title: Tendency to conform: a new measure and its relationship to psychological reactance.
abstract: This study assessed the relationship between two important constructs in social psychology, conformity and psychological reactance, which are suggested to be negatively related, i.e., a person higher in the tendency to conform will score lower on psychological reactance and vice versa. The two constructs were measured by multi-item self-report scales, the Therapeutic Reactance Scale of Dowd, et al. and a new tendency to conform scale constructed for this study. Data from a survey of 423 undergraduate students were used to test the hypothesis that scores on the scales were negatively correlated. The hypothesized relationship was positively supported by a significant but only moderately sized correlation (r =-.32, p <.001).
authors.affiliation: Marketing Department, College of Business, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-1110, USA. rgoldsm@garnet.acns.fsu.edu
authors.forename: Ronald E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Goldsmith
authors.forename: Ronald A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.forename: Barbara A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Lafferty
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D012919:Social Behavior; D012925:Social Conformity; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires