Obedience

Question 1

definition of obedience?

Answer 1

obedience is a form of social influence when an individual acts in response to a direct order from a legitimate authority figure

Question 2

is obedience majority or minority social influence?

Answer 2

minority social influence

Question 3

what was Milgram’s 1963 research aim?

Answer 3

to investigate the level of obedience hen told by an authoritative figure to give electric shocks

Question 4

what was Milgram’s 1963 method?

Answer 4

• Yale university July 61 researcher presenting the study
• 40 male participants between 20-50, volunteers recruited to investigate “punishments on learning”
• paid $4.50 just for turning up
• 2 confederates (experimenter & ‘learner’) participant was always the teacher- not getting shocked
• when answer was wrong, shock of specific volts that became higher with every answer
• shocks started at 15 volts to 450 volts going up by 15 each time
• if refused to shock, verbal prods were given eg. “please continue”, “you have no other choice than to continue”, “the experiment requires you to continue” etc

Question 5

what were Milgram’s 1963 results?

Answer 5

• before the study, was predicted that 1 in 1000 participants would administer max level
• 26 participants (65%) administered 450 volts
• all participants (100%) went on to 300 volts (hen learner first objected)
• most participants showed signs of stress like sweating, groaning and trembling. 1 had an epileptic shock

Question 6

What were Milgram’s 1963 conclusions?

Answer 6

Ordinary people are likely to follow orders given by an authoritative figure, even to the extent of killing an innocent human being. Even if it means acting against their own conscience

Question 7

what are the methodological issues with Milgram’s 1963 experiment?

Answer 7

• low internal validity
  - 70% thought shocks were real
  - genuinely thought ppts were getting shocked
• ecological validity
  - unlikely to encounter task in real life
  - but bc lab experiment good control of variables so possible to establish cause and effect
• high in reliability
  - carried out in a controlled environment where extraneous variables were limited
  - used standardised procedure where all ppts paid
  - so can easily be replicated to test for reliability of findings

Question 8

Ethical issues of milgram’s 1963 experiment

Answer 8

• psychological harm
  - ppts leaving study and live with realisation that they could have killed someone. had seizures, self-doubt, weren’t protected
  - situation went beyond study- could have long-lasting effects as exposed to greater harm than they would in real life
  
  • however they had a debrief and asked to do questionnaire after and 84% said they were glad they did study
• deception
  - lie to protect validity of results, advertised as memory vs obedience, learners were confederates
  - didn’t know what study was actually for
  - but ppts behave more naturally, use deception to avoid demand characteristics
• right to withdraw
  - was compromised
  - convinced to stay using prompts “you must go on”
  - paid so less likely to withdraw

Question 9

what are the situational factors of Milgram’s 1963 that affected obedience?

Answer 9

• proximity
  - when authority figure gave prompts by phone from another room, obedience rates dropped to 23%. when authority figure wasn’t close by, orders easier to resist
• location
  - when ppts were told that study was being run by a private company in run-down offices rather than prestigious uni, people giving max shock fell to 47.5%
• uniform
  - in original, experimenter wore a lab coat, did a variation where experimenter was called away at start and role was taken over by ‘member of public’ in normal clothes. obedience rates dropped to 20%

Question 10

what does autonomous state mean?

Answer 10

Where individuals are seen as personally responsible for their actions

Question 11

what does agentic state mean?

Answer 11

Individual carries out the orders of another person, acting as their agent with little personal responsibility - act as an agent of a legitimate authority figure

Question 12

what does milgram suggest that people are willing to carry out acts of in an a agentic state?

Answer 12

acts of destructive obedience and as a result may experience moral strain (where we feel upset by discomfort). agentic shift

Question 13

what is meant by legitimate authority?

Answer 13

one which is entitled to have its decisions and rules accepted and followed by others.

Question 14

what is the importance of self-image to keep an individual in the agentic state and under legitimate authority figure?

Answer 14

Once a person enters into an agentic state a person will no longer believe that anti-social behaviour will reflect badly on their public image.

Question 15

what are binding factors to keep an individual in the agentic state and under legitimate authority figure?
what aspects of milgram’s study are examples of binding factors?

