Conformity and Obedience
EYOND CONSCIOUS AWARENESS

Influences of Conformity and Obedience

The Concepts of Conformity and Obedience Compared

Obedience is a form of social influence in which a person of authority makes a direct command to someone to perform something (McLeod, 2007). It involves changing one's behavior according to the commands of authority (rehm, Kassin & Fein, 1999 as qtd in Southerly, 2012). Conformity is another form of social influence brought about by social pressure or the norms of the majority. It means changing or adapting one's perception, opinion or behavior to that which is consistent with the norms of the group (rehm, Kassin & Fein, 1999 as qtd in Southerly, 2012). Key studies on conformity were conducted by Sherif in 1936, Asch in 1951 and by Fein, Goethals and Kassin in 1998. ickman and Milgram conducted the key studies on obedience in 1974 and 1963, respectively (Southerly).

Influencing Factors

The factors, which influence obedience, are….

omen may be especially motivated to maintain the positive affect of others, or to at least limit the negative affect. (Daubman, and Sigail 75)
This tendency towards conforming to the group may also be the basis behind the psychology of eating disorder in young adolescent women attempting to conform to the norm. This normative social pressure may explain women attempting to attain Somme idealized ideal body type by extreme forms of diet and exercise creating such eating disorders as anorexia nervosa and bulimia. As early as the 1960's researchers found that 70% of the high school girls surveyed were unhappy with their bodies and wanted to lose weight:

It seems plausible that the forces that lead a woman to feel she must downplay her accomplishments and assets might contribute to her feeling inadequate in a number of domains, including her abilities to manage her life, her relationships, and even her own….

Yet, if some players use them, others will feel the pressure to use them as well, in order to compete."
This peer pressure could begin in high school sports when teens are extremely interested in performing their best to compete for college scholarships. Because the big leaguers to it, they think it is OK to do it too, so the practice could start early for many athletes. If they give into the pressure in high school or college, chances are they will give into the same peer pressure in the big leagues, where the results are even more important to their lifestyles and careers.

There is another problem with the widespread steroid use in baseball. It is affecting the youth of the country because it seems to be swept under the rug by MLB. Another writer notes, "Because adolescents frequently idolize professional athletes, whom they observe earning millions of dollars and….

Conformity and Rebellion in orks by Amy Tan, Martin Luther King Jr., Herman Melville, and Shirley Jackson
The dilemma of conformity vs. rebellion, to do something that is expected, or "has always been done," or to rebel against expectation or convention, is common in both life and literature. Three short stories, by Amy Tan; Herman Melville, and Shirley Jackson, and the essay "Letter from Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King Jr., express conflict between conformity and rebellion. I will analyze Tan's "Two Kinds"; King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail"; Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener," and Jackson's "The Lottery," in that order, in terms of their themes of conformity vs. rebellion.

In Amy Tan's story "Two Kinds" (424-32) Jing-mei's Chinese mother wishes for her to conform to her own high standards of persistence and achievement in music, though Jing-mei lacks motivation. Her mother: "believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America" (424).….

The amount of knowledge that we have (even setting aside the amount of wisdom that might accompany this) tends to make people more sure of themselves and thus less subject to want to change themselves to match others.
We determined to test the above ideas about a relationship between age and the urge to conform. Our hypothesis was the following: Older adults (40+ yrs) will conform less than younger adults (18-25 yrs) because older adults have greater self certainty and are less concerned with what others think of them.

Our research design was as follows. We first selected UIC students and faculty through a randomly process before categorizing them into two groups: Young adults (18-25) and middle-aged adults (40-60). The methodology was based on observations of the individuals. They were not aware of the fact that they were being observed. Because of this, we did not need to obtain their consent….

The anonymity of exile does not provide her with the conditions in which to live the purposeful life she intended for herself. Her spiritedness and independence of mind, which contributed to her erotic rebellion, are displaced, and in many respects irrelevant, away from this specific moral community of faith. She returns older and, it seems, less ambitious about radical reform of the community. Yet her return is an exceptional act of independence. Her penitence is unfinished because her sin and its punishment were never a matter of the actions of an isolated individual. Her return signals her recognition of the deep interdependence between her self understanding and Puritan Boston" (Taylor 2005).
Hester and Dimmesdale reveal the sad limits of the human mind, even while they exhibit the resistant nature of human passion to mortal laws. Their resistance is not willed -- they are only obeying their unconstrained natures, and because….

Meanwhile on the subject of obedience, an article in American Psychologist (written by the former research assistant to Milgram at Yale University) poses the following question: if Milgram's experiments / research were conducted today, in 2009, "would people still obey… " (Elms, 2009, p. 34). The answer given in most cases by Elms is that "…a current measure of obedience to destructive authority would find substantially less obedience than Milgram did" (Elms, p. 35). Elms backs up his assertion by pointing to the "important lessons" that "a large portion of our populace should have learned" by now (Elms, p. 35). Those lessons include the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King and the wisdom "other social activists" (i.e., the "group" that has influence on the "self") who have raised legitimate issues like racial prejudice, government deception and corruption, and domestic violence. These leaders that Elms alludes to should be, Elms….

Psychology
Group Dynamics

Two significant topics within the area of social influence include conformity and obedience: Stanley Milgram (1933 -- 1984) and Solomon Asch (1907 -- 1996). Please complete Parts I, II, and III.

