4.1.1 Social support

Question 1

Steven Rank + Cardell Jacobson’s study - date + findings

Answer 1

1977
They found that 16 out of 18 hospital nurses disobeyed orders from a doctor to administer a lethal drug dose to a patient.
The doctor was the authority figure- almost all of the nurses remained autonomous.

Question 2

Steven Rank + Cardell Jacobson’s study - evaluation

Answer 2

Explains cultural differences:
Wesley Kilham and Leon Mann (1974) found that only 16% of Australian women went up to 450 volts.
However, David Mantell (1971) found that 85% of German participants went up to 450 volts.
This shows that in some cultures, authority is more likely to be accepted as legitimate and therefore demands obedience from individuals.
This reflects the way different societies are structured and how children are raised to perceive authority figures.

Question 3

Steven Rank + Cardell Jacobson’s study - cannot explain all (dis) obediences

Answer 3

Legitimacy cannot explain times when disobedience in a hierarchy where the legitimacy if authority is clear and accepted.
The nurse study (Rank and Jacobson).
This may suggest that some people may just be more (or less) obedient than others.
It is possible that innate tendencies to dis/obey have a greater influence on behaviour than the legitimacy of an authority figure.

Question 4

Social support - conformity

Answer 4

Albrecht et al. (2006)
Purpose: 8 week programme to help pregnant adolescents (14-19 years old) resist peer pressure to smoke.
Procedure: Half of participants paired up with a slightly older mentor ‘buddy’ to help resist peer pressure.
Results: Smoking adolescents who had a ‘buddy’ were significantly less likely to smoke than a control group of participants who didn’t have a ‘buddy’.
Conclusion: This supports the idea that resistance to conformity can be achieved by a social support.

Question 5

Social support - obedience

Answer 5

Gamson et al. (1982)
Participants: 33 groups
Setup: Participants were told to produce evidence that would be used by an oil company who wants to run a smear campaign (damages someone’s reputation) against an owner of a petrol station. The owner had been ‘engaged in an offensive lifestyle’.
Results: 29 out of 33 groups rebelled against orders.
Conclusion: Supporters (participants that speak out against authority) can help others to also join in and rebel against authority.

Question 6

Evidence against social support

Answer 6

Allen + Levine (1971)
Procedure: Asch-type task
Variation: a) no dissenter, b) a dissenter with good eyesight, c) a dissenter with bad eyesight (thick glasses)
Results: 3% resisted with no dissenter present, b) 64% resisted in the presence of a dissenter with good eyesight, c) 36% resisted in the presence of a dissenter with bad eyesight
Conclusion: Social support does not always help. We can conclude this because the rate of resistance decreased from 64% to 36% when the dissenter’s eyesight was bad.