More handpicked essays just for you.
Difference between organizational culture and leadership behavior annotated bibliography
Personal leadership behaviours
Personal leadership behaviours
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Authority cannot exist without obedience. Society is built on this small, but important concept. Without authority and its required obedience, there would only be anarchy and chaos. But how much is too much, or too little? There is a fine line between following blindly and irrational refusal to obey those in a meaningful position of authority. Obedience to authority is a real and powerful force that should be understood and respected in order to handle each situation in the best possible manner.
To best understand how much pressure and stress can be caused by someone with authority, allow me to recount a personal experience. Sweating, I stood at attention in front of the flight Captain and my training instructor Staff Sergeant Garr. I wasn’t quite sure how I got here, and now I was being asked to lie to the highest ranking officer I had ever met. Two choices were available to me, lie and take ownership of the mistake, or stand by my principles and suffer the consequences. Let us start a little farther back in the story. I had joined the Air Force in May of 2004, and that same month I was sent to the Military Entrance Processing Station in Minneapolis, MN. This is where you are put through a battery of tests, ranging from tests measuring your physical capabilities to your ability to read aloud. It takes place over 2 days, and upon successful completion you are flown to San Antonio, TX to enter Basic Military Training.
Here, in BMT, I found myself, weeks later, being questioned by my Training Instructor about a discrepancy in my medical records. There is a test that is done before you leave for BMT, a simple test that measures your ability to lift deadweight from the ground to above your head, known as the X-Factor. SSgt Garr h...
... middle of paper ...
...xander, and Stephen Reicher. “Beyond Stanford: Questioning a role-based explanation of tyranny.” Bulletin of the Society of Personality and Social Psychology. 18 (2003): 22-25.
Milgram, Stanley. “The Perils of Obedience.” Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum”. 9th ed. Ed. Laurence Behrens and Leonard Rose. New York: Longman, 2005. 313-324.
Szegedy-Maszak, Marianne. “The Abu Ghraib Prison Scandal: Sources of Sadism.” Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum”. 9th ed. Ed. Laurence Behrens and Leonard Rose. New York:Longman, 2005. 302-304.
Zimbardo, Philip G. “The Stanford Prison Experiment.” Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum”. 9th ed. Ed. Laurence Behrens and Leonard Rose. New York: Longman, 2005. 344-355.
Obedience is when you do something you have been asked or ordered to do by someone in authority. As little kids we are taught to follow the rules of authority, weather it is a positive or negative effect. Stanley Milgram, the author of “The perils of Obedience” writes his experiment about how people follow the direction of an authority figure, and how it could be a threat. On the other hand Diana Baumrind article “Review of Stanley Milgram’s experiments on obedience,” is about how Milgram’s experiment was inhumane and how it is not valid. While both authors address how people obey an authority figure, Milgram focuses more on how his experiment was successful while Baumrind seems more concerned more with how Milgram’s experiment was flawed and
Obedience may be a simple word, yet it has a powerful impact on the daily lives of millions. Obedience is simply when one follows the orders or directions of another figure, presumably in an authoritative position. This is something nearly everyone bows to everyday without even realizing it - and it can drastically change our lives as we know it. Obedience is, for example, how the holocaust happened. The Germans were ordinary people turned into murderers because they followed the orders of one man - their dictator, Adolf Hitler. Of course, obedience does not always result in horrid results such as the holocaust or result in such a large catastrophe. Obedience can have drastic effects on the lives of only a few men as well; this is showcased in the movie A Few Good Men.
While having too much authority can lead to complication and dilemmas, too little authority can lead to an overthrow of leaders in a situation. Authority is like a ticking time
The limits of obedience to authority is an overall good idea and. In the short story, “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, supports the thought that blind obedience will only lead to bad things. Authority does not have to be a person; it can be an item or belief. Obedience to authority can lead to the destruction of that group and groups should never blindly follow anything, especially when they feel as if it is wrong. Obedience should be regulated and only occur when the demand of authority is rational and reasonable.
