social influence 4.1.1 - obedience Flashcards
What is agent state?
A mental state where we feel no personal responsibility for our behaviour as we believe ourselves to be ‘acting’ for an authoritative figure.
What is an autonomous state?
Being independent and free with a sense of responsibility
What is the agentic shift?
autonomous to agent when one sole individual is in charge others shift from autonomous to the agentic state
What are binding factors?
allows a person to ignore the damaging effect of their behaviour - minimise moral strain
what is legitimacy of authority?
we are most likely to obey people who have perceived authority above us, obedience justified by social hierarchy.
what is destructive authority?
using legitimate power for destruction (Hitler,stalin,musolini)
AO3 strengths psychological factors in reference to miligram
- Research support -Blass + Schmidt
Showed students film of milgram and they recognized experimenter as authoritative figure supports as they recognized him as cause of obedience - Real life application can explain real life war crimes
- My Lai massacre explained by US army authority explanation give reasons for destructive obedience
- Cross cultural replications 16% Australians 85% German ppt
Authority more likely to be accepted in certain societies reflects how different societies are structured increases validity
AO3 weaknesses psychological factors in reference to miligram
- Limited explanation –> some people didn’t obey agentic shift isn’t all
- Cannot account for behaviour of Nazis reserve police men shot civillians in a small town they did this eve though not directly ordered were not powerless to disobey
- Lifton Auschwitz doctors had changed into capable of evil
Staub Instead of agentic shift for holocaust perpetrators is doing evil over time changes our behaviour - Agentic shift is to simple other factors such as environmental e.g SPE only ¼ guards acted brutal ( a role for personality differences) doesn’t account for individual differences
- Obedience alibi
What is the authoritarian personality?
A type of personality that is susceptible to obeying people in authority.Such individuals are thought to be submissive to those in a higher position.
What is the origin of the authoritative personality?
Childhood experiences and upbringing can lead to hostility and aggression which they’ll display onto others
What does Ardorno believe causes the authoritarian personality?
Sugests that those with the authoritarian personality had their personality shaed in earlier life by strict authoritarian parenting with harsh physical punishments
Suggests this anger is displaced onto others
Physically punished
Grow up to believe in a rigid approach to rules and life. → generational impact as this is often displaced onto their children
Punitive punishment
Natural instincts are suppressed → have a later life consequence
Stunting child emotion
What is unacceptable to them is that they project these extreme opinions onto minority groups.
Ultimatum
resentment and hostility - displacement of anger
Adorno aim
To research the causes of the authoritarian personality.
Adorno procedure
- A personality study
- 2000 middle class Americans > to test their unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups
- Created scale response questionaire
Adorno Findings
Those with higher scores = authoritarian personality
- identify as strong people and have contempt for weaker lower classes
- Have excessive respect and servility to those of higher class
- Adorno found that authoritarian personality had fixed stereotypes about other groups
CORRELATION BETWEEN AUTHORITARIAN AND PREJUDICE
Adorno Conclusions
- people with authoritative personality tend to be obedient
- They have extreme respect for authority
- show contempt for people they seem inferior
- Belief society needs traditional leaders
- Inflexible in their viewpoint
AO3 evaluation Adorno
Politically bias
- only measure the tendency to right wing ideology
Limitation that is is not comprehensive (relatable to all) cannot account for the whole political spectrum
AO3 evaluation Adorno
Limited explanation
- Individual personality - not generalisable to whole population
Such as millions of germans displayed anti-semetic views but don’t all have the same personality
A clear limitation as social factors are much more realistic explanation
AO3 evaluation Adorno
Methodological
based on flawed methodology
Greenstein ‘ a comedy of methodological errors’
The wording of questions encourages agreement –> not all authoritarian
people already knew aim - biased
Puts validity into question
AO3 evaluation Adorno Correlations
Adorno matured a range of variables and found many relevant correlations
BUT correlations don’t be causation so other factors influencing so cannot claim harsh parenting causing this personality.
Elms and Milgram 1966 Procedure
Carried out a follow up study to Milgram
- 20 (obedient) + 20(defiant) ppt
- Each ppt completed a MMPI ( personality test) and the f-scale
- PPt also asked open ended questions about (family, attitudes with experimenter and learner)
Elms and Milgram 1966 findings
Found a little difference between obedient and defiant ppt on mmpi
But found more authoritarian among ppl classified as obedient
Obedient saw experimenter as admirable rather than learner
Elms and Milgram 1966 conclusion
The obedient group was higher on the trait of authoritarianism.
