Social influence booklet 2: Obedience

Question 1

What is obedience?

Answer 1

Following the orders of someone who we perceive to have authority. Even if this causes us distress and we regret it later we still do as we are asked (which is known as destructive obedience)

Question 2

When was Milgrams study?

Answer 2

1965

Question 3

Who was the participants in Milgrams study?

Answer 3

-40 men between 20 and 50, from all walks of life (except the female one)
-They answered an advertisement asking for volunteers to a study in Yale university
-It would take one hour and they would receive $4.50

Question 4

What was the procedure in Milgrams study?

Answer 4

-Participants met by young man with white lab coat (experimenter)
-Participants meets the confederate, both are told that the experiment was about punishment and learning
-Confederate assigned learner participants assigned teacher
-Generator had switches 15-450 volts
-Teacher had to read out a series of word pairs and learner had to correct right response else a shock delivered 15v higher than last
-Confederate gave mainly wrong answers, started pounding on wall and not answering from 300 volts
-Teacher prodded to keep going and treat no answer as wrong answer

Question 5

What was the findings of Milgrams study?

Answer 5

-Every teacher reached up to 300v, 65% went all the way to 450v
-Many displayed great anguish: sweating, stuttering, trembling, groaning, biting lips and digging nails into flesh
-3 subjects had full blown uncontrollable seizures, with one experiment being stopped from such a violent seizure

Question 6

What acronym do we use for remembering general study evaluations?

Answer 6

GRAVES

Question 7

What does each part of GRAVES acronym stand for?

Answer 7

Generalisability
Reliability
Application
Validity
Ethics
Sample

Question 8

What are the evaluations of Milgrams research into obedience?

Answer 8

😊High reliability
😒Demand characteristics
😒Generalising issues (volunteer sample)
😒Ethics (harm)
😒Ethics (Socially sensitive research)

Question 9

What is an agentic state?

Answer 9

When a person acts on behalf of an authority figure of a higher status. Where they feel no personal responsibility or guilt for their actions

Question 10

Milgram argues that: normally we are in what state?

Answer 10

An autonomous state

Question 11

What are the characteristics of an autonomous state?

Answer 11

-You are aware of the consequences of your own actions and are in charge of your actions
-So you are less likely to obey the demands of others

Question 12

What are the characteristics of an agentic state?

Answer 12

-Where we act as agent for someone else
-Makes us more likely to obey
-We place responsibility on the person we’re acting on behalf of

Question 13

What is an agentic shift? (not state)

Answer 13

When certain binding factors are present, we shift from an autonomous state to an agentic state.

Question 14

What are the binding factors that cause an agentic shift?

Answer 14

Features of the situation that allow a person to ignore the damaging effect of behaviour. Such as, shifting responsibility to the victim or denying their responsibility

Question 15

What are the 2 explanations of obedience?

Answer 15

-Agentic Shift
-Legitimate authority

Question 16

If someone is to be obedient, orders have to be given by who?

Answer 16

someone who appears to be a legitimate authority figure and holds and demonstrates social power

Question 17

Our society is hierarchical, what does this mean in terms of obedience?

Answer 17

We are socialised to respect, trust and follow the orders of authority figures as this maintains control in society

Question 18

What happens if we follow the orders of an authority figure?

Answer 18

We believe the responsibility for our actions lie within the authority figure, which explains destructive obedience

Question 19

What are the evaluations of EXPLANATIONS of obedience?

Answer 19

😊Evidence to support (Blass and Schmitt)
😊Evidence to support (Bickman)
😒Evidence to contradict (Milgrams study)
😊Help us understand Nazi Germany (Adolf Eichman)

Question 20

What are situational variables?

Answer 20

Situational factors are variables in a setting or environment that influence whether a person is obedient

Question 21

What are the three situational variables for obedience?

Answer 21

-Proximity
-Uniform
-Location

Question 22

What is the situational variable: Proximity?

Answer 22

-The distance between the person giving order and person receiving orders / distance between person receiving orders and victim of study
-When there is greater proximity people feel more responsibility and less likely to experience agentic shift, so obedience drops to 20%
-Supported by Milgram variation, in the telephone variant Milgram found Obedience rates dropped

Question 23

What is the situational variable: Uniform?

Answer 23

-The attire being worn by the person giving the commands in the study
-Security guard is seen as more of a legitimate authority than a man in a suit. Such as the Milkman with 19% obedience
-Supported by Bickmans study where obedience from a man in a suit was 19% and obedience from a man in security guard uniform was 38%

Question 24

What is the situational variable: Location?

Answer 24

-The area and environment in which the study takes place. In this instance: Prestigious university or a run-down office
-If order is given somewhere more prestigious or more authoritative then person giving order is more likely to appear as legit authority
-Supported by Milgrams bridgeport variation, original study in Yale, this study was done in run-down offices, obedience dropped significantly

Question 25

What are the evaluations of situational factors affecting obedience?

Answer 25

😊Evidence to support uniform (Bickman)
😊Methodology: Validity
😒Methodology: ethical issues
😒Methodology: ecological validity
😒Real life evidence to contradict

Question 26

What are dispositional factors towards obedience?

Answer 26

Characteristics of the person that causes obedience (personality factors)

Question 27

What is the authoritarian personality?

Answer 27

-A type of personality Adorno believes are more likely to obey in authority, believed to be formed in childhood by typically strict parents
-Characteristics of this personality are: Obedience to authority, looking down on lower class, traditional values
-F-scale is a questionnaire to measure this

Question 28

What was Adornos study?

Answer 28

-Examined over 2000 white middle class American participants through F scale questionnaire
-He found that those with an authoritarian personality, showed greater respect for those with the same or higher status and were very contemptuous towards those of a lesser status, so less likely to obey
-Authoritarians also more prejudiced

Question 29

What are the evaluations of dispositional explanations for obedience?

Answer 29

😊 Evidence to support (Milgram and F scale)
😒Methodology: Questionnaires (SD)
😒Methodology: Correlational
😒Deterministic
😒Reductionist