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SOCIAL INFLUENCE > OBEDIENCE > Flashcards

OBEDIENCE Flashcards

1
Q

What are SOCIAL ROLES?

A
  • roles of individuals in a social group

- their roles meet expectations of the situation

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2
Q

What is OBEDIENCE?

A

-complying with the demands of an authority figure

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3
Q

What is AGENTIC STATE? (AGENCY THEORY)

A
  • milgram suggested people operate in two social states
  • autonomous individuals: choose actions and aware of consequences
  • agentic state: not responsible for their actions
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4
Q

What is a reason for the AGENTIC STATE?

A
  • stay in agentic state to deal with moral strain and anxiety
  • experience anxiety and conflict when ordered to do something immoral
  • don’t want to challenge authority
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5
Q

What is LEGITIMATE AUTHORITY?

A

-we are more likely to obey if we believe the authority is legitimate

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6
Q

What are SITUATION VARIABLES?

A
  • external explanations of obedience

- features of environment that affect obedience levels

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7
Q

What are 3 examples of SITUATIONAL VARIABLES?

A
  • proximity
  • location
  • uniforms
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8
Q

What is PROXIMITY?

A
  • situational variable referring to how close you are to someone or something
  • in MILGRAMS study: distance from teacher to learner
  • distance from teacher to experimenter
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9
Q

What is an evaluation for PROXIMITY?

A
  • MILGRAM (1963)
  • teacher and learner in same room
  • 45%
  • teacher forcing learners hand onto shock plate
  • 30%
  • teacher could experience learners pain more directly
  • closer the proximity, lower the obedience
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10
Q

What is LOCATION?

A
  • location can increase/decrease perceived legitimacy of authority figure
  • higher perceived legitimacy=higher obedience rates
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11
Q

What is an evaluation for LOCATION?

A
  • MILGRAM (1963)
  • rundown building in Connecticut
  • carried out by other researchers instead of Yale university
  • obedience dropped to 47.5%
  • highlights importance of location
  • less credible location=less obedience
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12
Q

What are UNIFORMS?

A

-authority figures perceived more legitimate when wearing uniforms

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13
Q

What is an evaluation for UNIFORM?

A
  • bickman (1974)
  • confederate dresses in one of three ways gave orders to civilians
  • pick up rubbish, lend money, move away from bus stop
  • security guard=76%
  • milkman=47%
  • pedestrian=30%
  • uniform implies legitimate authority
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14
Q

What are DISPOSITIONAL EXPLANATIONS for obedience?

A
  • obedience caused be personality characteristics

- authoritarian personality proposed to explain obedience to authority

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15
Q

What does UNANIMOUS mean?

A

-all in agreement

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16
Q

What does AMBIGUOUS mean?

A

-uncertainty

17
Q

What is AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY?

A
  • absolute obedience
  • submission to authority
  • developed in childhood by authoritarian parenting
  • fearful of social change
  • measured using the f-scale
18
Q

What is the F-SCALE?

A
  • ADORNO (1950)

- measures an individuals degree of authoritarian personality

19
Q

What was MILGRAM’s (1963) aim?

A
  • level of obedience when obeying orders

- in situation where it broke moral code and hurt innocent people

20
Q

What was MILGRAM’s (1963) procedure?

A
  • laboratory in Yale university
  • 40 American men from advert
  • told it was a memory experiment
  • ppt always teacher
  • confederate always learner
  • give shocks up to 450v when wrong or no answer
  • ppt unaware they were fake
  • 300v confederate went silent
  • experimenter gave verbal prods
21
Q

What was MILGRAMS (1963) findings?

A
  • every ppt gave at least 300v
  • 62.5% gave full 450v
  • most ppt became highly stressed
  • 3 had uncontrollable seizures
  • some showed no signs of discomfort
22
Q

What was MILGRAMS (1963) conclusion?

A
  • people have strong tendency to obey morals even if they go against moral code
  • would kill someone under authority
  • most people show distress when breaking their moral codes
23
Q

What is one strength of MILGRAM’s study?

A

PRACTICAL VALUE

  • useful in helping us understand events like holocaust
  • easily replicated and produced similar results
  • high reliability
24
Q

What is an ethical weakness of MILGRAMS study?

A

NO PROTECTION FROM HARM

  • exposed ppt to extreme stress, severe physical reactions
  • only 2% ppt regretted study
  • most said they learnt something new about themselves
  • not taking sufficient steps to protect ppt
  • all ppt received psychiatric assessments
  • non showing long term damage
25
Q

What is another weakness of MILGRAMS (1963) study?

A

VALIDITY

  • too artificial
  • little resemblance to real life situations
  • lacks ecological validity
  • doesn’t tell us about obedience in other situations
  • more realistic studies like HOFLING ET AL does support
  • nurses received phone call from unfamiliar doctor to give high dose of unfamiliar medicine
  • 21/22 nurses obeyed
26
Q

What is the evaluation for AGENTIC STATE (agency theory)

A
  • MANDEL (1998)
  • inappropriate to draw comparison between MILGRAMS study and the holocaust
  • MILGRAMS ppt=half an hour
  • nazis=several years
  • unlikely AGENTIC STATE could last that long
27
Q

What is the evaluation for LEGITIMATE AUTHORITY?

A
  • MILGRAMS original research 65% gave full 450v
  • when experiment took place in run down building in Connecticut obedience dropped to 47.5%
  • change in location reduced legitimacy of authority
  • ppt less likely to trust experiment
28
Q

What is a strength of AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY? (1)

A

RESEARCH SUPPORT

  • elms and milgram (1966)
  • ppt who were highly obedient were more authoritarian on the f-scale
  • supports link between authoritarian personality type and obedience
29
Q

What is a strength of AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY? (2)

A

RESEARCH SUPPORT

  • altemeyer (1988)
  • ppt with high authoritarian personalities were order to give themselves shocks
  • gave higher shocks then those without authoritarian personality type
30
Q

Give a limitation or AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY (1)

A
  • link between AP and obedience is correlational
  • has been found that less educated people more authoritarian
  • possible that education level influences obedience instead of personality
  • other research shown obedient ppts show higher levels of authoritarianism
  • when educational levels are controlled
  • suggests AP is better explanation than educational level
31
Q

Give a limitation of AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY (2)

A
  • f-scale suffers from response bias
  • if ppt agree with all items they’re rated authoritarian
  • altemeyer produced less biased scale by using equal number of pro and anti statements
  • altemeyers scale suggested individuals on the right of the scale more likely to obey authority
  • individuals on the left of the scale expected to be less obedient

SOCIAL INFLUENCE (5 decks)

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