Obedience Essays

Obedience, the idea that one should comply to the rules or wishes of another person or idea, along with its counterpart discipline, has been thought of throughout history to be the foundation of harmony and cooperation between individuals and society. According to Erich Fromm, a psychoanalyst and philosopher who studied Freud and Marx, “obedience is a virtue, while disobedience is a vice” (Behrens & Rosen, 574). In more recent times, psychologists have been asking if obedience can lead to corruption...

Situational variables are depicted in a variety of ways for example they will often form an external explanation for obedience (when a person obeys an authority figure). In this paper I will carefully outline several situational variables that form a base for obedience, including location and uniform. A situational variable is often thought of as the catalyst for obedience, one of the most significant variables discovered in Milgram’s research was the idea of uniform having a massive turning point on...

Ever since we were children, we have been obeying a higher authority and conforming to what society wants us to believe. Growing up, we have been obeying some form of a higher power, whether it’s our parents, teachers, or guardians because that’s what society has been telling us to do throughout our childhood. When someone is being obedient, their listening to someone else that has some power over them, it could be one person being the highest authority over a...

Disobedience often deems an individual as an aggressive revolutionist, an independent leader, or a rebellious outsider. The context of one’s obedience—or lack thereof—determines how the majority will see them. Whether acting out and defying expectations can be defined as audacious and reckless behavior or valiant and courageous, is in the eye of the beholder. Impulsively disobeying and blindly obeying are equally destructive in society. Mankind has always endeavored to understand the complexities of the human mind. For centuries psychologists and...

The main factor that influences obedience is ‘situation’. There are some other less significant factors which when combined, make obedience more likely. The situation can present obstacles to ethical decision-making. The current evidenced influential factors are nuanced and complex. There has been vast psychological research and literature since World War II on obedience, which will be analyzed and evaluated below. Obedience Obedience is to comply with an order from a person of higher status in a perceived hierarchy it is...