COERCIVE PERSUASION - Indoctrination
Indoctrination consolidates the conversion. It aims to eliminate
any remaining critical thinking that might still be lurking in the subject. Indoctrination integrates the individual more and more thoroughly into the cult’s network of relationships. The new member is drowned in a multitude of obligations that abolish his personal space. From a recruit, the follower becomes a recruiter, from a subordinate he becomes a leader.
However, the real status is only vaguely related to the apparent
status. The more one’s responsibility seems to grow within the cult, the stronger grow the bonds of dependence. The dependence becomes multidirectional: not only does the follower depend hierarchically on his superiors, but he depends morally on his inferiors and, economically and socially, on the structure.
Sayfa 120Kitabı okudu
CONDITIONING - Conformity
The rigor of the cult standard tends to create a behavioral and psychological uniformity that goes hand in hand with the suppression of the usual social comparisons. This is why the general problems of conditioning rest on the rule of conformity, which is imposed on all the cult members. Whereas society tolerates (to some extent, depending to the degree of democratic expression) minorities’ expressions, the cult cannot accept in its midst the sprouting of any individualistic ideology or feeling. Indeed, while defining itself in terms of counter-culture, it cannot allow the development of thoughts different from those of the guru, since such thoughts would be likely to sunder its unity.
An individual is traditionally subject to two types of dependence:
on the one hand, an informational dependence that leads him to seek information from the outside, to develop his capacities of judgment, to establish a synthesis and to draw conclusions; in addition, a normative dependence that encourages him to accept the group’s rule without wondering about its validity, since it is an obligatory condition of joining the group.
How well an individual fits into a group depends on the balance that is established between these two forms of dependence. In the case of the cult, the desire for outside information is voluntarily suspended, since that is a critical factor for the coherence of the group. By contrast, the normative dependence is pushed to the extreme and prohibits any mental or practical initiative. The cult group “exerts a pressure toward uniformity,” in the words of Festinger.
Sayfa 138Kitabı okudu
“It is the logic of our times,
No subject for immortal verse,
that we who live by honest dreams
defend the bad against the worse.”
Cecil Day LewisKitabı okudu
Faced with such a daunting prospect it might seem as well to give up and do some gardening instead. But the brain cannot be ignored. As we live longer, more and more of us are experiencing – or will experience – neurodegenerative conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease. The incidence of psychiatric illnesses, such as depression and schizophrenia, is also on the rise. Better treatments for these conditions depend on a better understanding of the brain’s intricate networks.
Çeviri:Böyle göz korkutucu bir olasılıkla karşı karşıya kaldıktan sonra pes etmek ve biraz bahçe yapmak iyi görünebilir. Ancak beyin göz ardı edilemez. Daha uzun yaşadıkça, giderek daha fazla insan Alzheimer hastalığı gibi nörodejeneratif koşulları yaşıyoruz - veya yaşıyoruz - yaşıyoruz. Depresyon ve şizofreni gibi psikiyatrik hastalıkların görülme sıklığı da artıyor. Bu koşullar için daha iyi tedaviler beynin karmaşık ağlarının daha iyi anlaşılmasına bağlıdır.
There are three main methodological approaches in social sciences. These are the Positivist, the Interpretive and the Critical approaches. In addition to these, there are Feminist and Postmodern approaches. However, the three main approaches are the most commonly used approaches. (...) Although there are fundamental differences among them, all of
Sayfa 21Kitabı okudu
Quantitative design depends on the Positivist approach, which advocates that the method of physical sciences should be used in social research. The aim of quantitative researches is to explore the social laws through revealing the casualty relations between social facts. Quantitative researches, with the principle of deduction, begin with theories
Sayfa 25Kitabı okudu