Revision 7B

Question 1

Obedience

Answer 1

Complying with commands which are often given by a source of authority

Question 2

Milgram’s experience (Electric Milgram)

Answer 2

Was conducted to determine if people would obey the demands of a person they perceived to have authority. Participants believed they were harming another individual by administering these shocks when instructed by an authority figure. These results suggest that people are highly influenced by authority, and highly obedient.

Question 3

Factors that affect obedience

Answer 3

• Status of Authority figure (people more likely to obey someone that have more power)
• Proximity (people obey someone more if they are closer physically or emotionally)
• Group pressure (people more likely to obey when they observe others obeying commands)

Question 4

Conformity

Answer 4

Adjusting one’s thoughts, feelings, or behaviours to match those of others, a social group, or a situation.

Question 5

Asch’s experiment (Twiggy ash)

Answer 5

Aimed to investigate whether individuals would conform to a group and the extent to which people conformed. the study involved a line judgement task, in which participants matched lines together based on their similarity in length.

Question 6

Factors that affect conformity

Answer 6

• Social norms (provide subtle pressure for individuals to conform to society’s expectations)
• Groupthink phenomenon in which assumed group unanimity (A greater extent of groupthink results in a greater extent of conformity)
• Group shift * a condition in which the influence of the group causes an individual to adopt a more extreme position* (the more influential a group is, the greater the change of conformity)
• Deindividuation tendency to lose sense of identity and individuality within a group (The more deindividualised people feel, the greater the chance of conformity)