Christopher Tucciarone Writing Assignment 6 Psy216 Fall 2021

Conformity, compliance, and obedience are all similar in that they are ways in which peoples’

behavior are affected by the influence of others. Conformity causes one to copy other people’s

behaviors or to act according to other people’s belief systems. Conformity is unique in that the

reason one copies the other person or group is that there is internal pressure to align with the

group that the conformed party perceives. Compliance is publicly acting in accord with a direct

request. Compliance is either internal or external: internal compliance consists of listening to a

request that you personally agree with however, external compliance consists of following

through with a request that you disagree with likely because you are pressured. Obedience does

not necessarily have to do with choosing to copy other people but rather following an order given

by someone in a position of power.

An example of conformity would be if you were going out to dinner with friends and everyone

else was dressing up and you were wearing sweatpants and you decided to change your clothes

even though no one pressured you to do it or asked you to. Furthermore, an example of

compliance would be if in the same situation one of your friends asks you to put on something

nice for the dinner and you follow through with their request. Finally, an example of obedience

would be if the restaurant had a dress code, and the maître d' tells you that you are required to

wear a blazer or sports coat to get in and you changed into nicer clothes.