Social Pyschology - Obediance

Question 1

Intro of agency theory

Answer 1

• Humans live in hierarchically organised groups and for these groups to work subordinate indv have to suppress their desires and obey their leaders
• Stanley milgram believed that obedience is necessary for a well functioned society
• Milgram stated that we have two mindsets that make us obedient : our autonomous and agentic states

Question 2

What is our autonomous state

Answer 2

A mindset where we behave independently, make our own decisions on how to behave and take responsibility for the consequences of our own actions

Question 3

What happens in the autonomous state

Answer 3

• our behaviour is self directed
• we are in control of our own behaviour and take full responsibility for the consequences of our actions
• we have understanding to our morals
• we operate in this state when we are on our own, with peers or ppl who are below us in status

Question 4

What is the agentic state

Answer 4

A mindset which allows us to carry orders from an authority figure, even if they conflict with our own personal sense of right and wrong. We absolve our self from responsibility believing that we are acting on someone else’s behalf, blame for any negative consequences lie on them.

Question 5

What is agentic shift

Answer 5

The shift that occurs we change from our autonomous state to agentic state

Question 6

Why can being in the agentic state a bad thing

Answer 6

As it can cause us from going against our morals to fulfill the wishes of an authority figure

Question 7

What is moral strain

Answer 7

A state of mental conflict where ppl may experience symptoms of anxiety as they are going against their morals to fulfill the wishes of others

Question 8

Does moral strain stop obedience and explain why

Answer 8

No as ppl do not want to destroy their status quo

Question 9

Strengths of agency theory

Answer 9

• support by milgrams 1963 study
  Found that 100% of his pp would administer a shock of 300V, 65% would go up to 450V which was beyond the shock labelled “danger extreme shock” to a confederate as a punishment for getting a Q wrong in the learning task
  Supports milgrams suggestion that in face of a legitimate authority ppl are more likely to enter their agentic state despite high levels of moral strain

Question 10

Weakness of Agency theory

Answer 10

• Milgrams research lacked ecological validity since irl teachers do not electrocute students, this artificial and unnatural nature of the supporting research might affect his results and not accurately support his theory
• milgram makes it seem that agentic state is inevitable when in present of a legitimate authority
  Rank and Jacobson study with nurses found that 89% of nurses failed to obey orders when asked by a doctor to prescribe an overdose of a drug showing that most nurses stayed in their autonomous state proving a person does not always switch to their agentic state when in present of a authority figure

Question 11

Application of agency theory

Answer 11

• the agentic shift may help reduce prejudice as the authority figure can tell people to be understanding and kind to each other
  Demonstrated irl at schools and on social media with influencers

Question 12

What is the social impact theory

Answer 12

An explanation of the extent to which other peoples real or imagined presence can alter the way an individual thinks, feels or acts.

Question 13

Components of SOCIAL IMPACT THEORY

Answer 13

• social force
• psychological law/ law of diminishing returns
• divisions of impact

Question 14

What is the social force

Answer 14

The pressure that gets out in an indv to change their behaviour

Question 15

Components that make up social force in the SOCIAL IMPACT THEORY

Answer 15

• STRENGTH - the power the source has and the messages they convey
• IMMEDIACY - the proximity of the source (how close they are)
• NUMBERS - how many sources are present during the interaction

Question 16

What is strength in SOCIAL IMPACT THEORY affected by

Answer 16

• socio-economic status
• age
• relationship with target

Question 17

what is immediacy affected by in social impact theory

Answer 17

• the physical or psychological (how target is feeling) barriers to communication

Question 18

What is the division of impact and what impact does it have

Answer 18

• When the social force gets spread out between people
• this has a impact as if social force was directed on one person they experience a huge pressure but if it’s directed at more than one person the pressure is spread out so there will be a diffusion of responsibility so each indv will experience less pressure to obey

Question 19

What is the psychological law/ law of diminishing returns

Answer 19

The idea that the first impact has the biggest impact but the 2nd, 3rd…… generate less social force

