Attitudes are judgments that individual make about objects, ideas or events or may be about other people in the society. Attitudes can be either explicit or implicit. Explicit attitudes are mainly the responsive beliefs, which can assist decisions as well as behaviors. Implicit attitudes are those unintentional beliefs, which can still effect the decisions and behaviors (Smith, Mackie & Claypool, 2014). The three components of attitude are cognitive, emotional and behavioral. However, conformity is a kind of social influence, which includes a modification in the belief as well as behavior so that one can fit into a group. Not every time behaviors are conforming to an individual’s feelings and beliefs because behaviors that highlights a given attitude might be suppressed because of a rival attitude, which will occur as a defense to the perspectives of others who disagrees with it. Therefore, it is important to research about the relationship between attitude and conformity because it will help people understand the various issues related to attitude and conformity. Along with this, it will help people to understand the importance of both attitude and conformity in the society. Thus, the aim of this assignment is to discuss the empirical articles, which has been collected so far related to this research topic.
The reviews from the researches, which have been collected, so far it has been observed that Vogel & Wanke (2016) has stated that attitude is a person’s total analysis of the people around as well as the objects. He further stated that likings and disliking towards any person and object takes place due to attitude. Therefore, it is the attitude, which determines how a person should behave. However, conformity is altogether a different concept, which Szolnoki & Perc (2015) stated that it is a type of social influence, which includes modification in behavior or thoughts in order to connect with or fit in a group. Therefore, it can be said that attitude do not always anticipate behavior as the cognitive and affective component of attitude are not always inevitably indicated in behaviors. On the contrary, conformity is indicated through behavior because here the person changes his/her behavior as well as thought so that they can match with those of others. Thus, attitudes can be both conscious and unconscious beliefs regarded other people or object but conformity is the way one behaves to impress others. Conformity occurs due to social influence but attitudes are the one, which directs the behavior.
Moreover, literature also highlights about the models of attitude among which Pratkanis, Breckler & Greenwald (2014), has mentioned the multi-component model, which according to them are the most significant model of attitude. According to this model, the attitude in an individual is an abstract of the analysis of a person or an object, which involves the affective, cognitive as well as behavioral features. Attitude developed in response to some person or object but conformity in response to something, which can be real as well as imagined. Attitudes help people in social interaction, therefore in the society attitude helps people to display a good behavior because the powerful the attitude is the more impactful the behavior will be (Kahle, 2013). On the other hand, conformity is an important part of the culture because it successfully built up a mutual understanding and motivates cooperation among the people in the society. Literature further states that attitude mainly have an adopting quality by which one can represent a mental link among a person’s capability to perceive, feel and learn. Attitude further gives an additional meaning to the experience in a complicated social environment. Conformity is on the other hand is the individual tendency to modify their behavior so that they can fit with the existing social norms.
Thus, from the literature review it has been observed that the researchers have faced many limitations while conducting these studies on attitude and conformity. The very first limitation that can be highlighted is the limited time and confined budget. These two are important for any research and are considered the biggest limitations. However, from the above-discussed studies it is clear that due to limited time period the researchers were unable to collect admissible information from many other available sources. If the researchers have more time then more valuable as well as worthy data would have been reflected through their works. Getting more data would have helped these works to come up with more developed quality of work. However, from the studies that have been collected for this specific research from them the limitations that are evident is that apart from concentrating on the conceptual parts of attitude and conformity these studies have not evaluated the in-depth components of attitude or conformity. Components like affective, behavioral and cognitive are important for attitude but neither of the selected studies have strongly discussed that. On the other hand, conformity can be viewed in three types, which is compliance, identification, and internalization which if explained would help the readers to understand the concept of conformity in clearer and broader perspective (Kang & Schuett, 2013).
Moreover, the reasons behind an individual’s conformity are not discussed at all, which would have helped the readers to further understand why people conform. There are various reasons for an individual to conform to a group or person in the society which can be influenced by the information, to avoid punishments, fear of being isolated or to avoid responsibilities being in a group and many one but these points are not even touched in these studies. Similarly, in case of attitude there are reasons, which states why attitudes are formed. There are three theories which very clearly defines attitude formation and they are functionalism, learning as well as cognitive dissonance theories but in the studies collected they have not touched these theories to enlighten the readers about an in-depth knowledge about the reason behind attitude formational in the society. Moreover, another striking limitation was that none of the studies has explained the importance of attitude and conformity in a detailed manner. They should have emphasized more on that part because both attitude and conformity has a major role to play in the culture as well as society. Therefore, it can be said that there are a lot of limitations in the studies that are collection and needs more in depth research.
Conclusion:
To conclude this report, it can be said that both attitude and conformity has a major role to play in the society and culture. Attitudes are mainly the favorable or the unfavorable judgment towards something or someone, which is clearly reflected in his/her belief, feeling as well as in their intended behavior. On the other hand, conformity is social influence where people mainly change their behavior or thoughts so that they can be liked by a person or accepted by a group. Attitude can be developed in respect to some person or object but conformity can be real or imagined. As per as the cultural importance is concerned it can be observed that attitudes mainly directs the behavior which one displays in the society and conformity is the modification of behaviors in order to get connected with a group. Moreover, there are few limitations, which are clearly identified in these studies, which can be because of limited time frame or restricted budgets. The main drawbacks are that in-depth reasons for the formation of attitude and conformity have not been explained. These studies has mainly emphasized on the concept related explanation of attitude and conformity excluding the models, components and theories related to attitude and conformity which are important to have a clear view of their importance in the society.
References:
Greenwald, A. G. (2014). Why attitudes are important: Defining attitude. Attitude structure and function, 429.
Kahle, L. R. (2013). Attitudes & Social Adaptation: A Person-Situation Interaction Approach (Vol. 8). Elsevier.
Kang, M., & Schuett, M. A. (2013). Determinants of sharing travel experiences in social media. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 30(1-2), 93-107.doi.org/10.1080/10548408.2013.751237
Pratkanis, A. R., Breckler, S. J., & Greenwald, A. G. (2014). Attitude structure and function. Psychology Press.
Smith, E. R., Mackie, D. M., & Claypool, H. M. (2014). Social psychology. Psychology Press.
Szolnoki, A., & Perc, M. (2015). Conformity enhances network reciprocity in evolutionary social dilemmas. Journal of The Royal Society Interface, 12(103), 20141299.DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2014.1299
Vogel, T., & Wanke, M. (2016). Attitudes and attitude change. Psychology Press.
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