Course Schedule
Week 7 - Shaping a Culture of Ethics, Conformity and Obedience
Watch Asch Conformity video
Watch Milgram Obedience video
Reflect in Journal #7 on Blackboard - due before online class meeting
Some thoughts for you to consider as you begin writing in your journal today - I think it is easy to make links between research on conformity and the work we do in schools. We see issues of conformity in the social lives of students, in the classroom, and we see it when staff are working together.
By thinking about norms in schools during our reading this week I ask you to consider real life examples of conformity (and many examples are present in the cases we have studied so far). Keeping that in mind will serve as an important backdrop to our thinking about obedience (another important theme at work in schools).
Let me explain what I mean by that a little: I think that people often oversimplify (and misrepresent) Asch's work by thinking of the subjects motivations as a dichotomy. Either they conform (sometimes called failures) or they are honest about what they see. Conformity is not that simple in real life, nor was it even in the context of the Asch studies. Asch intended his experimental situation to be a moral dilemma, one that pitted "truth" against "consensus“ (Asch, 1952), or "independence" against "submission“ (Asch, 1951).
It is also not a hierarchy where we simply create an order of rules to follow and that dictates how we respond to a conformity dilemma. Instead, think of it as a heterarchy of values. A heterarchy is an organization of equally important components of a system that mutually constrain one another, so that over time and situation they vary in which ones take the lead. For example, in driving a vehicle, accuracy (e.g., how close can I come to another car?) does not always take priority over safety (e.g., leaving adequate space between vehicles), or vice versa. Sometimes we "cut it close;" other times, we "err on the side of caution." Good driving involves jointly realizing values such as accuracy, safety, efficiency, and kindness, which requires shifting priorities over time and tasks.
Applied to the Asch dilemma, this understanding of values suggests that no rule-following procedure (e.g., when in doubt, trust yourself and ignore others) will be adequate to the task. Neither will some attempt to focus on a single value (e.g., truth) do justice to the complexity of the situation. If values are equally important (or comparably considered), but heterarchically related, which value or values should take the lead in an Asch-type situation? Specifically, which ones will be considered in the examples you encounter in your own life?
I always think it is interesting to cover Milgram after Asch back-to-back and to think about how the concepts of conformity and obedience are connected. In your response to recent discussion it was interesting to see how you started to explore the idea that conformity may not always be negative - that there are different motivations involved including some positive social implications of conforming. To start the dialogue this week I would like you to consider the following question:
How can schools effectively teach independent thinking, nurture individuation, and expect students to take a stand against their peers on issues of bullying and immoral behavior? Consider those tasks within the current (and traditional) social structure of schools which is hierarchical, and values (often explicitly teaching) conformity and obedience. What are the obstacles? How is it done well? Where does our traditional approach fail?
We will NOT meet online Wednesday, Nov. 26th - Thanksgiving Eve
Video Blog
Many of you may be familiar with these already but for those who have not been exposed to these older studies I wanted to make them available to you.