1.5 Conformity theories Pressure to conform may operate directly or indirectly, and different commentators emphasise different aspects of pressure.
All commentators attest to the power of conformity influence processes.
It may be assumed that the pressure is overt and coercive, or that it is implicit but perhaps no less powerful for that, but it is also possible to think of conformity as scarcely under reflection at all, being produced through some sort of thoughtless modelling process. Resisting social pressure to conform is thus deemed to be a key element in smoking prevention. How this resistance is to be inculcated, and how these social pressures operate in different individuals, will be examined in the following two chapters. It has to be said here that processes of social influence, despite being one of the key issues of social psychology, are inadequately theorised. Research into adolescent health behaviours has been largely rather notional and atheoretical.