personal guilt or feelings of responsibility for their actions, no matter how morally unjust (Kelman and Hamilton 1989:230). These soldier’s actions become so routine that they do not even think of the repercussions or consequences that follow. These soldiers can fit into any of the conformity categories. They are all heavily influenced to conform by the authorization, routinization, and dehumanization that military units like this are susceptive to. The soldiers involved in the My Lai Massacre overlooked…
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Conformity and Obedience The term Social Influence is used to describe what happens when an individual’s opinions, behaviours of emotions are affected or changed due to the influences of another person or persons. This might be Normative Social Influence or Informational Social Influence. Normative often results in compliance as people often put their own opinions to one side and go along with the majority whereas informational could well be minority led, as it is based on an informed point of view…
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Conformity is a type of social influence that causes a change in your beliefs or behaviour in response to a real or imagined social pressure. Insko et al (1985) stated that there are two main psychological reasons for why people may conform. The first reason is normative social influence which means that we conform because we want to be liked or have the approval of others or to be accepted into a group. The result of normative influence is that the person may publicly agree or go along with the…
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faculty here at Heidelberg University. The diversity of gender, age, and consequently their role at the university played a significant part in my findings. I discovered the obvious, the hidden, the rewarding, and the costly characteristics of conformity and nonconformity. Being in a college atmosphere one can only assume that the students, especially the freshmen, who are new to college life will engage in similar activities. Obvious examples would be partying, staying up late, procrastinating…
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was called “From Honor Roll to Wannabe Gangster”. This episode aired on June 10, 2022. The first psychological theory I am writing about is the operant conditioning theory, by B.F. Skinner. The other psychological theory I am writing about is the conformity theory by Solomon Asch and Stanley Milgram. PHIL EPISODE This episode of Dr. Phil is about a boy named Aidan. He was once an honor roll student and also an athlete. His mom and sister brought this to Dr. Phil as a last-ditch effort. This was due…
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separation pales in comparison to that in modern day Eastern cultures. Women in some Eastern cultures are regarded as the inferior gender and are treated as such physically, emotionally, psychologically and financially. Through compliance, obedience, and conformity women in these oppressive cultures are forced to accept their inequality and embrace their cultural position. The religions in Islam are a main factor as to why the gender gap is so prevalent. Compliance is the change in behavior due to a…
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with unfamiliar scenes. How well we really know our strengths and weaknesses can determine if we are capable of even becoming or doing evil. It is reveal; those who are men in immense power are those in positions to make decisions, having major consequences on those who are not of that power. “They are in command of the major hierarchies and organizations of modern society. They direct the military establishment and occupy command posts of the social structure, in which are now centered the effective…
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experimental conflict.” (Milgram, 1965, cited in Public and Private Conformity). These actions show how deeply distressed the participants were. The participants themselves questioned the ethics of the study at the time. Milgram described instances where subjects became engrossed in the technical machinery, possibly seeing themselves as mere technicians so as to transfer ethical responsibility to the experimenter, (Milgram, Obedience to Authority, 1974). Milgram termed this an ‘agentic state’, the participants…
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that entirely normal people will show obedience to the instructions of an authority figure even when these conflict with their own conscience and appear to result in the suffering of an innocent other. Key to Milgram’s analysis was the claim that when individuals interpret a situation as properly governed by authority relations, they cease to act autonomously, undergoing ‘agentic shift’, which also relieves them of feelings of responsibility for the consequences of the orders they follow. The 'Ordinary…
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and depression. Ralph Waldo Emerson was at the forefront of the transcendentalism movement and was seen as a champion of individualism. In his famous essay Self Reliance, Emerson promotes the importance of individualism and disapproves of societal conformity. Similarly, in the Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne promotes the transcendentalist idea of the importance of individuality and shows this through Hester Prynne’s misfortune due to societal laws about adultery and her good fortune through natural…
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