Factors affecting Obedience Flashcards
What is momentum of compliance?
Start with small, trivial requests, then increase them
How does the proximity of an authority figure affect obedience?
The closer the authority figure, the higher the level of obedience
How does the proximity of a learner affect obedience?
The closer the learner, the lower the level of obedience
How does the status of an authority figure affect obedience?
The authority figure needs to be perceived as legitimate in order for their authority to
be affective
How does personal responsibility affect obedience?
If responsibility is placed on the authority figure, not the participant, obedience is likely
to increase
How does Milgram’s original variation support momentum of compliance?
Initial shocks were very small, and went up slowly in 15-volt increments so the compliance
escalated steadily
How does Milgram’s variation 7 support that the proximity of an authority figure has an effect on obedience?
Only 23% of participants obeyed to 450v showing levels of obedience decreased if the authority figure was not close by
How does Milgram support that the proximity of a learner has an effect on obedience?
In the variation where the learner was present in the same room as the teacher only 30% of participants obeyed to 450v
How does Milgram support that the status of an authority figure has an effect on obedience?
In the variation with conflicting experimenters where obeying to 450v dropped to 0%
How does Milgram support that personal responsibility has an effect on obedience?
In one variation of the study, participants signed a contract claiming responsibility for any harm within the experiment and obedience dropped to 40%
What is authoritarian personality?
Typically more submissive to authority figures so would be more likely to comply to the requests of an authority figure
What are some characteristics of authoritarian personality?
Hostile to people seen as inferior, disapproving of weakness, intolerant of ambiguity, upholder of conventional values,
obedient to people seen as superior; rigid and inflexible
How do Milgram and Elms support that authoritarian personality has an effect on obedience?
Found higher F values for the obedient participants (e.g. those who went to 450V), indicating
authoritarian personality
How do Dambrun and Vatine support that authoritarian personality has an effect on obedience?
Used an immersive video environment to replicate Milgram (1963) and suggest that individuals that display an authoritarian personality may be more obedient
What is internal locus of control?
Believe they are responsible for their own actions, so are less
influenced by others
How does having a high desire for control relate to obedience?
Lower levels of obedience because they want to be in charge of their own actions
What is external locus of control?
More influenced by authority figures and believe they are not responsible for their actions, they believe that the events that occur are down to things like fate
How does Milgram support Locus of Control?
Those with a high external locus of control would be more likely to obey the experimenter to 450v as they would believe it was the experimenter’s responsibility if anything were to go wrong
How do Milgram’s experiment variations from 1-4 conflict Locus of Control?
Those who had disobeyed, put more blame on themselves; 48% compared to the experimenter; 39% and only blamed the learner 12%.
What is empathy?
Ability to understand and share the feelings of another person
What are individuals less likely to do with higher levels of empathy?
Less likely to harm another person at the instructions of an authority figure
How does Burger conflict empathy?
Found that though those who scored higher on empathy protested more to giving shocks, they still gave the maximum voltage shock (150v) so does not translate to lower levels of obedience
How do individuals develop a sense of gender identity (masculinity and femininity)?
Through socialisation
How do gender stereotypes affect how we perceive ourselves and others?
Women are perceived to be more obedient
We may expect females to be more obedient because of
traditional gender roles and stereotypes
How does Milgram conflict that gender has an effect on obedience?
Found similar levels of obedience when comparing male and female participants - only difference was that females displayed a much higher level of anxiety
What did Burger find which conflicts that gender has an effect on obedience?
Gender is less of a factor in
obedience than others such as culture
How do Kilham and Mann support that gender has an effect on obedience?
Found that females were less obedient than the male participants (16% compared to 40%) when replicating Milgram’s study
How does Blass conflict that gender has an effect on obedience?
Carried out a meta-analysis of 10 obedience experiments, finding that obedience across genders was similar in 9/10 of the studies
How do Sheridan and King support that gender has an effect on obedience?
Found that all 13 female participants were more compliant and delivered maximum shock levels to the puppy compared to men
(100% vs 54%)
What are individualistic cultures?
Behave more independently, they work towards their own goals rather than doing what is best for a group as a whole
Why are individualistic cultures less likely to be obedient?
More likely to resist an instruction from an authority figure
What are collectivist cultures?
Tend to behave as co-operatively
Why is obedience likely to be higher in collectivist cultures?
Compliance is important for the success of the group, meaning obedience is likely to be higher
What did Smith and Bond find?
Found that people who belong to individualistic cultures, such as American and British cultures, are more likely to behave independently than those from collectivist cultures such as China and Japan meaning that culture does affect levels of obedience
What did Blass find?
Found very little difference between cultures in terms of obedience to maximum
voltage
