Q SY100- Chapter 7: Paper 6 Conformity and Deviance The issue of Conformity is one of deep social importance. We often think of this from the perspective of right verses wrong, and how to keep people in compliance with society's expectations. We seldom consider just how dangerous Conformity can be. Some of the most horrific acts of human violence, such as Slavery and the Nazi Holocaust, were made possible because of Obedience and Conformity to social expectations. As clearly as we look back and see these things as deviant and socially wrong, entire societies lived through them and clearly saw them as non-deviant and socially acceptable. The research of sociology has a lot to say about how tragic events such as these can and do occur. The one thing that this research shows is that it is not because of psychological damage or insanity. Instead most research shows that it is because of just how socially normal these situations end up looking and feeling to the people involved. We look back to the chapter on social organization for one large piece of the explanation. Formal organizations like Bureaucracies have a tremendous power over individual action, and consolidate power in the hands of relatively few people. Clearly, when entire branches of formal government organizations are developed and dedicated to the task of eliminating an entire group of people it gets increasingly hard for any single individual to say anything to stop it. When you further connect the task of eliminating another race of people to national pride, dress it up in fancy uniforms, and reward people for doing a great job of it, most people never stop to think it is something that should be protested. For the micro-sociological view of this, see the section in Chapter 7 on Stanley Milgram and his Obedience studies. The second piece is something in sociology that we call Bystander Apathy. This has been demonstrated over and over again in both real and experimental settings alike. When even excessively violent crimes are committed; research shows the more people that are present and witness to the crime the less likely any one person is to intervene. When there are relatively few witnesses, individuals feel more responsible and are more prone to take action. In a crowd of many, individuals tend to deflect responsibility and assume someone else will take care of it. If no one else is doing anything about it, it must be OK. The third piece, is just how powerful group consensus can be in shaping an individual's perception and behavior. You can see this directly through the following Youtube video link. It is a classic experiment performed by a researcher named Solomon Asch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYIh4MkcfJA For this paper I would like for you to prepare a two-page paper which: a) Defines and contrasts the terms deviance, obedience, and conformity within sociology. b) Summarize the overall setup and findings of this research experiment. What conditions were altered to examine outcomes? Define and contrast how the findings are related to the concepts of Informational Conformity and Normative Conformity. c) Explain how social pressure is working to create both Deviance and Conformity at the same time. d) Apply these findings to one specific behavior you see in the real world where Social Conformity and Deviance are acting to put conflicting expectations on individuals.