Conformity

According to the experiment, conformity is normally criticized basis of morality. Most human atrocities are categorized as obedience crimes. On the other hand, the experiments clarify that the conformity presents equal problematic issues on efficacy grounds. To achieve success, leaders and followers have to adhere rigidly to pre-determined laws and regulations. igidity does not pose more challenges due to their infinite tasks or insufficient creativity of opponents. These problems seem unfortunate in case human beings are programmed to conform. This is a perspective that is dominant within the recent past. The influence is traced to landmark literary programs between the 1960s and 1970s initiated by social psychologists. The approaches include Milgram's Authority Obedience concept and the Stanford Prison Experiment….

In highly-publicized criminal offenses and violations of international law, American servicemen in charge of the Abu Ghraib facility abused Iraqi prisoners by terrorizing them with military service dogs and the threat of electrical shocks. They also purposely humiliated them by dragging them around naked, forcing them to simulate homosexuality, and by various other degrading acts specifically intended to disgrace their religious beliefs and cultural values. In some cases, abusive conduct and other violations were precipitated by orders such as in connection with interrogating prisoners to recover usable military intelligence. However, in many other cases (such as those depicted in the photographs that appeared throughout the global media), the abuse represented loss of personal responsibility and moral judgment by virtue of the phenomena of conformity and groupthink.

In a much more benign way, social conformity is apparent throughout American society in clothing styles, the perpetual wave of social trends, and (of course)….

Totemic religion arose from the filial sense of guilt, in an attempt to allay that feeling and to appease the father by deferred obedience to him. All later religions are seen to be attempts at solving the same problem. & #8230; all have the same end in view and are reactions to the same great event with which civilization began and which since it occurred, has not allowed mankind a moment's rest. (Freud 145)
Furthermore, while it would seem that human beings would always seek out pleasure and avoid pain, even Freud discovered that this was not always the case. The events of the orld ars made Freud feel that there may be something else going on as well.

Freud's revisions to his theory were therefore partly carried out so that the fact that early twentieth-century history in Europe failed to follow the smooth pursuit of happiness promised by nineteenth-century progress….

Rebellion and Conformity in the Rhetoric of Swift and King
Introduction to the texts

Authorial 'position'

Outsiders

Leaders/literary stylists

Authorial Intent

Satire

Polemic

Authorial Style

Similarities and differences in use of indirect address

Intentions

Concluding Similarities

Jonathan Swift's 1729 "A Modest Proposal" and Martin Luther King's 1963 "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" are both works written in protest by authors who were social critics of the contemporary mores of their society. Swift used satire to condemn the callousness exhibited by English society towards the Irish and Irish children. Martin Luther King used direct and forceful polemical prose to attack the conformist ministers of the state of Birmingham where King had come to engage in acts of civil disobedience, in the name of advancing the larger cause of civil rights in America.

Both King and Swift wrote as outsiders to their respective societies. Swift took a negative view, personally and politically, of the treatment of the Irish people by the English populace in 1729.….

By holding true to her own values, Parks became an example to other African-Americans in Montgomery, who may have been frightened to act in such an openly defiant manner. Her example touched the lives of others, without even her explicit intention. It is easy to remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. As an icon, as a man who was always great. But on 1955 King was only twenty-six years old, "the new pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery," and was then "drafted to head the Montgomery Improvement Association," the organization formed to direct the nascent civil rights struggle. As a result of his leadership during the boycott, he became a major civil rights leader. Parks actions touched King's life, Parks genius enabled King's emerging genius for leadership to be realized.

Parks did not seek the limelight. "I did not get on the bus to get arrested," she later….

hinoceros, by Eugene Ionesco [...] theme of individuality vs. conformity and how it applies in today's world. Throughout history, individuals have felt torn between conforming to established tradition and social mores, and showing their individuality by rising up against conformity and tradition. In "hinoceros," Ionesco illustrates what can happen to a society that is so eager to conform; it cannot see a balance between the individual and the whole. Today, there is more acceptance of individuality in some areas, but in many, conformity is still the rule of the day, and individuality is seen as frightening and even unnatural.
Individuality and Conformity

In "hinoceros," Jean is the conformist, and Berenger is the non-conformist, and is clearly shown from their first entrance on the stage. Jean is perfectly groomed, and Berenger is a mess. At one point Jean says, "JEAN: [interrupting him] I'm just as good as you are; I think with….

In the second phase, members previously identified based on their professional industry environment outlined in the Delimitations section of this proposal will be assigned to different groups and presented with situations requiring them either to express their personal beliefs, determinations, opinions, and decisions knowing that theirs differs substantially from the consensus of their groups' or to suppress their genuine reactions and adopt perceptions and positions with which they disagree for the sake of satisfying what they believe are their groups' beliefs and desires.

ubjects and ubject election

The subjects would all be selected from volunteers and from employees assigned by their organizations to a professional development seminar. Consent for psychological experimentation will not be required because the framework for this project is a purpose-designed professional development seminar that genuinely provides the training it proposes to offer, albeit through a deceptive means. The final phase of the seminar will be devoted to analyzing….

FUNDRAISING: After two months, I had some excellent videos put together of Sunshine residents being active in their community with Down syndrome kids, helping older folks who were bedridden, and other heart-wrenching scenes (including the joy they were having going for "power" walks). I presented video programs to Lions, Kiwanis, the Chamber of Commerce monthly dinner and other civic groups, asking for donations for additional exercise equipment for the center, and was successful. e raised $11,390 dollars in our first year.

FOOT-in-the-DOOR STRATEGY (FITD): According to an article in the Journal of Consumer Research (Scott, 1977), just because a consumer knows something is good for them (in this case, seniors knew exercise was good, but didn't participate), doesn't mean they will buy it. The consumer needs first to comply with a small request by the manufacturer (FITD); and likewise with the Sunshine residents, they needed to see others walking and conform….

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