Research Paper on "Cognitive Consequences of Forced Compliance"

Research Paper 5 pages (1359 words) Sources: 5

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Forced Compliance

Cognitive Consequences of Forced Compliance:

The article presented for the purposes of this paper, below, is written by two Stanford University scholars and focuses, as one can see from the above title, on "Cognitive Consequence of Forced Compliance." While the title sounds very academic, and is deeply pensive, one must ask exactly what this essay aims to do, and whether these concepts are as hard to understand and as complex as they may seem at first glance. Indeed, in order to answer these queries, one must summarize the various parts of the article, all of which is rendered below.

The article begins by asking a very important question, one which will shadow its entire analysis, and which states: What happens to a person' private opinion if he is forced to do or say something contrary to that opinion? Needless to say, this is a question that is answered differently by different people, a thing inherent in human nature, as no two persons will think exactly alike. However, there could be a consensus, as a subsequent facet to analysis on this question, the examination of which these writers undertake. They state that studies show that, contrary to the afore-stated belief, under some conditions, "the private opinion changes so as to bring it into closer correspondence with the overt behavior the person was forced to perform." In other words, if theory does not correspond to fact, or thought to action, a person will do his or her best in order to create symmetry between two intangibles, and reconcile his or her own changing nature with the preceding, individualized status quo.

At the end of this explanation as to how a person reacts when they are forced to comply, is simple reasoning: survival. Individual opinion will move and waver according to the medium in which an individual finds himself or herself. The authors go on to state, after describing other experiments focusing on the same question, and in relation to the above statements that,

"One would consequently expect to observe […] opinion change after a person has been forced or induced to say something contrary to his private opinion. Furthermore, since the pressure to reduce dissonance will be a function of the magnitude of the dissonance, the observed opinion change should be greatest when the pressure used to elicit the overt behavior is just sufficient to do it."

It is this statement, together with the focus question (i.e. What happens to a person' private opinion if he is forced to do or say something contrary to that opinion?) that the paper strives to analyze in more depth, and for this reason, the authors conduct their own experiment, the procedure of which is rendered in detail below.

Procedure

The authors begin the section by restating a point made previously; namely, that the experiment "was designed to test [the] derivation [between private and coerced opinions and their results] under controlled, laboratory conditions. For this reason, the experiment took a sample of 71 male students in an Introduction to Psychology course at the University.

The subsequent experiment design was also quite complex, as each subject was told, coerced, or forced to do certain things of which he had no previous knowledge, and to the wonder of both the experimenters and their subjects, the latter group did not protest. This enabled the experimenters to see how these male students could be coerced into doing something that they may not necessarily agree with or of which they may not have knowledge.

One of the procedures utilized is what is called "One and Twenty Dollar conditions." This section describes how and what the subject is told in regards to the experiment, and aims to see ho the latter reacts. As part of this part of the experiment answering the focus question, the experimenter would say, among other things, the following:

"The fellow who normally does this for us couldn't do it today -- he just phoned in, and something or other came up for him -- so we've been looking around for someone that we could… READ MORE

How to Reference "Cognitive Consequences of Forced Compliance" Research Paper in a Bibliography

Related Research Papers:

Cognitive Consequences of Forced Compliance, by Leon Term Paper

Cognitive Consequences of Forced Compliance, by Leon Festinger and James M. Carlsmith (1957), (Lesko, pgs. 115-123). Write a brief review of the study, and be sure to answer the following… read more

Term Paper 8 pages (2234 words) Sources: 5 Style: APA Topic: Psychology / Behavior / Psychiatry

---

Social Psychology This Study Reviews How People Term Paper

Social Psychology

This study reviews how people react when forced to say or engage in behaviors contrary to their personal beliefs or opinions. According to the researchers, Janis & King… read more

Term Paper 7 pages (2327 words) Sources: 3 Topic: Child Development / Youth / Teens

---

Teaching on the Cognitive Learning of Adult Term Paper

Teaching on the Cognitive Learning of Adult Kidney Transplant Recipients

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of individual and group teaching on the cognitive learning of… read more

Term Paper 33 pages (9169 words) Sources: 50 Style: APA Topic: Disease / Virus / Disorder / Injury

---

Contingency Management Alcohol Marijuana Studies Term Paper

Contingency Management

ALCOHOL & MARIJUANA STUDIES

The purposes of this review are to gain an understanding of the controlled studies using contingency management (CM) in the substance abuse field, and… read more

Term Paper 41 pages (11354 words) Sources: 1+ Topic: Drugs / Alcohol / Tobacco

---

Risk Management and Analysis Process and Policy Before Technology Research Proposal

released by the FBI and the Computer Security Institute (CSI), over 70% of all attacks on sensitive data and resources reported by organizations occurred from within the organization itself. Implementing… read more

Research Proposal 65 pages (17274 words) Sources: 40 Style: MLA Topic: Computers / IT / Internet

---

View 100+ more related papers  >>