Conformity and Oppression in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter "In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne portrays the seventeenth-century Puritan settlers of New England as seeking liberation from religious persecution in Europe only in order to establish their own rigorous moral and religious strictures in the New World. Hawthorne suggests that the Puritans' understanding of liberation cannot be separated from strict adherence to their own dogmatically certain moral code" (Hunt 2009)
Dimmesdale is so cowardly in his resistance he only admits his guilt after Pearl, the child born of their union is a toddler. Constance Hunt has said that two of the most significant puzzles of the text is that of Dimmesdale's behavior and why Hester remains in her setting and even returns to it, after her daughter Pearl settles in Europe as an adult (Taylor 2005)
They both have their first experience of social control in the anal phase in relation to being toilet trained. (Bocock 47) Religion itself is called into the same category and obsequiousness to authority in defense of being banned from the group and ostracized from the community rises from a defense mechanism of deferred obedience: Features were thus brought into existence which continued thenceforward to have a determining influence on the nature of religion
& #8230; all have the same end in view and are reactions to the same great event with which civilization began and which since it occurred, has not allowed mankind a moment's rest. (Freud 145) Furthermore, while it would seem that human beings would always seek out pleasure and avoid pain, even Freud discovered that this was not always the case
Freud's primary belief in his psychoanalytic theory is that the ego must protect itself in all cases from experiencing overwhelming anxiety and to do so it has developed certain defense mechanisms, which may or may not function adequately, to resolve the psychic turmoil. (Moser) In a society that is based on long evolutionary line from the pack mentality of our ancestors where there was one Alpha Male and then various positions down the line
"But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statements in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms." (King, 1963) However, both authors addressed conformists in their words
I "am not so violently bent upon my own opinion as to reject any offer proposed by wise men, which shall be found equally innocent, cheap, easy, and effectual." (Swift, 1729) By using hyperbole, Swift shows the cruelty of the British oppressor's wrongs, and how mistreatment of the Irish has become such a norm that no one saw its extremity, until it was brought out though the use of satire
Older adults may conform when the confederates appear to have a correct answer and resist conformity pressure when confederates appear to give an incorrect answer, although this speculation goes beyond the present data. (Pasupathi, 1999) We believed that our research design was sufficiently similar to the research that Pasupathi designed that our findings would be similar and that the older adults in our simple would be significantly less likely to conform
Calley's orders took the contextual variables into account together with the messages they received from higher authority and weighed these issues as they applied to them personally. Likewise, the experiments by Stanley Milgram demonstrated that obedience to higher authority can override personal attitudes to the extent that people are willing to engage in genocidal activities (Chazan, 2002)
Discussion concerning the legacy of the My Lai massacre (a) Effects of evaluative conditioning. Research has clearly demonstrated that people can behave in ways that are starkly different from their normal behaviors when they are part of a larger group (Feenstra, 2013), and the potential for another My Lai-type massacre is always present when military forces are deployed (Rielly, 2001)
Examination of the social and psychological environmental influences for the My Lai massacre Researchers have shown time and again that when people are subjected to extraordinary circumstances, they can be influenced to behave in ways that would not otherwise be possible. Changing individual attitudes is a challenging enterprise that requires overcoming well-entrenched beliefs and views (Petty, Wegener & Fabrigar, 1997)
Discussion concerning the legacy of the My Lai massacre (a) Effects of evaluative conditioning. Research has clearly demonstrated that people can behave in ways that are starkly different from their normal behaviors when they are part of a larger group (Feenstra, 2013), and the potential for another My Lai-type massacre is always present when military forces are deployed (Rielly, 2001)
In addition, there were serious deficiencies in the training that the men of Charlie Company received prior to March 1968 that contributed to major breakdowns in military discipline that resulted in the My Lai massacre (Willbanks, 2014). In reality, this horrendous outcome was facilitated by the tendency of individuals to conform to behaviors that they would otherwise abhor as demonstrated by Asch's experiments in conformity (Rogers, 2003)
S. Army's Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment of the 11th Brigade, Americal Division attacked the Vietnamese village of My Lai, massacring more than 500 people, including elderly men, women, and children (Willbanks, 2014)
¶ … Society Deforms Our Psychical Self Social expectations place stress on the human mind and body as the issue of conformity can become a struggle for some. Various theories, such as Strain Theory and Social Learning Theory, acknowledge that society has an impact on behavior (Akers, Jennings), but artists through their work can show how societal expectations can also have an impact on the psychical self
It is no surprise, therefore, that individuals can feel physically affected by the social pressure and demands to conform to social norms if they themselves identify more strongly with beliefs that are accepted by other factions in other parts of the world but not necessarily in the part of the world where the individual lives. This could easily be the case in North Carolina, and, indeed, one recent news story suggested that this is exactly the situation with a transgender individual who took a picture of herself in a public restroom to which she is not supposed to have access under the state statutes (Rodriguez)
Some of it is negative and some of it is positive. Some of it is even satirical, as South Park has shown in its 19th season, in which it satirized Caitlyn Jenner in numerous episodes throughout the season and utilized Social Control Theory to challenge the issue of gender identity (Schreck, Hirschi)
Persuasion is defined as the procedure through which a message or information provokes a change in attitudes, beliefs or behaviors (Myers, 2013)
Teixeira conducted a study on the reasons people pay attention to video advisements as well as when they do so. The author stated that video ads have become more prevalent as marketers have increased demand for consumers' attention, which has largely been influenced by the proliferation of new brands and products (Teixeira, 2015)