confomity and obidience Flashcards
what are individual differences?
Individual relates more to individual differences e.g. personality, self-esteem etc
what are situational factors?
Situational relates to different aspects of the situation or environment which vary
what are some examples of situational factors?
group size
task difficulty
social support and unanimity
secrecy of response
what year was Asch’s conformity experiment done in?
1951
situational factors in Asch: group size
it may be assumed that the larger majority would have a l bigger influence on one of his participants in his “length of lines” experiment. he found that with fewer than three confederates the level of compliance diminished greatly. However, increasing group size only made a difference up to a certain point.
where did milgram take place?
Yale university in America
what percentage of students thought the participant would obey in milgram?
3%
in milgrams experiment, how did he pick out his participants?
They were recruited through an advertisement in the newspaper
in milgrams original study, what gender were the participants?
male
how many participants were in milgrams study?
30
how much did the participants get paid in milgram?
£4.50
what were the participants told about the study? (milgram)
that the study was to find out about learning and memory
were the participants in milgrams study told that they were going to be recorded?
no
what was the experimenter wearing during milgrams study?
a grey lab coat
what is minority influence?
the case where a minority of group members influences the behavior or beliefs of the majority
counter conformity
describes a social influence whereby consumers change their behavior to be more dissimilar from a social norm
Mori and Arai findings
they found that females in their study had similar results to the females in Asch (1951). however males did not conform to the majority view. another difference from Asch (1951) is that having an ally did not change the persons answer.
What condition did the “student”, Mr Wallace, complain of before the start of the experiment? (milgram)
a heart condition
In milgram’s original study, were the “student” and the “teacher” in the same room?
no
in milgram, hat was the range of intensity of electric shock which could be administered by the “teacher” to the “student”?
15 volts-450 volts going up by 15 volts each time
At what level of shock did the learner start banging on the wall? (milgram)
250 volts
What percentage of participants in milgrams study went up to 450 volts in the original experiment?
65%
The original milgram experiment was repeated using only female participants, were the results different?
no
After the milgram study the participants were…?
debriefed and met the “student” (Mr. Wallace) and were taken for a psychiatric assessment afterwards
What percentage of participants went up to 450 volts when the study was carried out in an office building? (milgram)
49%
what were the nurses told to do in Holfing?
nurses were told to give a patient 2x the amount of an drug by an unknown doctor through a phone call
what is similar about Milgram and Holfing?
they both involve deception of a participant
what is the implication of the Holfing study?
in hospital situations, nurses tend to obey doctors (even if consequences are harmful towards another person0
Aim of Milgram study
Milgram (1963) was interested in researching how far people would go in obeying an instruction if it involved harming another person
what was Milgrams motivation to go through this experiment?
Stanley Milgram was interested in how easily ordinary people could be influenced into committing atrocities, for example, Germans in WWII.
what was the sample of Milgram?
Volunteers were recruited for a lab experiment investigating “learning” (re: ethics:deception). Participants were 40 males, aged between 20 and 50, whose jobs ranged from unskilled to professional, from the New Haven area.
how were the roles decided in milgrams study
They drew straws to determine their roles –learner or teacher – although this was fixed and the confederate was always the learner. There was also an “experimenter” dressed in a gray lab coat, played by an actor (not Milgram).
describe milgrams method?
the participants were introduced to Mr Wallace who they were told was another participant when he was really a confederate who worked for Milgram. The participant was told that they would either take on the role of the teacher or the learner in the memory experiment. The teacher is told to administer an electric shock every time the learner makes a mistake, increasing the level of shock each time.
what were the prods given to the teacher (the participant) to continue with the experiment when they wished to withdraw?
” please continue “
” the experiments require you to continue “
“it is absolutely essential for you to continue’’
“you have no other choice but to continue”
what conclusion could be drawn about this study?
Ordinary people are likely to follow orders given by an authority figure, even to the extent of killing an innocent human being. Obedience to authority is ingrained in us all from the way we are brought up
People tend to obey orders from other people if they recognise their authority as morally right and/or legally based. This response to legitimate authority is learned in a variety of situations, for example in the family, school, and workplace.
what was bad about milgrams experiment?
The participants in Milgram’s study were all male. Do the findings transfer to females?
