Social Influence, Obedience

Question 1

Milgrim prodecure

Answer 1

• 40 volunteer sampling
• mr Wallace confederate - learner
  Naive pp teacher
• ask questions and punish if answer incorrect
  -electric shock, increments of 15 up to 450
• switched marked by danger level
• mr Wallace demented to leave as shocks increase
• experimenter = please continue

Question 2

Milgrim findings

Answer 2

• 100% shock up to 300
• 65% up to 450
• showed stress: sweating, trembling, anxious and hysterical laughter

Question 3

Milgrim evaluation +

Answer 3

• Cost benefit analysis conducted, study was worthwhile
• now know most people would do same and won’t blindly follow orders
• 84% said they were happy to take part
• no long term emotional disturbances

Question 4

Milgrim evaluation -

Answer 4

• deception, told the study was about memory
• lack of informed consent
• lied about me Wallace’s heart and electric shocks
• psychological harm
• no right to withdraw

Question 5

Proximity

Answer 5

• Teacher and learner together, 40%
• touch pro smith variation, force arm on metal plate = 30%
• experimenter left, obedience =21%

Question 6

Location

Answer 6

• Rundown office, 48%
• Yale = integrity
• rundown office = less legitimacy of authority

Question 7

Uniform

Answer 7

• show power and status
• uniform = visible symbol authority
  -confederate asking passer-by to pick up litter
• confederate in uniform = 90%
• ordinary clothes = 50%

Question 8

Agentic state

Answer 8

• situational explaination
• agentic shift from autonomous state
  -authors figure = responsible so no guilt
• those in authority seem trustworthy
• to maintain positive self image
• buffer to protect from consequences of actions

Question 9

Agentic state +

Answer 9

• less likely to shock when mr Wallace in the room, no buffer so less likely to be Agentic state
• obedience dropped once experimenter left = no authority figure so cannot go to Agentic state

Question 10

Agentic state -

Answer 10

• no buffer should mean no Agentic state
• Mandel reported case of major wilhelm trapp
• 1942 polish village Jozefow, major trapp ordered kill Jews
• members of battalion given chance to say no - most did it

Question 11

Legitimacy authority

Answer 11

• social hierarchy
• authority figure has right to issue command
• do not obey those equal or lower
• increases by visible symbols like uniform, location, proximity

Question 12

Legitimacy of authority +

Answer 12

• Hofling, nurses told over phone by ‘dr smith’ to give 20 milligrams of drug(sugar pill) , twice maximum dosage, 95% carried out orders, location = more important than proximity and doctors have legitimate authority
  + bickman, uniform and litter, with uniform 90%, without uniform 50%

Question 13

Legitimacy of authority -

Answer 13

• some people resist
• 35% Milgrim study refused to obey experimenter

Question 14

Authoritarian personality

Answer 14

• Dispositional
• collection of traits: servile to higher status, hostile to lower status, inflexible, dogmatic
• developed due to strict parenting and physical punishment
• displaced hostility onto weaker
• take anger out on lower status because cannot take out on parents
• submissive to parents and authority figures
• score high on f scale

Question 15

Authoritarian personality +

Answer 15

• miller high f scale more likely to give themselves shock when told to compared low f scale
• Altemeyer, pp give themselves increasing shock when mistake on task, significant correlation between willing to shock and high f scale score

Question 16

Authoritarian personality -

Answer 16

• situational variables maybe > Dispositional, obedience 100% when mr Wallace no sound, obedience 0% when two authority figures disagreed in front of learner
• cannot explain entire society, <65% people = authoritarian personality so cannot be only explaination