Assignment task:
Conformity is the tendency to change one's behaviors to match those of others. Obedience is adhering to an order from a perceived legitimate authority. Various group processes can also influence whether people conform or obey in a given situation. Social psychologists study why people conform and obey, even when the behavior goes against their personal beliefs, and conversely, why people refuse to conform and obey at great personal cost. Need Assignment Help?
For this Discussion, you examine contemporary examples of conformity, obedience, and group processes in society
Resources:
- CrashCourse. (2014, November 11). Social influence: Crash course psychology #38 [YouTube Video] Time Estimate: 10 min
- Forsyth, D. R. (2025). The psychology of groups
In R. Biswas-Diener & E. Diener (Eds), Noba textbook series: Psychology. DEF publishers.
- Copyright 2025 © by Donelson R. Forsyth is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
Post a 150- to 200-word response, in which you:
Briefly describe a contemporary example of your choice in which people did or did not demonstrate conformity or obedience and identify the source of the example. In other words, state if it is from a news source, social media, the internet, personal experience, or observation. Provide a link to the example if you found it online.
Your example must be a current example from a news source or social media or that you have directly observed around you within the last ten years. Do not select any studies mentioned in the course Learning Resources as your example.
Explain how the behavior in your example illustrates conformity or obedience based on the CrashCourse (2014) video (YouTube) and provide an explanation for that behavior.
Explain how being in a group might influence individual behaviors in your example based on Forsyth (2025)
To demonstrate what you learned this week, be sure to support your work with information from the Learning Resources
Respond to at least one colleague's initial post about an example of behavior different than the one you chose, in one of the following ways:
Explain another factor not previously discussed that might contribute to why those in your colleague's example behaved as they did.
Explain the potential benefits and drawbacks to the example of conformity or obedience described in your colleague's post.
To demonstrate what you learned this week, be sure to support your work with information from the Learning Resources.