Conformity and Marginality: Two Faces of Alienation

In order to assess the relationship between alienation 8- responsiveness to peer group pressure, a 20-item manifest alienation measure derived from E. L. Struening & A. H. Richardson ('The Dimensional Structure of the Alienation, Anomia, and Authoritarianism Domain, ' paper read at the Amer Psychol'al Assoc, Los Angeles, Calif, 1964) plus a battery of attitude & personality measures were admin' ed to a group of 429 Coll students. In addition, a subsample of highly alienated (HAL) & low alienated students were tested in an Asch-type group pressure situation (S. E. Asch, 'Studies of Independence and Conformity: A Minority of One against the Unanimous Majority,' Psychological Monographs, 1956, 70, 9, No. 416). It was found that HAL S's hada signif tendency to be 1st-born or only children. S's were also higher on aggression & tended to judge the exp' al task as more difficult. This pattern is found to reflect a process of 'defensive rationalization' on the partof the HAL S's, re their conformity behavior. On the basis of previous theories on ordinal position effects, it is suggested that 1st-born or only children are less likely to work out their dependency needs adequately, quately, are lower in self-esteem, are more uncertain about who they 'really' are, & are more fearful of rejection. This would account for both the greater conformity manifested by the HAL when subjected to group pressure, & their greater marginality or deviancy re group norms. 2 Tables. Modified HA.