Answer 15

Any previous commitment to the authority figure must be removed if an individual is to disobey their instructions. Individuals may feel committed to an authority figure with a fear of appearing rude if they breach what is asked of them.

• Consented to being part of the study
• Being paid
• Flipping off switches

Question 16

evaluation of the agentic state Milgram 1974?

Answer 16

When the confederate experimenter wasn’t in the same room as the teacher and give the instructions via a telephone link, obedience rates decreased to 20.5 %.  Milgram’s qualitative observations observed that some participants were able to ignore the distress and focus and concentrated on following the procedure properly, These people were in the agentic state as they felt they were not responsible.
If there is a buffer between us and the authoritative figure we are less likely to enter into the agentic state

Question 17

Describe Tarnow 2000 evaluation in support of the explanation?

Answer 17

Studied aviation accidents where the black box recorder was available and where flight crew actions were a contributing factor in the crash. Found excessive dependence on the captain’s authority… one officer claimed he said nothing as he trusted the captain. It trains people to speak out and can learn from it, policies have been written to make world a safer space

Question 18

What is right wing authoritarianism relationship to the agentic state?

Answer 18

More likely to be obedient and fall into the agentic state as they believe there should be a hierarchy

Question 19

what is internal locus of control relationship to the agentic state

Answer 19

less likely to fall into the agentic state as they feel more responsibility for their actions

Question 20

The agentic state/ legitimate authority explanation of obedience ignores the role of what factors? explain this point. PEE

Answer 20

ignores role of dispositional factors in obedience. agentic state theory suggest obedience may be less likely in someone who feels personal responsibility for their actions- locus control. rwa is opposite. Therefore this explanation of obedience is limited as it cannot account for individual differences and why some people may be more or less likely to fall into an agentic state.

Question 21

how does proximity affect the agentic state in relation to Milgrams 1963 experiment?

Answer 21

Close proximity between the teacher and the authority figure, more likely to fall into the agentic state as they do not feel accountable for their actions because the authoritative figure is close to them and can but the responsibility on to them. This is also that there is distant proximity between the teacher and learner and so cannot see the consequences for their actions. As increase distance, you normally increase the buffers

Question 22

How would Milgram explain the findings from the situational factor of uniform?

Answer 22

that people are more likely to obey, when instructed by someone wearing a uniform. because the uniform infers a sense of legitimate authority and power. For a person to obey an instruction they need to believe that the authority is legitimate and this can be affected by multiple variables

Question 23

evaluation of situational factors?

Answer 23

situational explanations ignore the role of dispositional factors

Question 24

definition of dispositional explanation?

Answer 24

any explanation of behaviour that highlights the importance of the individuals personality

Question 25

definition of authoritarian personality?

Answer 25

an dispositional explanation of obedience. A type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority. Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors

Question 26

What did Adorno et al (1950) propose?

Answer 26

that over-strict parenting results in a child being socialised to obey authority unquestioningly, because they learn strict obedience to their parents

Question 27

Describe the parenting style associated with the parents of an authoritarian individual:

Answer 27

Lots of punishment  
Strict
Rules 
Respect for authority  
"Do as I say, not as I do"

Question 28

how did Adorno argue that strict parenting also resulted in prejudice?

Answer 28

strict parenting means the child feels constrained which creates aggression. The child is afraid they’ll be disciplined if they express this aggression towards their parents so instead they’re hostile to people they see as weak or inferior to them- minority groups

Question 29

In the Milgram study, link back to right wing authoritarian as more likely to be obedient and what their score may have been.

Answer 29

in Milgram study, those who are right wing authoritarian are more likely to be obedient. Can take out frustration of study on the authority figure in the room, so take anger out on the weaker person, the learner
Score high on right wing authoritarian scale, you would see someone displacing anger from authority figure onto a weaker person
Score low in authority scale, wouldn’t care about the authority figure

Question 30

what did Adorno et al (1950) develop? what scale, when did it occur, explain

Answer 30

developed a scale to measure how strongly people express authoritarian traits, called the F-scale (F stands for fascism). Research began shortly after end of WW2- were trying to figure out if there were characteristics of individuals to explain the persecution of jews by Nazis in 30s and 40s

Question 31

what did Adorno et al investigate?

