Social Influence Booklet Two Obedience Flashcards
What is obedience?
A type of social Influence whereby someone acts in response to a direct order from a figure with perceived authority
What is agentic state?
A person who sees themselves as an agent for carrying out another person’s wishes
What is an authoritarian personality?
A distinct personality pattern characterised by strict adherence conventional values and a belief in absolute obedience or submission to authority
What does dispositional mean?
An explanation of behaviours such as obedience emphasise them being caused by an individual’s own personal characteristics rather than situational influences within the environment
What is the F scale?
Also known as ‘California F scale’ or ‘Facism Scale’. Is a measure of authoritarian traits or tendicies.
What is a right-wing authoritarianism?
A cluster of personality variables that are associated with ‘right-wing’ attitudes to life.
Milgram was a __________ key study in 1963
Obedience
Stanley Milgram wanted to test the ‘are ______ different’ hypothesis so he created a ___ experiment to test obedience. This would test the dispositional versus the ____________ hypothesis.
Germans
Lab
Situational
In the volunteer sample, how many Americans were there?
40
Experiment of ‘______’ - deceived (milgrams method study?)
Learning
What were the allocation of roles in the milgram study?
Teacher and learner
Pps saw _______ strapped to electric shock ( in the milgram study?)
Learner
Are the mild shocks real or fake in the milgram study?
Real
The experimenter used experimenter ______ which means the experimenter requires the pp to continue
Prods
What were the results that were found in milgram study?
65% of pps delivered the full 450v shocks and all subjects went to 300v
What conculsuoj was drawn from the Milgram study?
It’s supports the agentic state theory (you are an agent of someone else’s ideas or orders)
What were the strengths of Milgrams study?
It had internal reliability and internal validity
What weaknesses were drawn from the Milgram study?
Ethical issues - mental harm
Chance of demand characteristics - artifical
Low ecological validity - artificial
Low population validity - only American men
What were the 3 factors in the situational variables affecting obedience in Milgrams variation studies?
Proximity, location and uniform
When the teacher and learner were in the same room, obedience fell to _________?
40%
When the teacher forced the learners hand to receive a chock, obedience fell to ______?
30%
When the experimenter gave orders over the phone, obedience fell to _____?
21%
When the location was in a run-down office, obedience fell to ____
48%
Field experiments attempt to overcome ______ ________________ and low ____________ ________
Demand characteristics
Ecological validity
These field experiments show power of an ______
Uniform
In Hofling et Al - the doctors and nurses experiment, how many staff nurses were on a night duty in the psychiatric hospital?
22
The nurses were phoned by ‘Doctor Smith’ and told to give a patient ___mg dose of ________
20
Astrogen
Astroten was labeled ‘____ _____ 10mg’
Max dose
How many nurses obeyed orders in the Hofling et Al study?
21
In Bickmans study, various of uniforms were used when asking passers-by to carry out unusual orders, give an example.
Picking up litter
What percentage complied with uniform compared to the 42% with those in normal clothes.
92%
What percentage of people carried out the unusual orders when I’m a milkman uniform?
47%
One strength of Milgrams findings were?
That it was replicated in a French documentary.
The French documentary was a ______ show
Game
The participants believe that they were the contestants in a _______ episode
Pilot
The participants were given ____ electrical shocks to actors in front of a ______ audience - behaviour is the same - _________ laughter.
Fake
Studio
Nervous
One weakness of Milgrams study was demand characteristics, use statistics to explain why?
75% believed shocks were genuine. But in et Hollands study not many believe in set up and 2/3 were obedient and 1/2 believed shocks were real. Shows demand characteristics.
When the Experimenter played by a member of the public, obedience fell to ___
20%
Another strength of situational variables affecting obedience is that there is research evidence to support internal validity of the experiment. Explain, give an example and link.
Explain - gave real shocks to puppy, pps from orders from experimenter.
Example - 54% of men and 100% of women gave what they thought a fatal shock
Link - was genuine and people were obedient even when shocked
For the situational variables affecting obedience, a weakness is that there was ethical issues. Explain, give examples and link
Explain - pps were decieved
Example - Pps thought allocation of roles was random; was fixed and thought shocks were real
Link - deception in psychological studies can have serious consequences for pps and researcher
For situational variables affecting obedience, a weakness is that there is danger of situational perspective. Explain, give examples and link
Explain - Mandel argued that it offers and excuse for evil behaviour. It’s offensive for survivours of the Holocaust to suggest nazis were obeying orders
Examples - Milgrams explanation ignores roles of dispositional factors
Link-it’s a different situation to the Nazis
In agentic state the person sees themselves as the agent or ___________ of others. They carry out their orders but do not feel __________ for their actions
Subordinate,
Responsible
The change from _________ to an agentic state is known as _____ _______
Autonomous,
Agentic shift
Legitimate authority - refers to the amount of social power held by the person who gives the instruction: give both examples
1) reflects hierarchical system that we are taught
2) we trust them/ power to punish us
Legitimate authority - supporting research:
Give all 3 and explain
Milgram: experimenter has legitimate authority over teacher
Bickman: when in security clothing, have legitimate authority
Hofling: doctor has legitimate authority over nurse
Gradual commitment - becoming locked into obenice in small stages, is what
The foot and dorr technique
Gradual commitment - supporting research for milgram
15v incrimants
Situational explanations of obedience: Agentic state is a limited explanation. Explain, give an example and link.
