It is hard to disagree that most people are influenced by other individuals or the whole society in various situations. The power of any social situation is rather significant, and there are three forms of influence processes that can affect the way people act in a social setting. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the similarities and differences between groupthink, conformity, and obedience.
All these three types have one similarity – another individual or society influences a person; the differences though are between the circumstances and kinds of impact. Groupthink is when a group member modifies his or her opinion and ideas so that they match the consensus. Obedience means following the words of an authority figure like a policeman. Conformity is changing one’s behavior to go along with everyone else (Spielman et al., 2019). As for me, conformity was beneficial when there was a fire alarm during a concert, and I followed the crowd because I did not know what to do. On the contrary, once during a test, I listened to several of my classmates and wrote as they told me even though I was sure it was wrong, and conformity was detrimental.
Reference
Spielman, R. M., Dumper, K., Jenkins, W., Lacombe, A., Lovett, M., & Perlmutter, M. (2019). Psychology. Houston, TX: OpenStax.