Answer 31

the causes of the obedient personality in a study of more than 2000 middle class, white americans and their unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups. they too part in several scales including the f-scale

Question 32

Adorno correlated participants scores on the F-scale against a number of different traits and found that those people with an authoritarian personality tended to be what?

Answer 32

• hostile to those of an inferior status
• obedient to people with higher status
• rigid in their opinions & beliefs; fixed stereotypes
• resistant to change, they would uphold traditional beliefs
• prejudice

Question 33

what did Adorno conclude from his findings?

Answer 33

high levels of obedience were rather down to the individual than situational factors. Obedient participants scored higher on the F scale, were less close to their fathers in childhood, admired the experimenter in the study

Question 34

evaluation of Adorno’s authoritarian personality theory?

Answer 34

Milgram and Elms (1966)- ppts who scored higher on f-scale had been willing to administer bigger shocks in Milgram’s experiment- more obedient. less close to fathers in childhood suggests family relationship could be why. however reductionist- doesn’t take into account environmental factors or the persons disposition. Accusation not causation- don’t know cause and effect

Question 35

explain Altemyer (1988) findings in relation to rwa

Answer 35

positive correlation between rwa scores and the amount of shock a ppt was willing to give themselves. however this method is just correlation therefore limitation of cause and effect. don’t know hat causes what

Question 36

assess middendorp and meleon (1990)

Answer 36

found that less-educated people are more likely to display authoritarian personality characteristics, than well-educated people. The more education you have the more likely you are to question authority and the hierarchies. people with lower education will be less confident in their knowledge, more likely to fall into hierarchies and follow authority figures without questioning them.
However, too simplistic- people in prison are not obedient as they don’t follow the laws, but tend to be of lower education and neglect. could be argued isn’t always about authoritarianism, could be they have lower education, so lower jobs may have to steal to live. Forced into disobedience and so not about personality.

Question 37

what a negative of rwa explanation?

Answer 37

Ignores the importance of situation factors research, uniform, proximity, location etc.
Different people take different personalities into different situations, so until we have all the factors we don’t know why people are obedient. Need to take into account both situational and dispositional factors.

Question 38

what is independent behaviour?

Answer 38

Independent behaviour is a term that psychologists use to describe behaviour that seems not be influenced by other people. This happens when a person resists the pressures to conform or obey.
Resisting normative pressures and informational pressures
Also confident enough to resist authority- less likely to fall into the agentic state

Question 39

what percentage of people acted independently in Milgrams 1963 study?

Answer 39

35% were able to disobey during the procedure

Question 40

definition of social support?

Answer 40

the presence of people who resist pressures to conform or obey can help others to do the same. These people act as models to show others that resistance to social influence is possible.

Question 41

research support for resistance to conformity?

Answer 41

Allen & Levin 1971 found that conformity was reduced on a task involving visual judgments if there was a dissenter that wore thick rimmed glasses and said he had difficulty with vision.  not a reliable source of information however not the only one who is dissenting- gives you the confidence to go against the group and join the other group

Question 42

research support for resistance to obedience?

Answer 42

A variation of Milgram (1974). When two confederates who were paired with the participant dropped out and refused to go any further, only 10 % of participants carried on and delivered 450 volts. someone is being disobedient you recognise this and look for conformity. Easier to be disobedient if we can conform to someone else being disobedient

Question 43

definition of locus of control?

Answer 43

refers to the sense we each have about what directs events in our lives. Internals believe they are mostly responsible for what happens to them (internal locus of control). Externals believe it is mainly a matter of luck or other outside forces (external locus of control)

Question 44

Why does an internal LOC lead to independent behaviour?

