social influence- obedience

Question 1

milgram’s study- procedure (3)

Answer 1

-40 american males volunteered through adverts- $4.50 reward
-fixed draw for the role- participant was teacher, confederate was learner/experimenter
-learner was strapped in a chair, teacher increased shock intensity for every mistake-shocks were fake (15V-450V)

Question 2

milgram’s study- findings (3)

Answer 2

-no participant stopped below 300V
-65% continued to 450V compared to predicted 3% before experiment
-participants showed extreme signs of distress- during debrief they were assured their behaviour was normal

Question 3

what were 2 of the experimenter’s prods

Answer 3

please continue
you have no choice but to continue

Question 4

proximity variable for milgram’s study (3)

Answer 4

-teacher and learner in same room- teacher could see learner and experience their pain directly: obedience dropped to 40%
-touch condition: obedience dropped to 30%
-remote instruction- teachers ‘cheated’ by pretending to shock: obedience dropped to 20.5%

Question 5

location variable milgram’s study (3)

Answer 5

-yale uni->run-down office: obedience dropped to 47.5%
-location gave confidence in the integrity of the people involved
-many said they wouldn’t have shocked the learner if it had been carried out elsewhere

Question 6

uniform variable milgram’s study

Answer 6

-experimenter received inconvenient phone call and was replaced by confederate in everyday clothes: obedience dropped to 20%

Question 7

what is agentic state (2)

Answer 7

-mental state where we feel no personal responsibility for our behaviour as we believe we are acting for an authority figure
-frees us from the demands of our consciences and allows us to obey even a destructive authority figure

Question 8

binding factors of agentic state

Answer 8

-we remain in agentic shift due to aspects of the situation which allows us to ignore/minimise the damaging effect of our behaviour
-reduces moral strains we feel

Question 9

what is autonomous state

Answer 9

-we’re free to behave according to our principles- we’re responsible for our actions

Question 10

what is agentic shift

Answer 10

shift from autonomous–>agentic state

Question 11

what is legitimacy of authority

Answer 11

we are more likely to obey people above is in the social hierarchy as they have more authority over us

Question 12

consequences of legitimacy of authority

Answer 12

destructive authority figures eg. Hitler
-shown in milgram’s study- experimenter’s prods made participants behave in ways that were against their consciences

Question 13

adorno’s procedure

Answer 13

invesigated causes of AP
->2000 middle class american men
-studied their unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups
-questionnaire used to determine F-scale

Question 14

what is the f-scale

Answer 14

a fascism scale to measure AP
high score=high AP

Question 15

findings from adorno’s study (4)

Answer 15

-people who scored high identified with strong people and were contemptuous of the ‘weak’
-conscious of their own and others’ status- showed excessive respect, deference and servility to those of higher status
-no fuzziness between categories of people, with fixed and distinctive stereotypes
-strong positive correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice

Question 16

what are dispositional factors

Answer 16

internal explanations eg. personality/individual reasons for obedience

Question 17

what is an authoritarian personality

Answer 17

a personality that adorno argued was susceptible to obeying people in authority

Question 18

what is the psycho dynamic theory (3)

Answer 18

-adorno concluded AP stemmed from childhood influences
-children with harsh+disciplinarian parents displace anger onto ‘inferior’ people- SCAPEGOATING
-on a surface level, they idolise their parents but unconsciously fear+despise them which arises the need to displace this anger