Factors affecting Obedience

Question 1

What is momentum of compliance?

Answer 1

Start with small, trivial requests, then increase them

Question 2

How does the proximity of an authority figure affect obedience?

Answer 2

The closer the authority figure, the higher the level of obedience

Question 3

How does the proximity of a learner affect obedience?

Answer 3

The closer the learner, the lower the level of obedience

Question 4

How does the status of an authority figure affect obedience?

Answer 4

The authority figure needs to be perceived as legitimate in order for their authority to
be affective

Question 5

How does personal responsibility affect obedience?

Answer 5

If responsibility is placed on the authority figure, not the participant, obedience is likely
to increase

Question 6

How does Milgram’s original variation support momentum of compliance?

Answer 6

Initial shocks were very small, and went up slowly in 15-volt increments so the compliance
escalated steadily

Question 7

How does Milgram’s variation 7 support that the proximity of an authority figure has an effect on obedience?

Answer 7

Only 23% of participants obeyed to 450v showing levels of obedience decreased if the authority figure was not close by

Question 8

How does Milgram support that the proximity of a learner has an effect on obedience?

Answer 8

In the variation where the learner was present in the same room as the teacher only 30% of participants obeyed to 450v

Question 9

How does Milgram support that the status of an authority figure has an effect on obedience?

Answer 9

In the variation with conflicting experimenters where obeying to 450v dropped to 0%

Question 10

How does Milgram support that personal responsibility has an effect on obedience?

Answer 10

In one variation of the study, participants signed a contract claiming responsibility for any harm within the experiment and obedience dropped to 40%

Question 11

What is authoritarian personality?

Answer 11

Typically more submissive to authority figures so would be more likely to comply to the requests of an authority figure

Question 12

What are some characteristics of authoritarian personality?

Answer 12

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

Question 13

How do Milgram and Elms support that authoritarian personality has an effect on obedience?

Answer 13

Found higher F values for the obedient participants (e.g. those who went to 450V), indicating
authoritarian personality

Question 14

How do Dambrun and Vatine support that authoritarian personality has an effect on obedience?

Answer 14

Used an immersive video environment to replicate Milgram (1963) and suggest that individuals that display an authoritarian personality may be more obedient

Question 15

What is internal locus of control?

Answer 15

Believe they are responsible for their own actions, so are less
influenced by others

Question 16

How does having a high desire for control relate to obedience?

Answer 16

Lower levels of obedience because they want to be in charge of their own actions

Question 17

What is external locus of control?

Answer 17

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

Question 18

How does Milgram support Locus of Control?

Answer 18

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

Question 19

How do Milgram’s experiment variations from 1-4 conflict Locus of Control?

Answer 19

Those who had disobeyed, put more blame on themselves; 48% compared to the experimenter; 39% and only blamed the learner 12%.

Question 20

What is empathy?

Answer 20

Ability to understand and share the feelings of another person

Question 21

What are individuals less likely to do with higher levels of empathy?

Answer 21

Less likely to harm another person at the instructions of an authority figure

Question 22

How does Burger conflict empathy?

Answer 22

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

Question 23

How do individuals develop a sense of gender identity (masculinity and femininity)?

Answer 23

Through socialisation

Question 24

How do gender stereotypes affect how we perceive ourselves and others?

Answer 24

Women are perceived to be more obedient

We may expect females to be more obedient because of
traditional gender roles and stereotypes

Question 25

How does Milgram conflict that gender has an effect on obedience?

Answer 25

Found similar levels of obedience when comparing male and female participants - only difference was that females displayed a much higher level of anxiety

Question 26

What did Burger find which conflicts that gender has an effect on obedience?

Answer 26

Gender is less of a factor in
obedience than others such as culture

Question 27

How do Kilham and Mann support that gender has an effect on obedience?

Answer 27

Found that females were less obedient than the male participants (16% compared to 40%) when replicating Milgram’s study

Question 28

How does Blass conflict that gender has an effect on obedience?

Answer 28

Carried out a meta-analysis of 10 obedience experiments, finding that obedience across genders was similar in 9/10 of the studies

Question 29

How do Sheridan and King support that gender has an effect on obedience?

Answer 29

Found that all 13 female participants were more compliant and delivered maximum shock levels to the puppy compared to men
(100% vs 54%)

Question 30

What are individualistic cultures?

Answer 30

Behave more independently, they work towards their own goals rather than doing what is best for a group as a whole

Question 31

Why are individualistic cultures less likely to be obedient?

Answer 31

More likely to resist an instruction from an authority figure

Question 32

What are collectivist cultures?

Answer 32

Tend to behave as co-operatively

Question 33

Why is obedience likely to be higher in collectivist cultures?

Answer 33

Compliance is important for the success of the group, meaning obedience is likely to be higher

Question 34

What did Smith and Bond find?

Answer 34

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

Question 35

What did Blass find?

Answer 35

Found very little difference between cultures in terms of obedience to maximum
voltage