Saturday, August 18, 2012

Obedience & Conformity

Session 17 - Obedience

Run through the work from last session, including the homework...

Students are to place the following in their workbooks:


Obedience
Obedience occurs when we follow the commands of someone with authority, or the rules or laws of our society. There are a number of factors that can influence obedience to an authority figure.  These include social proximity, legitimacy of the authority figure and group pressure.

Move onto the Milgram Experiment - the overall question Milgram set out to investigate was how far people would go obeying an instruction if it involved hurting another person...

Watch the Milgram Obedience Study clip...

Discuss the implications of the study - what do the results actually mean???

Move onto the Milgram Experiment Role Play - see instruction sheet for details.

Once the role play has been completed students are to deconstruct the experiment using the research methods stated below - Title = The Milgram Experiment - An Obedience Study:
  • Hypothesis
  • IV & DV
  • Method
    • Participants
    • Materials
    • Procedure
  • Results
  • Conclusions
  • Ethical Considerations
  • Limitations
Run through the student's observations concerning the activity above - ensuring that all aspects are thoroughly covered.

Students are to place the following in their workbooks - Factors Affecting Obedience:

Social Proximity
Social Proximity refers to the physical closeness between 2 or more people.  It has been found that the closer the authority figure, the more likely that obedience will occur.

Legitimacy of Authority Figure
Legitimacy of Authority Figure refers to the perceived legitimacy of a person in authority. If a person/group’s authority is deemed legitimate, obedience is more likely to occur.

Group Pressure
Group Pressure refers to the perceived pressure due to the presence of other members of the group. An individual is more likely to be obedient when there is little or no group support for resisting the authority figure.

Homework - due Wednesday 22nd August:
Students are to read through pages 204 - 206 of the textbook and complete CYU 7.2 in workbook.

Session 18 - Conformity

Run through the work from last session, including the homework...

Here's a link to a really interesting article about Milgram's experiment - more detail and raises some insightful ideas / theories:
http://www.simplypsychology.org/Milgram%20-%20Obedience.pdf

Following on from this watch a clip from 'How Violent Are You?' (36:50 - 59:41) - introduce the series and discuss main ideas.

Students are to place the following in their workbooks:


Conformity
Conformity refers to the tendency to adjust one’s thoughts, feelings or behaviour in ways that are in agreement with those of others, or with accepted standards about how a person should behave in certain situations

Watch man in elevator clip...

Task: Come up with three past events / experiences / events where you had to conform - share with class.

Move onto Asch's Conformity Experiment - read through his studies on page 207 of the textbook. Watch the relevant clip and discuss...

Move onto the Mix & Match Activity – will involve students reading 208, 209 & 210 and completing the Factors Affecting Conformity Act 6.2 from Student Activity Manual – discuss results.

Session 19 - Group Influence = Changing Behaviour

Run through the main ideas from last session - specific focus on Social Loafing..

Read through article:
http://www.spring.org.uk/2009/05/social-loafing-when-groups-are-bad-for-productivity.php

Move onto watching the London Riot mugging video and ask: 
                          How do incidents like this happen?
List ideas up on the W/B and then lead onto the content below.

Students to place the following in their workbooks under the heading Group Influence to Change Behaviour:


The Peer Group
The peer group is a group usually made of people who have similar interests, do the same sorts of things and associate or interact with one another on relatively equal terms.
 E.g._______________________

Peer Pressure
Peer pressure refers to the social influence of peers on each other, whether it is real or imagined.  It can affect how the individual thinks, feels and behaves. 

Risk-taking Behavior
Risk-taking behaviour is behaviour that has potential negative consequences, whether they are physical or psychological.  The outcome of risk-taking behaviour is not always negative however.

Identify, as a classroom some real life examples of risk –taking behaviour – place up on W/B. Maybe even rank these examples from most to least risky…

Move onto the concept of young people / risk-taking and driving – read through the stats and ideas on this website:

Watch the Australian Story, 'Dumb and Dumber' - students need to highlight the reasons why these two boys did what they did...


Students are then to read through pages 210 & 211 and complete ‘Check Your Understanding 7.4’ in their workbooks - must be completed by next Wednesday.

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