Obedience Essay

Essay about On Conformity and Obedience
Conformity and Obedience People have been changing their behavior or obeying someone else's
commands for years. This continues today in our everyday lives. Conformity and obedience
seem similar but differ in several ways. Conformity is defined by psychologists as a change in
behavior or belief to accord with others. Similar to this, is obedience. Obedience is defined acting
in accordance with a direct order or command. Normally people conform to reap a reward or to
avoid punishment. If we comply with a direct order or command it is considered obedience. Most
of the time when people comply, it is to be accepted among others so they are not seen as outsiders.
On the other hand, when we obey, we are obeying a command an authority figure...show more
content...
This allowed him to gain their obedience; they knew that they had to obey him to avoid
punishment. There was no way to escape Jones, he seemed to be everywhere. He had them
spying on one another and anything not acceptable would be immediately reported to Jones. He
also had loud speakers everywhere that he would send messages through, this let the followers
know that he was everywhere no matter what they were doing. Because everyone was obedient
and thankful to Jones it was difficult to think he was wrong. In 1972 he staged his own death to
sow panic then relief among his followers; he also staged attacks on his temple to further heighten
fear, this also increased solidarity (Russell, pg 40). Jones also had his followers practice suicide
drills and stated that "the proper thing to do was to kill yourself before they get you"(paraphrase
article). The mass suicide/murder that happened on November 18, 1978 consisted of about 1,000
people drinking lethal cyanide punch. This included small children, women, and men; a total of
912 people died. Both obedience and conformity played a role in this tragedy. If they did not obey
his command of drinking it then they would be shot in the head. Others complied with the drinking
of the poison because they had to believe what was in accordance with others including Jones.
Prisons are also similar to cults, they include obedience and compliance.
A great example is the
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Conformity and Obedience Essay
Conformity and Obedience Task: outline and evaluate findings from conformity and obedience
research and consider explanations for conformity (and non–conformity), as well as evaluating
Milgram's studies of obedience (including ethical issues). The following essay will be about
understanding what is meant by and distinguishing the differences between the terms conformity
and obedience. It will show the evaluation of two key psychological studies which seek to explain
why people do and do not conform, also with explanations of minority influence. Whilst seeking to
understand the reasons why people obey authority, it will show an evaluation of Milgram's study of
obedience, discussing the ethical issues raised from the research and...show more content...
Over time these thought become part of our own cognitive world. When a person wants to be
associated with a group accepting and believing the groups view this is called identification. A
person may desire to be like another person, which may involve adopting the characters of the
person (or group). This may not necessarily be to bring us rewards but because we find it
satisfying to be like those, who we are identifying with. According to Cardwell (1996) obedience
is a type of social influence whereby somebody acts in response to a direct order from another
person. There is an implication the actor is made to respond in a way that they wouldn't have
otherwise done without the order. You are in no doubt when you are obeying an order (explicit).
It is obvious when you are following an order and you won't change your attitudes as you are
behaving as instructed. We will always find ourselves in situations in which we are told to do
things by other people, for example boss or supervisor at work. Within society we work in a
hierarchy. We may disagree or resent the orders we are given even when they are legitimate. It is
unlikely we will be given an order or instruction that goes against our conscience or involves us
inflicting serious harm on another person. So why do we conform? Gross. R, et al (2000) in '2nd
edition psychology a new

Human Obedience Essay example
"Human Obedience" A person is taught to be obedient from a very young age. We are taught to be
obedient to our parents, to teachers and to higher authority. As humans it's our nature to be
obedient, and one might be viewed as abnormal if one rebels against authority. However, is being
obedient at all times the right thing to do? Certainly not. Obedience can certainly be dangerous,
especially when harm is inflicted upon another person. We live in a world that is filled with
different people, different cultures, different beliefs, and different personalities. Each person is
unique in his or her own way, with different likes and dislikes, and their individuality makes them
who they are. Often, people give up their individuality...show more content...
The obedience of Adolf Eichmann's army to kill and torture innocent people was inhumane and
immoral, but they were only carrying out orders. They did not accept responsibility for their
actions, because they were simply doing their job. They may have felt remorse towards the
people they were executing, but if they had disobeyed the orders, their own lives would have been
in jeopardy: "Some were totally convinced of the wrongness of their actions but could not bring
themselves to make an open break with authority" (Milgrim 367). In 2003 U.S. soldiers were
abusing and tormenting the Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib Prison. These prisoners were
physically and mentally abused, and the ones abusing them were soldiers that took an oath to serve
and protect. Does this happen because good people are placed in hateful situations? People tend to
commit acts which they would never commit in their normal life, but in a changed environment they
act completely differently: "Can it really be, you wonder, that intelligent, educated volunteers could
have lost sight of the reality that they were merely acting a part in an elaborate game that would
eventually end?" (Zimbardo 396). Were

