Factors affecting obedience and dissent: Individual differences (personality factors and gender)

Question 1

define dissent

Answer 1

having opinions that differ from those held by others - in terms of obedience, it refers to refusing to carry out orders (disobedience)

Question 2

define resistance

Answer 2

ability of people to withstand the social pressure to conform to the majority or to obey an authority

Question 3

define personality

Answer 3

an individual’s characteristic, coherent and relatively stable set of behaviours, attitudes, interests and capabilities

Question 4

define gender

Answer 4

a person’s sense of their maleness or femaleness

Question 5

who came up with the authoritarian personality ?

Answer 5

Theodor Adorno et al. (1950) explained high levels of obedience (and prejudice, but that’s in a different deck) in terms of a person’s disposition and called this the authoritarian personality

Question 6

what type of parenting style did Adorno believed led to authoritarian personality ?

Answer 6

a harsh parenting style

Question 7

what characteristics did Adorno believe a harsh parenting style led children to develop (3) ?

Answer 7

1) toughness
2) destructiveness
3) cynicism

Question 8

how did Adorno measure ‘authoritarinism’ ?

Answer 8

using the F-scale (F for fascism)

Question 9

where did Adorno believe a harsh parenting style was rife and when ?

Answer 9

rife in germany in the first part of the 20th century - meaning that adult Germans had personalities that were submissive to authority but harsh to those seen as subordinate to themselves

Question 10

what type of parenting did Adorno believe would lead to a generation of adults that would typically score low on a F-scale test ?

Answer 10

a parenting style that centred around unconditional love and more permissive

Question 11

what is someone who scores lower on a F-scale test more likely to do ?

Answer 11

they are more likely to show resistance and defy what they perceive to be destructive orders

Question 12

what did Julian Rotter (1966) propose ?

Answer 12

internal and external locus of control

Question 13

what does it mean to have an internal locus of control ?

Answer 13

the person takes greater responsibility for their actions as they believe they are in control of what they do and what happens to them

Question 14

what does it mean to have an external locus of control ?

Answer 14

the person take less responsibility for their actions and feel that what happened to them is governed by other people and by chance factors

Question 15

what are ‘internals’ more likely to show ?

Answer 15

more likely to show dissent and defy orders

Question 16

what are ‘externals’ more likely to show ?

Answer 16

more likely to show obedience

Question 17

what did Frederick Miller (1975) do to demonstrate the difference between ‘internals’ and ‘externals’ ?

Answer 17

Miller conducted a study where a high or low status experimenter told ppts to grasp live electric wires

Question 18

what were the findings from Frederick Miller (1975) ?

Answer 18

‘externals’ obeyed the high status experimenter more than the low status experimenter, while ‘internals’ were unaffected by the status

Question 19

what is the gender debate in terms of obedience ?

Answer 19

there is evidence that there is a difference in the level of obedience between males and females, however, there is a lack of agreement between which gender is more obedient

Question 20

what study supports the theory that women are more obedient than men ?

Answer 20

Sheridan and King (1972)

Question 21

what did Sheridan and King (1972) do ?

Answer 21

the ppts were ordered to give real electric shocks to a live puppy

Question 22

what were the findings of Sheridan and King (1972) ?

Answer 22

• 100% of female ppts were fully obedient compared with only 54% of the males
• the ladies showed grave distress such as sobbing
• the males in this study were more defiant when asked to shock a puppy than the males of Milgram’s study when they were asked to shock a human

Question 23

what study supports the theory that men are more obedient than women ?

Answer 23

Kilham and Mann (1974)

Question 24

what did Kilham and Mann (1974) do ?

Answer 24

replicated Milgram’s study in Australia

Question 25

what were the findings of Kilham and Mann (1974) ?

Answer 25

• general level of obedience was as low as 28%
• 40% of males were obedient
• 16% of females were obedient

Question 26

what study supports moral reasoning ?

Answer 26

Gilligan (1982)

Question 27

what did Gilligan (1982) suggest ?

