Psychology: Social Influence 2 Flashcards
Define obedience
Why did Milgram want to study obedience? (what inspired him?)
Briefly outline the procedure of Milgram’s study.
Outline key information about the participants:
- How many were there?
- How were they recruited?
- How diverse were the participants?
- What reward did they receive for participating?
What were the results of Milgram’s study? Include both qualitative and quantitative data.
What percentage of participants were glad to have taken part when they received their full
debrief?
What did Milgram conclude about obedience on the basis of his findings?
How generalisable is Milgram’s study? Why is this a strength/ weakness of his explanation?
How replicable is Milgram’s study? Outline a replication that has been done and explain why
this is a strength of Milgram’s explanation.
What implications has this research got for society? Why is this a strength of Milgram’s
explanation of obedience?
Evaluate the validity of Milgram’s research. Make sure to refer to Psychological researchers in your answer. If possible make it a double PEEL.
Hint: Orne + Holland, Perry, Sheridan + King, Hofling et al.
What are the three situational factors affecting obedience that Milgram investigated?
What were the three variations of proximity? How much did obedience change for each of the
three variations?
How did Milgram vary the location of the study? How much did obedience change? Why?
How did Milgram vary the uniform in the study? How did obedience change?
What research support is there for Milgram’s situational variables? Why is this a strength of
Milgram’s explanation?
How has Milgram’s research into situational variables been replicated in other cultures? Why is
this an important strength of his explanation?
How can you counter-criticise the research conducted in other cultures for the situational
variables? Why is this a limitation of Milgram’s explanation? (Bond + Smith)
Why might Milgram’s research lack internal validity? How is this a limitation?
What big event(s) sparked Milgram’s interest in studying obedience, and what was the common
factor amongst them all?
Define agentic state
Define autonomous state
What is the agentic shift?
What are binding factors? Give an example of one in Milgram’s study.
How can you explain the results of Milgram’s study using the agentic state explanation?
What is legitimate authority and give some examples of people who generally are seen to have
legitimate authority.
What do perceived legitimate authority figures lead us to do?
What are some visible symbols that make authority legitimate?
How can Milgram’s study be explained using the legitimacy of authority explanation?
What did Blass + Schmidt (2001) find? How does this support Milgram’s explanation of
obedience?
How can you use Hofling’s study to evaluate LoA and agentic state?
How can this explanation of obedience explain cultural differences? Why is this a strength of
this explanation?
How does the legitimacy of authority explanation manage to explain real life events? Why is
this a strength?
Define authoritarian personality (AP).
What does dispositional explanation mean?
What is the procedure of Adorno’s F-scale study?
- Participant number, characteristic etc
- What was he studying?
- What did he use to study this?
What did Adorno find in his study? How is this important for obedience?
What are some characteristics of people with an authoritarian personality? (attitudes, cognition etc)
What reason did Adorno give for people developing an AP?
How is Adorno’s theory a Psychodynamic explanation?
What is acquiescence bias? How is this a limitation of Adorno’s explanation of obedience?
What supporting evidence has this theory of obedience got? Why is this a strength of this
explanation of obedience?
How can we counter-criticise this supporting evidence? What might the 3rd variable be?
How does this explanation not account for mass obedience? Why is this a limitation?
How does this explanation compare to the situational explanation? Is this a strength or limitation?
Define minority influence
Why does minority influence lead to internalisation?
Outline the procedure of Moscovici’s blue-green slide study. What were the three conditions?
Outline the findings of Moscovici’s blue-green slide study. What conclusions can be drawn from
this study?
What are the three important factors for effective minority influence?
How is consistency important for minority influence? What are the two types of consistency?
What is the augmentation principle? Which process is that demonstrating of minority influence?
Why do the minority also need to be flexible?
How might minority influence have limited real-life application? Why is this a problem for minority
influence as an explanation?
S+C: can you countercriticise this point?
Why might it be difficult to measure the effect of the minority? Why is this a problem?
Research into minority influence uses artificial tasks. Why is this a limitation?
What research support is there for the idea that minority viewpoints are more likely to be
internalised? How is this a strength of the explanation?
What research support is there for the idea that minority viewpoints are more likely to be influential
when they are consistent? How is this a strength of the explanation?
Define resistance to social influence.
Define Locus of Control (LoC)
What does someone with a high internal LoC believe about themselves? Give an example of how
someone with a high internal LoC might interpret a situation.
What type of explanation is LoC? Why? (situational vs dispositional)
Who is the key Psychologist for LoC?
Which type of LoC is more likely to resist Social Influence? Why?
Hint: there are multiple potential reasons
Define social support (SS).
How does social support enable someone to resist social influence?
What type of explanation is SS? Why? (situational vs dispositional)
Give a specific research example of how SS can reduce obedience.
Give a specific research example of how SS can reduce conformity.
What research support is there for SS as an explanation for resisting SI? Why is this a strength of
the explanation?
What research support is there for LoC as an explanation for resisting SI? Why is this a strength of
the explanation?
What contradictory evidence is there? How is this a limitation of the explanation for resisting social
influence?
How might the role of LoC be exaggerated? Why is this a limitation of the LoC explanation for
resisting SI?
Define social influence
Define social change
What are the processes of minority influence in social change?
What is social cryptoamnesia and when does it occur?
Use a specific example to demonstrate how minority influence can lead to social change.
How can social change occur through conformity processes?
How can social change occur through obedience processes?
What research did Nolan et al. or Schulz et al., conduct? Why is this a strength of conformity being
involved in social change?
How is minority influence most likely to be indirect? Why is this a limitation?
How has the idea of deeper processing been counteracted? Why is this important?
What might be a barrier to social change? Why is this important?
What methodological issues are there in research conducted about social influence processes
involved in social change? How is this a limitation?
Countercriticise: can you turn research methods into a strength?