Answer 44

Feel can control the situation therefore less likely to enter into the agentic state. More responsible

Question 45

research support for locus of control (Holland 1967)

Answer 45

Repeated Milgram’s baseline study and measured whether participants were internal or external. The researcher found that 37% of internals did not continue to the highest shock (showed resistance), however 23% of externals did not continue. Research support of this nature increases the validity of the LOC explanation and our confidence that it can explain resistance. shows internal are more resistant than external and less likely to fall into the agentic state

Question 46

temporal validity- locus control counterargument twenge et al (2004)

Answer 46

Analysed data from American obedience studies over a 40 year period (1960 to 2002; longitudinal study ). The data showed that, over this time span, people have become more resistance to obedience but also more external. expect results to have a higher level of internal locus of control because you’re seeing more independent behaviour. suggests that sometimes being independent also means that have an external locus control which doesn’t support theory

Question 47

what is social change?

Answer 47

occurs when whole societies, rather than just individuals, adopt new attitudes, beliefs and ways of doing things which widely becomes accepted as the norm

Question 48

What are the characteristics of a minority that bring about social change? 

Answer 48

Minority influence refers to situations where one person or a small group of people influences the beliefs and behaviours of other people. This is distinct from conformity where the majority is doing the influencing.
Minority influence is most likely to lead to internalisation – both public and private beliefs are changed by the process.

Question 49

AMRC Moscovici- social change (1969) “calling a blue slide green)

Answer 49

Aim: To investigate the process of innovation by looking at how a consistent minority affect the opinions of a larger group, possibly creating doubt and leading them to question and alter their views 
Method: The all female group of participants were first given an eye test to check that they were not colour blind. They were then placed in 32 groups of 6. In each group there were four real participants and two confederates. Participants were all shown 36 slides that were different shades of blue and asked to state the colour out loud.
Results: In the consistent group 8.42% of trials resulted in participants answering green (agreeing with the minority). 32% of the participants agreed at least once.  In the inconsistent group 1.25% of trials resulted in participants answering green.
Conclusions: Conversion Theory - being confronted with an alternative theory creates inner conflict and tension, which results in a motivation for (some of) the majority to reduce the conflict. Different behavioural styles (e.g. consistency will increase the internal conflict that the majority experience.

Question 50

6 terms were used by Moscovici to describe the behavioural style of people acting as an influential minority.

Answer 50

-commitment: Risk and sacrifice ? augmentation principle?. Volunteer/ put self forward to receive questions/criticisms from a majority
-consistency: Not deviating from view even when faced with social pressure. Staying true to beliefs. Diachronic : should maintain over time. Synchronic : should maintain between all members of minority
-flexibility: Reasonable and cooperative whilst
Too dogmatic- strongly express beliefs as facts
Less likely to engage in dogmatic behaviour

Question 51

Explain the snowball effect (Van Avermaet, 1996)

Answer 51

-Minority starts small and you begin to increase the size of the minority- this builds a momentum so minority increases in size
•Initially, converts to the minority are few and slow, but as more change those attitudes, the pace picks up to majority group status
•Minority propose a new idea and people conform due to informational social influence because they believe that the new idea is right (internalisation)
•As the minority becomes bigger then the majority start to conform due to normative social influence because they want to support the change in order to be liked (compliance and informational)
•This leads to change!
•(However if there are laws made for change then things are only changing because of obedience- they are obeying the new laws- not because of conformity)

Question 52

Explain social cryptoamnesia (Perez, 1995)?

Answer 52

(people have memory that change has occurred but don’t remember how it happened)•A cognitive bias experienced by whole cultures following social change
•After being successfully persuaded by a minority, people tend to forget the origins of their new views
•This phenomenon, known as social crypto-amnesia, often occurs when a person held negative views of the minority whose views they adopted
•Instead of identifying with the minority group, individuals will dissociate the minority views from the people who promoted them.

Question 53

Ethnocentric: as a weakness of the social change theory example

Answer 53

Moscovici, Asch and milgram examples used to support idea that minority can sway majority, but they all use american participants. weakness bc theory that minority influence can create social change cannot be generalised to other cultures. what about collectivist cultures not just individualist cultures.- CA:more difficult generalise theory to other cultures bc may not show valid reflection of how cultures respond to minority influence. highlights importance research needs to be conducted in other societies so can make comparisons and make new theories that can be developed to apply to different cultures