A multivariate study of the effect of self-concept on dissent and conformity was conducted using a new experimental paradigm that reflects with greater fidelity important facets of everyday social influence situations. From a self-presentational perspective, private self-consciousness, individuation, and self-esteem were predicted to be directly related to dissent and inversely related to conformity. Public self-consciousness, social anxiety, shyness, and self-monitoring were predicted to be directly related to conformity and inversely related to dissent. The relationship of self-concept to dissent and conformity was predicted to be stronger when peer opinion was unanimous than when it was divided. Groups of participants expressed their opinions about 20 scenarios that described problems in human relations. Some of the participants could hear three other people (confederates) agreeing on a solution to each problem, and they could either conform or they could dissent by choosing other available solutions or generating one of their own. The results supported the predictions (with the exception of the selfmonitoring variable). The study clearly indicates that to understand social influence, research must explicitly study both the characteristics of the experimental situation as they relate to the opportunity to conform and dissent, and individual differences as they contribute to the meaning these acts have for experimental participants.

An experimental analysis of dissenting and conforming behavior in small groups revealed a significant interaction between personality and situational variables. Individual differences in gender role and in willingness to be "individuated" were predictive of subjects' choices to disagree or agree with the opinions of other group members. However, this link between personality and social behavior showed within-subjects variation as a function of two situational factors: group norm and opinion topic. Contrary to traditional expectations, personality was a better predictor of behavior on those trials when peer pressure was strong than when it was weak. Personality variables also differentially predicted responses to masculine opinion topics versus feminine ones. These results contribute to a new understanding of the interaction of pereon and situation, as well as to the psychological meaning of conformity and dissent. They also bear on the long-standing debate about sex differences in influenceability.Current theorizing about personality and situations has emphasized the importance of studying interactions between these two factors, rather than limiting analyses to main effects. This position accords well with Allport's assertion 50 years ago that "traits are often aroused in one type of situation and not in another; not all stimuli are equivalent in effectiveness" (Allport, 1937, pp. 331-332). Thus, researchers have argued that personality will be more predictive of behavior when situational pressures are weak and less predictive when situational pressures are strong (Mischel, 1977;Monson, Hesley, &Chernick, 1982).More recently, it has been proposed that personality traits will also predict behavior in strong situations that are precipitating (i.e., that maximize behavioral manifestations of relevant dispositional differences; Snyder & Ickes, 1985). In these and other approaches, there has been an attempt to specify the types of situations in which personality either will or will not have an impact on behavior.The concept of situation has not always been clearly denned, but it usually refers to the immediate setting in which the individual is located. As such, it includes the physical environment, other people, social norms or constraints, and other types of physical or social stimuli. Given the complexity of what constitutes a situation, it is not always easy to specify which situations are most relevant to personality traits and their behavioral expression. Theorizing has often been at a more molar or typological level, in which contrasting situations (e.g., structured vs. unstructured) involve very different types of task settings (e.g.,

This paper describes a self-systemic approach to the study of personality structure and process. Personality is conceptualized as organized around the ways one is committed to identifying oneself. Central to personality structure are those social roles the person is committed to performing. These role identities are the fundamental criteria by which goals, activities, and situations are selected by the person. Associated with role identities are identity goals, self-attributed characteristics that the person is motivated to exemplify when he or she is performing a particular role identity. Normative expectations are the person's beliefs as to which behaviors will express his or her identity goals. Data from a longitudinal and a cross-sectional sample of students supported this conceptualization. The theory is contrasted with the traditional self-concept approach, and is applied to an analysis of personality consistency; development, and adaptability.

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The relationship between behavior and interpersonal evaluation is examined from the perspective of role theory. We hypothesize that others' evaluation of a role actor–his or her status–is related to the actor's conformity to their norms. Students in 50 university classes were asked (a) to indicate their expectations for a “typical university instructor” by filling out a 55‐item questionnaire which incorporates Jackson's Return Potential Model for measuring normative role phenomena, or (b) to judge the frequency of the class instructor's behavior on the same 55 items. An index was constructed which indicates the degree to which each instructor's behaviors conform to students' expectations for a typical instructor. This index correlated with students' mean evaluation of each instructor: his or her status (r=.64, p<.001). We demonstrate, however, that this relationship between conformity and status holds more strongly for intense, powerful norms, and only for instructors with a moderate rather than a relatively high reputation, that is, estimated status.