individual differences in obedience and dissent/resistance to obedience: personality Flashcards
1
Q
what is personality?
A
- somebody’s unique and stable responses to specific situations
- if someone reacts in a specific way to a situation and always reacts in that way, that is seen as their personality
- personality is about responding to a situation is a unique way in a way others may not
2
Q
how can personality link to Milgram’s variations?
A
- he conducted series of follow up investigations on ppts who were involved in exps to uncover whether certain individuals would be more likely to obey or dissent
- in one study, 118 ppts from exps 1-4 who were both obedient and disobedient were asked to judge relative responsibility for giving shocks out of experimenter, teacher and learner
- they indicated who was responsible for person being given the shocks by moving three hands on round disc to show proportionate responsibility
- found that dissenting ppts gave proportionately more blame to themselves (48%) and then experimenter (39%)
- obedient ppts were more likely to blame learner (25%) more so than dissenters (12% blamed learner
3
Q
what are the traits of someone with an authoritarian personality?
A
- obsessed with rank and status
- inflexible
- driven by stereotypes and prejudice
- extreme respect for and submissiveness to authority
4
Q
what did Milgram find out about personality in his research?
A
- Milgram’s ppts were interviewed after exp (exit interviews) and were asked questions to see if it was personality that led to obedience/dissent
- Elms (one of Milgram’s assistants) noted those in ’caring’ jobs eg teachers, showed less obedience than those in technical jobs, eg engineers
- Catholics shows more obedience than other religious groups
- ppts who had more years in education tended to obey less
- people in armed forces showed high obedience, but ex officers showed less obedience than non officers
- occupation might be linked to personality, but links made by Elms were not particularly strong
- CA: more investigation needed
5
Q
what did Milgram and Elms find about personality?
A
- Milgram and Elms carried out further investigation by examining 2 groups: ’obedient group’ and ‘defiant group’
- 20 ppts in each group chosen from previous studies, with their responses used to group them
- defiant group showed more social responsibility
- however, social responsibility might have led to obedience in that they obeyed people in authority for sake of society or led to defiance in that they wouldn’t be responsible for another person’s pain
- idea of social responsibility was not useful when considering personality
- put forward the idea of authoritarian personality
- said to admire rules, be distant from fathers and be more likely to be in military role
- also used F-scale scores to compare and found that obedient group had higher F-scale score, indicating authoritarian personality type
6
Q
what did Blass find about personality?
A
- Blass found that those that are high in authoritarian personality were more likely to obey
- also looked at when people watched video of Milgram’s study, and those with high level of authoritarianism were less likely to blame those punishing the learner than those without that high level of authoritarianism
7
Q
what is an F-scale?
A
- Adorno et al.
- Fascism scale
- questionnaire used to detect the authoritarian personality
8
Q
what did Dambrun and Vatine find about personality?
A
- conducted simulation of Milgram’s exp using virtual environment/computer simulation
- found that authoritarianism was linked to obedience
- those with high authoritarian scores were less likely to withdraw from study
- because they were submissive to authority of experimenter or showed an inclination to punish the failing learner
9
Q
how is empathy a factor that may affect obedience or dissent?
A
- believed that those who have high levels of empathy would be less likely to harm another person at the instructions of an authority figure
10
Q
what did Burger find about empathy?
A
- Burger found that although people who score high on empathy were more likely to protest against electric shocks, this didn’t translate into lower levels of obedience
11
Q
what did Rotter develop?
A
- Rotter in 1966 developed a questionnaire to measure personality characteristics called locus of control
12
Q
what is locus of control?
A
- about the reasons people give for what happens to them
13
Q
what are the traits of someone with an internal locus of control?
A
- believe they are in control of their own actions
- what happens is something they have caused
- life is determined by own actions, decisions and efforts
14
Q
what are the traits of someone with an external locus of control?
A
- believe that what happens to them comes from outside their control
- if they are in a stressful situation they feel helpless to do anything about it
- life is determined by fate, luck and external factors
15
Q
what is the difference between internal and external locus of control?
A
- ’internals’ are more likely to show dissent and defy others
- ’externals’ are more likely to be obedient
16
Q
what did Holland find about locus of control? CA: Blass and Schurz
A
- Holland considered Milgram’s work and considered if it’s linked to a person’s locus of control and found no link
- CA: Blass looked at the same data Holland used and found a link between internal locus of control and resistance to obedience
- CA: Schurz found that those with an internal locus of control felt more responsible for their actions
17
Q
what are the strengths of personality affecting obedience?
A
- Elms provided evidence that a more authoritarian personality is more obedient
- there’s evidence for this with an internal locus of control are more likely to resist obedience (although not strong evidence**
- applied to field of human resources - some jobs require higher (or lower) levels of obedience
18
Q
what are the weaknesses of personality affecting obedience?
A
- Milgram used many ppts and found great deal of obedience. it’s unlikely that there were just personality factors at work with so many ppts obeying orders
- Milgram didn’t focus on personality or control for personality so more research is needed in this area
