Obedience, in human behavior, is the quality of being obedient, which describes the act of carrying out commands, or being actuated.[1] Obedience differs from compliance, which is behavior influenced by peers, and from conformity Conformity is the process by which an individual's attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors are conditioned by what is conceived to be what other people might perceive. This influence occurs in both small groups and society as a whole, and it may be the result of subtle unconscious influences, or direct and overt social pressure. Conformity also occurs, which is behavior intended to match that of the majority.
Humans have been shown to be surprisingly obedient in the presence of perceived legitimate authority figures, as demonstrated by the Milgram experiment The Milgram experiment on obedience to authority figures was a series of social psychology experiments conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram, which measured the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts that conflicted with their personal conscience. Milgram first in the 1960s, which was carried out by Stanley Milgram to discover how the Nazis Nazism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany. It was a unique variety of fascism that involved biological racism and antisemitism. Nazism presented itself as politically syncretic, incorporating policies, tactics and philosophies from right- and left-wing ideologies; in practice, Nazism was a far right form of managed to get ordinary people to take part in the mass murders of the Holocaust The Holocaust , also known as The Shoah (Hebrew: השואה, Romanized HaShoah, "calamity"; Yiddish: חורבן, Romanized Churben or Hurban, from the Hebrew for "destruction") was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored extermination by Nazi Germany. The experiment showed that obedience to authority was the norm, not the exception. A similar conclusion was reached in the Stanford prison experiment.
Obedience is the tendency to follow orders given by an authority figure. This can be explained by Milgram's Agency Theory, which states that we are in either one of two states.== Forms of human obedience == Forms of human obedience include
Obedience is the tendency to follow orders given by an authority figure. This can be explained bY Milgram's Agency Theory, which states that we are in either one of two states.
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Cultural attitudes to obedience
Obedience is regarded as a virtue Virtue is moral excellence. A virtue is a trait or quality deemed to be morally excellent and thus is valued as a foundation of principle and good moral being in many traditional cultures; historically, children have been expected Patriarchy is a social system in which the father or eldest male is head of the household, having authority over women and children. Patriarchy also refers to a system of government by fathers, and to the rule of fathers in social or cultural systems. It may also include title being traced through the male line to be obedient to their elders, slaves to their owners, serfs to their lords in feudal society Manorialism or Seigneurialism, an essential ingredient of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market economy and new forms of agrarian, lords to their king, and everyone to God. Even long after slavery Slavery is a system in which people are the property of others. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand wages. In some societies it was legal for an owner to kill a slave. In others it was a crime to kill a slave ended in the United States, the Black codes The Black Codes were laws passed on the state and local level in the United States to limit the civil rights and civil liberties of African Americans. Despite the fact that the United States constitution originally discriminated against African Americans and both northern and southern states had passed discriminatory legislation since the early 19 required black people to obey and submit to whites, on pain of lynching.
In some Christian weddings A wedding is the ceremony in which two people are united in marriage or a similar institution. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of wedding vows by the couple, presentation of a gift (offering, ring, symbolic item,, obedience was formally included along with honor Honour or Honor is the evaluation of a person's trustworthiness and social status based on that individual's espousals and actions. Honour is deemed exactly what determines a person's character: whether or not the person reflects honesty, respect, integrity, or fairness. Accordingly, individuals are assigned worth and stature based on the harmony and love Love is the emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. In religious context, love is not just a virtue, but the basis for all being , and the foundation for all divine law (Golden Rule) as part of a conventional bride's (but not the bridegroom's) wedding vow. This came under attack with women's suffrage Women's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or marital status and the feminist Feminism refers to political, cultural, and economic movements seeking greater, equal, or, among a minority, superior rights and participation in society for women and girls. These rights and means of participation include legal protection and inclusion in politics, business, and scholarship, and recognition and building of women's cultures and movement. Today its inclusion in the wedding vow practiced by some Christian sects has fallen out of favor.[citation needed]
As the middle classes The middle class are any class in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class. In Marxist terms, middle class commonly refers to either the bourgeoisie before or during capitalism[ have gained political power, the power of authority has been progressively eroded, with the introduction of democracy Democracy is a political form of government where governing power is derived from the people, either by direct referendum or by means of elected representatives of the people (representative democracy). The term comes from the Greek: δημοκρατία – (dēmokratía) "rule of the people", which was coined from δῆμος (dêmos) & as a major turning point in attitudes to obedience and authority.[citation needed]
Since the democides Democide is a term coined by political scientist R. J. Rummel for "the murder of any person or people by a government, including genocide, politicide, and mass murder." Rummel created the term as an extended concept to include forms of government murder that are not covered by the legal definition of genocide, and it has found currency and genocides CDE · CEDAW · CERD · ILO C100 · ILO C111 · ILO C169 · Protocol No. 12 ECHR of the First World War World War I was a military conflict centered on Europe that began in the summer of 1914. The fighting ended in late 1918. This conflict involved all of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Allies and the Central Powers. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilized in one of and Second World War Albania · Australia · Austria · Azerbaijan · Belarus · Belgium · Brazil · Bulgaria · Burma · Cambodia · Canada · Ceylon (Sri Lanka) · Channel Islands · China · Czechoslovakia · Denmark · Dutch East Indies · Egypt · Estonia · Finland · France · Germany · Gibraltar · Greece · Greenland · Hong Kong · Hungary · Iceland · periods, obedience has come to be regarded as a far less desirable quality in Western cultures. The civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression and protest movements in the second half of the twentieth century marked a remarkable reduction in respect for authority in Western cultures, and greater respect for individual ethical judgment as a basis for moral decisions.[citation needed]
Obedience training of human beings
Main articles: Socialization Socialization is a term used by sociologists, social psychologists, anthropologists, politicians and educationalists to refer to the process of inheriting norms, customs and ideologies. It may provide the individual with the skills and habits necessary for participating within their own society; a society itself is formed through a plurality of and Military training Military education can be voluntary or compulsory duty. Before any person gets authorization to operate technical equipment or be on the battle field, they must take a medical and often a physical test. If passed, they may begin primary trainingSome animals can easily be trained to be obedient by employing operant conditioning Operant conditioning is the use of consequences to modify the occurrence and form of behavior. Operant conditioning is distinguished from classical conditioning in that operant conditioning deals with the modification of "voluntary behavior" or operant behavior. Operant behavior "operates" on the environment and is maintained, for example obedience schools exist to condition dogs The dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The domestic dog has been one of the most widely kept working, hunting and companion animals in human history into obeying the orders of human owners. Obedience training seems to be particularly effective on social animals A social animal is a loosely defined term for an organism that is highly interactive with other members of its species to the point of having a recognizable and distinct society,[citation needed] a category that includes human beings; other animals do not respond well to such training.
Learning to obey adult rules is a major part of the socialization Socialization is a term used by sociologists, social psychologists, anthropologists, politicians and educationalists to refer to the process of inheriting norms, customs and ideologies. It may provide the individual with the skills and habits necessary for participating within their own society; a society itself is formed through a plurality of process in childhood, and many techniques are used by adults to modify the behavior of children. Additionally, extensive training is given in armies to make soldiers capable of obeying orders in situations where an untrained person would not be willing to follow orders. Soldiers are initially ordered to do seemingly trivial things, such as picking up the sergeant's hat off the floor, marching in just the right position, or marching and standing in formation. The orders gradually become more demanding, until an order to the soldiers to place themselves into the midst of gunfire gets a knee-jerk obedient response.
Experimental studies of human obedience
Obedience has been extensively studied by psychologists since the Second World War Albania · Australia · Austria · Azerbaijan · Belarus · Belgium · Brazil · Bulgaria · Burma · Cambodia · Canada · Ceylon (Sri Lanka) · Channel Islands · China · Czechoslovakia · Denmark · Dutch East Indies · Egypt · Estonia · Finland · France · Germany · Gibraltar · Greece · Greenland · Hong Kong · Hungary · Iceland · -- the Milgram Experiment The Milgram experiment on obedience to authority figures was a series of social psychology experiments conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram, which measured the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts that conflicted with their personal conscience. Milgram first and the Stanford Prison Experiment are the most commonly cited experimental studies of human obedience, while the Hofling hospital experiment In 1966, the psychiatrist Charles K. Hofling conducted a field experiment on obedience in the nurse-physician relationship. In the natural hospital setting, nurses were ordered by unknown doctors to administer what could have been a dangerous dose of a drug to their patients. In spite of official guidelines forbidding administration in such was an early field experiment. [2] [3] [4]
The Milgram experiment
Main article: Milgram experiment The Milgram experiment on obedience to authority figures was a series of social psychology experiments conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram, which measured the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts that conflicted with their personal conscience. Milgram firstThe Milgram experiments, the first of which was carried out in 1961, were the earliest investigations of the power of authority figures as well as the lengths to which participants would go as a result of their influence. [2] Milgram's results showed that, contrary to expectations, a majority of civilian volunteers would obey orders to apply electric shocks to another person until they were unconscious or dead. Prior to these experiments, most of Milgram's colleagues had predicted that only sadists would be willing to follow the experiment to their conclusion. [5]
Studies that predated the Milgram experiment placed very little emphasis upon the participants' responses to authority and focused more upon general fields of human behavior. Despite the fact that relatively little direct work had been done on the subject of obedience, Milgram himself had already conducted several studies, which had shown that obedience tended to increase with the prestige of the authority figure. In these studies, an undergraduate research assistant posing as a Yale professor had a much greater influence than did someone of lesser status, regardless of the prestige of the institution in which the study was based. [2][3]
Despite the significance of the Milgram experiments, they were regarded as tainted by their breach of ethical standards, in that the participants' right to abdicate was removed. [6] It is worth noting, however, that those being shocked were in reality actors and the shocks simulated.
The Stanford prison experiment
Main article: Stanford prison experimentUnlike the Milgram experiment, which studied the obedience of individuals, the 1971 Stanford prison experiment studied the behavior of people in groups, and in particular the willingness of people to obey orders and adopt abusive roles in a situation where they were placed in the position of being submissive or dominant by a higher authority. In the experiment, a group of volunteers was divided into two groups and placed in a "prison," with one group in the position of playing prison guards, and other group in the position of "prisoners."
In this case, the experimenters acted as authority figures at the start of the experiment, but then delegated responsibility to the "guards," who enthusiastically followed the experimenters' instructions, and in turn assumed the roles of abusive authority figures, eventually going far beyond the experimenters' original instruction in their efforts to dominate and brutalize the "prisoners." At the same time, the prisoners adopted a submissive role with regard to their tormentors, even though they knew that they were in an experiment, and that their "captors" were other volunteers, with no actual authority other than that being role-played in the experiment.
The Stanford experiment demonstrated not only obedience (of the "guards" to the experimenters, and the "prisoners" to both the guards and experimenters), but also high levels of compliance and conformity Conformity is the process by which an individual's attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors are conditioned by what is conceived to be what other people might perceive. This influence occurs in both small groups and society as a whole, and it may be the result of subtle unconscious influences, or direct and overt social pressure. Conformity also occurs.
The Hofling hospital experiment
Main article: Hofling hospital experiment In 1966, the psychiatrist Charles K. Hofling conducted a field experiment on obedience in the nurse-physician relationship. In the natural hospital setting, nurses were ordered by unknown doctors to administer what could have been a dangerous dose of a drug to their patients. In spite of official guidelines forbidding administration in suchBoth the Milgram and Stanford experiments were conducted in experimental circumstances. In 1966, psychiatrist Charles K. Hofling published the results of a field experiment A field experiment applies the scientific method to experimentally examine an intervention in the real world rather than in the laboratory. Field experiments, like lab experiments, generally randomize subjects (or other sampling units) into treatment and control groups and compare outcomes between these groups. Clinical trials of pharmaceuticals on obedience in the nurse-physician relationship in its natural hospital setting. Nurses, unaware they were taking part in an experiment, were ordered by unknown doctors to administer dangerous doses of a (fictional) drug to their patients. Although several hospital rules disallowed administering the drug under the circumstances, 21 out of the 22 nurses would have given the patient an overdose of medicine.
Factors affecting obedience
Embodiment of prestige or power
Obedience occurs in several situations; most often referred to is the obedience of soldiers to a superior officer.When the Milgram experimenters were interviewing potential volunteers, the participant selection process itself revealed several factors that affected obedience, outside of the actual experiment.
Interviews for eligibility were conducted in an abandoned complex in Bridgeport Bridgeport is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Located in and the former county seat of Fairfield County, the city had an estimated population of 137,912 in 2006 and is the core of the Greater Bridgeport area. The city is part of the New York metro area, Connecticut Southwestern Connecticut is part of the New York metropolitan area; three of Connecticut's eight counties, including most of the state's population, are in the New York City combined statistical area, commonly called the Tri-State Region. Connecticut's center of population is in Cheshire, New Haven County. [2][3] Despite the dilapidated state of the building, the researchers found that the presence of a Yale professor as stipulated in the advertisement affected the number of people who obeyed. This was not further researched to test obedience without a Yale professor because Milgram had not intentionally staged the interviews to discover factors that affected obedience. [2][3]
In the actual experiment, prestige or the appearance of power was a direct factor in obedience -- particularly the presence of men dressed in gray laboratory coats, which gave the impression of scholarship and achievement and was thought to be the main reason why people complied with administering what they thought was a painful shock. [2]
Raj Persaud, in an article in the BMJ, [7] comments on Milgram's attention to detail in his experiment:
- "The research was also conducted with amazing verve and subtlety—for example, Milgram ensured that the “experimenter” wear a grey lab coat rather than a white one, precisely because he did not want subjects to think that the “experimenter” was a medical doctor and thereby limit the implications of his findings to the power of physician authority"
Despite the fact that prestige is often thought of as a separate factor, it is, in fact, merely a subset of power as a factor. Thus, the prestige conveyed by a Yale professor in a laboratory coat is only a manifestation of the experience and status associated with it and/or the social status afforded by such an image.
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Q. Bismillah al rahman alrahim Muslim scholars do not speak in one voice on this subject. Some claim that the Prophet (s) is sinless or infallible ONLY in the delivery of Allah's message. Other than that, he (s), just like others, sins and makes mistakes in many things. This faction of scholers base their opinion on the traditions narrated in their books about how the Prophet falls asleep and forgets the prayer time, and even forgets to perform the necessary ablution (Wudu) for prayer . Furthermore, they claim that he used to sit with Aisha umm almuminin and watch a dance with music . They also claim that he (s) was affected by a magical spell that caused severe episodes of hallucination on his part. These are but a FEW of the most heinous… [cont.]
Asked by MUHAMMAD - Wed Jun 20 20:28:13 2007 - - 8 Answers - 0 Comments
A. Of course Mohammed (pbuh) did not sin. He was as capable of sin as any other person, but did not. His conscience was untarnished, unjaded, and he would have been disgusted by the thought of committing sin. Are there any documented incidents of sin by the Prophet? I've not heard of any. Wasn't he known as "The Trustworthy" even before the message of Islam was revealed?
Answered by Smiley - Wed Jun 20 22:02:43 2007
