factors affecting obedience - individual differences Flashcards
what is dissent?
having opinions that differ from those held by others. refusing to carry out orders
what is resistance?
the ability to withstand social pressure to conform to the majority or obey authority figures. this is influenced by situational and dispositional factors.
what is personality?
an individual’s characteristics, set of behaviours, believes and attitudes. these are useful for predicting future behaviour.
what is gender?
a person’s sense of their male or femaleness including attitudes and behaviour of that gender.
what is authoritarian personality?
explained by ADORNO (1950), personality traits such as toughness, destructiveness and cynicism come from a harsh style of parenting and leads to high levels of obedience. parents with a black and white style, will develop children with authoritarian personalities.
how is authoritarian personality measured?
using the F-SCALE questionnaire.
what did ADORNO (1950) believe about the parenting style in germany 20th century?
ADORNO believed that hard parenting style was common in early 20th century Germany meaning that many adults had personalities that were submissive to authority but harsh to those seen as below them.
what is the internal LOC?
proposed by ROTTER(1966) internal LOC is when people take more responsibility for their actions as they believe they are in control of their fate and future.
what is external LOC?
people with external LOC take less responsibility for their actions and feel that what happens to them is governed by others and not them.
which LOC is more likely to dissent?
internal LOC are more likely to to dissent and defy orders.
- MILLER (1975) demonstrated this in a study where high and low status experimenters asked ppts to grab a live wire. external LOC obeyed high status experimenters whereas internal LOC’s were not affected by the status.
what is the support for authoritarian personalities?
authoritarian personality is supported through research.
- MILGRAM (1966) used the F-SCALE with ppts from his study, testing 20 fully obedient ppts and 20 dissenters. obedient ppts scored higher on the F-SCALE and also reported similar characteristics such as not being close to their fathers.
what is the competing argument for the support for authoritarian personalities?
it cannot be claimed that there is a causal relationship between childhood and personality/ obedience because these are correlations.
- other factors may be involved e.g. education
what is a weakness of the LOC explanation?
SCHURZ (1985) instructed Austrian ppts to give painful doses of ultrasound to female students.
- ppts who were fully obedient did not score any different than those who did not on the questionnaire.
personality may have very little impact on obedience.
how can personality be applied?
research on personality can be applied to HR.
- some jobs require high/low levels of obedience
HR department may use a LOC scale, which may result in a more successful matching of people and jobs.
what is the evidence that women are more obedient than men?
SHERIDAN and KING (1972) ordered ppts to give electric shocks to a puppy and found that 100% of females were willing to shock whereas only 54% of males were.
- males were more defiant to shock a puppy than a human in milgram’s.
what is the evidence that men are more obedient than women?
KILHAM and MANN (1974) replicated Milgram’s study in australia and found an obedience rate of 28%
- 40% males whereas only 16% females
what is the moral reasoning difference in men and women?
GILLIGAN (1982) suggested that men had more ETHIC OF JUSTICE where there are values of equality and fairness whereas women had more ETHIC OF CARE which relates to interpersonal relationships and nurturing.
how does the difference in moral reasoning affect obedience?
it may be expected that males will be more DESTRUCTIVELY obedient due to the obligation whereas females may be less obedient due to the care
- Milgram’s research showed that the men were swayed by the scientific research aspect.
what is a strength of GILLIGAN (1988) research?
there is support from qualitative research.
- male and female ppts were interviewed about real-life moral dilemmas and overall men favoured the justice orientation and the women favoured a care orientation.
- the gender differences were highly significant.
what is a weakness of the gender explanation?
many studies find no gender differences
- BLASS (1999) summarised findings of 9 Milgram like studies and found that in all but 1 case there was no significant difference between males and females
