Dimensionality of Social Influence.

The research reported in this study explores two problematic avenues of conformity research: (1) the widely assumed generality of diverse measures of group pressure, and (2) the dimensionality of conformity, anticonformity, and independence. These two conformity situations, present and nonpresent norm groups, used two tasks (an objective counting of metronome clicks and a subjective agreement to attitude items) to yield a four-group study of these problems with 190 high-school age subjects. Comparison of pre-pressure and under-pressure responses in the four procedures gave scores of conformity (moving toward consensus), anticonformity (moving away from concensus), and independence (no change). Suspicious and unsuspicious subjects were analyzed separately by a 12 by 12 factor analysis. Some five factors were identified for unsuspicious subjects, and three for suspicious subjects. For the unsuspicious, any procedural variation produced a difference, while for the suspicious, only variation in social situation produced a difference. Conformity and independence appeared to represent a bipolar dimension, with anticonformity distinct from both. (BP)