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3.3 Conformity and Alienation. Alienation. Someone who does not share the major values of society and feels like an outsider Reasons for alienation vary: Discrimination that excludes a member of a visible minority from participating in society Dissatisfaction of an unhappy teenager.
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Alienation • Someone who does not share the major values of society and feels like an outsider • Reasons for alienation vary: • Discrimination that excludes a member of a visible minority from participating in society • Dissatisfaction of an unhappy teenager
Alienation • Cults, Gangs that reject societies values • Few even set about trying to destroy the society in which they live through armed struggle • These people hope to build a purer society on the ruins of the old one
Alienation • http://cnettv.cnet.com/1999-columbine-massacre/9742-1_53-50023640.html Columbine High School Unabomber
Alienation • http://www.5min.com/Video/The-Oklahoma-City-Bombing-119995400 • http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6410595n Timothy McVey
Alienation • These extremely alienated individuals are called Anarchists. • Ex unemployment
Conformity • People tend to adapt the values of the society that they live in • Politics • Virtually all people believe that their attitudes are right and proper (Subjective Validity) • We like being with people who share our subjective validity
Conformity • Without subjective validity most of us would experience uncertainty, a feeling that most people do not welcome
Conformity • Informational Influence human desire to accept information that another, admired person tells us is valid
Conformity • Normative Influence pressure to conform to the positive expectations of others
Case Studyp.78-79 • Investigating the Desire to Conform • Stanley Milgram
Case Studyp 78-79 • Results……….what do you think?? • Lineup members defended normal line rules less than 50% of the time • Generally unwilling to do more than just give dirty looks or mild grumbling • People further back in line more unhappy than people at the front
Case Studyp 78-79 • Close to 50% of subway riders gave up their seats (confused and surprised by request) • Many researchers unable to approach someone to request their seat because the norms of the subway ridership proved too stressful • Experiment helps us understand that people can become very uncertain when we avoid normal behaviours
Case Studyp 78-79 • 1. What does Milgram’s experiment tell us about (a) human desire to conform and (b) conventional behaviour? • Human desire to conform is very strong and conventional behaviour leans toward defending the rules only about half the time
Case Studyp 78-79 • Why would the people farther back in the lineup be more vocal than the people immediately behind the researcher who butted into line? Longer time to wait and they are further away from the norm violators
Case Studyp 78-79 • 3. What is the purpose of the unwritten rules of social behaviour? What would society be like without these conventions? • Help social interactions run smoothly. State of chaos
Alienation and Conformity as Forces of Social Change • Alienation can be an extremely positive force • Women in the 1960’s • Lead to the women’s movement
Alienation and Conformity as Forces of Social Change • Conformity generally has a tendency to discourage social change • People tend to do the same thing the same way year after year