Social Influence Flashcards

Question

lack of realism zimbardos study -banuazizi and movahedi

Answer 1

criticised for not being realistic enough for example, demand characteristics made affected the study and is the reason why ppts behaviour brought on by the situation Ppts we’re play acting and based their performance off of stereotypes for example, one participant said he based his behaviour on a character from “cool hand luke “ and why the prisoners rioted as they thought that’s what stereotypically occurs in a prison Suggesting the findings tell us little any conformed

Answer 2

McDermott argues that participants behaved as if the prison was real to them 90% of conversations were about prison life person 416, thought it was a real prison ran by psychologists meaning it was high internal validity and shows us SPE did replicate the roles of prisoners and gaurds

Answer 3

good real world application as all participants screened before the study as emotionally stable so it shows are there anyone can conform to prison or guard social roles if placed in that situation and change their behaviour drastically as a result, helps us explains incidents of cruelty and abuse in real world institutional settings like the gaurds in Abu Ghraib

Answer 4

When a persons behaviour follows that which is demanded by another person

Answer 5

Dispositional hypothesis Situational hypothesis

Answer 6

Do characteristics determine behaviour

Answer 7

Conditions in a situation

Answer 8

To investigate what level of obedience participants would show when a authority figure told them to administer shocks to another person

Answer 9

Controlled observation in which obedience was measured in terms of voltage given to victim Lab experiment - Carried out under controlled conditions Participants reactions measured by interviews and observations after the study

Answer 10

Milgram advertised for people to take part in a memory experiment Place adverts and newspapers and direct mailing Volunteer sampling 40 males 2 confederates Participants aged 20 to 40 years with various occupations and educational backgrounds

Answer 11

Milgram wanted to find out why did the German people obey Hitler and kill around 6 million Jews and 5 million minority social groups was it because the Germans were different to people from other countries

Answer 12

Yale university Learner -confederate getting fake shocked Teacher - naive ppt Experimenter- confederate in Labcoat what naive participant arrived to the lab ,They were introduced to another participant who was a confederate. They drew out who wanted to be teacher/learner but it was always rigged so the naive participant would always be the teacher Teacher cannot see learner but could hear them The teacher gave the learner electric shocks every time they got the answer wrong on the memory task or failed to answer Increased by 15 V with each mistake up to 450 V Though the shocks were fake, they were all labelled dangerous When teacher got to 300 V, the learner banged on the wall Then at 315 V he banged on the wall again but was silent rest of the procedure

Answer 13

Experiment are used for prods to encourage the teacher to continue Prod 1 – please continue Prod 2 – the experiment requires you to carry on Prod 3– it’s absolutely essential you continue Prod 4-you have no other choice you must go on

Answer 14

100% of ppts delivered shocks up to 300 V 65% of ppts went up to the highest amount of 450 V they were fully obedient Milgram also collected qualitative data including observation Such as participants showing signs of extreme tension like Sweating, groaning, stuttering, trembling, biting lips digging their fingernails into their hand and even 3 participants having uncontrollable seizures

Answer 15

The German people are different to other people for obeying ordinary people are likely to follow orders given by an authority figure Even to the extent of killing a innocent person or inflicting harm Milgram said that is ingrained in us to obey if one recognise the authority as normally right

Answer 16

To investigate whether obedience levels would drop in a non-prestigious university/enviroment

Answer 17

Conducted the experiment in a small rundown commercial office block , where participants were told the study was being conducted by a private company of Bridgeport The same procedure as the original study Sparsely furnished rundown office room

Answer 18

47.5% gave the full 450 volts Participants have more doubts and asked questions about the legitimacy

Answer 19

Concluded that the idea of a legitimate setting increases obedience levels even when participants question the credentials of the company as a still a link to scientific research

Answer 20

To see whether an order given by someone without authority is followed

Answer 21

The experimenter was originally wearing a grey lab coat which was a symbol of his authority However, Milgram carried out a variation in which experiments was called away because of a phone call right at the start of the procedure , After delivering instructions to the ppt The role of the experimenter was taken over by an ordering member of the public in every day clothing (less professional)

Answer 22

Only 20% of participants gave the full 450 volts from the original 65% and 16/20 watched the ordinary person give 450 volts

Answer 23

Levels of obedience fall with an ordinary person who wasn’t perceived as an authority figure due to the lack of their professionalism

Answer 24

To see whether the physical distance between the experimenter and the teacher would affect the obedience level

Answer 25

Initial instructions with face-to-face the experiments are left the room to give the rest instructions via telephone

Answer 26

Number of participants willing to give 450 V fell sharply to 20.5% from 65% Sometimes participants would lie about increasing the shocks, but would actually give low voltages

Answer 27

Milgram found that reduced proximity of the experimental letter fewer participants obeying Physical presence is a vital force which makes it easier to obey

Answer 28

it is reliable Because he use stabilised procedures like the four prods and debriefed all ppts to ensure all participants experience was the same for valid data Therefore, the study can be repeated seen with his variation studies and office studies like Sheridan and king due to the controls

