CONFORMITY AND OBEDIENCE

WHAT IS CONFORMITY? Why could it be good? What could be bad about it?

WHAT IS COMPLIANCE? Social behaviour by an individual that may be contrary to his or her beliefs but is exhibited nonetheless in order to achieve rewards and avoid punishment

Conformity in Individual Cultures In order for large groups of people to coordinate their behaviour and actions, they must adhere to standards of behaviour that make one another’s actions predictable and recognizable by all members. conformity allows us to establish boundaries it clarifies acceptable and unacceptable behaviours

CONFORMITY IN COLLECTIVISTIC CULTURES CONFORMITY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN INDIVIDUALITY ACTIONS, LANGUAGE AND DRESS ARE ALL DETERMINED BY SOCIETY PEOPLE ARE EXPECTED TO ADHERE TO THESE RULES OF BEHAVIOUR; NOT MEETING TO THESE EXPECTATIONS HAS MORE SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES THAN IN INDIVIDUALISTIC CULTURES

List circumstances in which it is acceptable to conform in public. What is compliance?

BREACHING EXPERIMENTS What happens when you break the norms? Sociologist Harold Garfunkel wanted to know what would happen if we intentionally breached the norms? experiments included walking backwards upstairs or standing while eating a meal in a restaurant what experiments could you come up with?

But why Breach? how does society react? confusion, anxiety, anger, or laughter what are some other unwritten social rules?

BREACHING EXPERIMENTS

GROUPTHINK the effects of collective pressure on the decision-making abilities of individual members of a group in groups people can often be silent and not share their honest opinion Pressure: individual applies direct pressure to any member who disagrees with the group Self-Censorship: individual of groupthink would rather censor himself than disagree with the group Morality: individual does not question the ethical or moral decisions of the group Stereotypes: individual develops stereotypical views of outside groups who don’t share the same belief as his or her group Mindguard: individual sometimes appoints himself or herself as protector of the group from outside information and sources that might break the group

OBEDIENCE the act of doing what one is told or submitting to authority Difference with compliance and conformity: compliance is behaviour influenced by peers and conformity is behaviour that matches the majority obedience is about submitting to power. Most people comply with the rules of society and obey authority without question in order to avoid public sanctions or punishment

OBEDIENCE EXPERIMENT Charles Hofling did an experiment with 22 night nurses to test obedience to see if nurses would carry out the orders of doctors whom they did not know and had never met in person. The nurses were told to administer a fake drug at twice the maximum dosage based on the doctors orders conclusion was that people will follow orders they have questions about and that they would rather be wrong then question authority