Obedience to Authority Essay
Most people would like to think that they would never do anything to intentionally hurt another
human being. However history has shown that human nature does not always prevail with the best
outcomes. The following experiments and real life events all reflect that human beings succumb to
obedience even when common sense tells them that what they are doing is wrong. Zimbardo's
Stanford Prison experiment, Milgram's electric shock study, and the scandal surrounding Abu
Ghraib are reflections on the outcome of obeying a command regardless of the results and why
someone would do so. An experiment by Zimbardo provided insight on how a regular person
changes roles when placed within a specific social setting. The Stanford Prison Experiment was
...show more content...
The next experiment focuses on obedience and why the tests subjects reacted the way they did.
Stanley Milgram reflects on the study conducted and the outcomes of the electric shock study in an
article titled "The Perils of Obedience". The experiment calls for a teacher participant to do word
association with a learner. When an incorrect answer is given by the learner, the teacher is under the
instruction to administer electric shock on an upwards scale as the experiment continues. There
comes a point in the experiment when the teachers feel uncomfortable continuing to shock the
learner. Many times though the teacher continues at the urging of an individual overseeing the
experiment. The first experiment that Milgram conducted was using Yale undergraduates, the results
reflected "about 60 percent of them being fully obedient (696)." Another experiment was then
conducted using "ordinary people" as the people of New Haven were labeled (Milgram 696).
Milgram made the following statement about the results: "The experiment's total outcome was the
same as we had observed among the students (696)." The study did reflect that even though a person
did not agree with the commands especially when putting another individual through he or she did as
told more than half of the time. More studies were conducted around the world by other professors;
many of the experiments had the same or similar results. There is one study that was conducted that
has

Essay on Obedience
Obedience is the process by which individuals comply with the instructions given by an authority
figure not to be confused with conformity. There is one similarity between obedience and conformity
which is that both involved a renunciation
Of personal responsibility. There is three differences between Obedience and Conformity. The first
one is that in Obedience an order or an instruction is given whereas no instructions or order is
given in conformity. The second one is that in obedience there will be a difference of status e.g : a
doctor and a nurse whereas in conformity the group followed will have the same equal status. And
the last one is that in obedience it is about status and power whereas in conformity it is a need of
being...show more content...
On three of the participants full seizures were observed.
There are different sorts of explanations for MILGRAM experiment following the findings to that
experiment. Situational explanations and dispositional explanations. The situational explanations are
that the participants will need to be in a socially obedient environment that means that the authorities
seen that environment as legitimate and trustworthy. There is a need of graduated commitment
which means that there is a move from a reasonable request to an unreasonable one(s). But there is
also an Agentic state, an agentic state means that there is an acting agent for someone else who is
not responsible. The dispositional explanations are that the participants got a rigid belief in the
conventional values, that there is a general hostility towards the other groups, that there is an
intolerance of ambiguity but also a submissive attitude to the authority figures and that you have to
consider the importance of the early childhood experiences.
If we should have a discussion on MILGRAM study, we should have a look at the experiment but
with a few variations such as a relocation to another environment less prestigious, or that the
participants are forced to see the pain inflicted to the learner or again a refusal from the confederate.
All those variations will probably have an effect on the results of MILGRAM experiment, results
such as that the participants will be less

