social influence-obedience Flashcards
what is obedience
a type of social influence whereby a person acts in response to a direct or explicit order from a person with percieved legitimate authority
what is the opposite of obedience
dissent or definace
why is it important to study obedience
maintains law and order
allows society to keep functioning
it prevents atrocities from happening in the future
what is blind obedience
when people obey without questioning leads to negative consequences
how where volunteers recruited in milgrams study
in a newspaper AD via volunteer sampling technique
what is a volunteer sample technique
where participants offer to take part in your research
what are some strengths of the volunteer sampling technique
quick
easy
convenient
what are some weaknesses of the volunteer sampling technique
-tend to get similar personality types-not representative which skews results
gender/age/pay/class of volunteers
male
20-50
$4.50
from a range of educational levels eg-high school teachers, salesmen and engineers
where/what was the study about
prestigious yale university
about obedience but they were deceived and thought it was a memory study
strength of milgrams sample
20-50-range of ages-representative of society
-from different educational levels
weakness of milgrams sample
-all where volunteers-tend to be same personality type
-all male
procedure of milgrams experiment
a confederate “mr wallace” was always the learner and the true participant was always the teacher and the experimenter was wearing a grey lab coat. The learner was wired with fake electrodes each time they got an answer wrong the teacher would shock them which rose in increments of 15V(as it was less commitment). when the teacher got to 300V the learner pounded on the wall then gave no response after the 315V the learner pounded on the wall but there was no further response. Each time they looked for guidance they would be given a verbal prod
why where the participants exposed to the same feedback from the experimenter
standardised
consistent results
what behaviours where participants displaying
showing signs of extreme stress eg-sweat, tremble ,groan and dig fingernails into skin (its unethical)
what where the findings of milgrams experiment
100% 300V
65% 450V
people blindly obey despite negative consequences
what did milgrams students and colleges predict
2-3% would continue to the end
-they said they wouldn’t shock people (shows self-report measures are invalid and do not measure what they intend to)
what did millgram conclude
that people go against their moral conscious due to situational factors
how did millgrams ease his patients
he carried out a debreifing session and made annual contact with the patients
what is meant by situational variables
factors from the environment that may impact on behaviour
what is the opposite of situational variables
dispositional variables eg-personality
what situational variables led to the obedinace seen in milgrams study
-location-prestigious YALE university
-uniform-grey lab coat
-proximity-experimenter not in the same room
how did proximity affect obedience
when the experimenter was in a different room and gave instructions via the phone obedience dropped to 21%
-this suggests that when we are faced with the consequences of our action blind obedience drops
how does location affect obedience
when the experiment was conducted in Yale 65% went to 450 vs the 47.5% in the run-down office building
-there is more perceived legitimate authority in the prestigious Yale university
How does uniform affect obedience
-when the experimenter was wearing normal clothes as appose to they grey lab coat obedience dropped to 20% as there’s less perceived legitimate authority
how do we evaluate studies
Reliability-measure of consistency
Application to real life-do the findings of the research have practical applications
Validity
internal validity-concerned with what goes on inside the study
external validity-can the findings be generalised beyond the study-is it representative of different groups in society
Ethical flaws-how did they deal with the issue
how was Milgram’s study reliable
he used a standardised procedure eg-15V increments and verbal prods
-this meant the study could be replicated and therefore reliability could be assessed
-Milgram’s study has been replicated numerous amounts of times and consistent results have been found eg-Hofling, Bickman
how can milgrams study be applied to real life
-its shows our surprising tendency towards destructive obedience therefore helps us understand historical events eg-holocaust so we can prevent them from happening in the future
-helps us to increase obedience in eg-schools, workplaces, prisons
how did milgrams study show internal validity
-it was a well controlled-it was in a laboratory setting which meant he measure cause and effect relationship between the IV-presence of authority figure and DV-levels of shocks administered
how did Milgram’s study not show internal validity
-Perry (2013) listened back to the tapes an noticed participants expressed doubts about the shocks
this suggests participants may have been displaying DEMAND CHARACTERISTICS
what are demand characteristics
when participants try to make sense of a research situation and act accordingly
-leads to social desirability bias
how do demand characteristics impact the validity of a study
it means the participants are trying to appease or appose (screw you effect) which mean results are unreliable/low internal validity
what is social desirability bias
the tendancy for participants to present themselves in the best possible light
how does Milgram’s study have external validity
population validity is increased due to the range of backgrounds of the sample group
range of ages and backgrounds 20-50 eg-school teachers to engineers
therefore its representative of wider population
how does Milgram’s study NOT show external validity
used a sample of 40 male American volunteers from a individualistic society
unable to generalise the results to collectivist cultures or females
what is a beta bias
when the differences between men and women are minimised
what is alpha bias
when the differences between men and women are exaggerated
what does androcentric mean
male bias-focussed on males
what is ecological validity
if the findings can be generalised to real life/not in controlled setting
what does mundane realism mean
how close the experiment is to real life
Why should psychological studies be replicated
Improved reliability
What was the procedure of hoflings study
A confederate “dr smith” phoned 22 nurses and asked them to give his patient mr Jones 20 my of the unfamiliar drug astrofen and said he would sign the authorisation form later on. The label stated the max dose was 10 mg
21/22 obeyed without hesitation
When he asked a control group of 22 nurses 21 said they would not have obeyed-shows self report measure are not valid
What idea from milgrams study does hoflings research support
That location increases obedience as a hospital is a professional setting.
