Social Influence - Obedience Flashcards
Define obedience
Obedience is behaving as instructed to by an authority figure. Authority figures have status and/or power over others.
Describe the procedure for Obedience to authority experiment
Milgram (1963), placed ad in newspaper, 40 male participants, man in lab coat introduces them to mr Wallace a 47-year-old man with a heart condition. Participant is teacher and other Confederate is learner learner is taken to Rome and hooked up to electric shock machine. Teacher ministers shocks. Each switch labelled with voltage rating starting at 15 rising in 15s up to 450 volts and labelled. Slight shock, moderate shock all the way up to danger. Experimenter says things such as please continue. You have no choice you must continue.
What were the findings for the obedience to authority experiment?
100% of participants shocked until 300 V
65% shocked all the way up to 450 V
Participants showed high levels of stress : anxious and historical after sweating etc
Evaluate the obedience to authority experiment
Participants were deceived and therefore did not give informed consent, although this was necessary to avoid demand characteristics which would decrease the validity of the study
Participants were exposed to psychological harm, although they say this could not have been anticipated
+ after having done a cost benefit analysis 84% of participants said they were happy to have taken part and we know the study was worthwhile
The sample is on representative because gender and culture bias, although when replicated obedience rates were not significantly different
What experiment explored situational variables affecting obedience?
Milgram (1974) to determine which situation variables lead to higher levels of obedience
What variables were explored in the experiment determining situational variables affecting obedience?
Proximity
Both the teacher and the learner were seated in the same room obedience levels fell to 40%
Touch proximity
The teacher to force the learners arm down onto a metal plate to administer shocks. Obedience rate was 30%.
Experimenter proximity
The experimenter left the room after giving instructions and gave orders by telephone. Obedience rate was 21% as participants missed out shocks or gave lower voltages.
Location
In the alternative setting of a rundown office with the experimenter, wearing casual clothes, obedience rate was 48%, because of the perceived lesser integrity
Uniforms
This was not explored an experiment, but Bickman (1974,) 90% of people obeyed the card and the only 50% obeyed the civilian in smart clothes
What is the dispositional explanation of obedience?
Authoritarian, personality proposed by Adorno (1950). Dispositional explanation of behaviour, claim, individuals, personality, or characteristics determine behaviour not situation.
State some characteristics of an authoritarian personality
More likely to obey a authority figures because of these traits:
Dogmatic
Hostile towards people of lower status, scapegoating
Servile towards people of perceived higher status
Conformist and conventional
How did the authoritarian personality develop?
This personality developed as a result of receiving extremely strict or rigid parenting involving physical punishment creating feelings of hostility, which is displaced onto weaker people. They cannot do that anger out on their parents, so they were press this anger and out submissive the submissiveness extends to all figures of authority
How is authoritarian personality measured?
The F or Fascism scale ask people to write how much they agree with statements like obedience and respect are important virtues
Evaluate the dispositional explanation of obedience
+ Miller (1975) found people who scored high on the upscale, were more likely to have an order to hold onto electric wire, while doing arithmetic problems
+ Altemeyer (1981) found a correlation between those willing to shock themselves highly during a learning task and high scores on the F scale
- Situational variables may be more important Milgram (1974) find obedience 100% when Mr Wallace made no noise and obedience at zero, when the authority figures disagreed
- Fewer than 65% of people have authoritarian personalities, so cannot explain the level of obedience found in the original Milgram study
- Middendorp (1990) found less educated. The people are more likely to have authoritarian personality, because lack of education, can cause an authoritarian, personality and obedience.
Describe the process of the first situational explanation of obedience - proposed by Adorno (1950)
To go into the agentic state autonomous state - agentic shift- agentic state
- once in the state people unthinkingly carry out orders and perceive themselves as an instrument of the authority, figure and diffusion of responsibility occurs
People experience with those in authority are usually trustworthy so orders seem reasonable and gradual commitment occurs until orders get aggressive buffers are put into place and people maintain a positive self image because they’re not responsible.
Milgram (1974) for a Gentic state developed during human evolution, necessary for hierarchies to function society, as we constantly submit to authority figures
Evaluate the first situational explanation of obedience
agentic state
+ participants were less likely to shock Mr Wallace, when they were in the same room as there were no buffers, because being in close proximity to Mr Wallace prevents agentic shift from occurring then, not in the agentic state.
- without buffers, people should not going into the agentic state but Mandel (1998) reported the case of soldiers to take a lot of Jewish people to go to the edge of the village and have the shot although given the chance to say no, they still did it despite being in close proximity
Define and explain the second situational explanation of obedience
Legitimate authority
We recognise someone else’s being higher in the social hierarchy bin us. This means we obey them because they are not equal or below us in the social hierarchy.
This can be increased to visible symbols of authority like a uniform
Legitimate authority is dependent on setting order system and location
Evaluate the second situational explanation of obedience
Legitimate authority
+ Hofling (1966) nurses rid of a dangerous border because they were in a hospital location. They were told to administer 20 mg of a drug which was twice the maximum dose as indicated on the bottle 95% of nurses carried out these instructions because doctors have legitimate authority.
+ Bickman (1974) Confederates were asked to pick some litter of the street, 95% obeyed the guard dressed in guard clothes, and only 50% obeyed the civilian who dressed in smart clothes, because the passing of the guard had legitimate authority.
- Some people are able to resist the order of authority figures which describes legitimate authority 35% of people in Milgrams original experiment refused to obey even though they had legitimate authority.