Essay about Blind Obedience
Blind Obedience
While sitting in church on Sunday going through the same motions of every Sunday, my son leans
over to ask, "Why do we have to stand up for this prayer?" My response "because we are supposed
to".
Reading "The Children's Story" by James Clavell, made me think a little more about this question
that I had no answer for. A person needs to be able to explain why he does what he does. Children
are innocent and unknowing; they are like a blank piece of paper waiting to be filled up with
drawings and ideas. This book shows just how easy it is to mold a child.
It uses a classroom of children facing a major change in their lives as the setting. The story moves
quickly and the characters are only...show more content...
In the story, the "old" teacher doesn't always remember the students names, has never had children
of her own, and her memories of all her classes led to a "legion" of faces of which none stood out. In
contrast, the "new" teacher memorizes in advance all the students names and birthdays. That is
enough to impress any child.
Although the children in the story resist at first, it doesn't take this "new" teacher long to
convince them to do away with the Pledge of Allegiance and to rip up the flag. Not a single child
could explain why they say the pledge or what they were pledging allegiance to. When the
students initially showed curiosity on the topic, they were rebuffed by the "old" teacher. The
message was clear, you are not here to think you are here to learn. It made me wonder, if I were to
walk into a classroom today, how many children would know why they were saying the Pledge of
Allegiance? I didn't know as a child why we said this every morning, it was just something I had to
do.
The new teacher is very subversive, and after dispatching the Pledge of Allegiance, she attacks
religion and the flag as other symbols that may not be worthy of reverence. All the good things in
life come from the new leaders. The children believe her, because they have been programmed to
believe that their leaders are always right and must be obeyed. It only took her 23 minutes to convert
enemies of the leader into good citizens!
Blind obedience is

Obedience Essay
English 1310–04 28 October 2011 Obedience as an act can be traced back to the very beginnings of
human history. The common belief has always been to obey authority at all cost. This act has
never been questioned because authority corresponds to the common belief that respecting
authority and obeying them will lead you to success in all aspects of life. Obedience is not
defined to specific situations and its context can be portrayed in various ways. For example, Erich
Fromm writes in his essay, "Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem; "Human history
began with an act of disobedience, and it is not unlikely that it will be terminated by an act of
disobedience." This statement suggests that everything which we perceived to be...show more
content...
Living technically refers to the advances in science that has propelled us to the atomic age.
However living emotionally refers to the Old Stone Age view on ideas about politics, state,
society. Fromm makes a very remarkable point when he states, "If a man can only obey and not
disobey, he is a slave; if he can only disobey and not obey, he is a rebel(not a revolutionary); he acts
out of anger, disappointment, resentment, yet not in the name of a conviction or a principle (Fromm
685)". This statement leaves little doubt that we cannot come up with an accurate definition or
reason behind obedience to authority. Essentially there is no gray area between obedience and
disobedience. At this point in the essay, Fromm is very close to convincing the reader that
obedience is a psychological and physical problem through the various examples in history he has
cited. Fromm continues to make his case that disobedience is detrimental to society by explaining
the two types of conscience that develop within the human psyche when confronted with a important
decision. The first type of conscience is authoritarian conscience which deals with the internal voice
that aims to please an authority figure out of fear. The second type, humanistic conscience, can be
explained as the voice in the back of your head that allows you to tell what is human and inhuman.
The complexity of defining which conscience ultimately decides your actions can be explained by

Obedience Essay
Obedience In this essay I am going to write on how obedience can affect individuals on how they
would normally behave and integrate in society. The meaning of Obedience is a form of social
influence where an individual acts in response to a direct order from another individual, who is
usually an authority figure. It is assumed that without such an order the person would not have
acted in this way. (McLeod, 2007) Migram (1963) conducted a study on how obedient a person
would be to an authority figure and establish a baseline measure of how obedient they would be
when ordered to inflict pain to another human via electric shocks. The way he conducted this was
by doing a lab experiment, he advertised for forty volunteers being paid ВЈ2 to...show more content...
The rest going all the way a staggering 65% we believe the pressure of the authoritative figure in
the room telling them to continue and telling them they will not be held responsible for anything
bad that happens in the test. Social setting is a powerful determinate of behavior, we are
socialized to recognize authority and react to obedience. There are many positives to Milgrams
study such as in has applicability; this experiment has shown us that we are very obedient to
authoritative figures. C.P. Snow (1961) noted that 'when you think of the long and gloomy history
of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than
have ever been committed in the name of rebellion. One such example of this was when six
million innocent people were systematically slaughtered on command by the Nazis during Hitler's
regime. One of the criticisms of Milgram's work is concerned with its ethics was participants were
deceived as to the exact nature of the study for which they had volunteered, and by making them
believe they were administering real electric shocks to a real participant. However Milgram could
not have found results that truly reflected the way people behave in real situations if he had not
deceived his participants, all of whom were thoroughly debriefed afterwards. A major criticism of
Milgram's study was his unrepresentative sample. Milgram chose to study only American men (thus
he was deliberately ethnocentric), but

