Social Influences of College Organizations: The Effects of Conformity on Self Esteem

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between college students’ rates of self-esteem and conformity within different organizations on campus; specifically, if this interaction varies based on the type of organization to which the student belongs. For this study, participants completed a survey, created on Qualtrics, which consists of a number of self-esteem questions from an empirically-tested self-esteem scale. There are three main groups in this study: students in traditional Greek life, students in other lettered organizations such as business/academic/service Greek life, and students in other on campus, noncompeting groups such as religion organizations (Young Life). The experimental group in this study is the traditional Greek life students. Researchers hypothesize that academic Greek students will have overall higher self-esteem compared to students in traditional Greek life; the study further hypothesizes that traditional Greek students will have higher self-esteem than students in noncompeting groups. Despite the results from past literature, the results from this study found that students in Traditional Greek life showed both lower rates of conformity and lower rates of self-esteem. Keywords: college students, self-esteem, conformity, organizations, greek life