Conform
ity and
Deviance
Prepared by:
MALOU C. LIPATA
Direction: Identify whether the actions enumerated in the table below
represent either conformity or deviance. Write the answers on the
corresponding cell. ACTS ANSWERS
1. Following rules
2. Changing eating habits
3. Completing education
4. Breaking rules
5. Drug Addiction
6. Not meeting expectations
7. Visiting your parents frequently
8. Protecting a criminal at your home
9. Wearing sexy clothes when attending
church activity.
10. Paying attention to the teacher during
It is an action in accordance
with some specified standard or
authority. This indicates that
conformity is a type of social
influence through which group
members come to share similar
beliefs and standards of
behavior.
CONFORMITY
It also gives a sense of identity and belongingness
that enables a person to feel accepted in a certain group.
There are different situations when people
conform; psychologists have categorized three main
types of conformity as compliance, identification, and
internalization.
Compliance- means conforming to a rule or fulfilling a
desire, demand, proposal, regimen, or coercion. It is the
weakest form of conformity. Here, a person usually goes
along with the view of the majority, but he/she still
privately maintains his/her own point of view.
Identification- is a process by which an individual
aspires to pattern himself/herself after another, but only
while he/she is in the presence of the other person.
Internalization- Is the acceptance and incorporation of
the standard or belief of other persons or of the society
by the individual.
It is the deepest level of conformity. It is usually
the long term as the person changes his/her public
behavior and private beliefs. When the views of the
group are adopted, they are taken at the permanent
level. Here, an individual becomes a part of the
person’s way of viewing the world.
CONFORMITY
Deviance refers to rule-
breaking behavior of some
kind which fails to conform to
the norms and expectations of
a particular society or social
group. It is closely related to
the concept of crime, which is
law breaking behavior.
Criminal behavior is usually
deviant, but not all deviant
behavior is criminal.
The deviant behavior meaning
comes from the term ‘’deviate,’’
which means to stray from a normal
or acceptable behavior or action.
Deviant behavior is often referred to
as a deviant action.
2 Types of Deviance
formal deviance
informal deviance
Formal deviance includes criminal
violation of formally-enacted laws.
Informal deviance refers to
violations of informal social norms,
which are norms that have not been
codified into law.
Deviance and Culture
What is considered a deviant
behavior can change based on a
person’s culture. Behaviors that are
acceptable in one culture may be
unacceptable in another culture.
Deviance in Society
Deviance in society can vary depending
on which behaviors society has deemed as
deviant and which behaviors are deemed as
normal. Each society makes its own
determinations regarding deviant
behaviors.
Robert K. Merton proposed that deviance, or the
state of diverging from accepted societal
standards, could be divided up into five distinct
classifications. They are:
Conformity
Innovation
Ritualism
Retreatism
Conformity
It involves accepting both the
cultural goal of success and the
use of legitimate means for
achieving that goal.
Innovation
It accepts the goal of
success but eliminating the
use of socially accepted
means of achieving it.
Ritualism
It occurs when people
deemphasize or reject the cultural
goals but accept the
institutionalized means.
Retreatism- means withdrawal
from society since both the cultural
goals and the institutionalized
means are rejected.
Rebellion- occurs when
people reject and attempt to
change both the goals and the
means approved by society.
Thank you for listening
