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psychology > knight - social influence (obedience) > Flashcards

knight - social influence (obedience) Flashcards

1
Q

What is obedience?

A

Following orders (direct instructions) from authority figures (eg. teachers, parents, boss, police etc)

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2
Q

What was the aim of Milgram’s study?

A

to investigate how far people would go in obeying orders from an authority figure (person wearing a lab coat)

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3
Q

Where was Milgram’s study done?

A

Yale University (famous Ivy League university - location affect obedience?)

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4
Q

How were participants recruited?

A

Through newspaper adverts

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5
Q

What were the steps of the study?

A

The real participant was always the teacher and a confederate was always the learner
-> The learner was strapped to a chair and the teacher was led into a different room with an electric shock machine (proximity affects obedience?)
-> The experimenter told the teachers to read our word pairs for the learner to remember (eg blue - cat) and give the learner a electric shock each time a mistake was made
-> The electric shock generator didn’t actually give shocks but the participant did not know

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6
Q

What were the switches on the machine labelled?

A

From 15 volts (slight shock) to 375 volts (danger severe shock) to 450 volts (strong enough to kill someone)

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7
Q

How did the learner respond to the shocks?

A

-180: shouted they were in pain
-300: asked to be released
-after 315: remained silent

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8
Q

What were the findings?

A
  • all participants shocked to 300 volts
  • 65% shocked to 450 volts
  • 3 participants had seizures and several did not want to continue but the researcher made comments like “please continue” and “no real tissue damage is made” “you have no choice but to continue”
  • showed how normal everyday people are obedient
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9
Q

What are some positives of Milgram’s study?

A

+ High internal validity
-> 70% of participants thought that the shocks were real during debrief
-> participants were showing genuine obedience behaviours

+ High external validity
-> Hofling (1996) did a study on nurses: 21/22 nurses obeyed the orders of the doctor asking them to give double dosage of an unknown drug to a patient
-> supports the high level obedience found by Milgram

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10
Q

What are some negatives of MIlgram’s study?

A
  • Milgram used a limited sample of participants
    -> only used American males
    -> cannot generalise his results to explain obedience behaviour of females or people from other cultures
  • ethical issues
    -> experimenter didn’t provide the right to withdraw and 3 participants had a seizure under the stressful environment
    -> participants were not protected from harm and mental distress (guilt) could be caused
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11
Q

What are situational variables?

A

External factors that influence obedience levels

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12
Q

What are the two types of explanations for obedience?

A

1) Situational
2) Dispositional

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13
Q

What are some situational variables in Milgram’s study that affected obedience levels?

A

1) proximity
2) location
3) uniform

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14
Q

How did proximity of authority figure affect obedience levels in Milgram’s study?

A
  • same room: 65%
  • give orders by phone: obedience decreased by 20.5%
  • pressure is decreased
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15
Q

How did proximity of learner affect obedience levels in Milgram’s study?

A
  • different room: 65%
  • same room: obedience decreased by 40%
  • guilt / consequence of action is decreased
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16
Q

How did uniform affect obedience levels in Milgram’s study?

A
  • lab coat: 65%
  • normal clothes: obedience decreased by 20%
  • the symbol of authority which shows status decreases
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17
Q

How did location affect obedience levels in Milgram’s study?

A
  • Yale University; 65%
  • Downtown office: obedience decreases by 47.5%
  • Prestige of location decreases
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18
Q

What are two examples for situational explanations for obedience?

A

1) Agency theory
2) Legitimacy of authority

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19
Q

What is an autonomous state?

A

People makes their own free choices and feels responsible for their own actions

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20
Q

What is the agentic shift?

A

Change from autonomous to agentic state

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21
Q

When does an agentic shift happen?

A

When a person sees someone else as a figure of authority

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22
Q

What is an agentic state?

A

Person follows orders with no sense of personal responsibility -> acting on behalf of authority figure as they see them as responsible for their behaviour

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23
Q

How does agency theory explain obedience?

A

People are more obedient in the agentic state

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24
Q

What is the role of binding factors?

A

Allows the person to ignore or minimise the damaging effects of their behaviour + reduces the moral strain they are feeling
-> eg learner was in a different room in Milgram’s study

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25
Q

What is the real life application of the agency theory?

A

Jonestown Massacre
-in November 1978
-mass suicide with over 900 members

26
Q

Who was the authority figure that Jonestown people followed?

A

Jim Jones

27
Q

How does the agency theory explain why Jones followers killed Congressman Ryan?

A

Jones’ followers were obedient because they were in the agentic state -> see Jim Jones as the authority figure and therefore followed his orders

28
Q

Why can’t agency theory alone explain all of the behaviour of Jones’ followers?

A

Because some followers might still be in the autonomous state -> hoping to make their own free choices and be responsible for their own actions
-> or they didn’t believe Jones were their authority figure

29
Q

What are some evaluations for agency theory as an explanation for obedience?

A
  • can’t explain why there isnt 100% obedience
    -> 35% of participants didn’t go up to 450 volts although all orders were given by an authority figure so participants should be in an agentic stage
    -> social factors cannot fully explain obedience as dispositional factors play a role as well
  • gives people an excuse for blind obedience (obedience alibi)
    -> Nazis who were racist and prejudiced were doing more than following orders
    -> the agency theory is potentially dangerous as it excuses people
30
Q

What is legitimacy of authority?

A

People in certain positions hold authority over the rest of us
-> The authority that they wield is legitimate in the sense that it is agreed by society and allowed to exercise social power on others as long as it ensures the smooth running of society
-> we are wiling to give up on some of our independence and freedom to hand over control of our behaviours over to people who we trust to exercise their authority over us

31
Q

What is another word of legitimate?

