Factors Affecting Obedience and Dissent: Individual Differences

Question 1

Define Dissent

Answer 1

Opinions that differ from those held by others. Refusing to carry out orders.

Question 2

Define Resistance

Answer 2

Ability to withstand the social pressure to conform to the majority or to obey authority. Influenced by situational and personality.

Question 3

Define Personality

Answer 3

An individuals characteristic, coherent and relatively stable set of behaviours, attitudes, interests and capabilities. These characteristics can predict future behaviour.

Question 4

Define Gender

Answer 4

A persons sense of male or femaleness, including attitudes/behaviour of that gender.

Question 5

The Authoritarian Personality

Answer 5

Adorno et al. explained high levels of obedience in terms of a persons disposition and called this the authoritarian personality.

Question 6

The Authoritarian Personality - What did Adorno Believe?

Answer 6

A harsh style of parenting leads children to develop personality traits like toughness, destructiveness and cynicism - all were given the term ‘authoritarianism’.

He measured this using the F-Scale.

Question 7

F-Scale

Answer 7

A more permissive style of parenting, centred around unconditional love might mean that children grow into adults who score low on the scale and more likely to show resistance and defy destructive orders.

Question 8

Internal Locus of Control

Answer 8

Rotter 1966 proposed this idea that some people tend towards an internal LOC, meaning they take greater responsibility for their actions as they believe they are in control of what they do and what happens to them.

More likely to show dissent and defy orders.

Question 9

External LOC

Answer 9

Take less responsibility for their actions and feel what happens to them is governed by other people and by chance factors.

More likely to be obedient.

Question 10

Frederick Miller (1975) LOC

Answer 10

Demonstrated LOCs in a study where a high or low status experimenter told PP to grasp live electric wires.

Externals obeyed high status experimenter more than low status.

Internals unaffected by status.

Question 11

Women are more obedient than men

Answer 11

Sheridan’s and King’s PP were ordered to give real electric shocks to a live puppy.

found that 100% of females were fully obedient, compared to 54% of males.

Ladies showed distress, crying throughout study.

Question 12

Men are more obedient than women

Answer 12

Kilham and Mann replicated Milgram’s study in Australia and found a low obedience rate of 28%.

40% of males were obedient, 16% of females were obedient.

Question 13

Moral Reasoning: Males

Answer 13

Gilligan suggested that moral decision making is guided by differing principles in men and women. The ethic of justice is the principle more commonly seen in males and pertains to values of equality and fairness and requires a detached outlook to avoid bias.

Question 14

Moral Reasoning: Females

Answer 14

Gilligan claimed that females use the ethic of care to guide decision making. This principal relates to interpersonal relationships and supporting those in need.

Question 15

Moral Reasoning: Destructive Obedience

Answer 15

Might expect males to be more obedient due to their feelings of obligation to an authority figure, whereas females may be less obedient due to their desire to support the person being harmed.

Milgram’s study showed that men swayed more to the scientific goals whereas females may have been more concerned about the learner.

Question 16

Support for Authoritarianism

Answer 16

Elms and Milgram used the F-Scale with participants from Milgram’s studies, testing 20 fully obedient PP and 20 who were not.

Obedient PP scored higher and reported other characteristics of the authoritarian personality like less close to father.

Suggests obedience is related to authoritarianism

Question 17

Competing

Answer 17

Cannot claim there is a casual relationship between childhood experiences and authoritarianism/obedience as these are correlations.

Other factors may be involved like O and A may be caused by a lower level of education.

Question 18

Weakness of LOC

Answer 18

In Shurz’s study, Austrian PP were instructed to give painful doses of ultrasound to a female student.

Those fully obedient did not differ sig from those PP who resisted in terms of their scores on a questionnaire measuring LOC

Personality may have little impact on obedience.

Question 19

Application Personality

Answer 19

Applied to HR:
Some jobs require a level of obedience; organisations that require employees to follow procedures may prefer people who are obedient.

HR can use a scale assessing LOC. Resulting in more accurate matching of people to jobs, greater productivity.

Question 20

Strength Gilligan

Answer 20

Support from qualitative research.
Male and female PP were interviewed about real life moral dilemmas and although most PP used both ethic of justice and care in their reasoning, men preferred a justice orientation and women, care.

Suggests Important gender differences in moral orientations.

This may affect decision making in situations with destructive obedience.

Question 21

Weakness Gilligan

Answer 21

Many studies find no gender differences.

Blass summarised findings of 9 Milgram style studies that included male and female PP. Only 1 case had a sig difference in observed levels of obedience between men and women.

Suggests gender likely does not affect obedience.