Review of Related Literature and Studies

This chapter presents the different related literature and studies; both local and foreign,

which supports the researchers on this study. It is also a review of the existing literature relevant

to the topic of social conformity among adolescents.

A. Related Literature (Foreign)

Adolescent’s social conformity can be described as the influence exerted by a peer group

in encouraging a person to change his or her attitudes, values, or behaviors to conform to the

group. A person affected by conformity may or may not want to belong to these groups. They

may also recognize dissociative groups that they do not wish to belong to, and therefore adopt

behaviors in opposition to those of the group (Adams, 1996). In the same vein, according to

Harris (1998), conformity can cause people to do things they would not normally do, (e.g., use of

alcohol, drugs, smoke, have a job, have children and buy expensive items). Additionally, while

pressure from peer groups is undoubtedly influential, most teens choose friends that share

common views about behaviors such as drinking or drug use. Pruitt (1999) stated that "the 'good

kid' who falls in with the bad crowd is the exception, not the rule."

Undergraff (2001) stated that adolescents spend more than half of their time in the

company of their peers, and therefore it is not surprising that peers play an influential role in the

adolescents' lives. He added that credibility, authority, power and the influence of peers are

greater during adolescence stage than any other time in life. Similarly Omeogun (2002) argued

that the peer group is the unit of social life during adolescence; therefore, the adolescent's

personality is influenced by his/her social life and his/her group.

 Experiences with peers constitute an important developmental context for adolescents

(Rubin, Bukowski, & Parker, 2006). Adolescent’s experiences with peers occur on several

different levels: general interactions with peers, friendships, and in groups. Social competence

reflects a child's capacity to engage successfully with peers at different levels.

Related Studies (Foreign)

The classic work on conformity is the experiment conducted by Asch (1946). Subjects

were placed in groups whose other members were secretly confederates of the researcher; they

were asked to estimate the geometric length of a line by matching it with one of three lines after

some of the other group members had given their opinion one at a time. In cases when the

confederates unanimously endorsed a clearly wrong comparison line, about one-third of the

tested subjects conformed to the wrong judgement of the false majority. Individuals in the

control group (not under social pressure) answered correctly with a few exceptions. Since then,

social psychologists have developed several theories of conformity

A conducted study among adolescents show findings supporting the notion that peer

factors shows an important influence to the youth and consequences of adolescence just prior to

entering college. (Wood et al, 2004).

Moreover, on the longitudinal study (Bartholow, Sher, Krull, 2003) indicates that the

related attitudes and behaviors of peers are significantly correlated with personal attitudes and

behaviors of adolescents, a relationship that is most probably the result of both selection and

socialization.

“I find that social ties affect the role of an adolescent to conform. In addition, individual’s

gains utility simply by making the same choice on their preferred group”, which explained by
Basit Zafar, (2009), on his conducted study on New York entitled ‘An Experimental

Investigation Why Individuals Conform’