Obedience

Question 1

What is obdeience

Answer 1

when we follow instructions of an authority figure

Question 2

what is the autonomous state

Answer 2

when we are responsible for our own behaviour

Question 3

what is the agentic state

Answer 3

when we act as agent to authroity and pass over the responsibility to them

Question 4

what are binding factors

Answer 4

aspects of a situatiom that allow a person to ignore the damaging affercts of their behaviour to reduce moral strain.
example- shifting responsibility to a victim

Question 5

what is the agentic shift

Answer 5

going from the autonomous state to the agentic state, carry out orders without thinking as they belive authority to be responsible

Question 6

Strength for agentic state

Answer 6

supporting evidence from Milgrams study
in his original study some participants experienced moral strain when deciding to obey, laughing fits and 3 participants having seizures
however, those participants who did not obey did not experience this as they were in the autonomous state
this supports agentic state as although people may feel uncomfritbale obeying, they will do so when in the magnetic state

Question 7

Weakness of agentic state

Answer 7

describes rather than explain
the theroy states people obey as they are agents to authority
it does not say how the magnetic shift takes place and what processes are involved or how it can be measured
harder to carry out research to test this theory, awakening its validity

other explanations

Question 8

what is legitimate authority

Answer 8

this is when we obey people at the top of the hierarchy as we see them as legitimate and they hold authority over the rest of us.
authority can be legitimate through their uniform

Question 9

factors that make authority legitimate

Answer 9

• obey people at the top of the hierarchy
• they have legitimacy through society and we allow them to exercise their power over other to allow society to run smoothly
• we hand control over behaviour to authority due to our trust and upbringing

Question 10

consequences of legitimate authority

Answer 10

• some people are granted the power to punish others

- we give up some of our independence to people we trust to exercise their authority appropriately

Question 11

Strength of legitimate authority

Answer 11

research evidence to support - Tarnow, aviation accidence
studied data where a black box flight recorder was available and where flight crew actions contributed in the crash
excessive dependence on the captain’s authority and expertise
one officer claiming although he noticed that captain taking a risk approach, he said nothing and assumed the captain knew what he was doing
safety board concluded errors in 19 of 37 accidents investigated

Question 12

Weakness of legitimate authority

Answer 12

other explanations - foot in the door technique
gradual commitment suggests that once we obey an authority figure once to a small harmless request
we then find it more difficult to refuse to carry out more serious escalating requests
we cannot assume that having a legitimate authority figure in the only reason that people obey

Question 13

what is authoritarian personality?

Answer 13

it is formed in childhood as a result of harsh parenting which creates hostility and anger in a child which they displace on to weaker individuals in a process called scapegoating

F-scale

Question 14

Traits of AP

Answer 14

• exaggerated respects for authority
• express contempt for people of an inferior status
• conventional attitudes towards race and gender

Question 15

Aim of Theodor Adorno study on AP

Answer 15

to understand the anti-semitism of the holocaust and to see whether obedience is a psychological disorder caused by the personality of an individual

Question 16

Procedure of Adorno study

Answer 16

more than 2000 white middle class americans were study using an f-scale, which investigated the unconscious attitude towards racial groups

Question 17

Adorno findings

Answer 17

P’s who scored highly on the f-scale identified with strong individuals and were contemptuous of the weak
showed excessive respect to those of higher status
strong correlation between authrortarianism and prejudice

Question 18

Adorno conclusions

Answer 18

people with AP tend to be especially obedient to authority

they are inflexible in their outlook and believe we need strong leaders

Question 19

Strenght of authoritarian personality

Answer 19

supporting evidence in Milgrams study
found that ibedient participants scored highly on the f-scale than disobedient participants.
further study found obedient participants reported being less close to their fathers in childhood compared to disobedient participants

supporting AP as those with characteristics known to cause AP were more likely to obey to authority

Question 20

weakness of AP

Answer 20

methodology- cause and effect
it does not show cause and effect
Adorno cannot claim that harsh parenting caused the development of an authoritarian personality
therefore lacks internal validity as it may not have been testing what he thought it was

further weakness of methodology
questionnaires are prone to demand characteristics and this can further reduce the internal validity
Adornos findings may not be accurate so AP may not be a good explnantion for obedience

Question 21

what are the key factors needed for minority to be successful

Answer 21

consistency
flexibility
commitment

Question 22

Give a strength of minority influence

Answer 22

supporting research- lab experiment- Moscovici
asked p’s if slide was blue or green
4 participants and 2 confederates
if 2 conferderates consistently said the slides were green 32% agreed at least once
the consistent minority of 2 infleucneced the majority of 4
which shows that consistency is involved in convincing a minority to become a majority

lab experiment- high control increases internal validity

Question 23

Give a weakness of minority infleuence

Answer 23

Moscovici lab experiment- low ecological validity
not in natural environment or carrying to natural task
in everyday life a consistent minority might not be able to influence the majority

another weakness is the idea of in groups and out groups
people are more likely to move towards their in group
as well as being consistent, flexible and committed we need to share some kind of membership with the majority

Question 24

definition of minority influence

Answer 24

where a minority of pewople persuade others to adapt their beliefs, attitudes and behaviours.
leads to internalisation of views in which private attitudes are changed as well as public

Question 25

7 factors that bring about minority change

Answer 25

1. drawing attention through social proof
2. consistency
3. deeper processing of the issues
4. flexibility
5. commitment
6. snowball effect
7. social cyrptomensia

Question 26

what is the snowball effect

Answer 26

this is when the ideas of the minority begin to take effect, members of the majority begin to move towards the minority. the minority gradually pick up momentum and grow in size and more social change occurs

Question 27

what is social crytomnesia

Answer 27

this is when social change occurs in society and the minoritys belief become and integral part of society
the source of the minority is often forgotten, people know the change has occurred but they cannot remember how it occurred

Question 28

Strength of social influence processes in social change

Answer 28

evidence to support- Nolen et al
-hung messages on front doors every week for one month saying people were saving energy usage
- as a control some residents had a different message just asking to save energy
- he found a significant decrease in energy uses from the first group but not the control group
this supports the idea that social change can occur through normaitve socil influence

Question 29

weakness of social change

Answer 29

people dont want to be associated with bringing about social change
- people relaise social change is necessary but they do not want to be associated with those trying to bring it out
social idnetitity theory suggests that people identify with their ingroups so they will only support a minority if they are part of their in group and not if they belive the minority is right but are part of their out group