Literature review:The effect of gender and the nature of social conformity
Gender is the role we are socialized to by society in terms of being male or female. It is crucial to note that gender affects not only our attitudes and beliefs about us and others but also about how we behave when we relate to other people. Indeed, this has been an area under intense research for years, and there appears to be a link between gender and how we change our attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to fit with people we most identify with. For example, men are more likely to agree with male behavior to be perceived as part of the group and have a sense of belonging. This is because they feel pressured to appreciate that fellow men have a high status in society and should behave and think in a certain manner. However, the effect on our conformity in the social sphere varies from one person to another. Various researchers have delved into this field and found interesting perspectives about how gender affects the conformity of people in social spaces.
Crocetti et al. wanted to understand how gender affected the way adolescents developed and perceived issues of ethics, individual capability, and their ability to socialize with other people. The study aimed to realize the differences between the way males and females perceived social development, personal capability, and issues of principles. To carry out the study, the researchers targeted 916 participants. Out of them, 51.4 percent of them were females while the rest were male. The study was conducted in three phases within one year. The results of the research indicated that while male participants showed decreasing levels of the three dimensions of measurement, the females showed increasing levels of the three measurements. In addition, the females depicted a higher consistency in terms of aligning with developing morality, gaining competency, and developing social skills. Thus this study shows that adolescents experience differing levels of conformity based on gender as females were shown to develop faster than males. This research shows that indeed gender has a bearing on how males and females develop personal competency, social skills, and morality. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
Thomas, Weinstein, and Selman carried out research to determine how US teenagers perceive wrongdoing when they post anonymous digital posts. To do this, Thomas, Weinstein, and Selman recruited 780 online posts done by young men and women. The online posts were self-reported by 390 young men and women while they were reporting their wrongdoing anonymously. The measurement was to measure the rates of personal admission to wrongdoing as well as discrimination between male participants and female participants. The research results indicated that young males were more likely to genuinely admit instances of wrongdoing when compared to young female counterparts. This research proved that Male and female teens and adolescents perceive and report wrongdoing in different ways, depending on how they perceive conformity versus authenticity. This means that adolescents see wrongdoing differently because they have been gendered differently. It depends on how their social peers perceive the issue since most want to fit in.
Gender differences affect even the way men and women align their thoughts and beliefs, even when to come to voting. Weinschenk et al. investigated how the social pressure to vote affected how men and women responded to the issue. The researcher analyzed past voting patterns of about 344, 084 men and women in order to find out whether social influences affected the way men and women voted. A linear regression model was used to measure the individual turnout in terms of participation in the political process of voting. The results, however, depicted zero evidence between how men and women responded to social pressures about political affiliation and the voting patterns. This showed that social pressure had no effect on the need for men to align with male politicians and peers, and neither did the phenomenon happen amongst women.
Fawzi and Szymkowiak investigated how to measure how gender role conformity affected how people behaved in the social networking space. The research aimed at investigating the steadiness of online behavior differences between men and women based on the conformity influenced by gender roles and common social stereotypes. The research findings indicated that female participants were more likely to engage in status updates when compared to their male counterparts. In addition, the study discovered that status frequency is directly related to a larger social media following. The study also showed that males and females behaved differently when it came to expressing emotional issues. The study indicated that gender indeed affected the way men and women behaved online, depending on the way fellow men and women behaved online. For example, women found it easier to use emotional expressions because other women used them too, while men resisted the urge because other men did not fancy the behavior.
Steinfeldt et al. investigated to identify how athlete students adapted to common behaviors among people of the same gender with special focus on the body of the athletes. Steinfeldt et al. investigate the conformity of athletes to gender stereotypes about participation in sports and general stereotypes on the perfect body image for an athlete. The researchers targeted 143 students. Half of the participants were athletes, while the other halves were not athletes. The results indicated that male athletes conformed more to social stereotypes concerning male body types being typical of athletes. Females conformed more to male perspectives than males did to female perspectives. Many participants who were athletes did not perceive women’s bodies as suited for sports but favored male bodies and attitudes such as strength and risk-taking.
References
Crocetti, E., Moscatelli, S., Kaniušonytė, G., Meeus, W., Žukauskienė, R., & Rubini, M. (2019). Developing Morality, Competence, and Sociability in Adolescence: A Longitudinal Study of Gender Differences. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 48(5), 1009-1021. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-019-00996-2
Fawzi, A., & Szymkowiak, A. (2014). An Investigation into Gender Role Conformity in an Online Social Networking Environment. Social Computing and Social Media, 322-330. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07632-4_31
Steinfeldt, J. A., Zakrajsek, R., Carter, H., & Steinfeldt, M. C. (2011). Conformity to gender norms among female student-athletes: Implications for body image. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 12(4), 401-416. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023634
Thomas, S. E., Weinstein, E., & Selman, R. L. (2016). Did I Cross the Line?: Gender Differences in Adolescents’ Anonymous Digital Self-Reports of Wrongdoing in an Online Anonymous Context. Sex Roles, 77(1-2), 59-71. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-016-0684-0
Weinschenk, A. C., Panagopoulos, C., Drabot, K., & Van der Linden, S. (2018). Gender and social conformity: Do men and women respond differently to social pressure to vote? Social Influence, 13(2), 53-64. https://doi.org/10.1080/15534510.2018.1432500