Social Psychology Flashcards
A01 of agency theory
Agency theory states that when an individual is asked to do something by authority figure, they will switch from autonomous state to agentic state. In the autonomous state they act upon free will. In the agentic state, ppts will act as an agent to the authority figure and follow orders. Moral strain occurs when a person is asked to do something they don’t want to do, this is reduced by switching to the agent state.
Supporting evidence of agency theory
Milgram study, found that people are more likely to follow orders from an authoritative figure. Many ppts didn’t feel responsible for their own actions
Conflicting evidence of agency theory
The ordinary man variation found that people don’t always respect their authoritative figure.
Other explanations of agency theory
Milgrams variation and social impact theory.
Usefulness of agency theory
Explains why people follow orders and the process behind hierarchy. Eg. German soldiers in ww2
Test ability of agency theory
Milgrams research is standardised and therefore reliable. Low in internal validity.
Autonomous state and a Gentic state cannot be measured in empirical way (subjective and not scientific)
Weakness of agency theory
Assumes all societies are in a hierarchy and those at the bottom follow orders, this doesn’t explain why those at the top would follow an order. Therefore cannot explain every case of obedience.
Burger A01
Replicated Milgrams study. Screamed out everyone with a mental problem using a questionnaire and a clinical psychologist. Contained 29 men and 41 women. Maximum shock was 150 V. Sample shock was 15 V. Told twice in writing and once verbally they could withdraw but were still given prods.
70% went to 150 V
In the model refusal 63.3% went to 150 V.
Social impact theory
Strength- how much power you believe the person influencing you has
Immediacy- how recent the order was given and how close they were to giving you it.
Numbers - The more people putting pressure on you, the more Social force.
Divisional effect- The more targets there are to impact, the less strength authority figure has.
Multiplicative effect- The impact of S I N, multiplied together is greater than an individual element.
Other explanations of Impact theory
Agency theory, H: impact theory takes more situational factors into account.
Usefulness of impact theory
Useful to real world such as large crowds at football matches
Supporting evidence for impact theory
Sedikides and Jackson - dressed as a zookeeper or a civilian in a zoo and told people to stand back from the rails. Found high strength and high immediacy exerted more impact.
Aronson- conformity will increase as the strength and immediacy increase
Contradictory evidence for impact theory
Mullin- conducted meta analysis of strength and immediacy. Concluded that strength and immediacy were weak and lacked consistency.
Breaking down impact into a basic mathematical formula is reductionist
Sherif et al a01
22 boys age 11 from Protestant Oklahoma families were matched with IQ and sporting ability. We’re placed in a summer camp into groups (bears and rattlers). Tournament started good but the two groups began fighting and name-calling “sneak”. Boys took part in raids and began setting other camps on fire. At the end both groups would work together to complete a superordinate goal, such as fixing the camp water.
Strengths of sherif
Low in demand characteristics as boys didn’t know they were being studied.
Triangulation of data collection therefore high validity.
Observed and therefore standardised and replicable, so high reliability.