Question 20

Weakness of social impact theory

Answer 20

1) the role of immediacy might not affect social impact
Hofing et al conducted a study seeing if the influence of a telephone call by a doctor asking nurses to administer an overdose on a paitient would cause them to obey
95% of nurses decided to administer an overdose
Shoes that the source does not need to be in proximity of the target for them to obey
2) Social impact theory focuses on the characteristics of the person giving orders but not on the person receiving them
So ppl with an authoritarian personality are less likely to obey orders despite their being a social force making the theory less credible

Question 21

Strengths of Social impact theory

Answer 21

1) supported by lots of research
sedikes and Jackson performed an experiment at a zoo in New York where a researcher asked visitors to stop leaning on a rail wearing a zookeeper outfit and not wearing a zookeeper outfit
Found that obedience declined to 35% when the researcher was not wearing the outfit
This supports the idea of strength in social impact theory

Question 22

Differences of social impact theory

Answer 22

1) Agency theory explains real life situations better than SIT
Milgrams explanation of the emotional responses, such as shaking and weeping to his 1963 study was due to them going under moral strain which social impact theory does not discuss
Milgrams variation 10 showed that obedience was lower in a run down office compared to Yale University through the prestige setting adding to the authority figures status whilst SIT can’t explain this

Question 23

Applications of social impact theory

Answer 23

Can be applied to understand how people enhance their social influence
For example political leaders may increase their influence by:
- adapting a strong and persuasive style of communication (Strength)
- aiming to reach voters by talking to them face to face rather on TV (immediacy)
- addressing in smaller groups rather than in larger crowds (immediacy)

Question 24

Aim of milgrams study

Answer 24

• to find out if participants would obey orders from an authority that went against their values
• to understand the behaviours of those Germans who followed to kill over 10 million people in the Holocaust

Question 25

Milgrams Procedure

Answer 25

1) on arrival participants were told that they could drop out at any point and still keep the money and were told that the experiment was a test on punishment and learning
2) they were introduced to an experimenter dressed in a grey technician coat and a confederate
3) lots were drawin to determine if the real participant would be a teacher or learner but was rigged so they would always be a teacher and the confederate would be a learner
4) the teacher was given a job to shock the learner for every mistake on recall task, the voltage increase by 15V but each shock was fake, only one real shock was given to the teacher to convince them they were real
5) the learner was taken to a seperate room and the participant teacher sat infront of the shock machine with 30 switches from 15V to. 450V, which were labelled from slight shock to severe shock and XXX
6) when the teacher delivered 300V the learner was heard bounding on the wall and at 315V the sound of the pounding increased but from there in there was silence
7) if the teacher protested to shock the learner the experimenter used a series of standardised verbal prods to urge the participants to continue such as “Please continue” which intensified to “i
You have no other choice but to continue ” , if the participants protested after the 4th prod they were allowed to leave

Question 26

Milgrams Sample

Answer 26

• 40 participants all Caucasian American from New Haven men aged 20 - 50
• they were recruited from an volunteer sample through the posted newspaper acc that milgram posted and were all paid $4

Question 27

Results from Milgrams study

Answer 27

65% administered a full 450V shock
100% continued up to 300V
12.5% dropped out
Participants observed to be trembling, sweating, digging their nails into their skin
35% exhibited a nervous laughter

Question 28

Conclusion of milgram

Answer 28

• showed that Americans were obedient to authority figure

Question 29

Milgram generalisability

Answer 29

• suffers from gender bias as sample consist of all males so is not representative to females
• sufferers from culture bias as sample consists of all American ppl so cannot be representative to non western cultures
• suffers from ethnocentrism as they are all Caucasian

Question 30

Reliability milgram

Answer 30

• he used a standardised procedure so that every participant had the exact same experience through the use of pre scripted prods used by the experimenter, the number and timing of the learners mistakes and the two confederates were played by the same actor so is replicable making it reliable

Question 31

Application milgram

Answer 31

His findings demonstrates how obedience de to authority works and can be used to increase obedience in settings like school
It shows that authority figures should wear symbols of authority to justify their authority

Question 32

Validity milgram

Answer 32

• lacked ecological validity as the task was artificial as rl teachers do not deliver shocks to the learner
• lacked internal validity as pp suspected that the shocks were not real