What Does Conformist Mean?

0:00Hi there, just to say this is a short snippet from this week's main episode which was published on Wednesday as always. If you want the full episode you can find it just below this one. How we're going to cover the key traits of the conformist level is to look at what the word conformist means in terms of this level. Like why is it called conformist? And then what we're going to do is we're going to look at personality markers of the conformist level so that you can really see it in people around you in yourself and you really get a, I can on the ground understanding of it. So what does conformist mean? What basically means in a nutshell is that the person is now defined by and dependent on a group or a collective. Just like contemplate that, just that phrase right there, they are defined by a collective

1:02or their group, they're dependent on a group. Like contemplate the limitations of that, of just your identity being limited to what if your groups you're a part of, but also contemplate the upsides of that and how that might be necessary for someone. And how if you do not functionally integrate this level of ego development, how can you really derail your life? One of my advice is to focus on the limitations of it, but there are certainly a lot of positives and we're going to cover those. Could Grotter say is quote, here she is defined by others end quote, so simple, but what, how else could you define conformity? That is like such a good, pithy description of conformity. Here she is defined by others and like end of story.

2:04So what happens in this level is that you identify with your chosen group and it's usually quite a sort of insular group. You know, we're talking like a religious group and nation, your village, your town, your city, your scientific community and yes, you can be a conformist and be a scientist absolutely. Your views, your motivations, your choices all the way down to like various of seemingly trivial, trivial things are largely derived from the group that you identify with. You want to be like the people around you that you admire, you sing along with the crowd without a separate voice. So you're kind of, you know, you'll you'll participate and not realize it's not like you're choosing to participate. It's like you're participating because you

3:05your mind is defined by the participation. Like you see the difference here. Egocentric thinking makes way for group centric thinking. So there's actually an expansion in that sense. You know, the what used to be just an egocentric mind is now a group centric mind. You're no longer just thinking about yourself, you're thinking about the group and how you fit into the group. There are literally confused boundaries between yourself and the group. So though the self is more differentiated and though there's more of a sense of other and there's a more of appreciation of other people with their own needs. We have to realize that this this separation of self and other is a spectrum and here, you know, it's not fully separated like you identified with your in group and you confuse it. You just everything just pours in all the contents of the group. Whatever

4:10the group is doing, whatever the group believes, whatever the group gets excited about all of that just defines your psyche. That is like the content of your mind. Loyalty and obedience are central character traits. I mean, of course, conformists to conform means being loyal and it means obeying whatever the group mandates for you. Here's quite a long quote from Susan Cucroyder, the researcher whose work we're studying that really just condenses the issue of the sort of the meaning of the word conformist right down. She says, quote, conformist adults actually relish the dependency that a group membership bestows. It provides safety in numbers and a new sense of power. The self is defined by and generated by the expectations and values of those others to whom one belongs.

5:12Conformists tend to accept norms without introspection or questioning. They're conform, their cognitive world is divided into simple categories and types of people mostly based on external distinctions. Hi there, just to say this is a short snippet from this week's main episode which was published on Wednesday as always. If you want to fill episode, you can find it just below this one.