Milgram’s study cant be seen as representative of the American population as his sample was self-selected. This is because they became participants only by electing to respond to a newspaper advertisement (selecting themselves). They may also have a typical “volunteer personality” – not all the newspaper readers responded so perhaps it takes this personality type to do so
it was also unethical (deception, no right to withdraw, mental harm)
what effect does uniform have on the level of obedience? (milgram)
The Milgram experiment was carried out many times whereby Milgram (1965) varied the basic procedure (changed the IV). By doing this Milgram could identify which factors affected obedience (the DV). Obedience was measured by how many participants shocked to the maximum 450 volts (65% in the original study). In total 636 participants have been tested in 18 different variation studies.
what effect does location have on level of obedience?
The experiment was moved to a set of run down offices rather than the impressive YaleUniversity. Obedience dropped to 47.5%. This suggests that status of location effects obedience.
when does the authoritarian personality develop?
during childhood
what are authoritarian parents normally like?
they tend to be strict and harsh
what does having authoritarian parents do to their child?
this could mean that their child when theyre older are more obedient towards people with authority`
what is the agency theory?
the agency theory states that our decisions to obey or disobey depend on the mental state we are in. if we are in the autonomous state then we are less likely to obey than when in the agenic state
what state of mind are we usually in? (agency theory)
moat of the time we are in the autonomous state
what is the Autonomous state of mind?
seeing yourself as being in power and acting on your own wishes and morals
what is the Agenic state?
seeing another person as having power acting on behalf of their principles/commands
what are some situational factors which affect obedience?
location proximity uniform social support mental state
what are some studies that involve gender?
Mori and Arai - found that women conformed more
Jenness - found that women conformed more
what are some studies that involve gender?
Mori and Arai
Asch
Smith and Bond
what were the findings of Milgram?
65% continued up to the 450 mark and nobody stopped until up to the 300V.
how many switches were there on the shock generator and what were they marked?
There were 30 switches on the shock generator marked from 15 volts (slight shock) to 450(danger – severe shock).
good things about milgrams study?
it was a groundbreaking study and external variables were well controlled for as it was a lab experiment.
what was Holfing et al’s study?
they conducted a field experiment on nurses where they labelled a fake drug called Astroten was left in the ward and each nurse was told on a phone call from an unknown doctor to prepare the drug at twice the max dosage indicated on the bottle and give it to the patient. Despite having the opportunity to refuse 21 out of 22 nurses gave the drug to the participant.
what was the aim of Mori and Arai?
the aim of the study was to replicate Asch’s study without the need for confederates to ensure that nobody was acting unnaturally.
what was the sample of Mori and Arai?
Mori and Arai used 104 both male and female japanese students.
method of Mori and Arai
the researchers recreated Asch’s line test without the use of confederates. instead wore a pair of specially designed filter glasses that allowed them to look at the same thing but see something different. this means that everyone was a true participant. however one was given a different pair of glasses meaning that they saw something completely different than the rest. the participants were in groups of 4 and they would state their answers out loud. the minority participant would always go third.
evaluation of Mori and Arai?
the researchers explained the gender difference between men and women in terms of social roles of males and females. this was down to either generational factors or culture
the participants in the study also all knew each other and this meant that the results could have been affected. Mori and Arai believed this was a strength because of how we conform to friends and acquaintances.
individual factors that effect conformity?
age personality sex thought process culture
situational factors that effect conformity?
group size
social support and unanimity
task difficulty
how can task difficulty effect conformity?
Asch found that the harder the task the more people conformed. If the stimuli was more similar then it may be less embarrassing for the participants to conform However Mori and Arai had a harder task with more errors than the Asch study. Real life tasks are often more ambiguous than the line task so maybe lead to more conformity
what happens to children who have authoritarian parents?
Adomo found that authoritarian parents produced highly obedient children as they are taking on board the fact that speaking out gets you punished
socialisation
society has taught us to respect and obey authority figures. childhood is where we learn society’s rules and who our authority figures are. the effect of childhood experiences on making us behave is known as socialisation.
what is a democratic parent?
a democratic parent is a parent who has rules that arent set in stone and makes allowances. children are encouraged to negotiate reasonable boundaries.
what studies link to gender?
Mori and Arai and eagli and carli and Jenness
what is an authoritarian parent?
parents who teach their parents