Explain: Does not explain findings of Jacobson’s study as 16/18 hospital nurses disobeyed orders from doctors.
Example: Almost all nurses remained autonomous, as many of Milgrams pps.
Link: Agentic shift can only account for some situations of obedience
Situational explanations of obedience: One weakness is the ‘obedience alibi’ Explain, give examples and link.
Mandel described one incident in WW2 involving German Reserve Police Battalion 101, critising Milgram suggesting agentic state offers excuses for evil.
Example: men shot civilians in small town in Poland, despite no direct orders to do so, acting in an autonomous way.
Link: shows some authority figures were in control in making a decision but we’re not obedient reducing validity of the theory.
Situational explanations of obedience: One strength of legitimate authority is that it explains cultural differences. Explain, give examples and link.
Explain: Kilham and Mann found that only 16% of Australian women went all the way up to 450v in a Milgrams style study
Example: Mantell for German pps it was 85%, so, in some cultures authority is more likely to be accepted as legitimate
Link: reflects some societies are structured and how children raised to perceive authority figures
Situational explanations of obedience: One weakness is that it cannot explain all disobedience. Explain, give examples and link.
Explain: nurses in Rank and Jacobson’s study were mostly disobedient and significant minority of Milgrams pps disobeyed
Example: suggests some people may be more or less obedient than others
Link: innate tendicies to obey or to disobey have greater influence on behaviour than the legitimacy of an authority figure.
Situational explanations of obedience: One strength of legitimate authority is that it explains real world crimes. Explain, give examples and link.
Kelmen and Hamilton argued that a real world crime of obedience can be understood in terms of the power hiercahy of the US Army
Example: the commanding officers operate within a clearer legitimate hierarchy than hospital doctors and have a greater power to punish.
Link: those prepared to disobey a legitimate authority cannot clearly see the legitimate hierarchy
Adorno argued people with an ____________ personality first of all show an extreme respect for authority. Second, such people view society as ‘______’ than it once was, so to believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce __________ values such as love of country and family. Both of these ________________ make people with an authoritarian personality more likely to obey orders form a source of authority.
Authoritarian, weaker, traditional, characteristics
Right wing authoritarianism: refined concept of authoritarian personality by identifying 3 personality __________ that he referred to As ___
Variables, RWA
High right wing authoritarianism possess what?
1) conentionism - adherence to conventional norms
2) authoritarian aggression - aggressive feelings towards people who violate social norms
3) authoritarian submission - uncritical submission to legitimate authorities
These all predisposed to obedience
Elms and Milgrams study: procedure in 4 bullet points.
- carried out a follow up study using pps who had taken part in Milgrams orginal studies
- selected 20 ‘obedient’ pps who had gone to 450v and 20 ‘disobedient’ pps who had not gone to 450V.
- Each pp completed a California F Scale to measure levels of authoritarianism
-pps were also asked questions about their attitude towards the experimenter and learner.
Elms and Milgrams studiea: findings
Found higher levels of authoritarianism among ‘obedient’ pps.
Obedient pps described seeing experimenter as more admirable and the learner less so.
Elms and Milgrams studies: what are the strenghs.
High reliability - all pps answered the same California F-Scale Questionnaire.
Elms and Milgrams studies: what are the weaknesses?
Chance of demand characteristics - pps could lie and give wrong answers
No cause and effect - other factors may cause authoritarian personality or obedience
Chance of acquiescene bias
Low population vailidity - 40 American men
Dispositional explanations of obedience: Counterpoint to Milgram and Elms. Explain, give examples and link.
Explain - when California F Scale viewed, obedient pps had a number of unusual characteristics for authoritarians
Example - Milgrams obedient pps generally did not glorify their fathers, no unusual levels of punishment experienced in childhood.
Link - link between obedience and authoritarianism is complex.
Dispositional explanations of obedience: it is a limited explanation. Explain, give examples and link
Explain - in pee war Germany, millions of individuals displayed obedient and anti-sematic behaviour.
Example - seemed unlikely that they all Possessed an authoritarian personality. An alternative view was that majority of German people identified with Anti-sematic nazis state.
Link - Adorno’s theory is limited because an alternative explanation is much more realistic.
Dispositional explanations of obedience: there is political bias. Explain, give examples and link.
Explain The California F Scale was argued to be politically biased interpretation of authoritarian personality.
Example: Extreme right wing and left wing ideologies have a lot in common, emphasising importance of complete obedience to political authority
Link - Adorno’s theory was not comprehensive dispositional explanation that accounts for obedience for authority across the whole political spectrum.
