Obedience (Social Influence) Flashcards
What is obedience?
When a person follows direct orders/obeys someone they feel has authority over them.
What are the situational variables?
- Proximity of authority figure
- Proximity of victim
- Location
- Uniform
What happens to obedience if ppt is closer to the authority figure?
More likely to obey.
What happens to obedience if ppt is closer to the victim?
Less likely to obey orders which harm the victim as they have to observe consequences.
What happens to obedience if the location carries authority?
More likely to obey.
What happens to obedience if the researchers wore uniform?
More likely to obey.
What are the explanations for obedience?
- Legitimacy of authority
- Agentic state
- Authoritarian personality
What is legitimacy of authority?
People obey others higher up in the social hierarchy.
What is the consequence of legitimacy of authority?
Destructive authority
What is destructive authority?
Using power to punish others
How is destructive authority shown in Milgram’s study?
Experimenter used probs to order ppts to behave against their conscience.
Who came up with agentic state?
Milgram
What is agentic state?
When people obey orders of a legitimate authority figure, shifting the respnsibility of consequences of their actions away from themselves to authority figure.
What is an agentic shift?
Going from autonomous to agentic state.
What is an autonomous state?
Being free to behave according to their own principles.
Why do people remain in an agentic state?
Due to binding factotrs such as ignoring and minimising the damaging effect of their behaviour.
Who came up with authoritarian personality?
Adorno
What is an authoritarian personality?
Some people being more likely to obey due to their authoritarian personality.
- Making them overly respectful of authority.
What was Adorno’s authoritarian personality study procedure?
- Investigated causes for obedient personality.
- More than 2000 middle class, white Americans.
- Investigating their unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups.
- Used fascim scale (f-scale) to measure authoritarian personality.
What were Adorno’s authoritarian personality study findings?
- Scored high on F-scale = conscious of own/others status + showed respect to those of higher status.
- Postive correlation between authoritariansim and prejudice.
How are authoritarian personality formed?
Within childhood resulting from harsh parenting.
What is scapegoating?
Displacing an authoritarian personality onto others who are percieved to be weaker.
What was Milgram’s aim in his obedience study?
If ordinary people would obey an authority figure when orders were unjust.
What were Milgram’s procedure in his obedience study?
- Lab study.
- 40 male volunteers.
- Told they were ppts in a learning + memory study (actually about obedience).
- Introduced a confederate (believed was another ppt).
-Ppts assinged role of teacher and to give the learner (confederate) an electric shock, increasing in strength to wrong answer. - Reseacher encouraged teacher to go on dispite screams.
What were Milgram’s findings in his obedience study?
65% = administred max shock (450v)
100% = administred at least 300v
What is a strength of Milgram’s study?
Relied on lab studies allowing control over extrenous variables, establishing a cause and effect relationship.
What are the limitations of Milgram’s study?
- Demand characteristics: ppts might have realised the shocks weren’t real.
- Lack ecological validity: different situation to everyday life.
- May not be generalisable: all white, male, American.
- Unethical: they were decived and couldn’t give informed consent + may of caused psychological harm.
How does Milgram’s study support legitimacy of authority?
- Uniform = obeyed if researchers wore lab coats.
- Location: obeyed in location of a uni
How does Milgram’s study limitate legitimacy of authority?
Ignores individual variables such as personality.
How does Milgram’s study support agentic state?
- Moral strain: ppts experianced stress when following orders.
- Ignoring consequnces: obedience increased when reseacher took responsibility + when ppts were further away from the victim.
How does Milgram’s study support authoritarian theory?
Some people are more likely to obey than others.
- Obedience correlated with ppts score on F-scale.
How does Milgram’s study limitate authoritarian theory?
Correlation + causation: just because authoritarian personality correlates with obedience doesn’t mean it caused it.
What is involved in the resistance to social influence
- Social support
- Locus of control
What is social support?
People are more likely to resist social influence if they are supported.
How does Asch’s and Milgram’s findings support social support?
When one confederate disobyed resistance was greater.
What is locus of control?
When someone thinks have control over their life.
How does Rotter support LOC?
- Measured using a questionnaire.
- If someone thinks they have control over events in their life (internal LOC).
- If someone thinks they don’t have control (external LOC).
Internal = more likely to resist social influence.
Whose study supports the effect of LOC on resistance to social influence?
Shute
What was Shute study?
- Ppts did rotter questionaire then measures how much their attitudes could be influeced by other people.
What were Shute’s findings?
People with internal LOC conform less in situations that produce NSI.
