what you would have done in these two situations. Given the situation, would you have done what the discussion question did in order to comply? Why, or why not?
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An example of a time when I complied with an authority figure’s demands despite finding the request irrelevant to the task at hand, includes a large number of instances from my childhood. I grew up in an abusive home with a parent that couldn’t stomach the idea of ever being wrong. With this being the case, I spent my childhood conforming to their demands for just about everything – even something as little as a specific way to fold socks. Humans are wired to seek avoidance of any situation that would cause rejection since acceptance by others is highly important (Aronson et al., 2019). Therefore, even though the idea of folding socks in only one specific manner seemed absolutely ridiculous, I did as was requested of me to avoid rejection from a prominent figure in my life.
An example of a time when I refused to comply with the demands of an authorities figure includes when I was asked to participate in a patient’s euthanasia procedure that was not going to involve the placement of an intravenous catheter or the utilization of a sedative. I walked out of this hospital with a few other technicians in protest of the situation and refused to return to work until it was addressed appropriately. Griskevicius, Goldstein, Mortensen, Cialdini, & Kenrick (2006) showed in their study that conformity and nonconformity can be strategic maneuvers that an individual utilizes depending on their situation. In the situation mentioned above, I utilized noncompliance with an authoritative figure as a way to push for a hospital policy change regarding euthanasia. Within the next day, it was hospital policy to place an intravenous catheter and use sedatives for all euthanasia procedures.
