Obedience Is Not A Bad Thing Essay - 1420 Words

Compliance with an order, request, or submission to another’s authority is obedience. Just about everyone obeys someone or something on a daily basis without even thinking about it. It is normal and useful for keeping law and order in a common civilized society. Obedience is not a bad thing, it is just a way of controlling people. However, the opposite end of obedience is disobedience which is usually viewed as bad, especially in the context of a societal view. Both obedience and disobedience serve a purpose, from positive control through obedience, to denying control to avoid being influenced to do something immoral. Erich Fromm, Doris Lessing, and Stanley Milgram reveal how the effects of obedience can be negative and how hard it can be to disobey. Obedience can be catastrophic; during the holocaust, many men obeyed orders only to find they were puppets in an evil scheme. However, thriving obedience in the human species is a cause of the need to please, a difficulty to disob ey, and social pressures that are displayed among groups. Many war crimes and horrific historical events involve the forces of obedience especially within groups. These tragic events as time has passed have sparked curiosity in many behavioral scientists. Research through experimentation has occurred and helped explain some of the behaviors witnessed such as in the famous Milgram experiment. Stanley Milgram performed an experiment that revealed some truly baffling facts when it comes to obedience. TheShow MoreRelatedObedience Is Not A Bad Thing Essay1465 Words   |  6 PagesObedience is defined as compliance with an order, request, or submission to another’s authority. Just about everyone obeys someone or something on a daily basis without even thinking about it. It is normal and useful for keeping law and order in a common civilized society. Obedience is not a bad thing, it is just a way of controlling people. However, the opposite end of obedience is disobedience which is usually viewed as bad, especially in the context of a societal view. Both obedience and disobedienceRead MoreObedience to Authority Essays836 Words   |  4 Pageseven 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 theRead MoreReal Life Implications Of The Milgram Experiment1698 Words   |  7 PagesReal Life Implications of the Milgram Experiment One of the most controversial studies in the history of psychology is Stanley Milgram’s Obedience experiment, which revealed the power of obedience and the horrendous acts people would commit when faced by an authority figure. Milgram selected male participants to be part of a learning study. He got people to be either the learner or the teacher. It was fixed that they were always the teacher. The teacher would shock the learner if they would getRead MoreA Few Good Men By Erich Fromm1403 Words   |  6 Pages Studying obedience to authority most often reveals human nature repugnantly; however, it teaches society individual capability and, thus, it can prevent unethical actions. In the film, A Few Good Men, Col. Nathan R. Jessup, the commanding officer at Guantanamo Bay Cuba orders a â€Å"code red† – an unsanctioned disciplinary action against Pfc. William T. Santiago. Lance Cpl. Harold W. Dawson and Pfc. Louden Downey, two U.S. Marines, are the fellow platoon members that implement the code red, and LtRead MoreA Few Good Men Analysis1331 Words   |  6 Pagesauthorization, specifically in the military (Zimbardo 116-117, Kelman and Hamilton 139-142). Zimbardo would consider Dawson’s following of the Code Red to be a product of his environment, in this case, the military (116). Based on â€Å"When Good People do Bad Things,† Dr. Phil, Ph.D., agrees with Zimbardo that ordinary people are capable of carrying out heinous acts, depending on the situation. Dr. Phil interviews a military Ranger, Alex, who robbed a bank inadvertently. The Ranger was under the impressionRead MoreEssay on Obedience to Authority574 Words   |  3 PagesObedience 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 studiesRead MoreWhat Can Social Psychology Teach Us About What Happened At Abu Ghraib? Essay1023 Words   |  5 Pagesthe line to gain information by the centre intelligence agency, tier 1A was known as the interrogation hold. One detained was mentally ill, he covered himself in faeces every day, the soldiers would have to role him in sand so he wouldn’t smell so bad and they named him ‘Shitboy’. What was he doing in an interrogation hold? This is one example that shows the level of humilia tion and dehumanisation that went on. Philip Zimbardo was an expert witness for U.S. Army Reserve Staff Sgt. Ivan â€Å"Chip† FrederickRead MoreCustomer Service And Employee Satisfaction1604 Words   |  7 Pagesthat good leadership directly relates to the quality of business. Meaning that the better the leadership, the better the business. Quality leadership one of the major keys of developing good customer service and employee satisfaction. Considering obedience defines whether we obey or disobey the authority, many individuals today have no choice but to obey. Leaders of businesses are far along being autocratic to their leadership style instead of democratic. Individuals feel afraid and feel like slavesRead MoreDisobedience Vs Obedience1700 Words   |  7 PagesIn society, obedience to authority is ingrained in humanity from an early age, causing some individuals to blindly obey orders without contemplating the credibility of the source. In psychoanalyst Erich Fromm’s article â€Å"Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem,† he explains that throughout human history obedience has been associated with virtue and disobedience with sin (Fromm 127). Fromm suggests that our conscience is an internalized voice of authority (126). Fromm claims individuals needRead MoreResearch Paper on Child Behavior1597 Words   |  7 Pagesoblivious to the respect that parents deserve and everything centers on their own needs. Throughout this paper many things have been explored such as: attachment issues in psychology, history of childhood behavior problems in biological relatives of boys with ADHD and conduct disorder, dealing with disrespect in your teenager, the seven keys to child obedience and how children’s bad behavior gives insight to academic achievements. New Research Suggest â€Å"New research suggests that children entering