`` Group Minds `` By Doris Lessing - 881 Words

Doris Lessing presents a discussion in â€Å"Group Minds† â€Å"regarding the context of obedience in group settings by shedding light on its most fundamental flaw, the â€Å"western image†. The western image is one of individualism, we are social creatures by nature.† â€Å"By socializing in groups we diminish the space for our individual growth by abiding by the ideologies of one group.† Lessing was a daughter of farmers born in Persia, present day Iran in the year 1919. Lessing’s educational journey started at a Roman Catholic convent and followed up in a southern girl’s high school in southern Rhodesia present day Zimbabwe. From the year of 1959, up until today Lessing has been described as the best female novelists of the postwar era. Writing over twenty works of fiction. Obedience to authority plays a huge role on the human psych for example, Phillip Zimbardo’s â€Å"Stanford prison experiment† consisting of two control gr oups, one of complete authority, and one that was completely powerless. The evidence shows a lack of individualism due to obedience to authority explained further by Shirley Jackson who demonstrates in â€Å"The Lottery† the effect of social groups, and how that affects the conscious mind and decisions. Diffusion of responsibility is seen in both articles, proving that even when our personal morals are challenged, we’ll submit to peer pressure. Lessing points out that growing up in the West has a certain influence on people unconsciously we develop a set image of ourShow MoreRelatedGroup Minds1068 Words   |  5 PagesDismissing your own individual opinions to reach group consensus, now that’s negative peer pressure! Peer pressure will always be a problem and can affect anyone. I say that because no matter where you’re from or who you are, peer pressure is lurking about. Anytime you’re pressured to do something and your conscience is telling you n ot to do it, and you follow through with the task anyway, that is dismissing your opinion just to please other group members. Not wanting to be ostracized by others isRead More Essays on Jacksons Lottery: Dangers of Blind Obedience Exposed684 Words   |  3 Pagesto choose? In her speech Group Minds, Doris Lessing discusses these dangers of obedience, which are demonstrated in Shirley Jacksons short story The Lottery.    In The Lottery, the villagers portray Lessings observation that it is the hardest thing in the world to maintain an individual dissident opinion, as a member of a group (334). The villagers also show, in a rather dramatic fashion, how being a blind follower of a group can be dangerous. As Lessing points out the majorityRead MoreThe Psychology behind Social Pressure Essay1108 Words   |  5 Pagescomparison to others: the group mind. To which it involves several individuals, a group mind is in essence, a collective following to a set of beliefs and/or practices, usually brought together through forms of social pressure and preconceived notions of moral obligation. Furthermore, these groups are often characterized by the absence of individualism and a sense of obliviousness towards how their unspoken rules influences their view of the world as a whole. Moreover, group minds also involve social pressuresRead MoreThe Prisons By Doris Lessing1184 Words   |  5 Pagesmorals and social e thics that guide various communities which may not need to be written down, but are constrained within self. This paper, therefore, seeks to focus on the factors that influence the human thoughts and actions in reference to Doris Lessing book, ‘The prisons we choose to live in’. The actions and reasoning of human beings is guided by a combination of several factors such as moral rules, social conventional guidelines, attitudes, habits and mindsets. Social media in particular, impactsRead MoreComparitive Critique of Doris Lessings article Group Minds and Solomon Aschs experiment.2130 Words   |  9 Pagesconform to a group or majority. He does this by explaining the results of his experiment that he devised to observe to what extent conformity occurs. In her essay titled Group Minds, Doris Lessing claims that as a society we have enough knowledge about conformity to do something about it, yet we choose not to. Although Doris Lessing and Solomon Asch both suggest that pe ople desire independence yet yield to conformity, Aschs experiment adds specificity to Lessings claims. Lessing speaks generallyRead MoreHow Can The Power Of Situations And Individual Conscience Affect Your Decision Making?1451 Words   |  6 Pages One experiment that really stood out to me and one that I really want to explain is the line drawing experiment from Solomon E. Asch as he describes the Opinions and Social Pressure experiment that he conducted. In this experiment he took a group of seven to nine men, all whom were college students were told they were brought together for a psychological experiment that tested their visual judgment. They were then told that they would be comparing lengths of lines, so he showed two large cardsRead MoreExamples Of Humanistic Obedience In Shirley Jacksons The Lottery1105 Words   |  5 Pagestownspeople participate each year is because of the obedience to the tradition. To understand how one could have an unquestioning obedience to a belief or a tradition, you must understand how group behavior and individual responsibility works. Doris Lessing â€Å"Group Minds† went in depth with group behavior. Lessing mentioned The Milgram Experiment, which was an experiment that sparked an interest into finding out â€Å"how it is that ordinary decent, kindly people, like you and me, will do abominable thingsRead MoreThe Courage to Differ Essay example700 Words   |  3 PagesLife has many instances in which one must choose whether to stand apart from the group and disagree with his peers or to nod vehemently in agreement and quickly seek security as a part of the group. Many choose to follow the crowd because of the fear of rejection. They hang tightly to the bumper of the car of acceptance not worrying of the cuts and scrapes they are suffering as they struggle to hold on. Others painfully watch the car drive over the horizon and reassure themselves continually thatRead MoreEssay about Conscience Created versus Innate1429 Words   |  6 Pagesour natural tendencies of bias. In â€Å"Group Minds,† novelist and essayist Doris Lessing illustrates the â€Å"very flattering portrait† with which we have identified ourselves. what she is speaking of is the way in which we view ourselves as individuals with separate thinking minds, dependent from our peers and from authority figures. We seem to think that we stand outside of the group circle and look in. But, as Lessing shows, we are all inevitably part of a group. â€Å"and there is nothing wrong with thatRead MorePost Colonial Perception on the Grass Is Singing4315 Words   |  18 PagesA Post-Colonial Analysis of Doris Lessing’s The Grass Is Singing The Grass Is Singing, first published in 1950, was an international success. The story focuses on Mary Turner, the wife of a farmer, who is found murdered on the porch of her home. After her body is found, we are taken back to her younger days and slowly discover what happened