CONFORMITY AND MORAL

DEVELOPMENT
AS
SPECIFIC HUMAN TRAITS
Conformity is the very basic feature of human sociality.
Wendy Taylor
Marie Austin
Iuliana Ghintuiala

WHAT IS
CONFORMITY?
Conformity is a type of social influence involving a
change in belief or behaviour in order to fit in with
the group.
Conformity can also be defined as yielding to
group pressures (Crutchfield, 1955).

THE ASCH CONFORMITY

EXPERIMENTS

Conformity

one of the hallmark

characteristics of the human
species

From the playground to the board room, people

often follow to the behaviour of those around them
as a way of fitting in. New research shows that
conformity appears early in human children, but
isnt evidenced in other animals behaviour.

C O N F O R M I T Y = E M PAT H Y ?
Childrens conformity to their peers peaks during
early adolescence, reflecting the importance of
social acceptance to youngsters of this age.
Empathy, as well as conformity, help groups survive,
if group members care enough about other
members. In many way, empathy relates to abilities
needed to keep us alive.
Empathy is unusual in the animal kingdom.

EMPATHY
Empathy has been identified by Kagan (1984) as one of the core
moral emotions.
Empathy is usually defined as a direct emotional response to another
persons distress that is more appropriate to someone elses situation
than to ones own (Hoffman, 1991).
Appears from 8 hours of life (automatic involuntary reactions) babies
hear other cry and they respond with the same emotion. Such infants
are less likely to cry in response to nonhuman noises of comparable
loudness, including a computer simulation of another infants crying.
Empathy means feeling for another, not necessary helping the other
(reflective reactions to the meaning of others unfortunate situation).
Soldiers must not experience the enemys wounds, nor should dentists
feel their patients pain; studies showed that nurses that appeared to
experience the greatest degree in empathy were the least effective.

KO H L B E R G S S TA G E S O F
MORAL DEVELOPMENT

KOHLBERGS THEORY
Kohlberg's moral reasoning develops in a series of
stages (Preconventional, Conventional and
Postconventional morality).
The progression begins with a primitive morality
guided by fear of punishment or desire of gain.
Finally, moral development culminates with the
internalization of personal moral principles.
People advance from stage to stage as they age,
but only a few attain Kohlbergs higher level
(Mahatma Gandhi or Mother Teresa).

HYPOTHESIS
With the development of
empathy comes
conformity.

E M PAT H Y Q U E S T I O N N A I R E
Purpose
Our questionnaire was designed to

asses empathy, especially:

Appreciation of the feelings of

unfamiliar and distant others

Extreme emotional responsiveness
Tendency to be moved by others'

positive emotional experiences

Sympathetic tendency
Willingness to be in contact with

others who have problems

Questions
12-item self report
measure of an individuals
level of emotional
responsiveness to
anothers distress. Items
measure various empathic
tendencies. Respondents
indicate their agreement
or disagreement with the
items.

THEORY
With the development of empathy comes conformity;
Conformity requires a higher level of thinking

because other animals dont have it;

Empathy and conformity are essential components in

the moral development of humans (Kohlberg);

To achieve the upper level of morality, animals

require higher developed brains therefore they need

empathy as the highest level of development.

THEORY
We all desire to achieve the highest level of moral
development and to be considered as empathic as we
can be.
The answers reflect our desire of this
accomplishment and our level of conformity towards
the right answer.
This distinction is what makes us human, and it is a
reflection of our human developed brain, versus the
animal brain.

HUMAN BRAIN
Cerebral Cortex: The nerve center of the
human brain slightly more complex than that of
animals.
The cerebral cortex in humans is responsible
for many "higher-order" functions like language
and information processing. Language centers
areCortical
usuallyArea
found only
in the left cerebral
Function
Prefrontal Cortex Problem Solving, Emotion, Complex
hemisphere.
Wernicke's Area
Broca's Area

Thought
Language comprehension
Speech production and articulation

A N I M A L B R A I N C O M PA R E D

U N I Q U E N E SS T O H U M A N S
Humor
Self-consciousness
Sense of morality
Character
Capacity for wisdom
Desire for worship
Love

LANGUAGE

Quod erat
demonstrandum!

RESOURCES
Visualizing Psychology/Huffman, Younger, Vanston,
Second Canadian Edition
Psychology/Gleitman, Fridlund, Reisberg, Fifth
Edition
Internet resourses: