Instructions Now that you have read the chapter, let's consider the theories and findings more closely. Read each of the questions below and type your response into the corresponding text box. After you submit your response you will be shown model feedback. You will receive full credit on submission, but your grade may change once your instructor reviews your response. Be sure to check the grade book for your final grade.
Question 1.
Question 2.
Think about how you acted your first couple of weeks in college. What were instances where you conformed to others? Did you conform for normative or informational reasons? In hindsight, do you wish you had acted differently? If so, what advice would you give to someone just starting college?
Different experiences will be reported by students, but it is important that they correctly identify the reasons they conformed as either normative (using others to determine how to fit in) or information (using others as sources of information about the world) influence. They may have used normative influence if they conformed in order to be liked and accepted by the group, or to avoid rejection. They may have used information influence if they conformed out of a lack of knowledge about how to act or what to do in a situation. Students’ opinions on whether they regret their actions or wish they had acted differently should be included in the response, as well as their personal advice to incoming freshmen.
Question 3.
Devise a three-step plan of action to increase compliance with recycling on your campus or in your neighborhood. Which of the compliance techniques that you’ve read about might be most effective in your community? Why do you think they would be effective?
Students’ recommended three-step recycling plans will vary but should be based on compliance techniques related to their community, which may include the following: foot-in-the-door effect (getting people to comply with a moderate request after getting them to initially comply with a smaller request); norm for social commitment (getting people to make a public agreement to stick to their behavior); lowballing (getting people to continue a commitment they’ve agreed to, even if they later learn of some extra cost to the deal); door-in-the-face effect (getting people to comply with a moderate request after they refuse to agree to a much larger request); social proof (getting people to go along with what they believe respected others think and do); scarcity (remind people of the scarcity of the offer); or mindlessness (break people’s tendency to rely on familiar categories or behaviors). Students should illustrate how the technique would result in an increased compliance with recycling.
Question 4.
Imagine you were in charge of a military unit and had a set of leaders for each platoon of soldiers who will soon be off to war. What kind of rules or guidelines would you implement to ensure obedience but also ensure that, unlike what happened in the My Lai massacre in Vietnam and in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, soldiers do not obey commands that run contrary to the Geneva Convention or a reasonable code of ethics?
Students’ recommendations for rules or guidelines to implement to ensure obedience that upholds the Geneva Convention or a reasonable code of ethics will vary but may include a focus on charismatic leaders who believe in and uphold these ethical codes, providing opportunities for soldiers to dissent or speak out about problems with authority by speaking to someone other than their leader, making sure unethical behaviors are addressed immediately so they do not become routine and blindly obeyed, and so on.