Conformity
& Obedience Response Paper
READ:
-Sabini
& Silver (1982). Available on Blackboard.
-Chapter 6 in your textbook.
-The New Yorker
article about the Abu Ghraib incident (Blackboard)
OPTIONAL:
I recommend,
but don't require, that you look at the following websites 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. I anticipate your
responses will take approximately 4-5 pages. You should number your
responses -- no need to weave your question answers into a
"paper." Please note that I will be looking for explicit
references to 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.
1. Discuss how cognitive dissonance, a lack of practice expressing
or engaging in disobedience, and constant (unstopping) action,
together, influenced
behavior in the Milgram study (basic paradigm). Discuss how these
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 Rawanda. See this webpage
for information about evaluating websites. Provide a very brief (3-4
sentences) overview of the heart of the conflict (the aggressor, how
long did/has it last(ed), etc.). 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. You may comment
on any specific event or single aspect of the genocide you find
compelling. Be sure to include citations for your website(s).