CONFORMITY ANALYZED AND RELATED TO PERSONALITY.

This study examines the relationship between personality measures and conforming behavior. In this experiment the strategy has consisted of assessing the conformity of a group of college students as to both degree and type, after they have been given a series of personality tests, and then relating the personality measures to the conformity measures. The Edwards Personal Preference Schedule, a forced choice inventory of 225 items which purports to measure 15 personality variables, similar to needs as defined by Murray, was one of the personality measures used. One hundred twenty-six male college students served as subjects. They were paid and in addition received some credit toward an introductory psychology course at the University of Illinois. In Phase II of the present study cues of difference which create social pressure and anxiety may have produced the conformity. The mere presence of the same group in Phase III and the mere presence of the stimulus materials in Phase IV which had been associated with the group and the concomitant pressure in Phase II were sufficient to reintegrate cues of difference which led to conformity. Conformity was greatest in Phase II, least in Phase IV, and intermediate in Phase III. No relationships were discovered between conformity and the personality measures used in this study. The lack of a relationship may be due to an inadequate or inappropriate theory regarding conformity and its relationship to personality, and/or insensitive and inappropriate instruments for measuring the constructs and testing the hypotheses of the theory.