social influences

Question 1

what is autonomous state?

Answer 1

when a person sees themselves responsible for their own actions

Question 2

what is agentic state?

Answer 2

a person sees himself or herself as an agent for carrying out another person’s wishes.

Question 3

what is agentic shift?

Answer 3

involves a person moving from seeing themselves as responsible for their own actions (autonomous state) into a a state where a person sees themself as an agent for carrying out another’s wishes (agentic state).

Question 4

What is legitimate authority?

Answer 4

a person who is perceived to be in a position of social control within a situation.

Question 5

what is locus of control?

Answer 5

It refers to a person’s perception of personal control over their own behaviour.

Question 6

what’s a person’s conformity like when they have an Internal LOC?

Answer 6

they’re more likely to resist normative social influence.

People with a Internal Locus of Control believe what happens to them is largely a consequence of their own ability and effort.

Question 7

what’s a person’s conformity like when they have an external LOC?

Answer 7

likely to conform more often because they believe external factors are important

Question 8

What is flexibility?

Answer 8

it’s a willingness to be flexible and to compromise when expressing an emotion

Question 9

what is commitment?

Answer 9

the degree to which members of a minority are dedicated to a particular cause or activity

Question 10

What is the f-scale?

Answer 10

Also known as the “Fascism Scale a measure of authoritarian traits or tendencies. Used to measure the different components that made up the Authoritarian Personality.

Question 11

What does dispositional mean?

Answer 11

Explanation of behaviours that are emphasised by being caused by an individual’s own personal characteristic rather than situational influences(external factor), within the environment

Question 12

What is social change?

Answer 12

it’s when a society or a section of society adopts new beliefs

Question 13

What are social norms interventions?

Answer 13

they’re attempts to correct misperceptions of the normative behaviour of peers in an attempt to change the risky behaviour of a target population

Question 14

Define externality

Answer 14

individuals who tend to believe that their behaviour and experience is caused by events outside their control

Question 15

Define internality

Answer 15

individuals who tend to believe that they’re responsible for their own behaviour and experience

Question 16

What is an Authoritarian Personality?

Answer 16

A distinct personality pattern characterised by strict adherence to conventional values and a belief in absolute obedience or submission to authority.

Question 17

What are the situational factors of obedience?

Answer 17

Proximity
Location
Uniform

Question 18

Describe the procedure of Milgram’s experiment (situational factors affecting obedience)

Answer 18

40 males, 20-50 year old volunteers who answered newspaper ads for a study on “ memory”
Two experimental confederates: an experimenter, and a 47 year old man who was introduced as a vol participant
The selection process was rigged so that the participant was always teacher.
Another confederate was dressed in a lab coat was the “experimenter/professor” strapped the learner to a chair in a separate room and attached electrodes.

Question 19

Give some criticisms about Milgram’s experiment.

Answer 19

Unethical (deception, psychological/physical harm)

lacked mundane realism (perry)

Question 20

What are situational factors?

Answer 20

(AKA External factors) are influences that don’t occur within the individual but from elsewhere like the environment and others around you.

Question 21

Describe the effect of proximity on obedience?

Answer 21

In the prox study teacher + learner were in the same room obedience rates dropped to 40%.
In an more extreme variation the teacher forced the hand of the learner onto the shock plate obedience rate fell to 30%.
experimenter absent study, instructions done through telephone 21% 450V

Question 22

Describe the effect of location on obedience?

Answer 22

The studies were done at Yale.
Milgram moved his study to a run down office in Bridgeport, with no obvious affiliations to Yale. Obedience rates dropped but not by much 48% of participants delivered the 450 volt max shock (65% in the yale study)

Question 23

Describe the effect of uniform on obedience?

Answer 23

Bushman (1988) carried out a study where a female researcher dressed either in a “police style” uniform, as a business executive or as a beggar, stopped people on the street and told them to give change to a male researcher for an expired parking meter.
Uniform: 72% obeyed
Business executive: 48%
Beggar: 52%

Question 24

Talk about social support and resisting obedience

Answer 24

Research has shown that individuals are generally more confident in their ability to resist temptation if they have an ally who is willing to join them to oppose the authority figure.
e.g In Milgram’s variation the participant was in a group of 3 testing the learner the other 2 were confederates who one, after the other refused to continue shocking and withdrew.
10% of participants went to 450 volts.