American case decided under the CISG. The CISG first entered into force in 1988 between the United States and ten other nations. Today, the CISG is the law in sixty-three nations (including the U.S.). The CISG, also known as the Vienna Convention, facilitates foreign trade of goods through a unified approach. It applies to contracts for the sale of goods between parties whose places of business are in different Contracting States. It automatically governs all international trade transactions within the scope of the CISG, unless the parties indicate an alternative applicable law. The CISG is generally consistent with the Uniform Commercial Code, which commonly governs contract disputes in the United States. However, the Convention ultimately represents a series of compromises between the concepts of common law and civil law. II. FACTS OF THE CASE In the case of Chicago Prime Packers, Inc. v. Northam Food Trading Co., et al, Chicago Prime Packers, Inc. ("Chicago Prime") brought a two count amended complaint for breach of contract...
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...A research done in conformity was conducted by Sherif. He did a lab experiment where he asked participants to watch a non-moving light in a dark room. The light appeared to move when in fact it was a visual illusion. Participants were asked to estimate the movement of the light alone and then in groups of three. He found that when participants were asked to estimate the movement of the light alone there was a variation in answers. However, when they were in groups of three participants changed their answers to give an average of their individual estimates. A criticism of Sherif’s study is that its low in ecological validity, for example the task that participants were asked to do is not a task you would do in everyday life. Therefore we may not be able to generalise these results to real life situations in which people conform to a majority. Another criticism of Sherif’s study is that it raises ethical issues, for example participants were deceived as they were not told the truth about the light not moving. Therefore this can lead to the participants feeling stressed as they try to find out the answer. This would raise another ethical issue as Sherif has not protected his participants from harm therefore this shows that Sherif is valuing his experiment more than his participants. Another criticism to Sherif’s study is that the answer to the task is ambiguous; for example, we don’t know whether the participants conformed to others due to them generally being affected by...
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...Outline and evaluate explanations of conformity. (12 marks) Normative social influence says people conform because they feel they need to be accepted and belong to the group. They accept the majorities’ views publicly, but privately they disagree – this type of conformity is compliance. The majority control the other group members, and use the fear of rejection to get others to conform. This is because humans are a social species and need companionship and are afraid of rejection. Research to support this explanation comes from Asch’s experiment, where participants knew the group was wrong privately but chose to conform in order to be accepted. This suggests that normative social influence is a valid theory of why people conform as it states we conform to be part of a social group, not because they believe the group to be right. On the other hand, in real life they aren’t part of that social group so don’t fear rejection, so factors other than the group may influence conformity. Another explanation of why people conform is informational social influence, where the individual changes their opinion both publicly and privately, which is described as internalisation. They do this as they believe the group are right. Conformity tends to increase when the situation is ambiguous, in matters of crisis or if they feel others are better qualified to make decisions. Fein et al found that participant’s opinions of political candidates in a debate were influenced by the reaction...
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...Conformity and Obedience in the 20th Century The desire to be accepted and belong to a group is an undeniable human need. But how does this need affect an individual? Social psychologists have conducted numerous experiments and concluded that, through various forms of social influence, groups can change their members' thoughts, feelings, and behavior. In her essay "Group Minds," Doris Lessing discusses our paradoxical ability to call ourselves individuals and our inability to realize that groups define and influence us. We, as humans, hold individualism in the highest regard yet fail to realize that groups diminish our individuality. Lessing writes, "when we're in a group, we tend to think as that group does... but we also find our thinking changing because we belong to a group" (p. 334). Groups have the tendency to generate norms, or standards for behavior in certain situations. Not following these norms can make you stand out and, therefore, groups have the ability to influence our thoughts and actions in ways that are consistent with the groups'. Lessing's essay helps set the context to understand the experiments that social psychologists Solomon Asch, Stanley Milgram and Philip Zimbardo conducted to explain conformity and obedience. Solomon Asch's experiment in "Opinions and Social Pressure" studied a subject's ability to yield to social pressure when placed within a group of strangers. His research helped illustrate how groups encourage...
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...Outline and explain the meaning of the term deviancy (15 marks) Deviance is a sociological term that literally means to stray or digress from the normal. Sociologists tend to view deviant behaviour as acts, which provoke a sense of public disapproval. Deviant behaviour is also frequently subject to some form of sanction that serves to promote conformity. The definition of deviance varies from sociologist as deviancy is a complex concept. Clinard and Meier (2001) developed four definitions of deviance including statistical, absolutist, reactivist and normative. Anthony Giddens (1993) defines deviance as “non-conformity to a given norm, or set of norms, which are acceptable by a significant number of people in a community or society.” Whereas Downs and Rock (1998) claim that deviancy is “banned or controlled behaviour which is likely to attract punishment or approval” and finally, Wickmen (1991) states that “behaviour that violates the standards of conduct or expectations of a group or society” is deviant. Ken Plummer defines where there is a broad consensus that an act is wrong as normative deviance, where deviancy is an act which violates prevailing norms, or cultural standards prescribing how humans ought to behave normally. Plummer also defines situational deviance as occurring when deviant behaviour is understandable in its context, such as running naked from a burning building. The rules of each society vary; this is a basic sociological and anthropological concept known...
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...Andy Weber Dr. Guerra American Literature 28 October 2014 Conformity Versus Individuality in “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” Anyone who might read the short story “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” by F. Scott Fitzgerald might analyze it and immediately take note that it is a story with a strong central focus on societal norms of the early 20th century and how those norms begin to change, especially among women of era. In “Bernice Bobs Her Hair,” we observe as the story’s central characters—a pair of young women—challenge the traditional gender roles set upon them by society, and in doing so, challenge the idea of conformity itself. Clearly this reflects the actual mindset of young women who lived during this time, as the 1920’s is particularly known as a time when women truly began to break societal norms and expected roles. But while the theme of identity and feminism seems clear to us, there also appears to be an underlying message that contrasts with this initial idea. Although “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” is a story about progression and escaping from societal norms, it leaves us with the strong notion that society is ultimately more comfortable with conformity. Some of the more obvious themes found within this story include those such as feminism and identity, which easily go hand-in-hand with one another. Feminism is a particularly interesting theme in this story because of the timeframe in which it takes place. As stated before, the early 20th century saw a drastic cultural change in...
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