Obeying and Resisting Malevolent Orders. Social Psychology: Third Edition by Eliot R. Smith and Diane M. Mackie. Chapter 10: Rebellion and resistance: Fighting back (pp. 379–384) Ask Yourself? How can people resist the norm of obedience to authority? What is the most crucial factor in creating rebellion? What questions can help to think things though (systematic processing)? In this topic Reactance: Enough is Enough People can resist being manipulated by norms.
Reactance People fight against threats to freedom of action when norms are not privately accepted, or are seen as inappropriate. Related website: More information about reactance Systematic Processing: Thinking Things Through One defense against normative pressure on behavior is to think things through, to make sure that any norm made accessible in the situation is actually applicable. Ways to help this include questioning how norms are being used, questioning claims about relationships, and questioning others' views of the situation. Using Norms Against Norms The most effective defense is to use norms against norms. So what does this mean? Reactance. Social Psychology: Third Edition by Eliot R. Smith and Diane M. Mackie. Chapter 10: The norm of obedience: Submitting to authority (pp. 369–379) Ask Yourself? What was Milgram's explanation for the shocking results of his studies? How does obedience escalate? In this topic Milgram's Studies of Obedience (pp. 370–371)Attempting to Explain Obedience: Was it the Time, the Place, the People?
(pp. 371–372)Obedience in the workplaceThe Norm of Obedience to Authority (pp. 373–378)Authority must be legitimateAuthority must accept responsibilityThe norm of obedience must be accessibleIncompatible norms must be suppressedMaintaining and escalating obedienceNormative Trade-Offs: The Pluses and Minuses of Obedience (pp. 378–379) Milgram's Studies of Obedience In one of the best-known experiments in psychology, people obeyed orders to deliver shocks to an unwilling and clearly suffering victim. Related website: More information about the Milgram's studies Attempting to Explain Obedience: Was it the Time, the Place, the People? Obedience in the workplace Case study: Abu Ghraib The. My Life as a Retail Worker: Nasty, Brutish, and Poor - Joseph Williams. After veteran reporter Joseph Williams lost his job, he found employment in a sporting-goods store.
In a personal essay, he recalls his struggles with challenges millions of Americans return to day after day. Reuters My plunge into poverty happened in an instant. I never saw it coming. Then again, there was no reason to feel particularly vulnerable. Two years ago, I was a political reporter at Politico, and I spent my days covering the back-and-forth of presidential politics. On June 21, 2012, I was invited to discuss race, Republican candidate Mitt Romney, and the 2012 presidential election on MSNBC. “Romney is very, very comfortable, it seems, with people who are like him. The political Internet exploded. Five months earlier my ex-wife and I had a fight.
That’s how I found myself working a retail job at a sporting goods store—the only steady job I could find after six months of unemployment in a down economy and a news industry in upheaval. Walk out immediately, it demanded. Ever.