1) Social Influence - Evaluation Flashcards
Give three limitations to Milgram’s experiment
Combo (4)
P - Low internal validity.
E - Orne and Holland argued that participants believed the shocks were fake.
E - Confirmed by Perry’s research as she listened to the tapes of Milgram’s participants and reported that many of them expressed their doubts.
CA - However Sheridan and King conducted a study where real shocks were given to a puppy. Despite being real, 54% male participants and 100% female participants delivered what was thought to be a fatal shock.
I -This suggests that the effects of Milgram’s study were genuine as people behaved the same way.
Hamburger
P - The social identity theory is an alternate explanation for the behaviour shown.
E - This suggests that obedience falls when participants identify less with the science of the study and more with the victim.
E - Haslam and Reicher analysed the behaviour of the participants - The first three prods don’t demand obedience as they are similar in the sense that the experiment requires them to continue. The fourth prod was “You have no other choice, you must continue”, every time this prod was used the participant quit.
Hamburger
P - There are ethical issues with Milgram’s research.
E - Deception was involved as the participants were led to believe that the roles of teacher and learner were randomly allocated and were also led to believe that the electric shocks were real
E - This has been objected by some psychologists as it is viewed as a betrayal of trust which could damage the reputation of psychology and it’s research.
Give two strengths of Milgram’s research
Hamburger
P - High external validity , environment reflected authority relationships in real life.
E - Hofling et al (1966) studied nurses on a hospital ward and found that 21/22 nurses obeyed with unjustified demands.
E -This suggests that some findings from Milgram’s research can be generalised although it was conducted in a lab.
Double
P - There is supporting research for Milgram’s research , presented on French TV where MIlgram’s experiment was replicated.
E - Participants believed they were contestants for a game - Were paid to deliver (fake) shocks to the other participants who were actors in front of a studio audience.
E - 80% of participants delivered shocks to the maximum level. Behaviour shown was almost identical to Milgram’s participants.
I - This supports Milgram’s original conclusions about obedience.
Give two strengths for the Situational Variables of Obedience.
Hamburger
P - There is research support shown by a field experiment conducted by Bickman.
E - Three confederates dressed in three outfits - a milkman, a jacket and tie, a security guard. They were tasked to ask passers to perform tasks such as picking up litter.
People were twice as likely to obey security guard than the person dressed in a jacket and tie.
E - This supports Milgram’s conclusion that uniform is a strong figure of visual authority.
Hamburger
P - High level of control in his variations.
E - One variable was changed at a time.
E - This is important as it shows that Milgram was able to test what he wanted without any demand characteristics interfering.
Give two limitations for the Situational Variables of Obedience.
Hamburger
P - Orne and Holland argued that many participants would have worked out that the procedure was fake.
E - It is more likely that this would have occurred in the variations due to the extra manipulation as shown by the uniform variation which used a “member of the public”
E - This shows a lack of internal validity s it is unclear whether results are due to obedience or if the participants saw through the deception.
Hamburger
P - Mandel argued that the variations offer an alibi for evil behaviour.
E - It would be evil to suggest that Nazis were simply obeying orders and were victims.
Give two strength of the legitimacy of authority explanation
Hamburger
P - Blass and Schmitt showed a film of Milgram’s study to students to identify who they felt was responsible for the harm to the learner.
E - They blamed the experimenter due to being viewed as someone higher up.
E - Meaning they recognised that legitimacy of authority was the cause of obedience.
Double
P - Useful in investigating the cultural differences of obedience.
E - Kilham and Mann replicated the procedure and found that in Australia only 16% went all the way but only 85% went all the way in Germany.
E - This shows showing that in some cultures, authority is more likely to be accepted as legitimate
I - Therefore the supportive findings from cross-cultural research increases the validity of this explanation.
Give two limitations of the agentic state
Double
P - Limited explanation for research findings.
E - Does not explain why some participants did not obey
E - Also does not explain the findings from Hofling’s study as it predicts that the nurses should have shown levels of anxiety similar to Milgram’s participants, which they did not.
I - Therefore suggesting that the agentic state an only account for some situations of obedience.
Hamburger
P - Agentic shift cannot be used as an alibi for explaining behaviour.
E - Mandel described an incident where Nazis obeyed the orders to shoot civilians in a small town in Poland.
E - This happened despite the fact that they did not have direct orders to do so.
Give a limitation for the Authoritarian Personality
Hamburger
P - The social context may be more important than personality factors.
E - Milgram’s research showed variations in social context which caused them to obey not their personalities.
E - Therefore according to Milgram, the AP is not the best explanation for obedience.
Give a combo whopper for the AP
P - There is research supporting the relationship between authoritarianism and obedience.
E - Milgram and Elms found higher lvls of authoritarianism in 20 obedient participants than 20 disobedient participants.
E - This shows that the AP is a valid explanation.
CA - Although, causation does not mean causation so it is uncertain whether there are any other factors involved in this process.
Give a strength of social support in relation to conformity
P - There is research which supports the role of dissenting peers.
E - Allen and Levine found that conformity decreased when there was one dissenter in an Asch like study.
E - This happened although the dissenter wore thick glasses and said he had difficulties judging lines.
L - This supports the idea that SS helps someone free themselves from the pressures of the group.
Give a strength for social support in terms of resistance to obedience
P - There is research support.
E - Gamson et al found higher levels of resistance in their study than Milgram.
88% rebelled.
E - This could be because they were in groups.
L - Showing that peer support is linked to greater resistance.
Give a strength for LOC
P - There is research support.
E - Holland repeated Milgram’s study and measured whether they were internal or external.
E - 37% of internals did not continue t the highest shock level whereas only 23% of externals did not.
L - Internals had greater resistance showing that this research increases validity of the LOC explanation.
Give two limitations of LOC
P - There is contradictory research.
E - Twenge et al analysed data from American LOC studies over a 40yr period.
Data shows that people have become more resistant to
obedience but also more external.
E - If resistance was linked than people should be more internal.
L - This challenges the link between internals and resistance.
CA - Could be due to a changing society.
P - The role of resisting SI may have been exaggerated.
E - Rotter suggests that LOC only takes play in novel situations.
E - Therefore in previous situations where people have already conformed/obeyed the LOC does not apply.
Give a strength for consistency in terms of minority influence
P - Research support showing the importance of consistency,
E - Wood et al carried out a meta analysis of 100 similar studies and found that consistent minorities were seen as the most influential.
E - This supports Moscovici at al study which showed that a consistent opinion had a greater effect than an inconsistent one.
L - Suggesting that consistency is a major factor in minority influence.
Give two limitations for minority influence
P - Artificial tasks such as blue-green slide.
E - Vastly different compared to situations like court.
E - Meaning it lacks internal validity
P - Limited real world application.
E - Although the studies are controlled, minorities and majorities are a lot more different than just numbers.
E - e.g majorities usually have a lot more power and status, minorities may not always show commitment due to hostile oppositions but can also be very tight and seek support from each other
Give two strengths of minority influence.
P - Evidence suggests that change to a minority position involves deeper processing.
E - Martin et al gave participants a message supporting a viewpoint and measured their support .
One group heard a minority group agree while another group heard a majority group agree.
Participants were exposed to a conflicting view and attitudes were measured again.
It was found that people were less willing to change their opinions than if they had listened to a majority.
E - This suggests that a minority message had to be more deeply processed to be accepted.
P - There is research support for internalisation.
E - In a variation of the blue-green slide study, participants wrote their answers down instead.
E - Private agreement was greater, members of the majority were reluctant to change their views publicly.
Moscovici suggested this was because they feared being judged by the majority.
