Social Influence 8-13

Question 1

What is Milgram’s reason for obedience to obstructive authority?

Answer 1

Milgram proposed that obedience to obstructive authority occurs because a person doesn’t take responsibility.
Instead they are acting as an agent (someone who acts for or in place of another).

Question 2

Explain the agentic state theory.

Answer 2

Milgram proposed the agentic state theory as a situational explanation of obedience.
He argued that people operate in two different ways in social situations:
1. Autonomic state- acting as independent individuals. Make decisions knowing they will be held account for the consequences.
2. Agentic state- individual sees themselves as under the authority of another, not responsible for their own actions. Often carry out orders without question.

Question 3

What is agentic shift and when does it happen?

Answer 3

Autonomous state to agentic state = agentic shift.

Milgram suggested this occurs when a person perceives someone else as a figure of authority. This figure has greater power due to their position in a social hierarchy.

Question 4

Why do people stay in the agentic state according to milgram?

Answer 4

Due to binding factors.
These include aspects of the situation that allow the person to ignore the damaging effects of their behaviour and thus remove the moral strain they feel and shift the responsibility onto the victim and authority figure.

Question 5

Strengths of agentic state theory?

Answer 5

Makes logical sense in explaining why we obey authority and has research support:
- Blass and Schmitt showed a film of Milgram’s study to some students and asked them who was responsible for harming Mr Wallace. The students blamed the experimenter and indicated the fact that the experimenter was a scientist (top of hierarchy so therefore has greater authority)

Question 6

Weaknesses of agentic state theory?

Answer 6

1. Does not explain some research findings, such as:
   - why some pps didn’t obey in Milgram’s study.
   - in Hoffling’s study; why one nurse didn’t give the prescribed drug although the doctor is higher up in the hierarchy.
2. Mandel explained one incident involving German police who chose to shoot civilians in Poland, even though they weren’t given direct orders to do so and were told they had other options.
   This shows the agentic state doesn’t explain obedience as the police were not acting as agents but still chose to shoot.

Question 7

Explain legitimate authority.

Answer 7

Another situational explanation of obedience.

• claims that people are more likely to obey an order given by someone with legitimate authority.
• legitimate authority refers to the amount of social power the authority figure holds.
• we are taught we should obey those with legitimate authority because we trust them or fear punishment.
• uniforms are often a symbol of legitimate authority.

Question 8

Strengths of legitimate authority?

Answer 8

1. We need legitimate authority figures in a well functioning, ordered society thus a strength is that it explains the functioning of a civilised nation. (Eg. Police help protect+ prevent crime)
2. Explains cultural differences in obedience. Replication of Milgram’s study in:
   - Australia: Kilham&Mann. Found a 16% obedience rate.
   -Germany: Mantell found 85% obedience rate.
   Shows how different cultures have different upbringings therefore strengthening the legitimate authority explanation.

Question 9

Weaknesses of legitimate authority?

Answer 9

Not all legitimate authority figures should be obeyed:

• Adolf Hitler.
• Harold Shipman

= examples of when legitimate authority becomes destructive.

Question 10

What do dispositional explanations of behaviour say?

Answer 10

They claim that an individuals personality traits determine their behaviour, not situational influences in the environment.

Question 11

What did Adorno do?

Answer 11

He proposed a dispositional explanation of obedience.
He argued that authoritarian personalities are more likely to obey authority figures.
- he thought people developed these personalities due to extremely strict parenting, usually involving physical punishment.
This creates feelings of hostility which are displaced onto weaker others who cannot fight back.
They can’t take their anger out in their parents because they fear them, so instead they repress their anger and act in a submissive way towards them and any other authority figures.

Question 12

Explain authoritarian personalities.

Answer 12

Authoritarian personalities have traits which make them more obedient including:

• inflexible in their beliefs/values.
• conformist + conventional.
• dogmatic (intolerant of ambiguity)
• hostile to those of lower status.
• preoccupied with power

Question 13

What is the F scale?

Answer 13

The questionnaire Adorno developed to measure authoritarian personalities.
The Fascism scale.

Question 14

What are the strengths of the authoritarian personalities explanation.

Answer 14

Research support:

• Miller found that people who scored high on the F scale were more likely to obey an order of holding onto some electrical wiring while working on an arithmetic problem, compared to those who scored low.
• Elms and Milgram carried out a follow up study using pps who had taken part income of Milgram’s previous experiments. They collected 20 participants from those who obeyed and 20 from those who disobeyed and found that those who obeyed scored higher on the F-scale.

Question 15

What are the weaknesses of the authoritarian personalities explanation.

Answer 15

• dispositional explanations cannot explain obedience in entire societies, because authoritarian personalities are not common.
• many problems with the questionnaire itself. Each item is worded in the same direction meaning it’s fairly easy to get a high score on the authoritarian personality.

Question 16

What is the social support theory?

