Chapter 1 - Obedience

Question 1

social power

Answer 1

force that motivates change

Question 2

Stanley Milgram (1963,1974)

Answer 2

showed that ordinary people fulfilled orders to administer what appeared to be fatal electric shock to a confederate. shocks weren’t real and given when the confederate answered wrong. one-third didn’t show complete obedience which showed individual differences.

Question 3

hofling et al. (1966)

Answer 3

performed with 22 nurses from different hospitals. “doctor” gave orders to give 20 mg of medicine when the max daily dose was 10 mg. 95% of the nurses did give the medicine to the patient. nurses reported they obliged because they got in trouble before when they disobeyed.

Question 4

steven rank and cordell jacobson

Answer 4

when people are more knowledgeable and have social support, they are more likely to disobey.

Question 5

why do people obey?

Answer 5

unaware of change: gradually from reasonable to unreasonable
agentic state: they were placed in a position where they made the decisions and reasoned that, “ i am not responsible because i was ordered to.”

Question 6

agentic

Answer 6

people are self-organized, proactive, self-reflecting, and self-regulating and not reactive to environmental influences or inner forces (capability of making a decision and having awareness of it).

Question 7

limitations of milgram’s study

Answer 7

participants experienced strong conflict between the experimenter’s demands and their conscience.
they were tense and nervous
the behaviour proves they were not in an agentic state

Question 8

conformity

Answer 8

yielding to group preferences

Question 9

differences between conformity and obedience

Answer 9

OBEDIENCE: the authority figure has the rights, emphasis on power, differs from behaviour of authority figure, prescription for action is explicit, embraces obedience
CONFORMITY: equal status, emphasis on acceptance, behaviour is similar to peers, going along with the group is implicit, denies conformity

Question 10

muzafer sherif (1935)

Answer 10

use of autokinetic effect. participants were alone, then in groups of three. when joined, participants had different norms, but made similar judgements to each other. no “correct” answer, but relied on others’ judgements

Question 11

solomon asch (1951)

Answer 11

line test. con. 1: participant had to say the answer out loud(conformed 33-37%). con. 2: participant wrote answer(nearly no conformity) con. 3: had an ally(nearly no conformity) con. 4: withdrawal of ally midway (conformed dramatically after withdrawal)

Question 12

group size

Answer 12

smaller = less conformity
3 = increased conformity
4 or more = did not increase conformity

Question 13

written responses

Answer 13

they did not feel social pressure

Question 14

baron et al. (1996)

Answer 14

eyewitness accuracy task. Ps completed the task with three confederates who gave wrong answers. he found Ps were more likely to conform when the task was more important.

Question 15

abrams et al. (1990)

Answer 15

used 50 psychology students as participants (a limitation). 4 groups and 2 indep. variables (ingroup/outgroup and private/public). results: 77% at least conformed, the level of conformity was maximized in ingroup public, minimized in outgroup public.

Question 16

deutsch and gerard (1955)

Answer 16

people might conform because of informational influence or normative influence

Question 17

informational influence

Answer 17

conforms because of the superior knowledge or judgement of others, people would change their private opinion. “people have more info than i do, therefore i conform”

Question 18

normative influence

Answer 18

conforms because individual wants to be liked or respected by other group members, doesnt change private opinion. “people are cool, therefore i conform”

Question 19

perrin and spencer (1980)

Answer 19

repeated asch’s study in england 1970’s. used engineering students who were confident in measuring accurately, and found very little conformity.

Question 20

peter smith and michael bond (1993)

Answer 20

performed meta-analysis. found that levels of conformity ranged from 14% in Belgian students to 58% in Indian teachers in Fiji.

Question 21

williams and sogon (1984)

Answer 21

Japanese students conformed 27% with people they didn’t know the group, but it increased to 51% when the group members belonged to the same sports club.

Question 22

kim and markus (1999)

Answer 22

argued magazines reflect beliefs and values of the culture. found korean magazines advertised conformity more than uniqueness whereas the opposite was true for americans.

Question 23

moscovici (1980)

Answer 23

disagreements from the minority cause majority to go through validation process (they focus on the info contained in the arguments). often leads to conversion, which can be subtle or direct. minority influences majority when the minority puts forward a clear position ( it requires more effort).

Question 24

conversion

Answer 24

when the idea influences privately

Question 25

comparison process

Answer 25

focus on differences between minority’s views and the majority’s views (majority influences minority).

Question 26

compliance

Answer 26

public influence and occurs very rapidly

Question 27

difference between majority influence and minority influence

Answer 27

MAJORITY: comparison, implicit pressure, compliance (immediate and temporary)
MINORITY: validation, more effort, conversion (delayed, durable)

Question 28

moscovici and lage

Answer 28

reverse asch experiment(confederates were minority). colour slides and confederates answered wrong most of the time. results 10% were green and 32% reported seeing it at least once. the confederates were able to change the Ps inner views.

Question 29

david and turner(1999)

Answer 29

minority will influence only when they are perceived as part of the ingroup rsther than the outgroup.

Question 30

social influence

Answer 30

involves the exercise of social power by a person or group to change that attitudes or behaviour of others in a particular direction.