PAPER 1 - Social Influence

Question 1

What is the AGENTIC STATE ?

Answer 1

putting the responsibility of our actions on someone else

Question 2

What is the AUTONOMOUS STATE ?

Answer 2

when we take responsibility for our own actions

Question 3

What are BINDING FACTORS ?

Answer 3

aspects of situation that allow a person to ignore the damaging effect of their behaviour

Question 4

What is LEGITIMATE AUTHORITY ?

Answer 4

we are more likely to obey when we believe an authority is legitimate

Question 5

What are the two explanations for obedience ?

Answer 5

agentic state and legitimate authority

Question 6

What are the traits of someone with an authoritarian personality ?

Answer 6

• hostile
• fairly rigid in beliefs
• conventional / traditional

(Adorno F-scale)

Question 7

What are the characteristics of INTERNAL LoC ?

Answer 7

• independent
• active seekers of info
• less likely to conform / obey
• don’t rely on external opinions

Question 8

What are the characteristics of EXTERNAL LoC ?

Answer 8

• less independent
• rely on others for info
• more likely to conform / obey
• rely on external opinions

Question 9

What is OBEDIENCE ?

Answer 9

• within HIERARCHY
• emphasis on POWER
• pp embrace obedience to explain behaviour

Question 10

What is CONFORMITY ?

Answer 10

• between EQUAL STATUS
• emphasis on ACCEPTANCE
• pp deny conformity

Question 11

Who investigated obedience to an authority ?

Answer 11

MILGRAM (1963) - Electric shock

Question 12

How did MILGRAM study obedience to an authority ?

Answer 12

• teacher / learner (always teacher)
• read word pairs
• read first word and match second
• wrong = shock

Question 13

What were the results of MLGRAM’S study ?

Answer 13

240 volts - 100%
300 volts - 87.5%
360 volts - 76.6%
420 volts - 65%
450 volts - 63%

Question 14

What are the STRENGTHS of legitimate authority ?

Answer 14

APPLICATIONS

• Kelman and Hamilton
• My Lai Massacre
• power hierarchy of US Army

RESEARCH EVIDENCE

• Tarnow (2000)
• dependence on captain
• second officer didn’t bring up odd behaviour

Question 15

What are the WEAKNESSES of legitimate authority ?

Answer 15

OTHER EXPLANATIONS

• gradual commitment
• obey small requests leads to bigger ones
• cannot assume legitimate authority is the only reason

JUSTIFY HARMING OTHERS
- no longer feel own moral values

Question 16

What is the STRENGTH of authoritarian personality ?

Answer 16

SUPPORT RESEARCH

• Dambrun & Vatine
• correlation between pps RWA score maximum voltage shock administered to the victim
• highest score = most obedient

Question 17

What are the WEAKNESSES of authoritarian personality ?

Answer 17

SOCIAL CONTEXT MORE IMPORTANT
- explains obedience better than disposition

EDUCATION MAY DETERMINE AUTHORITARIANISM AND OBEDIENCE

• less educated are more obedient
• lack of obedience may be responsible rather than authoritarianism

NOT ALL OBEDIENT P’s SHOWED ALL THE FEATURES OF AN AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
- not all obedient pps had difficult relationship with fathers

Question 18

What are the STRENGTHS of LoC ?

Answer 18

RESEARCH EVIDENCE

• Atgis
• meta-analysis
• avg. correlation between LoC and conformity = 0.37
• genuinely is a higher rate of conformity within externals

RESEARCH EVIDENCE

• Oliner and Oliner
• compared 406 who had rescued jews with 126 who didn’t
• rescuers had higher internal
• internal is a factor in resisting pressure to obey authority

Question 19

What are the WEAKNESSES of LoC ?

Answer 19

CORRELATION METHOD
- don’t know cause and effect

LACK OF CONTROL

• Oliner and Oliner
• no cause and effect

Question 20

What are the STRENGTHS of social support ?

Answer 20

RESEARCH SUPPORT
- Allen and Levine = similar study to Asch, dissenter allowed conformity to decrease

• Gamson = did not obey when asked to give evidence - pps where in groups

Question 21

What are the STRENGTHS of Milgram’s study ?

Answer 21

LABORATORY EXPERIMENT

• high control
• cause and effect
• reliable

RESEARCH EVIDENCE

• Bickman
• uniforms
• provide coin for parking metre

Question 22

What are the WEAKNESSES of Milgram’s study ?

Answer 22

LACK INTERNAL VALIDITY

• Orne and Holland
• extra manipulation = demand characteristics

ETHICAL ISSUES

• deception
• protection from psychological harm

Question 23

What are the STRENGTHS of the agentic state ?

Answer 23

APPLICATIONS

• nazi criminals
• defended in court
• just following orders

RESEARCH EVIDENCE

• Milgram
• pp demonstrated moral strain
• disobeyed no longer had strain emotions
• in autonomous state

Question 24

What are the WEAKNESSES of the agentic state ?

Answer 24

OTHER EXPLANATIONS

• French and Raven
• 5 different types of power
• Milgram’s conclusion may be inaccurate

DESCRIBES RATHER THAN EXPLAINS

• does not say HOW agentic takes over
• harder to carry out research to test theory

Question 25

What are the WEAKNESSES of social support ?

Answer 25

SUPPORT MUST BE GIVEN EARLY

• from the start conformity drops from 32% to 5.5%
• later only drops to 8.5%

PRACTICAL APPLICATION

• you don’t always copy the behaviour
• people around you might litter but you may disagree with it

Question 26

What are the STRENGTHS of minority influence ?

Answer 26

METHODOLOGY

• lab experiment
• high control
• cause and effect
• internal validity

RESEARCH SUPPORT
- Wood et al = meta-analysis - minority are still persuasive when compared to ‘control’ conditions

APPLICATIONS

• social change
• votes for women

Question 27

What are the WEAKNESSES of minority influence ?

Answer 27

ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY

• not normally asked if slides are green or blue
• consistent minority might not always be able to influence majority

OTHER THEORIES

• people move to members if their ‘in-group’
• we feel we share a membership