Social Influence Flashcards
Milgram’s situational variables
Proximity 40%
Touch proximity 30%
Location 47.5%
Uniform 20%
Social support 10%
confederate teacher 90%
Milgram’s situational Variables A03
A strength of Milgram’s situational study is that there is supporting Evidence from Bickman for example who done s field study in NYC. Found that obedience was higher with the security guard than another
Cross-cultural research, research conducted in Holland, 90% when researcher was present and decreased when was not
COUNTERPOINT- is that only 2 could be classed as cross cultural, Jordan and Indian, rest fairly western
Lastly demand characteristics could be guessed, especially the unform variable- Orne and Holland- internal validity is weak
Any Milgram A03 point can be used
Milgram’s study into obedience A01
Into if people obeyed even in situations where death is likely
-Milgram advertised for 40 men to participate in a study about memory
-Straws were (drawn but fixed) on who would be the learner and who would be the teacher.
The teacher could not see the teacher, every time the learner got an answer wrong, the teacher had to give learner an electric shock, 65% went all the way to 450V, 100% went to 300V.
Probes were given throughout such as “please carry on”
Milgram Study A03
-A supporting study from Hoflings nurses, when Doctor Smith asked the nurse to give a patient 3 times the allowed dose, 21/22 obeyed. This is in a more realistic circumstance, increasing external validity of the study. However, Rank et al. replicated Hofling study, removing all variables that could have affected obedience, orders were given in person rather than telephone and drug was familiar with nurses, most disobeyed
-Low external validity, lab, population, ethical issues
-Low internal validity, Orne and Holland point out that it was play acting, although Milgram claimed 75% thought was genuine. Responding to demand characteristics
-Sheridan and King- 100% women and 54% men gave real shocks to puppies
Give to reasons why people may Resist Obedience
-Locus of control
-Social Support
What is Locus of control
Locus of control is the concept of whether the person blames themselves or external factors for events in which occur in their lives.
-Externals blame external factors, they may blame them failing a test on the fact the test was hard, whereas internals blame themselves
-Internal locus of control are less likely to obey because they have their own beliefs on how to make decisions and no to rely on others
Social Support
Like in Asch’s and Milgram’s study having a supporting role model decreased levels of obedience and conformity.
-Obedience dropped to 10% with a dissenting role model
Locus of Control A03
Holland- repeated Milgram’s baseline procedure, he found that 37% of internals resisted obedience, compared to 23% of externals.
Jean Twinge, analyzed American LoC studies, found that people were becoming less obedient but also more external which contradicts the findings
-Oliner and Oliner- Interviewed 536 non jewish survivors of WW2, those who had rescued jews had higher internal locus of control.
Social Support A03
-Teen Fresh campaign, for pregnant teens aged 14-19, and to stop smoking. One group was paired with a mentor, the others weren’t. The group with a mentor had higher success rates
-Gamson- Groups of teens tasked to produce
evidence that would help an oil company run a smear campaign. 28/33 went against orders
Dispositional explanations to obedience
Authoritarians are much more in favor in authority and strong leaders, they view society as weaker than what it once was, so they seek for powerful leaders, and views, such as love for ones country. They view people with an inferior social status as weak.
-Black and white thinkers
-Are conventional
Origins of Authoritarian personality
Strict childhood upbringing and unrealistic achievements from parents. A sense of conditional love and criticism if failure to meet expectation. This causes hostility in childhood, the child is unable to take the emotion out on parents, so does so on those who they feel or beneath them. (Goatscape them)
Adorno’s F scale
-2000 middle class Americans took the F scale questionnaire, it tested unconscious beliefs about ethnic minority groups. the main virtues children should learn is obedience and respect
Dispositional factors A03
-Elmis and Milgram- they interviewed 20 original Milgram participants. Found that those who obeyed in Milgram’s study who took the F scale, had a higher F scale score than those who did not. HOWEVER, Milgram’s participants did not grow up with harsh childhood factors and glorify their fathers. Meaning the link is more complex
-Politically bias, Adorno focused on right wing extremism but ignored left wing extremism which still has a lot in common, such as authority
-Nazi Germany, most were racist and anti- sematic. Extremely unlikely all of them had authoritarian personality. SIT, with nazi state and scapegoated the jews, more likely explanation
-
Social/Psychological explanations to obedience
Agentic State and Legitimacy to authority
Agentic state
-Is the state whereby the person obeys because they are not responsible for their actions. They act as an agent or a puppet for an authority figure.
-The opposite to agentic state is the autonomous state, the shift between autonomous state and agentic state is called the agentic shift.
-Blinding factors- Many participants wanted to stop but still remained in agentic state. Blinding factors occur when the individual wants to relieve their moral strain, this may be by blaming the other participants for volunteering