Essay on Obedience
Erin Poulsen ACP W131 Mr. Scanlan 19 October, 2015 Comparative Critique Obedience and
Disobedience has been a part of key moments in history. Many have studied forms of obedience to
learn how it affects people and situations. For example, Stanley Milgram conducted a well–known
experiment in which the subject, named the "teacher" must shock the "learner" every time he doesn't
remember a word pair from a memory test. The focus of this study is on the teacher, and whether
they will administer killing shocks when told to by an authority figure. Another well–known
experiment is the Stanford Prison Experiment conducted by Philip Zimbardo. A group of college
boys were separated into two groups, prison guards and prisoners, and were put...show more
content...
Dalrymple then discusses the struggle to obey or disobey and that blind disobedience seems like
a noble stance but isn't always the correct way to deal with things. He then goes further in depth
by examining the roots of blind disobedience and other key aspects. Fromm states that obedience
to authority is submission in certain situations, and Dalrymple expands on that idea by identifying
an example where submission obedience is used. Fromm and Dalrymple oppose each other in the
topic of the roots of disobedience. Fromm believes disobedience has come through history, while
Dalrymple believes that disobedience begins in childhood. Fromm believes that there are various
types of obedience, one of them applying to authority and power. Fromm defines these types of
obedience, stating "Obedience to a person, institution or power (heteronomous obedience) is
submission; it implies the abdication of my autonomy and the acceptance of a foreign will or
judgement in place of my own" (Fromm 228). Fromm claims that obedience to any authority,
whether it is a person or institution, is called heteronomous obedience. He claims that
heteronomous obedience is submission because a person follows orders and accepts the authority's
judgement in place of their own. The obedience is considered submission and not free will because
the obedience suppresses one's self for a higher power. Dalrymple also agrees with Fromm's
definition of heteronomous obedience and

Conformity and Obedience Essays
Conformity and Obedience 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...show more content...
Moscovici found that consistency in the minority was important in winning over the majority
with respect to the colour of the slides. Not all decisions are made from a majority influence. For
example, the suffragettes started a movement in 1920 which changed the public and private
opinion allowing women to have the right to vote in western society. As long as a minority stick
by four basic rules then they stand a good chance of succeeding in their campaign. They need to
be Consistent in their views, Flexible not too rigid in their views, Committed to the cause until it's
heard and Relevant, they have more chance of being influential if their views are in line with
social trends. Another experiment that psychologists use in respect of conformity and obedience
is an experiment that was carried out by a psychologist named Stanley Milgram. He recruited 40
male participants by advertising for volunteers to take part in a study to see how punishment
affects learning. The study was to take place at Yale University and everyone would be paid the
same rate of $4.50 and they were informed that they would still get paid if they quit during the
study. There were two confederates one an experimenter and the other a learner. The participants
were always the teacher. The teacher was placed with the psychologist in one room and the learner in

