SOCIAL THEORIES

Question 1

What is obedience?

Answer 1

Compliance with an order, request, or low

Submission to another’s authority

Question 2

What is moral strain?

Answer 2

The distress experienced by an order going against our conscience and morals

Question 3

What are defence mechanisms?

Answer 3

Denial
Avoidance
Degree of involvement
Helping the learner

Question 4

How can moral strain be lessened? Why?

Answer 4

Going into the agentic state

The authority figure is then responsible for our actions

Question 5

What is the autonomous state?

Answer 5

Perceiving oneself to be responsible for our own behaviour and acting of our own free will

Question 6

What is the agentic state?

Answer 6

Perceiving oneself to be the agent of an authority figure and following their commands to diffuse responsibility

Question 7

What are the explanations for agentic shift?

Answer 7

Obedience is a survival trait that has been carried down through genes

Operant conditioning (reward obedience, punish disobedience in childhood)

Question 8

What supporting evidence is there for agency theory?

Answer 8

Milgram (1963)/ Burger (2009) - participants showed moral strain but still obeyed

The holocaust, Rwandan Genocide, Abu Ghraib

Meeus and Raaijmakers (1986) / Shanab and Yahya (1978) -similar results in Holland/Jordan

Question 9

What conflicting evidence is there for Agency theory?

Answer 9

Social Impact Theory (Latane)

French and Raven/Adorno - personality factors

Moral strain was not seen by disobedient participants (milgram)

Reductionist

Deterministic

Question 10

How can agency theory be applied to society?

Answer 10

Reduce prejudice and discrimination - authority figures order tolerance and understanding

Reduce risks of blind obedience - reduce authority figures having too much power through checks and balances / holocaust Memorial Day

Question 11

Is agency theory testable?

Answer 11

Yes: Moral strain can be witnessed and recorded as seen in Milgram and Burgers studies

No: is difficult to measure whether someone is in an autonomous state or agentic state

Question 12

What is the equation for social impact theory?

Answer 12

i=f(SIN)

i - impact
f - function
S - strength
I - immediacy 
N - number

Question 13

What are the three social forces?

Answer 13

Number
Strength
Immediacy

Question 14

What does number mean in social impact theory?

Answer 14

How many sources and targets there are in a situation trying to influence/being influenced

Question 15

What does strength mean in social impact theory?

Answer 15

How respected/important you perceive a group or person

Question 16

What does immediacy mean in social impact theory?

Answer 16

How close a person is to another in a social situation

How recent the influence was

Question 17

Give evidence supporting number in social impact theory

Answer 17

Milgram, Bickman and Berkowitz

42% looked up with one confederate
86% looked up with fifteen confederates

Question 18

Give evidence supporting strength in social impact theory

Answer 18

Variation 13 (ordinary man)
65% in original experiment
20% in variation 13

Question 19

Give evidence supporting immediacy in social impact theory

Answer 19

Variation 7 (telephone)

65% obeyed in original
22.5% in variation 7

Question 20

What is the psychosocial law?

Answer 20

When the number of sources increases, obedience increases, but at lower intervals with each source added

The most impact comes from the first source

Question 21

What is the divisional effect?

Answer 21

The impact force is distributed amongst all targets

The larger the target audience size, the smaller the influence (diffusion of responsibility)

Question 22

What is the multiplicative effect?

Answer 22

The combination of strength, number, and immediacy increases the impact of obedience

Question 23

What supporting evidence is there for Social Impact Theory?

Answer 23

Sedikides and Jackson (1990) - “don’t lean on the rails” zoo uniform vs ordinary man

Question 24

What conflicting evidence is there for social impact theory?

Answer 24

Mullen (1985) - meta analysis shows strength/immediacy had weak correlation and lacked consistency

Reductionist - breaks down the brain into a formula

Does not address personality

Agency theory

Question 25

How can social impact theory be applied to society?

Answer 25

Generalisable to most groups due to an equation

Can predict human behaviour to prevent dangerous levels of obedience

Question 26

Is social impact theory testable?

Answer 26

Yes - maths equation presents easy quantitive data, reliable