Q+A Content

Question 1

When did the Asch test take place?

Answer 1

1951

Question 2

What was Asch’s study testing?

Answer 2

Conformity

Question 3

How many participants were in Asch study?

Answer 3

123 American males

Question 4

How many confederates with one participant?

Answer 4

6-8

Question 5

How was Asch line task set out?

Answer 5

1 standard line and 3 comparison lines and participant was asked which comparison line matched the standard

Question 6

What did Asch find?

Answer 6

Participant gave wrong answer 36% of the time. Overall 75% of the participants conformed at least once. After being interviewed many said they conformed to avoid rejection

Question 7

How did group size affect conformity?

Answer 7

With 3 confederates, conformity was at 31.8% but more made little difference

Question 8

How did unanimity affect conformity?

Answer 8

A confederate was used who went against the others. Dissenting confederate reduced conformity by a quarter

Question 9

How did task difficulty affect conformity?

Answer 9

Conformity increased when the lines became of a similar length making the task harder

Question 10

What was the name of Zimbardos study?

Answer 10

Stanford Prison Experiment

Question 11

Where was the SPE set up?

Answer 11

Took place in the basement of the psychology department at Stanford University

Question 12

When was the STP?

Answer 12

1973

Question 13

How did they get participants in the SPE?

Answer 13

Places were advertised and people volunteered

Question 14

How were participants assigned roles in the SPE?

Answer 14

Participants were randomly assigned roles of guards or prisoners

Question 15

How was the realism heightened in the SPE?

Answer 15

Prisoners were arrested at home, blindfolded and strip-searched, issued a number and uniform

Question 16

What were the main findings of the SPE?

Answer 16

Study stopped after 6 days instead of 14 as guards behaviour became a threat to the prisoners.
Within 2 days the prisoners rebelled against the guards but guards harassed the prisoners and shut them down.
After, prisoners became depressed and some had to leave as they show psychological impacts

Question 17

What were the conclusions of the SPE?

Answer 17

Everyone conformed to their social roles and the simulation revealed the power of the situation on people behaviour

Question 18

Who and when did an experiment into obedience?

Answer 18

Milgram, 1963

Question 19

Who were Milgram participants?

Answer 19

40 males aged between 20-50

Question 20

How did Milgram recruit his participants?

Answer 20

Through adverts and flyers

Question 21

Who was present at Milgrams experiment?

Answer 21

A confederate who was Mr Wallace acted as the ‘learner’
True participant was the ‘teacher’
Confederate as an ‘experiementer’

Question 22

How did Milgrams study happen?

Answer 22

The learner was strapped into a chair
Teacher gave increasing electric shock every time learner got an answer wrong
Shock level went from 15V to top 450V

Question 23

What prods were given forth experimenter to the participant?

Answer 23

Prod 1- Please continue
Prod 2- The experiment requires that you continue
Prod 3- It is absolutely essential that you continue
Prod 4- You have no other choice, you must go on

Question 24

What did Milgram find?

Answer 24

None of the participants topped below 300V
12.5% stopped at 300V
65% continued to 450V
Participants were observed to be sweating and showing extreme signs of tension

Question 25

Name the 3 situational variables

Answer 25

Proximity
Location
Uniform

Question 26

How did proximity affect obedience?

Answer 26

When learner and teacher were in the same room obedience dropped from 65% to 40%
when the experimenter gave instructions over the phone obedience dropped to 20.5%

Question 27

How did location affect obedience?

Answer 27

When study took place in a run down building obedience fell to 47.5%

Question 28

How did uniform affect obedience?

Answer 28

Experimenter would wear normal clothes rather than a lab coat who obedience dropped to 20%

Question 29

What is the autonomous state?

Answer 29

People in this state are free to behave according to their own principles and so feel a sense of responsibility towards their actions

Question 30

What is the agentic shift?

Answer 30

This is a shift from the autonomous state to the agentic state
Milgram said this occurs when a person perceives another person ha greater power as they are a figure of authority

Question 31

What are binding factors in relation to obedience?

Answer 31

These are aspects of the situation that allow the person to ignore the damaging effect of their behaviour and se lessening the moral strain

Question 32

What is a consequence of legitimacy of authority?

Answer 32

People are granted the power to punish others

Question 33

Who conducted a study into the authoritarian personality and when?

Answer 33

Adorno, 1950

Question 34

Who was in Adornos study?

Answer 34

2000 middle class white Americans

Question 35

What was Adorno looking into?

Answer 35

Participants unconscious attitudes to other racial groups using an F scale

Question 36

What did Adorno find?

Answer 36

People with authoritarian leanings, those that scored high on the scale, identified with the ‘strong’
These people are very conscious of theirs and others social status

Question 37

What are some of the authoritarian characteristics?

Answer 37

They have asocial tendency to obey people of authority

Have highly conventional attitudes to sex, race, gender etc.

Question 38

Where did the authoritarian personality originate form?

Answer 38

A childhood of harsh parenting receiving strict discipline