Answer 29

Ethically wrong This is because participants were deceived about the aim of the study and throughout as they were told that the shocks were dangerous and that they had signed up for a memory experiment Furthermore, some of the participants were not protected from harm and three participants had uncontrollable seizures and many participants showed extreme signs of tenison COUNTERPOINT: however, most participants would debrief that the end of the study and they were glad that they took part plus you could argue that no ethical guidelines were sustained at the time of the study

Answer 30

One strength of milligrams study is that it can be applied to real life This is because Milgram concluded that ordinary people are likely to follow orders by an authority figure and that the German people aren’t different from other people For obeying dehumanising actions

Answer 31

Lacks internal validity Result of the study lacking mundane realism and ecological validity due to its artificial nature of a lab experiment And deliverance task isn’t an every day task Therefore, participants could’ve possibly shown demand characteristics to match the aim of the study or live up to the researchers expectations and instead of showing real behaviour they could’ve played acted so that’s why they delivered the full 450 V

Answer 32

Many studies show that countries differ in the degree in which people traditionally are obedient to authority They found that when they replicated Milgram’s procedure in Australia with females only 16% of participants went to the four 450 V Compare to Mantells study found that 85% of German participants delivered the 450v This shows conflicting evidence of Milgram study and that obedience to authority is most likely to be accepted in more countries than some

Answer 33

a confederate broke the groups unanimity by responding correctly. In this variation, the conformity rate dropped to 5.5%. This suggests that the presence of a dissenter provides social support

Answer 34

varied the number of confederates from 1 to 16 , -the rate of conformity was just 3% when there was only 1 confederate -the rate increased by 33 with 3 confederates however when there was 16 confederates conformity dropped to 31% This suggests that the presence of a small unanimous group has a strong social pressure beyond a point

Answer 35

humans acting according to free will

Answer 36

humans switch to an agentic state of mind , see themselves as acting as an agent, for the authority figure

Answer 37

moving from an autonomous state to an agentic shift which is seeing themselves as agents of others and not responsible for their own actions they surrender their free will and conscience to serve others

Answer 38

when ppts were debriefed at the end of the study and milgram asked why they administered shocks a typical reply was “i was just doing what i was told to do”

Answer 39

the ppts in his study gave the shock as they saw themselves as an agent for the authority figure (experimenter) and not responsible for their actions but it was the experimenters responsibility

Answer 40

Milgram observed ppts feel moral strain - experience anxiety usually because they are asked to do something that goes against their moral judgement They tend to feel powerless to disobey when an order goes against their judgement The shift to an agentic state of mind - relieves moral strain. This is because we displace responsibility of situation on to the authority figure

Answer 41

3 seizures signs on tension : lip and fingernail bitting , sweating , trembling, stuttering

Answer 42

We are taught from a young age that certain people are at the top of the social hierarchy. We accept that teachers , police officers and security guards all have legitimate authority and we trust them to exert power over us However over time some authority figures have exploited their authority to cause destruction by ordering those lower don in the social hierarchy to act in cruel and torturous ways e.g hofflings study and massacre at My Lai , lieutenant calley said that he was simply following orders from his superior Captain medina and that he took no responsibility fo his actions But because we believe their authority is legitimate we act in an agentic state , believing we are simply following orders and its their responsibility

Answer 43

The professionalism of the experimenter in a lab coat The location of prestigious Yale

Answer 44

the authority figure must be perceived as being qualified to direct other’s behaviour, must be seen as legitimate the agent (person being ordered ) is able to believe that the authority will accept responsibility for what happens

Answer 45

What keeps a person in an agentic state ignore the behaviour to reduce moral strain they are feeling (reduce the emotion)

Answer 46

Ppts were told its only mild tissue damage and that they wouldn’t be that hurt

Answer 47

65% of ppts were willing to obey to deliver shocks up to 450v ppts often asked the experimenter ‘who will be responsible” if the learner is harmed when the experimenter replied that “ im responsible “ , ppts went through with the procedure quickly with no further objections. This supports agency theory as they were experiencing moral strain but as they questioned responsibility they suffered an agentic shift as they saw themselves as not responsible anymore but the Experimenter was

Answer 48

Students shown milgarms study and asked to identify who was responsible and the students blamed mr Wallace / experimenter is responsible for the pain of the learner Arguing, he had responsibility due to his treatment authority and that he was perceived as a scientist This suggests a strength for legitimacy of authority/agent state as the participants were not responsible and just following orders of a professional authority figure due to the uniform

Answer 49

Conducted a study with nurses and found 16/18 of the nurses failed to obey orders from a Doctor Who asked them to administer an overdose of the drug Valium to a patient Nurses further reported that they considered themselves responsible for their actions so they didn’t deliver the drug This is a weakness nurses failed to obey doctors who they normally would obey however, when the authority is perceived as destructive not everyone will obey as they feel responsible for their actions