A

Justified

32
Q

What are some other key words for legitimacy of authority?

A

socialisation
upbringing
social hierarchy
status
authority figure

33
Q

What has indicated legitimacy of authority in Milgram’s experiment?

A

Uniform - lab coat
Location - Yale University

34
Q

What are some evaluations for legitimacy of authority as an explanation for obedience?

A

+ supported by research evidence
-> Milgram: experimenter was wearing white lab coat to establish their authority = 65% conformed to 400 volts - however the obedience levels decreased by 20% when the experimenter was wearing normal clothes
-> level of percieved authority of a person affects the likelyhood that their orders will be obeyed

+ able to explain cultural differences
-> countries in Asia have more value in education or getting a well paid job - have more respect towards authority figures like teachers and bosses compared to european countries
-> shows how different societies are structured / how children are raised to percieve authority figures affects their obedience behaviours

35
Q

What are dispositional variables?

A

Internal factors that influence obedience levels

36
Q

What is a dispositional explanation for obedience?

A

Adorno’s authoritarian personality theory

37
Q

What is Adorno’s theory?

A

seeking to explain the causes of obedience in people’s personality

38
Q

What is the authoritarian personality?

A

Some people have an exaggerated respect for authority
-> more likely to obey orders and look down on people with inferior status

39
Q

Why do some people develop an authoritarian personality?

A

harsh and puntive upbringing with little love but much punishments by their parents (1st authority figure)

1) fear of parents -> excessively respectful of authority figures - conscious level

2) hatred of parents -> hate or anger displaced onto others - unconscious level

-> sigmund freud said that the adult personality is determned by childhood experiences

40
Q

What are some characteristics of the authoritarian personality?

A
  • need for strong leadership to display power
  • resistance to creative ideas (has black and white views)
  • projects one’s feelings of inadequacy, rage and fear onto people with a lower status
  • conventional beliefs about right and wrong
  • belief in agression towards those who are different or don’t suscribe to conventional thinking
  • excessive respect for acknowledged authority
41
Q

How is an authoritarian personality measured?

A

F-scale:

participants had to agree or disagree with items like…
-every person should have complete faith in some supernatural power whose decisions he obeys without question
-nobody ever learns anything important except through suffering
-homosexuals are hardly better than crimminals and ought to be severly punished

42
Q

What is a negative of the f-scale personality?

A

Acquiescence bias
- questions are asked in the form of “to what extent do you agree or disagree”
- participants are more likely to agree or disagree according to the question

43
Q

What are some evaluations for authoritarian theory as an explanation for obedience?

A

+ supported by research evidence
-> Milgram and Elms: the most obedient participants in Milgram’s electric shock study scored highly on their f-scale - authoritarian personality?
-> suggests correlation between authoritarian personality and being obedient

  • based on correlational evidence
    -> there are correlations between a high score on the f-scale and high levels of obedience but we cannot claim that authoritarian personality causes obedience levels
    -> other factors might affect or explain the apparent link between obedience and authoritarian personality
  • only considers the role of dispositional factors on obedience
    -> millions of german displayed highly obedient behaviour during WW2 but didn’t have the same upbringing and personality & Milgrams study showed that situational factors such as uniform and location also affected obedience behaviour
    -> the best way to explain obedience may be to consider both situational and dispositional factors
44
Q

What is a self report?

A

Asking a participant about their thoughts and behaviours recording their answers
- includes questionnaires, interviews, diaries, tests etc

45
Q

What are questionnaires?

A

A written self report technique
-> participants are given preset questions to respond to (often anonymous)
-> can be administered in person, by post, online, phone

46
Q

What are the two question types?

A

1) open
2) closed

47
Q

What are open questions?

A

no restrictions on how participants respond

48
Q

What data does open questions produce?

A

Qualitative

49
Q

What are closed questions?

A

A fixed set of responses for participants to choose from

50
Q

What data does closed questions produce?

A

Quantitative

51
Q

What are some positives for questionnaires?

A

+ easy to finish
+ can be done online
+ time and cost effective
+ more truthful as participants might feel like they won’t receive judgements for personal answers
+ easy to analyse

52
Q

What are some negatives for questionnaires?

A
  • response / social desirability bias can occur as participants might give incorrect answers due to their reputation or the desire of wanting to present the best side of themselves
  • participants might misunderstand questions
  • there might be leading questions that create invalid responses
53
Q

What are interviews?

A

A series of questions that are usually given face to face between an interviewer and an interviewee

54
Q

What are the interview types?

A

1) structured - pre determined
2) semi structured
3) unstructured

55
Q

What is a structured interview?

A

No other questions are asked except from the ones that the interviewer has planned

56
Q

What are some strengths for structured interviews?

A

+ easy to analyse
+ easy to replicate
+ ensures that the interviewer and the interviewee doesn’t go off topic

57
Q

What are some weaknesses of structured interviews?

A
  • Hard for interviewee to fully express or elaborate what they think -> limits their potentials?
58
Q

What is a semi structured interview?

A

Some questions are pre-planned before the interview and then some others are

59
Q

What are unstructured interviews?

A

A topic of discussion is planned but no specific questions are decided in advance
-> tend to usually be open questions but also can be a mixture

60
Q

What are some strengths of unstructured interviews?

A

+ more flexibility
+ allow follow up questions
+ allows the interviewer to gain better insights on the interviewee

61
Q

What are some weaknesses of unstructured interviews?

A
  • Aren’t straight forward
  • Interviewee might mention too much irrelevant information

psychology (12 decks)

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