Conformity & Obedience Response Paper

READ:
-Sabini & Silver (1982) 
-Chapter 6 in your textbook.
-Hersh's New Yorker article about the Abu Ghraib incident

Optional: 
I recommend, but don't require, that you look at the following web sites which present images from Abu Ghraib. Please note that these images are very disturbing.

Please type (double-spaced, Times New Roman 12 pt font or equivalent) responses to each of the below questions. You should number your responses -- no need to weave your question answers into a "paper."  I anticipate that your entire paper will be a total of 4-6 pages. Please note that I will be looking for explicit discussion of the concepts and studies contained in the articles you read, in addition to your own thoughtful critique.  Practice citing your sources properly. In addition to any paragraph breaks you put within your answers, you should consider each new question a new paragraph and cite sources accordingly. Include a references page.  Staple your pages. No paperclips or folders please.

Your work will be graded on the following criteria: form (following instructions, grammar, etc.), appropriate detail, quality of opinions and claims, use of accurate and appropriate evidence.

  1. Discuss how the established routine, cognitive dissonance, and an agentic shift (i.e., release from responsibility) all worked together to lead to obedience in the Milgram study (basic paradigm). Discuss how each of these 3 factors could have, similarly, influenced the behaviors at Abu Ghraib.

  2. Define & contrast technical and moral responsibility. According to Sabini & Silver, in what way did the people who helped keep the Holocaust running confuse these two ideas? Do you think something similar may have happened at Abu Ghraib?

  3. Use reliable sources on the internet to investigate one of the following two conflicts, often called genocides: Darfur or Rwanda. See this web page for information about evaluating web sites. Provide a very brief (3-4 sentences) overview of the heart of the conflict (the aggressor, how long did/has it last(ed), etc.). Then describe one particular event from the conflict or one particular aspect of the conflict (e.g., the role of the military, the influence of tribal histories). Use what you have learned about social psychology and present two psychological reasons you think this kind of violence may have happened or been allowed to happen. In your application, be sure you: a) speak specifically about how the concept applies to the conflict; and, b) discuss how the two concepts may have worked together to create situational pressures leading to violence.