Answer 16

Social support is a situational explanation of resistance to social influence. It argues that if one person refuses to conform/obey it makes it much more likely that others will also resist.

Question 17

What two factors reduce conformity according to the social support theory?

Answer 17

1. If they have an ally who doesn’t conform. This is because it breaks the unanimity of the group which allows the individual to be more confident in their answer/beliefs.
2. If there is a disobedient role model. This is because by rejecting instructions from an authority figure, they challenge the legitimate authority of the figure which allows the individual to accept that the authority figure may not be right.

Question 18

Strengths of the social support theory?

Answer 18

1. Research support:
   - in Milgram’s study when the participant was joined by a disobedient confederate (ally) obedience rates fell to 10%.
2. Studies of social support have high ecological validity and can therefore be applied to real life. For example, in Gamson’s study pps were unaware they were taking part in a study so wouldn’t have shown demand characteristics.

Question 19

Weaknesses if social support theory?

Answer 19

1. Is a strong explanation when you have a group size of 10-15 however in real life, group sizes can go up to 100s and therefore one dissenter will have no influence in this case. Therefore the explanation is limited and more research would be required to increase is reliability.
2. In Milgram’s study there were pps who didn’t obey even without an ally or disobedient role model. This shows that social support is not a complete explanation and other factors such as personality traits must play a part.

Question 20

Explain locus of control.

Answer 20

• a dispositional explanation of resistance to social influence.
• proposed by Julian Rotter (1966).
• locus of control refers to the extent to which a person believes they have control over their own behaviour.
• can either be internal or external.
• a questionnaire is used to measure a persons LOC.

Question 21

What is meant by having a high internal LOC?

Answer 21

People with high internal LOC:
-believe that what occurs in their lives is the result of their own actions, and therefore feel a stronger sense of control over their life.

They are more likely to resist social influence because:

• more self-confident.
• less concerned with social approval.
• more likely to be leaders.

Question 22

What is meant by have a high external LOC?

Answer 22

People with high external LOC:

• believe that what happens in their lives is out of their control and is down to factors such as luck and fate.
• They usually obey without question.

Question 23

strengths of LOC explanation.

Answer 23

1. Oliner and Oliner:
   - interviewed 2 groups of non-jewish people who lived through the Holocaust.
   -compared 406 people who rescued the Jews to 126 people who didn’t.
   -found that those who rescued the Jews had a high internal LOC.
   Shows they are more likely to act, rather than leave the situation to fate.
2. The questionnaire used to measure LOC has trick questions which avoids demand characteristics and therefore results= reliable.

Question 24

Weaknesses of LOC explanation.

Answer 24

Twenge (2004) analysed data from American obedience studies that took place over 40 year period.
Noticed that people have become more resistant to obedience but also more external.
Challenges the link between high internal LOC and increasing resistant behaviour.

Question 25

What is minority influence and social change?

Answer 25

• minority influence is when persuasive small groups or even individuals, change the way the majority behaves and thinks. (Associated with internalisation)
• social change refers to the change that occurs in a society and not at an individual level. Happens usually as a result of minority influence. (Eg. Women gaining right to vote, homosexuality rights)

Question 26

When are minority groups most likely to be convincing?

Answer 26

When they are:
- committed: shows certainty, confidence, and courage.

• consistent : if consistent with their views, the minority shows that they are confident and determined to get the point across. They appear unbiased.
• flexible: this is when the minority show that they are willing to listen to other viewpoints, and the majority will then also listen to their views. (Being to flexible can cause them to be seen as weak)

Question 27

Explain Moscovisci’s study.

Answer 27

• He told 172 female pps that they were taking part in a colour perception task.
• naive pps were places in groups of 6 out of which 2 were confederates.
• shown 36 slides of varying shades of blue and told to name aloud the slide colour.
• consistent condition= confederates called all slides green.
• inconsistent condition= confederates called 24/36 slides green.
• in consistent condition over 8% shifted to minorities view which shows that consistency makes minority groups convincing.

Question 28

Explain how minorities can bring about social change.

Answer 28

1. Drawing attention to the issue.
2. Consistency.
3. The augmentation principal.
4. The snowball effect.
5. Social crypto amnesia.

Once the majority has accepted the minority viewpoint, people may conform due to NSI or ISI.

Question 29

What is the augmentation principle and the snowball effect?

Answer 29

The augmentation principle= if the minority appears willing to take risks and suffer for their views, they are taken more seriously by the majority.

Snowball effect= minority influence initially has a relatively small effect but it then spreads more widely, and more people consider the issue until it reaches a tipping point where the minority has no become the majority.

Question 30

What are the strengths and weaknesses of minority influence/ social change?

Answer 30

Strengths:
Research support- Moscovisci’s study.

Weaknesses:

• His study lacks ecological validity due to unrealistic task.
• study consisted of only females = gender bias.
• pps were all American = cultural bias.