Obedience and Disobedience in the Understanding of Russian Students: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

The aim of the presented exploratory study was to reveal the social representations of obedience and disobedience among Russian students (N=189, aged from 18 to 25). Following the ideas of the social representations theory, mainly of the structural approach it was shown that the representations of obedience was crystallised around the elements related to power. Obedience and disobedience are composed with the element of different connotation, namely: the representation of obedience was composed by the elements evaluated neutrally, the representation of disobedience was composed by the elements predominantly with negative valence. The obtained results are discussed in line with the ideas of the theory of social representations, the comparison with results obtained in other cultures are made.

Keywords

• obedience
• disobedience
• power
• theory of social representations
• structural approach
• students