Influences of conformity and obedience essay

INFLUENCES OF CONFORMITY AND OBEDIENCE Influences of Conformity and Obedience Adrienne Alexander PSYCH 555 Dr. Jay Greiner Applications of Social Psychology •         Make connections between social psychology and other disciplines. Social psychology is closely related to three other disciplines: personality psychology, organizational psychology, and sociology (social work is sometimes confused with social psychology, but it is really more similar to counseling psychology and clinical practice). In general, social psychology differs from personality psychology in that it focuses more on the situational influences of behavior than on individual differences between people; it differs from organizational psychology in that it does not focus specifically on behavior within organizations; and it differs from sociology in that it focuses on the behavior of individuals and small groups more than the behavior of large social systems and societies. Social Psychology Network http://www.

socialpsychology. org/facq. htm#howdiffer •         Discuss the utility of social psychology in the real-world. Social psychology is the study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another.

It includes topics such as persuasion, attraction, prejudice, and gender roles. The world is changing at a rapid pace, and the perspectives of social psychology have never been more important. Relationships are increasingly interdependent, and actions have broad implications beyond small worlds of family, friends, and neighborhood. Social psychology provides insights and findings to explain the rapid changes taking place in the world, from the women’s movement to the search for peace in troubled areas. As a scientifically based view of human behavior, social psychology is applied to many real-world settings, such as the workplace, diplomacy, health, and law and provides a complementary perspective for courses in American studies, anthropology, economics, gender studies, multiethnic studies, political studies, and sociology A consideration of the ways in which we experience ourselves and come to know others, how our attitudes and behavior are influenced by other people, and how our identities are institutionally mediated. How do we form and maintain conceptions of ourselves? How do we form and maintain impressions of others? What are the fallibilities of human reason in everyday life? What are the challenges we face in our pursuit of happiness? What role does physical beauty play in attraction? What factors promote conformity, compliance, and obedience? What is injustice, and how do people resist it in their daily lives? Under what conditions are some people likely to aid a person in distress? How are we affected by features of the physical environment around us? Social psychology has studied human aggression for much of the past 60 years. How do we explain aggression, violence, war, and murder? Focusing on two types of criminals–serial murderers and serial child sex offenders–this upper-level course examines social psychological and social interactionist models of human aggression.

Students discuss theories and relevant empirical research. Psychology Program at Bard – Social Psychology http://inside. bard. edu/psych/area_social/courses. shtml 2.

Influences of Conformity and Obedience Paper (due Week Six, Day 6) 1, 750 to 2, 100 evaluate the effect of group influence on the self using classical and contemporary literature. a. Compare and contrast the concepts of conformity and obedience. The Concepts Of Conformity And Obedience In Social Influence Conformity involves the changing of ones attitudes, opinions or behaviours to match those of others.

Aronson (1988) defines it ‘ as a change in a persons behaviour or opinions as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people. ‘ The pressure to act like other people, sometimes despite our true feelings and desires, is a common everyday occurrence. Although the majority of people like to think of themselves as autonomous individuals, they nevertheless tend to conform to the social norms that their groups and societies have evolved. Obedience is the result of a deliberate or active form of social influence, which involves an authority figure telling us how to behave in a particular way. If we obey we are complying with the authority figure’s request or instruction. Read more: http://www. coursework. info/AS_and_A_Level/Psychology/Social_Psychology/The_Concepts_Of_Conformity_And_Obedience_L68917.

html#ixzz0aF0IMCSU obedience to authority is an important aspect of social life and it plays a key role in maintaining social order, the concept of obedience has been studied in social psychology mainly in terms of its destructive aspects. Besides, most of the studies have overlooked the role of disobedience in the authority relationship. Disobedience may be conceived of as a protest that undermines the legitimacy of the authority or it can represent an instrument for controlling the legitimacy of the authority’s demands, becoming a factor protecting against authoritarianism. In this article, a new perspective on the study of the relationship between the individual and the authority is put forward, considering obedience and disobedience as parallel concepts, each having constructive and destructive aspects. Science Direct ttp://www. sciencedirect. com/science? _ob= ArticleURL&_udi= B6VD4-4T4J1C3-1&_user= 10&_rdoc= 1&_fmt=&_orig= search&_sort= d&_docanchor=&view= c&_searchStrId= 1142105767&_rerunOrigin= google&_acct= C000050221&_version= 1&_urlVersion= 0&_userid= 10&md5= c6ec98b6ce15bec5dba58ec65dd66fff Conformity as a means of enslaving or liberating is an issue which is relatively practical and can be experienced or observed in many societal forums.

This paper will seek to examine the concepts of conformity, analyzing its effects with the aid of research based data, observations and my own experiences. Before any proper analysis could be done, a functional, working definition of conformity and how it relates to groups, should be established. Why do we conform? Two basic sources of influence: normative social influence, the need to be liked, accepted by others and Informational influence: need to be correct and to behave in accordance with reality. Solomon Asch (1956) devised an experiment to see if subjects would conform even if they were uncertain that the group norm was incorrect. In his study he asked subjects to take part in an experiment. They were each asked to match a standard length line with three other lines.

He found that one of the situational factors of conformity is the size of the opposing majority. In a series of studies he varied the number of confederates that gave correct answers from 1 -15. He found that subjects conformed to a group of 3 or 4 as readily as they did to a larger group. Some of the subjects indicated afterward that they assumed the rest of the people were correct and that their own perceptions were wrong. Others knew they were correct but didn’t want to be different from the rest of the group.

Some even insisted that they saw the line lengths as the majority claimed to see them. Asch and his students did many variations of the study for example they altered the differences between the line lengths making them much smaller and so the correct answer was much less certain, this showed that the conformity increased. What seems to happen is that we have more need for a groups input as a task becomes more difficult. If in the beginning of Asch’s experiment we conformed because we didn’t want to be embarrassed then in the more ambiguous situation we also ‘ conform’ because we are less sure of ourselves and so the others in the group become our source of information. This is an example of the difference between normative influence and informational influence.

Normative influence is where we have a need psychologically to be accepted and do not want to risk not being accepted. Is Conforming Liberating or Enslaving http://www. oppapers. com/essays/Conformity-Liberating-Enslaving/166960 b.

Analyze a classical study concerning the effect of group influence on the self. c. Analyze a contemporary example of the effect that group influence has on the self. d. Analyze individual and societal influences that lead to