13 - Social Behaviour (Obedience and Apathy)

Question 1

What is the ‘white coat halo’?

Answer 1

o Medical training and license to practice, caring and relief of suffering gives doctors ‘halo’, doctors all-knowing and powerful
o Obey authority and control those lower in professional hierarchy

Question 2

Who was Harold Shipman?

Answer 2

Doctor who killed many elderly patients, one of UK’s worst serial killers

Question 3

What was Milgram’s study on obedience to authority?

Answer 3

Shock victims, listen to authority in white coat. Average obedience level for delivering full shock = 60-70%. Shows very few disobey authority.

Question 4

What did the MHRC encounter show?

Answer 4

Rebellion in groups vs alone (9 volunteers, case about rights of poorly treated employee)

More apathetic in groups (don’t help – others can do it) but rebel more in groups (MHRC) b/c support

Question 5

What is the Latane law of social impact?

Answer 5

Social impact depends on:

• Number of sources around them
• Strength for legitimacy
• Immediacy (closeness)

Question 6

How does immediacy relate to Milligram’s experiment?

Answer 6

Immediacy to victim (same room) decreased the shock levels. Immediacy to experimenter increased obeying (experimenter not watching, over phone etc = more likely to disobey)

Question 7

What is the bystander effect/apathy?

Answer 7

A social psychological claim that individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim when other people are present; the greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is that one of them will help.

e.g. Kitty Genovese murder

Question 8

What are the social processes in emergencies?

Answer 8

1. Social definition
2. Diffusion of responsibility
3. Audience inhibition

Question 9

How does social definition affect actions in emergencies?

Answer 9

Others not responding, no emergency

Question 10

How does diffusion of responsibility affect actions in emergencies?

Answer 10

Alone = sole responsibility, part of group = transfer responsibility

Question 11

How does audience inhibition affect actions in emergencies?

Answer 11

Self-conscious in presence of others, fear of social blunder

Question 12

What are non-social factors in emergencies?

Answer 12

o Ambiguity of situation
o Personality
o Personal/threat of intervention (will they turn on me?)