Assignment

Society plays a huge role in normalizing behaviors. We know this through experimental and cultural studies. For your NHD project, you will investigate an event in history that transformed the field of psychology in terms of what we know about human conformity.

Your project must:
Include a detailed explanation of what happened. Sources are provided for you, but you can go beyond them.
Evaluate the research questions below, as it relates to your topic:

• Why did people conform? What pressures seemed to influence them? And in what ways were they “forced” to conform?
• What historical evidence (sources, images, speeches, film, recordings) do we have to prove the above?

AND it must have a clear relation to the theme: Conflict and Compromise. Consider, what conflict was posed? What were the various sides? How or what did people compromise in order to resolve this conflict? Address the answers to these questions in your project or performance.

The project will be in the NHD format of your choice: Documentary, Exhibit, Paper, Performance, or Website.

You may choose from one of the topics below:

Famous Conformity Experiments

​Stanley Miligram's Experiment 
​Consider this experiment and the larger implications for conformity.
​ Bibliography

Philip Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment
Consider this experiment and the larger implications for conformity.​
​ Bibliography

Cults

People's Temple (1978)
Consider the incident at Jonestown and the leader Jim Jones and how he convinced over 900 people to commit suicide.
Bibliography

Branch Davidians (1993)
Consider the incident in Waco, TX and the leader David Koresh, whether there was evidence of sexual misconduct, and whether FBI actions were just.
​Bibliography

Charles Manson Family
Consider the incidents in LA and what motivated the murderers to follow Manson's orders.
Bibliography

Heaven's Gate (1997)
​​Consider the incident and the leader Marshall Applewhite. 

​What factors may have influenced those people's decision to commit suicide?  Use the resources below to build your project.
Bibliography​

Conformity in the Medical Field

​Walter Freeman Lobotomy and the Conformity of the Medical Community
Consider the challenges and rationale of the medical communities choice of non-intervention in Freeman's studies.

What pressures were they under? Which factors may have influenced them most?

• ​​Overview
• Procedure
• History of Freeman
• Chapter Summaries of a Book on Letters
• Strange History of Lobotomy
• My Lobotomy, A Primary Source

​Nazi doctors who violated ethics when experimenting on Poles
Consider Nazi justifications for these experiments and their later claims that they were "just following orders."

Where are the lines between research and morality? Should institutions require physicians to swear a hippocratic oath?

• Overview of the Polish Holocaust
• Holocaust Museum Overview
• Victims and Primary Sources
• Primary Records
• Letters
• Psychology of Evil at Abu Graib
• Bad Apples?​

Conformity in War

​Samar pacification campaign by the US during the Philippine-American War
​Consider the impact of "orders" on the behavior of American soldiers.

Is following orders a legitimate argument for troop behavior?

• Overview
• A Lesson Plan
• ​Primary Source Letters
• Lib Guide
• World Future Fund
• Global Research
• Remembering the War

Mai Lai massacre committed by the US during the Vietnam War
Consider the impact of "orders" on the behavior of American soldiers.

Is following orders a legitimate argument for troop behavior?

• Overview
• Overview and Primary Sources
• Library Guide
• Psychology of Evil at Abu Graib
• Bad Apples?

Abu Ghraib prison crimes committed by the US during the War in Iraq 
Consider the impact of "orders" on the behavior of American soldiers.

Is following orders a legitimate argument for troop behavior?

• Fast Facts
• The New Yorker
• Aljazeera
• 60 Minutes CBS
• Psychology of Evil at Abu Graib
• Bad Apples?
• UK Telegraph 
• Opinion Bush and Blair