Answer 27

suggested that moral decision-making is guided by differing principles in men and women

Question 28

what is the ‘ethic of justice’ ?

Answer 28

The ethics of justice is characterized by fairness and equality, rational decision-making based on universal rules and principles, and autonomous, impartial and objective decision-making.

Question 29

who is the ‘ethic of justice’ principle more commonly seen in ?

Answer 29

males

Question 30

what did Giligan claim about females ?

Answer 30

he claimed that females use the ‘ethic of care’ to guide their decision making

Question 31

what does the ‘ethic of care’ mean ?

Answer 31

this principle relates to interpersonal relationships and nurturing and supporting those in need

Question 32

in terms of destructive obedience, what can be assumed about gender difference in level of obedience ?

Answer 32

one might expect males to be more obedient due to their feelings of obligation to an authority figure - females may be less obedient due to their desire to support the person being harmed

Question 33

what happened in Milgram’s study in terms of destructive obedience ?

Answer 33

males were more swayed by the apparent scientific goals of the research, which was supposedly for the ‘greater good’ - females may have been more concerned about the learner.

Question 34

what is the supporting evidence for authoritarianism ?

Answer 34

elms and milgram (1966) used F-scale with ppts from one of milgram’s studies, testing 20 fully obedient ppt and 20 who weren’t

Question 35

what did elms and milligram (1966) find ?

Answer 35

obedient ppts scored higher on the F-scale test and also reported other characteristics of the authoritarian personality, such as less closeness to their fathers

Question 36

what do the findings from elms and milgram (1966) suggest ?

Answer 36

suggests that obedience is related to the personality characteristic of authoritarianism

Question 37

what is the competing argument to the supporting evidence to authoritarianism ?

Answer 37

we cannot claim that there is a casual relationship between childhood experiences and authoritarianism/obedience because these are correlations.

Question 38

what did Hyman and Sheatsley (1954) propose (part of competing argument for authoritarianism) ?

Answer 38

obedience and authoritarian personality may be caused by a lower level of education

Question 39

what is a weakness for locus of control ?

Answer 39

it does not predict defiance - Grete schurz (1985)

Question 40

what did Grete Schurz (1985) do ?

Answer 40

in a task similar to Milgram’s original study, he instructed Austrian ppts to give painful doses of ultrasound to a female student

Question 41

what were the findings for Grete Schurz (1985) ?

Answer 41

the ppts who were fully obedient did not differ significantly from those ppts who resisted in terms of their scores on a questionnaire measuring locus of control

Question 42

what does Grete Schurz (1985) suggest ?

Answer 42

suggests that personality may have little impact on obedience

Question 43

what is an application of this research ?

Answer 43

the research can be applied to the field of Human Resources - some jobs require higher (or lower) levels of obedience - some jobs require workers to follow strict procedures that wouldn’t suit those who aren’t obedient - to select the right people, HR may use a scale assessing LOC

Question 44

what is a strength of Giligan’s research ?

Answer 44

a strength of Giligan’s explanation is support from qualitative research (Giligan and Attanucci 1988)

Question 45

what did Giligan and Attanucci (1988) do ?

Answer 45

male and female ppts were interviewed about real-life moral dilemmas

Question 46

what were the findings of Giligan and Attanucci (1988) ?

Answer 46

though most ppts used both ethic of justice and care in their moral reasoning - males favoured a justice orientation and women favoured a care orientation - these gender differences were highly significant

Question 47

what does Giligan and Attanucci (1988) suggest ?

Answer 47

suggests that there are quite important gender differences in moral orientations which may well affect decision-making in situations relating to destructive obedience

Question 48

what is a weakness of gender differences ?

Answer 48

many studies find no gender differences

Question 49

what did Thomas Blass (1999) do ?

Answer 49

summarised the findings of nine milgram-style studies that included both male and female ppts

Question 50

what did Thomas Blass (1999) find ?

Answer 50

in all but one case there was not significant gender difference in the observed levels of obedience

Question 51

what does Thomas Blass (1999) suggest ?

Answer 51

suggests that gender does not affect obedience