Social Influence Flashcards
Define legitimacy of authority
When we respect the credentials of authority and assume they know what they are doing
If we feel like someone does not have legitimacy of authority than we are less likely to obey them
Evaluation for legitimacy of authority
Some people have found legitimacy of authority is the main reason why people obeyed in the milgram study
In an Australian replication only 16% of participants went to 459 volts whereas 85% of Germans did so which shows cultural differences.
Define the agentic state
People obey a destructive authority because they do not take responsibility for their behaviour.
They move from an autonomous state, where they are they are aware of the consequences of their actions and behave voluntarily to the agentic state where they see themselves as the agents of the authority figure and not responsible for their own actions.
This is known as the agentic shift
Evaluation of agentic state
Explanation cannot explain why some people do not obey or why some who make the agentic shift do not always show signs of stress at doing so
Definitely proximity
Refers to how close a person is to another person.
In Milgrams study when he put the teacher and learner in the same room the obedience rate fell to 40%.
In another variation the experimenter left the room and gave instructions and obedience fell to 20.5%.
Define Location
This refers to where the obedience is taking place.
In one variation milgram did his research in a run down office building and obedience fell to 47.5% suggesting the participants felt there was less authority
Define uniform
Refers to what the authority figure is wearing and links to legitimacy of authority.
In Bickmans study he had 3 confederates in 3 different outfits- jacket and tie, a milkman’s outfit and a security guard. The confederates stood on the road and asked pedestrians to pick up litter and people were 2x more likely to obey the security guard than the jacket and tie
Define dispositional explanation of obedience
An explanation that highlights the importance of the individuals personality
Define authoritative personality, their characters and why they became like this
It is when they are very obedient towards people in authority. They have extreme respect to those in authority. They have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender
They believe everything is either right or wrong and very uncomfortable with uncertainty.
Adorno believed they became like this due to harsh parenting. Which taught them strict discipline, expectation of absolute loyalty and high standards.
Evaluation of Authoritarian Personality
Milgram found that most obedient participants in his study were those who had the authoritarian personality.
There could be a 3rd factor influencing authoritarian personality, for example obedience and authoritarian personalities are associated with a lower level of education.
Define resistance to social influence
The ability of people to remain independent despite pressures to conform or obey.
Define social support
The presence of people who resist pressures to conform or obey can help others to do the same. These people act as models to show others that resistance to social influence is possible
Define resisting conformity
Social support can help resist conformity. The pressure to conform can be reduced if there are other people present who are not conforming. This was demonstrated in a variation of Asch’s study. When the participant was in a group with a confederate who gave the correct response, conformity level dropped from 32% to 5%
Define resisting obedience
Social support can help people resist obedience. The pressure to obey can be reduced if another person disobeys.
In one of Milgrams variations two confederates joined the participant. When two confederates refused to continue obedience to continue to 450 bolted fell to 10%
Define locus of control
Refers to individual differences in people’s beliefs and expectations about what controls events in there lives
Define internal locus of control
Believes what happens to them is largely a consequence of their own behaviour, it is controlled by themselves. They are more self confident and have less need for social approval. They believe they are less likely to obey and they are more likely to resistant to social influences
Define External locus of control
They believed things happen to them and are largely uncontrollable. Luck and fate are seen as important factor in their life.
They are likely to confirm or obey and less likely to be resistant to social influences
Define commitment
Minorities are more powerful if they demonstrate commitment to their cause, for example by making personal sacrifices.
Define flexibility
Being prepared to consider some level of compromise
Define consistency
Sticking to the same message maybe diachronic- over time or synchronic- all of the minority say the same thing
