10.01-
- Conformity and factors that can cause our conforming behavior to increase
In middle school, music was a huge factor that changed in my life. Before, I didn’t really listen to much music and never really thought much about it. In middle school, that all changed. Everyone was listening to pop artists like Taylor Swift and Jason Derulo. Since everyone was listening to these artists, I began listening to them too. Eventually, as people would change their favorite artist I would change my favorite artist as well. Now I’m back to the way I was and don’t really listen to a specific genre. This example shows that a strong cultural factor influenced my personality. Even today, my friends are interested into specific genres of music (like rap), but I don’t conform to that anymore.
- Foot-in-the-door phenomenon
I used to use this phenomenon much more when I was younger than I do now. When I was younger, I used to enjoy playing video games. To make sure I didn’t waste my whole day playing, my parents would set time limits for me. At first, I was only allowed to play ten minutes. Eventually, I got tired of having to stop playing in the middle of my games. I began to ask for just five extra minutes to play. My parents agreed, because I told them that in ten minutes I don’t even get to finish one game. Soon, I was asking for five more minutes because I felt fifteen minutes was still cutting it short. I eventually made my way up to twenty minutes, but I got stopped there. This example shows how my parents were agreeable to comply with a small addition of time, and then began to comply with larger additions of time to play.
- Door-in-the-face phenomenon
My older sister is an excellent writer but does not always have time to help me. For example, just recently I had asked her to proofread an English paper I had written. It was four pages long and was an analysis on the film “The Color Purple.” When I asked her to proofread my whole paper, she did not agree because she said it was too long and she did not have enough time to proofread it. Eventually, I got her to proofread my first two body paragraphs (since those were the ones that needed to be checked the most) and she finally agreed. This shows the phenomenon in which one will refuse the larger request, but then agree on the smaller request.
- Obedience and factors that can cause our obedient behavior to increase
I tend to show obedience towards adults at my school. For example, when our SRO told me to take some file into the office, I did so without question. This was because I knew as an SRO, he was in a position of authority and it was right to obey him. Plus, I didn’t’ see any reason why I shouldn’t have helped him. Obedience is a powerful trait that people can display towards others. Usually, the more prestigious or powerful the background the person is, the more obedient people will be to that person. In my example, however, I probably would have done the task regardless of who asked me.