Obedience is a widely debated topic today with many different standpoints from various brilliant psychologists. Studying obedience is still important today to attempt to understand why atrocities like the Holocaust or the My Lai Massacre happened so society can learn from them and not repeat history. There are many factors that contribute to obedience including situation and authority. The film A Few Good Men, through a military court case, shows how anyone can fall under the influence of authority and become completely obedient to conform to the roles that they have been assigned. A Few Good Men demonstrates how authority figures can control others and influence them into persuading them to perform a task considered immoral or unethical.
Everybody wants to be accepted, yet society is not so forgiving. It bends you and changes you until you are like everyone else. Society depends on conformity and it forces it upon people. In Emerson's Self Reliance, he says "Society is a joint stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater." People are willing to sacrifice their own hopes and freedoms just to get the bread to survive. Although the society that we are living in is different than the one the Emerson's essay, the idea of fitting in still exists today. Although society and our minds make us think a certain way, we should always trust our better judgment instead of just conforming to society.
Often times freedom is stressed in an American society rather than obedience to the law and authority. In the past, the population has focused on obeying the law simply since it is the law of the land. In contrast, present day society frequently overlooks obedience as a value as well as laws themselves, leaving room for disobedience and disrespect of the authorities set in place above them. This brings up many conflicting issues faced by individuals on a daily basis. Moreover, it gives rise to a number of questions pertaining to the influence it has socially and in a work/school environment, presenting a prominent inquiry about respect that stands out above the rest, that is: In a society focused on freedom to what extent is respect for authority
Intolerance of Authority Versus Individual Freedom and Integrity. “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller is a play, about the Salem Witch. Trials. The.
“Authority cannot afford to connive at disobedience” writes Sophocles in Antigone. This is also a central concern to Aristotle who establishes the importance of ‘Authority’ in the opening lines of his treatise Poltics:
Through my research and findings of obedience to authority this ancient dilemma is somewhat confusing but needs understanding. Problem with obedience to authority has raised a question to why people obey or disobey and if there are any right time to obey or not to obey. Through observation of many standpoints on obedience and disobedience to authority, and determined through detailed examination conducted by Milgram “The Perils Of Obedience,” Doris Lessing “Group Minds” and Shirley Jackson “The Lottery”. We have to examine this information in hopes of understanding or at least be able to draw our own theories that can be supported and proven on this subject.
Conformity and Obedience in Society The desire to be accepted and belong to a group is an undeniable human need. But how does this need affect an individual? Social psychologists have conducted numerous experiments and concluded that, through various forms of social influence, groups can change their members’ thoughts, feelings, and behavior. In her essay “Group Minds,” Doris Lessing discusses our paradoxical ability to call ourselves individuals and our inability to realize that groups define and influence us.
Individuals often yield to conformity when they are forced to discard their individual freedom in order to benefit the larger group. Despite the fact that it is important to obey the authority, obeying the authority can sometimes be hazardous especially when morals and autonomous thought are suppressed to an extent that the other person is harmed. Obedience usually involves doing what a rule or a person tells you to but negative consequences can result from displaying obedience to authority for example; the people who obeyed the orders of Adolph Hitler ended up killing innocent people during the Holocaust. In the same way, Stanley Milgram noted in his article ‘Perils of Obedience’ of how individuals obeyed authority and neglected their conscience reflecting how this can be destructive in experiences of real life. On the contrary, Diana Baumrind pointed out in her article ‘Review of Stanley Milgram’s Experiments on Obedience’ that the experiments were not valid hence useless.
“Absolute power corrupts even when exercised for humane purposes. The benevolent despot who sees himself as a shepherd of the people still demands from others the submissiveness of sheep.” (ERIC HOFFER.) Power is the ability to do or acts on something in a particular way, especially as a quality; Authority is having the right or power to give out orders, act a certain way, and enforce obedience. Power and authority is a big part of the world has a big influence on various subjects worldwide: literature, workplaces, and families.
Beginning in kindergarten, young children around the age of five would disrespect their parents and teachers because they would not know better. Later, beginning in the adolescent years, young adults would just push aside all authority in general to show that they do not wish. Eventually, by the time men and women would become full adults, they would begin to violate laws and regulations set by others, even the omnipotent government. Why do people rebel against authority?
Although they are very closely related, power and authority are two different concepts. Power is needed in order to establish authority, yet it is also completely distinct from authority (Week 9 Study Notes).