self-report measures aren’t valid
uniform and location>proximity as orders were taken over the phone
They where more likely to take orders
how does Hofling support the external validity of Milgrams findings
study has high ecological validity but still found the same results as milgram which increases the validity of Milgrams study
what was Bickmans experiment-procedure
he demonstrated obedience in the real world using a field experiment
he had a confederate dressed in 3 outfits eg-milkman.security guard and pedestrian
the confederate gave instructions eg-pick up litter
what were the findings of Bickmans
experiment
guard-76%
milkman-47%
pedestrian-30%
what is a field experiment
occurs in participants natural environment
what are the issues with Bickmans research
ecological validity issues-dont get asked instructions day to day
what did rank and Jacobson criticize
the ecological validity of Hoflings study
the drug was unfamiliar to the nurses and they didn’t have the opportunity to consult other nurses
when these aspects where changed only 2/18 nurses obeyed the doctor
what happens in an autonomous state
the individual acts according to their own free will/principles
they will feel responsibility for their actions and therefore guilt
when is agentic shift triggered
when an individual is given instructions by an authority figure
what happens in an agentic state
the individual sees themselves as acting on behalf of an authority figure
so they no longer feel responsible/guilty
therefore absolving them of the consequences of their actions
it allows them to commit acts they personally appose
what is moral strain
when an authority figure issues an order that goes against an individuals conscious
we have 2 contradictory urges
a)to obey authority figure (and societies expectations)
b)to obey out own conscious (keep our self-image and be a good person)
Going into agentic state removes moral strain
how does going into agentic state remove moral strain
as we now regard the authority figure for being responsible for our actions
what is a binding factor
aspects of a situation that allow a person to ignore of minimise the damaging effects of their behaviour
eg-coming across rude or arrogant
shifting blame to the victim for volnteering
what is some supporting evidence for agentic state
-in the after experiment interview the participants continued as they thought the authority figure would take responsibility for anything that happened to the learner
-obedience increased when the authority figure explicitly stated they would take responsibility for any harm caused to the learner. Tinker found a reduction in obedience when they were told they were responsible for their own action
what is some counter evidence for agentic shift
-does not explain rank and jacobsons research findings. The nurses stayed autonomous despite the fact the doctor was an obvious authority figure
-not all participents went to 450V (65%)
what is an explanation for not seeing 100% obedience
individual differences- personality, mood we are in
what is legitimate authority
the amount of social power held by the person
why do we obey those with legitimate authority
as we have been socialised to believe its in our best interests and they are competent
how is legitimacy increased
by visible symbols of authority eg-uniform
what did blass and schmitt find and how does it help prove the legitimacy of authority
played a film of Milgrams experiment and asked who they felt was responsible for the harm to the learner
the students blamed the experimenter and indicated it was due to his expert authority (as he was a scientists) and his legitimate authority
a counter argument for the legitimacy of authority
(weakness of legitimacy of authority)
it does not explain disobedience
eg-rank and jacobson found that 16/18 nurses disobeyed the doctor (being an obvious authority figure) and the hospital being a rigid hierarchal structure
what is the authoritarian personality
-it is a dispositional explanation for obedience
how is authoritarian personaility characterised
-characterised by extreme respect/submissiveness for authority
-hostile towards those with lower rank
-believe in domination of minorities
what is scale authoritarian personality is measured by
f-scale
how does authoritarian personality develop
-as a result of strict authoritarian parenting where harsh physical punishments have been used
-this caused the child to feel hostile towards the parents
-this creates anxiety and conflict the feelings of resentment and hostility are therefore repressed and displaced onto others
what is the aim of Ardernos study
-he wanted to understand the antisemitism of the holocaust
-milgrams research suggested that we are all capable of obedience due to situational factors
-Arderno argued that obedience is a psychological disorder linked to an individuals personality (dispositonal)
what was the procedure of adernos study
-conducted a study of over 2000 middle class white men
-they used a questionare called the f-scale which measure facist tendencies
what is a limitation of this proceduce
lacks population validity
what were the findings of ardernos study
people who scored highly on the f-scale
-identified with “Strong” people and showed disrespect towards the weak
-they were more status-conscious
-showed excessive respect to those of higher power
-they had a particular cognitive style which categorised others into specific stereotypical categories- leading towards a strong correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice
what were the conclusion of adernons study
-people with authoritarian personality were more obedient towards authority figures
-they showed extreme submissiveness and respect
-believe that society required strong leadership to enforce strong traditional values
-express contempt for people of inferior social status
-tend to follow orders and view other groups a responsible for societies ills
what is a limitation of using self report measures eg-questionnaires
lacks validity as people present social desirability bias
what did elms and millgram observe
they interviewed obedient participants from Milgram’s study
-those who were fully obedient scored higher on the f-scale compared to 20 disobedient people
what did zilmer et al observe
(apposing evidence)
16 nazi war criminal scored highly on 3 of the f-scale dimentions but not all 9
