Conformity & Obedience Flashcards
Obedience is simply…
a change in behaviour that is due to another person’s orders.
In the context of studies of conformity and obedience people recruited by the experimenter to behave in prescribed ways to influence conformity or obedience are known as …
experimental confederates
Mustafer Sherif conducted conformity studies based on an optical illusion. What was that optical illusion?
Autokinesis – in which a spot of light appears to move when the subject is in a dark room.
High status of confederates in conformity studies shows..
higher levels of conformity
There is a sign on the entry of a hotel in northern Thailand which reads: No Durians! A person who flaunts this directive and brings the smelly fruit into the hotel would be best described as having:
Psychological reactance
Influenced by the Holocaust, who was social psychologist interested in the situationalist who emphasises the social situation to understand behaviour.
Stanley Milgram
Which condition of Milgram’s studies yielded the highest levels of obedience?
Subject watches a peer give shocks.
Participants who were assigned the role of administering electric shocks in Milgram’s study were recruited from the …
community
The process by which the actions of an individual or group affects the behaviour of others the definition of …
Social influence.
Typically in an independent view of self or in individualistic societies, what is the general consensus of the idea of conformity and obedience?
Conformity and obedience are not as much valued. In other words, being a ‘conformist’ is not valued.
What is the interdependent view of self in regards to conformity and obedience? What are they seen as?
Conformity and obedience are valued. They are seen as a sign of tolerance, self-control and maturity.
A change in behaviour or belief as a result of real or imagined group pressure.
CONFORMITY
Pluralistic ignorance
False belief about what others are thinking or doing.
Conformity
Public conformity Private disagreement
Conformity in behaviour and belief
ACCEPTANCE
Obedience
Acting in accord with a direct order or command
Myers & Louis, (2016) implicates that people are suggestible which means …
“our views of reality are not ours alone”
Yawning, laughing tracks, shows of disgust in which people react accordingly.
Suggestibility.
A confederate is an _________ of the experimenter who is there to influence the _________ with predetermined responses.
- Accomplice 2. Subject
Which experiment compared standard lines to comparison lines?
Solomon Asch’s experiment, 1951
In Solomon Asch’s experiment, what were the confederates doing?
Provide a wrong answer in the presence of the subject.
In Solomon Asch’s experiment, what was the subject’s initial responses and how did it change?
Subjects were resistant at first by proving the correct answer, but gradually conformed to proving the wrong answer similarly answered by confederates.
In Solomon Asch’s experiment, it was found that the 75% of subjects … and 1/3 of subject …
- would conform at least once. 2. Conform consistently.
In Solomon Asch ‘s conformity experiment, how did he get the majority of subjects to agree on a wrong answer?
All but one were the researcher’s confederates who agreed in advance to provide a particular wrong answer.
What factors influence conformity?
1. Character of a the group. - The size of the confederate group, status of members, group cohesion.
2. Situation which in the individual is responding. - Public response
3. Kind of task. - Unambiguous or ambiguous answers.
4. Unanimity - social supporter, a person who shares an unpopular point of view along with another group member.
Define ‘Hegemony’
The political, economic, or military predominance or control of one state over others.
Psychological reactance.
A motive to protect or restore one’s sense of freedom.
To not obey or be told what to do or not do.
Obediance.
A change of behaviour due to the commands of others.
Who said the following?
“The social psychology of this century reveals a major lesson: Often it is not so much the kind of person a man is as the kind of situation in which he defines himeself that determines how he will act.”
Scott Milgram, 1974.
What is “Befehl ist Befehl”?
Pronunciation: “beh-feel-ist-beh-feel”
The Nuremberg Defence or ‘superior order’
Meaning “an order is an order” in German.
A plea in which a person not to be held guilty for actions which were ordered by a superior officer or an official.
What was the purpose of Milgrim’s study?
Whether ordinary people could be pushed to obey commands to cause harm to others.
Milgram’s studies were about obedience, but what sort of study did his subjects believe they were participating in?
The effects of punishment on the learning of word associations.
In the Milgram Experiment, who was the ‘‘teacher’ and the ‘learner’?
The teacher was the subject, the learner was a confederate.
In the Milgram Experiment, what was the responsibility of the teacher when the learner gave the “incorrect” answer?
Teacher was meant to apply an “electric shock” to the leaner.
In the Milgram Experiment, what would happen to the voltage when the learner gave the incorrent answer?
Increased in voltage.
In the Milgram Experiment, from the perspective of the ‘teacher’, what was the responsibility of the ‘learner’?
To learn words association and provide a correct answer.
In the Milgram Experiment, what was the role of ‘experimenter’?
To be the authority, to get the teacher to obey.
What was the percentage of people who applied the maximin shock level of 435 - 450 volts in the Milgram Experiment?
Approximately, 65%.
From highest to lowest, what are the 4 main factors influenced a higher level of obedience in the Milgram Experiment?
- Subject watches a peer gives shocks.
- Two other teacher (confederates) continue.
- Learner in another room, no communication.
- Learner head on intercom.
What main influence factors in the Milgram Experiment produced a lower level of obedience?
- Learner and the subject in the same room.
- Subject must touch learner to give shocks.
- Two other teachers quit experiment.