Essay on Obedience to Authority
Obedience to Authority Today our society raises us to believe that obedience is good and
disobedience is bad. We are taught that we should all do what we're told and that the people that
are disobedient are almost always bad people. Society tells us this, but it is not true. Most people
will even be obedient to the point of causing harm to others, because to be disobedient requires the
courage to be alone against authority. In Stanley Milgram's "Perils of Obedience" experiment, his
studies showed that sixty percent of ordinary people would agree to obey an authority figure even to
the point of severely hurting another human being. (Milgram 347). Disobedience is not always
wrong. The truth is sometimes it is necessary to be...show more content...
Obedience is a behavior deeply ingrained in us. It is often an impulse that overrides ethics and
sympathy. There is much evidence of this, including the Holocaust. It was not just a small group
of deranged individuals that committed these atrocities, it was people who had blind obedience
to authority. The tendency to locate the source of behavior disorders in a particular person or
group underestimates the power of situational forces. We are prone to obey because when we are
obedient to an authority it makes us feel safe and protected. We can't make mistakes because the
authority decides for us. We can't be alone, because the authority watches over us. So, no matter
what our behavior is, it can be justified on the ground that we are only following orders, doing
what we're told from above. We can easily be brought to view ourselves as an instrument for
carrying out another person's wishes, and so we no longer feel responsible for our actions.
Unfortunately, that can make us feel responsible to the authority, instead of the content of the
orders the authority is giving. Morality is still there, but the focus is changed. We feel the need to
perform well, out of obligation or duty, to those who are in authority. This does not necessarily
mean that all disobedience is good and all obedience is bad. That would ignore the relationship
between obedience and disobedience. An act of obedience to one principle is usually and act

Obedience to Authority Essays
The presence of an authoritative figure is present in nearly even human being's life; along with this,
is the expectation of obedience to that authority. Through this obedience, many great things have
been accomplished, as well as many instances of cruel and immoral acts. Defiance of the established
authority, though, has also lead to great things, such as the creation and founding of the United
States of America. In his writing, Obedience to Authority,Stanley Milgram examines the obedience
to authority without questioning or taking responsibility and the problems that lie in it. Going
deeper into that problem, one should examine what, in society, is conditioning people to obey an
authority, even when they do not believe in what they are...show more content...
If a child does not clean their room, they may get a time–out, a physical punishment (i.e., spanking),
or may not receive desert at supper. Alternatively, in adolescence, if a child is home late past their
curfew, they may be unable to go out for an entire week or cannot use their parent's car. It is through
this that they are taught defiance causes punishment; punishment is bad, so therefore defiance is bad.
This basic model follows a person through the rest of their life: in school with teachers, at work
with their boss, and in life in general with the government. People are conditioned to obey the
respective authority, whether or not they agree with the orders given or the rules present. In
almost every instance it is true that there are basic rules that go against what a person feels is
right: "Why can't I leave campus during lunch hour and go to McDonalds? The school food
sucks!" or "Why should I only go 55 mph, there's nobody else around and I'm in the middle of
nowhere. It should at least be 65," or "Why shouldn't I be able to download music for free off the
internet? Why should I pay $17 for a CD with only two good songs when I can download those two
songs free! That's not stealing!"
They are taught that defiance is bad, and the older a person gets, the more severe the repercussions
of defiance become. At home, they are grounded, at school they are suspended or given detention, at
work they may be fired, or if they

Obedience And Conformity
To be holy is to be morally blameless (pg 15), separated from sin (pg, 15), consecrated to God (pg.
15), conformed to the moral precepts of the Bible in contrast with the sinful ways of the world (pg.
15), nothing less than the conformity of the character of God (pg. 22), thinking as God thinks and
willing as God wills (pg. 47), it's not a series of do's and don'ts, but a conformity to the character of
God and obedience to the will of God (pg. 68), more broadly, obedience to the will of God in
whatever God directs (pg. 136).

