Differenc between Obedience, Compliance, and Conformit (Term Paper Sample)

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Obedience is often attributed to figures of authority. Obedience can, therefore, be defined as the social influence of following orders, usually issued by a figure of authority. Obedience is, therefore, highly dependent on social power CITATION Ken \l 1033 (Cherry, The Concept of Obedience in Psychology, 2020). The influence of orders from a figure of authority or social power often means that people can readily obey orders, even when the orders can potentially cause harm to other people. The context in which obedience is exercised forms the basis of analysis to whether the form of obedience can be considered moral, immoral, or amoral. The Milgram experiment on obedience is a good example of how obedience is applied in human society. A good example of obedience would be a teacher ordering a student to re-do their assignment after doing it wrongly; the student will have no choice but to obey the order.
Similar to obedience, compliance shares several attributes but is very different. Compliance can be defined as the act of changing or altering one’s behavior just because another person has requested or asked for the change CITATION Ken21 \l 1033 (Cherry, The Psychology of Compliance, 2021). Contrary to obedience which is entirely reliant on the presence of a figure of authority to issue an order, compliance does not rely on the exercise of any authority. A good example of compliance would be when a salesperson makes a pitch about their product and why they think it is suitable for you, and then they ask you to buy the product. You would not have planned or budgeted to buy the product, but you will feel the need to comply with their request and make a purchase.
On the other hand, conformity is a type of social influence that often involves a change in belief or behavior for one to fit into a certain group. The change can often be due to real or imagined group pressure CITATION DrS16 \l 1033 (McLeod, 2016). A good example of conformity would be the need to dress a certain way in order to fit in a certain social crowd.
According to Dr. Sternberg’s triangular theory of love, the concept of love is a triangle made up of three important components, i.e., intimacy, passion, and commitment. Intimacy depicts the feelings of closeness and connectedness experienced in loving relationships. On the other hand, the component of passion involves the emotions and drive that often leads to romance, physical attraction, and even sex CITATION Ste86 \l 1033 (RJ, 1986). Commitment or decision is viewed from two perspectives, i.e., short-term and long-term. The short-term view is someone's decision to love another person, while the long-term perspective is someone's decision to maintain that love.
In Sternberg’s view, the amount of love a person gets to experience is very dependent on the strength of the three attributes. Similarly, each type of love can take to all three components at different levels. Sometimes, however, it is possible for certain types of love to lack one of the components; this can be both a good and bad thing consecutively CITATION Mar21 \l