Social Content Flashcards
What are the 3 components of agency theory
- Autonomous state > Acting on ones own free will
- Agentic state > When someone follows another person in authorities actions. Acting as an agent for another.
- Moral strain > Experiencing anxiety because you’re asked to do something that goes against your judgement
Obedience
What is the agentic shift
The switch from the autonomous state to the agentic one that occurs when we percieve someone to be a legitimate source of authority and allow them to control our behaviour.
Obedience
What are 3 strengths of agency theory
- Milgrams original experiment > 65% of participants obeyed an authority figure and ‘harmed’ an innocent person. Participants experienced moral strain.
- Application to historical events > Explains the behaviour of the Nazi soldiers during the Holocaust.
- Hofling et al (1966) > Doctors phoned nurses to administer twice the dose of a drug to a patient (against hospital policy) and 21/22 nurses obeyed.
Obedience
What are 2 weaknesses of agency theory
- Individual differences > Doesn’t explain why some people obey and why some people do not. Suggests obedience is more complex that agency theory attempts to explain.
- Difficult to define & measure > Hard to define and measure agency and autonomy as it is a state of mind.
Obedience
What is the aim of Milgrams original study
To investigate whether ordinary people would follow orders from an authority figure and give an innocent person electric shocks.
Obedience
What was the procedure of Milgrams original study
- controlled environment (lab) at Yale university
- $4.50 incentive for 40 white men
- Participant played the role of the teacher and Mr Wallace (the confederate) played the role of the learner
- Participants were told to electricute Mr Wallace if they got the answer to memory questions wrong
- Volts ranged from 15-450V
- 4 verbal prods
Obedience
What were the results of Milgrams original experiment
- All participants went to 300V
- 65 % went the full 450 V
Obedience
What was variation 13 of Milgrams experiments
- Ordinary man giving orders
- The role of the experimenter was played by an ordinary man without a lab coat to test the role of autority and status on obedience
- 80% of participants refused to continue
Obedience
What was variation 7 of Milgrams experiments
- Telephonic instructions
- Milgram wanted to test the physical distance between the experimenter and teacher by giving instructions over the phone
- Obedience fell to 22.5%
Obedience
What was variation 10 of Milgrams experiments
- Run down office block
- Yale University could of caused a higher level of obedience due to the precidious nature of it
- Milgram relocated the experiment to a rundown office black in Bridgeport
- Obedience levels fell sllightly to 47.5%
Obedience
What are 3 strengths of Milgrams original study
- Highly controlled > Lab experiment so there was a standardised procedure therefore it is easy to relpicate
- Results backup the aim of the experiment > The results show that people will carry out destructive obedience when authority is present
- Application > Can be used to explain behaviours (obedience) and supports agency theory
Obedience
What are 2 weaknesses of Milgrams original study
- Unrepresentative sample > The experiment was done with 40 men but this only represents a certain type of person
- Lack of mundane realism > You dont administer electric shocks in a lab in everyday life so lacks both ecological and task validity
Obedience
How does an authoritarian personality affect obedience
- Adorno et al (1950) devised the F-scale to detect an authoritarian personality
- He believed that a harsh style of parenting leads to traits such as toughness, that he identified as an authoritarian personality
- Personalities that are obedient to authority but harsh to those seen as subordinate
Obedience
Evaluation of authoritarian personality
Strengths:
- Milgram and Elms findings show obedience is related to the personality characteristic of authoritarianism
Weaknesses:
- Cannot claim theres a relationship bewtween childhood experiences and obedience
- Other factors may be involved
Obedience
What are 3 principles of Bibb Latanes social impact theory
Social forces:
- strength (the status/authority of the person giving orders), immediacy (proximity) and numbers (how many people)
Psychosocial law:
- The first source of influence has the most dramatic impact on people
Multiplication & division of impact:
- Social force gets spread out between who it is directed at
- Diffusion of responsibility- the more people there is, the less responsibility they feel.