Essay on Authority and Obedience
Authority and Obedience Thesis: We consciously or unconsciously obey authority in all walks of
life on a daily basis. Obedience is when there is legitimate power, there is pressure to comply.
Compliance with that which is required by authority; subjection to rightful restraint or control.
Authority being the legal or rightful power; a right to command or enforce obedience on another.
This essay shall discuss, explore and evaluate the explanations as to why people obey authority.
After the Nazi's justified genocide by saying that they were simply following orders, a psychologist
named Stanley Milgram (1963) decided to carry out a study to try to answer the question of how far
individuals...show more content...
He introduced a further participant, who was in fact an accomplice actor. The participants drew
lots to determine who would be the learner and who would be the teacher. Brantt drew the teacher
role, and the actor, the learner role. Brantt was unaware that the roles had been fixed. The lesson
was to learn a verbal task and the teacher administered a shock each time the learner got the
answer wrong. The shock was increased by one increment every time a wrong answer was given.
The learner was strapped to a chair which was connected to a very imposing looking 'shock
generator' which ranged between 15 volts and 450 volts. On the generator the words labeled the
shock gage from 'slight shock' to 'DANGER: SEVERE SHOCK'. In fact, although it appeared to,
the generator did not emit any electrical shock at all. The actor was instructed to cry out at 150
volts and intensify the level of verbal reaction as the volts increased. At 300 volts he was
instructed to pound on the wall, later ceasing to reply or make any further noise. No response to a
question was seen to be a wrong answer, therefore the teacher would be told to carry on shocking.
The study was to be watched by the experimenter (the figure of authority who would order the
teacher to continue to the end). Brantt responded as Milgram had predicted. She was calm and cool.

Obedience : A Moral Virtue
Obedience: a moral virtue which society places significant importance to, for to obey is "as basic an
element in the structure of social life" (Milgram, 1963). Yet, such a virtue possesses a dark side as
well coined as "destructive obedience" by Stanley Milgram. It is defined as "a set of behaviours of
uncritical acceptance of immoral or illegitimate requests by an authority" (Pozzi et al, 2014, p. 19).
Evidence of this is omnipresent in the history of mankind, as was seen prominently in the Second
World War and the Vietnam War, and even up to the present time, particularly in the Middle East,
where world leaders and military leaders alike order their people to commit heinous acts, which led
to the deaths of many innocent people. Even in...show more content...
Conscientiousness, according to this model, is defined as someone who values order, duty,
self–discipline, and achievement (McCrae & John, p. 178, 1992; Ha et al, 2013). Hence, those
high in conscientiousness are revered by society as they seem to promote prosocial behaviour.
Hence, it is no surprise that it is a characteristic valued particularly by East Asian collectivistic
cultures, which is evident in their political ideologies (Kim, Atkinson, & Yang, 1999). They are
also individuals who are "likely to invest in religious beliefs and practices" (Saroglou, 2010). In
addition to this, conscientious people tend to live longer as they are more informed and more in
control of their emotional and cognitive processes (Terracciano et al, p. 625, 2008). Interestingly,
conscientious people "may experience internal conflict between concern for the self and concern
for others" (Reisert & Comte, 2004, p. 75), which makes them an interesting prospect for the
study of obedience. As someone who values order and duty, they are expected to be submissive to
authority figures (Begue et al, 2015, p.299). For instance, they are more likely to participate in
civic duty than participate in activities "that are not necessarily linked to social norms," such as
protesting (Ha et al, p. 516, 2013), for protesting creates disorder and defies their sense of duty
(Kandola & Egan, 2014). In

Reaction Paper On Obedience
Obedience: In the documentary about MyLai the concept of obedience was very prominent and
was shown through many examples both spoken and shown. Obedience is "following orders
from an authority figure." Obedience is following orders from someone one has more power than
them, examples of this are parents, teachers, officers and leaders in the military. This definition is
often paired with the idea that people will do anything if an authority figure tells them to do,
which is explore in Milgram's study of obedience aimed to justify the actions of accused war
criminals from WWII during the Nuremberg War Criminal trials. Procedure: Milgram's
experiment started by having one confederate (a person in on the research but acts like they are
part of the study) and participant and had them draw lots to find out who would be the learner
and who would be the teacher. The lots was always fixed so the participant would always be the
teacher. The participants were told that this experiment was to test learning and all the participants
were males between the ages of 20 and 50. Mr. Wallace, the confederate, would be hooked up to an
electric shock generator through wires and electrodes and the participant would watch him get set
up. Then the participant was taken by the researcher (Milgram) in to a room next to the confederate
and was shown the generator switch board that ranged from 15 volts to 450 volts with 30 shocks
switches in between. The teacher was instructed by the

Obedience Essay

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