Obedience & Conformity Flashcards
What are the different types of social influence?
Conformity, Compliance and Obedience
Define conformity.
changing one’s behaviour in response to implicit or explicit pressure from others
Define compliance.
changing behaviour following the explicit request of another person
Define obedience.
Submitting to the demands of someone who is higher in the social hierarchy
What is the difference between compliance and conversion?
compliance occurs whilst behaviour is under surveillance as there is no internal change. Conversion is a true internal change.
Power is the basis of compliance (Moscovici, 1976). Which type of social influence is this describing?
conformity
Not based on power but subjective validity of social norms. Which type of social influence is this describing?
conversion
What are the two types of conformity?
informational influence and normative influence
Define informational influence.
It refers to the adoption of objective/external sources of information and conversion resulting from a power dynamic.
Define normative influence.
Conforming to the expectations of others i.e compliance in group context.
Of the two types of conformity, which one involves compliance?
normative influence
Which type of conformity involves conversion?
informational influence
Sherif (1935) autokinetic experiment showed that there was a tendency for estimates to converge. Which in turn shows what?
group conformity based on informational influence.
Asch (1952) criticism of Sherif’s autokinetic experiment was…
conformity occurred because the task was too difficult
The results from Asch’s experiment showed what?
low levels of conformity as only 1/3 of time and almost no private persuasion.
Deutsch & Gerad (1955) found that decreasing which two things reduced conformity?
uncertainty and pressure
_____ _______ ____ is where social identity shapes individual behaviour to be consistent with salient group identity ( Turner, 1991)
Referent informational influence
Influences public responses but also private responses are shaped by group membership. Which type of conformity does this describe?
referent informational influence
Bond & Smith meta-analysis of 133 Asch-style conformity experiments had 4 key findings.
- measure of compliance rather than internalisation
- conformity increases with the level of ambiguity, size of groups etc
- conformity is higher in collectivist countries
- conformity has generally decreased over time
A_____, A_____ and P___________ are factors that influence compliance.
Accuracy, Affiliation and Positive Self-Concept
Moscovici (1976) Genetic Model of Social Influence describes which type of influence?
minority influence
Minority creates conflict to persuade majority to adopt their viewpoint. What type of social influence is this describing?
innovation
A mutual compromise leading to convergence. What is this describing?
normalisation
Majority influence persuading minority to adopt majority viewpoint. What is this describing?
conformity
The purpose of Milgram’s 11th experiment was _____
to prove that obedience to authority was the cause of the participants gravitating towards the maximum 450V
How did Milgram’s 11th experiment differ from the previous experiments?
absence of authority figure as the ppts chose their own shock level
In the 11th experiment , what did Milgram find?
Only 3 ppts went beyond 135V. They should rapidly gravitate towards the maximum 450V if aggression based but that wasn’t the case so it must have been obedience to authority.
What are the factors influencing obedience?
- immediacy of authority
- legitimacy of authority
- proximity of shock equipment
What was Milgram’s agentic state?
an internal change as a shift from autonomy.
In Russell & Gregory’s (2011) review of Milgram’s experiment, what was their main finding?
They found that the experiments contained strain-resolving mechanisms which took the strain off ppts and maximised high levels of obedience.
What was Haslam & Reicher (2011) social identity critique of Milgram’s experiments?
They argued that the focus was on behaviour rather than processes that govern obedience such as the effect of being in a group.
They also argued that there was no evidence of people entering an agentic state especially as physical distress was observable on the ppts
Requests and scientific rationale prompts were adhered to because their basis was a shared social identity. When requests were framed as orders, people did not obey. Who’s critique was this?
Haslam and Reicher (2011)
Haslam, Loughnan &B Perry (2014) re-analysed Milgram’s data across 21 conditions, looking at which variables?
setting, experimenter, teacher and learner
In the meta-analysis of Milgram (2014), name some of the conditions that predicted the likelihood that teachers would continue to 450V.
Experimenter- illegitimacy, non-directiveness & inconsistency.
distance between experimenter and teacher
group pressure to disobey
proximity, intimacy and indirectness between teacher and learner
Burger’s (2009) replication of Milgram’s Experiment 5, included a screening process. Which two things were screened for?
people who took 2 or more psychology courses & people with a history of mental health were excluded.
What was a key difference between Milgram’s experiment and Burgers replication?
Burger’s experiment was terminated at 150V if the ppt goes to read the next item.
What is a critical point to take from Milgram’s experiment that was factored into Burger’s replication?
79% of ppts who delivered 150V continued to the end.
Burger’s (2009) replication had 2 conditions, what were they?
- Base condition- similar to Milgram’s exp 5
2. Modeled refusal condition- 2 confederates-ppt asked to take over when confederate teacher refuses to continue.
What were some of the findings from Burger’s (2009) replication?
70% ppts went to continue past 150V- not significantly different from Milgram’s findings
No difference between men and women.
No difference in empathic concern
Dolinski et al (2017) replicated Milgram’s experiment using Burger’s replication base condition procedure. Where did this take place?
central europe
What were Dolinski’s findings?
90% obedience rate & ppts were 3x more likely to refuse if female learner but this was not significant