Answer 50

Late at night a doctor telephoned a nurse asking her to administer twice a daily dose of a drug to a patient against hospital policy 21/22 follow the doctors order and attempted to give the medication to the patient this suggests nurse would’ve justified their behaviour by saying they were following orders of the doctors that mean they have become agents for the doctor and displaced personal responsibility

Answer 51

Show extreme respect/submissiveness to authority See society as a weak then it once was so they believe they need a strong powerful leader with traditional values Uncomfortable with uncertainty Show contempt for those of inferior status Believe people belong to other ethnic groups are responsible for the ills of society because they are ethnocentric Likely to categorise people into ”us” and “them” groups , seeing their own group as superior

Answer 52

Harsh parenting - strict discipline , impossibly high standards, absolute loyalty, severe criticism of perceived failings Parents will give conditional love if they act/behave a certain way . That lives up to their standards Adorno et al - argued that those childhood experiences create hostility , plus resentment in a child but the child cannot express these feelings directly to the parents so they displace it onto others they perceive as they perceive as weaker This process is called scapegoating This explains hatred towards “socially inferior“ people who belong to other groups A central feature of obedience to a higher authority Psychodynamic explanation

Answer 53

He investigated the causes of obedient personality in more than 2000 middle-class white Americans He also studied their unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups They used Several scales to measure this including the F-scale to measure fascism , which is still used today to measure authoritarian personality Example : “obedience and respect for or authority are the most important virtues children should learn”

Answer 54

scored high on the F scale = Identified with strong people and generally disliked the weak Conscious of their and others status Showed extreme respect/serivility of those with highest status Traits are basis of obedience and authoritarian personality Adorno et al — authoritarian people had a certain cognitive style ( way of perceiving others ) No fuzziness between categories of people Fixed/distinctive stereotypes of other groups Found a positive correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice

Answer 55

Interviewed the original participants from milgrams study who had been fully obedient They completed the F scale ( 20 obedient and 20 defiant) ppts involved in experiment) from Milgram original study FINDINGS: rose who had been highly obedience and gave the full 450 V scored higher on the F scale and those who disobeyed and not gave the highest shocks This suggests a link between the personality and being obedient and support Adorno view that obedient people may well show similar characteristics to people who have an authoritarian personality

Answer 56

They found some obedient participants did display some characteristics that were unusual for the personality For example, Milgram’s obedient participants did not experience unusual levels of childhood punishment Therefore, this link is complex

Answer 57

Makes it hard to explain obedient behaviour in the majority of a countries population Pre-war Germany, millions of individuals displayed obedient racist and anti-semitic behaviour However, not everyone possesses the same authoritarian personality and realistically they must have differed in their personalities

Answer 58

F scale measures tendency towards an extreme form of right wing ideology They argue that this is a politically biassed interpretation of authoritarian personality They point out the harsh reality of left-wing of authoritarianism in the shape of the Bolsheviks in Russia and Chinese Moaism They also point out that extreme right and left-wing ideologies have the idea of emphasising importance of obedience to a legitimate political authority in common

Answer 59

person believes their responsible for what happens to them and the events in their lives

Answer 60

e person believes it’s mainly a matter of luck or outside forces that is responsible for the events in their life

Answer 61

INTERNAL LOC - more likely to be able to resist the pressures to conform or obey This because the person takes responsibility for the actions and is more likely to base their decisions of their own beliefs and fuss resist the pressures from other people

Answer 62

Self-confidence More achievement orientated Higher intelligence Less need for social approval

Answer 63

Repeated Milgram study And measured if participants were internals or externals 37% internal LOC Did not continue With the maximum shock and showed greater resistance 23% of internal LOC did not continue Increases validity of the LOC explanation and our confidence that it can explain resistance And also provides a link between resistance to obedience and LOC

Answer 64

Analyse data from American obedience studies over a 40 year period The data showed that over this time people have become more resistant to obedience but more external However, if resistance to obedience was linked to internal LOC, then we would expect people to become more internal Therefore challenging the link On the other hand, the results may be due to a change in society where many things are increasing outside personal control

Answer 65

presence of people who resist pressures to conform or obey can help others to do the same These people act as model to show others resistance to social influence is possible

Answer 66

Pressure to conform can be resisted if the others that are present are not conforming as well Aschs variation study - Unanmity Enable naive participants to freely follow their own conscious as the confederate act as a model of independent behaviour Majority no longer unanimous

Answer 67

If another person disobey the pressure to obey can be resisted Melgrove variation study – obedience dropped from 65% to 10% The person is disobedience act as a model of descent for the genuine participants to follow and therefore resist obedience

Answer 68

Evaluated teen fresh start USA Eight week programs to help pregnant adolescence resist pressure to smoke Social support was given by a buddy /older mentor Findings : at the end of the program those who had a body was significantly less likely to smoke than those who didn’t have one Shows that social support can help young people resist pressures

Answer 69

Showed social support can help individuals resist the influence of a group pressure Replicated aschs study but had a decent with good eyesight 64% of genuine participants refused to conform when did the dissenter was involed However , the study also showed that social support does not always help When the centre had obviously Poor eyesight resistance was only 36%