Conformity and Obedience

Question 1

What are the 3 types of conformity?

Answer 1

compliance < identification < internalisation

Question 2

What is compliance?

Answer 2

Agreeing to a group publicly but disagreeing privately.

Question 3

What is identification?

Answer 3

Agreeing to a group publicly and privately but only temporarily.

Question 4

What is internalisation?

Answer 4

Agreeing both publicly and privately but is permanent.

Question 5

What factors affect conformity?

Answer 5

normative social influence, informational social influence

individual factors: gender, self-esteem

situational factors: group size, group unanimity, task difficulty

cultural factors: collectivist and individualist factors.

Question 6

What is Informational social influence?

Answer 6

occurs in situations where we are unsure what the correct thing to do is. We look to others who we believe will have reliable
and valid views.

Question 7

What is normative social influence?

Answer 7

you will conform to those round about
you because you want to fit in with that group. You are very aware of what the
right thing to do is but you choose not to do the right thing so you can fit in
with those round about you.

Question 8

How does self-esteem affect conformity?

Answer 8

people who have higher levels of self-esteem are less likely to conform. This may be because people with higher levels of self-esteem do not need to look to those round
about them for approval so they will behave in what way they want to and not worry about not being part of the group. Whereas people who have low levels of self-esteem may rely on a group for their own sense of self-worth so will conform to make sure they are not excluded from that group.

Question 9

How does gender affect conformity?

Answer 9

Historically women have been more
likely to conform than men because they have often taken on the role in
society as promoting harmony. We could assume due to the massive shift in
gender roles this may no longer be the case. However, Mori and Arai conducted a study in 2010 which revealed that women were still more likely to conform than men. This could be due to the fact the study took place in Japan were gender roles may not have progressed as far as here in Scotland.

Question 10

How does group size affect conformity?

Answer 10

It is believed that the greater the group size the more likely conformity is to occur.

Question 11

How does group unanimity affect conformity?

Answer 11

This means when a group all makes a unanimous decision. It is thought that if you
have no one who is agreeing with you in a group then you are more likely to
conform and change your answer to the groups.

Question 12

How does task difficulty affect conformity?

Answer 12

In its simplest term if you
find a task difficult you are more likely to conform than if you do not find it
difficult. This may be because if you find a task difficult then it is less
embarrassing to conform to those around you.

Question 13

Asch’s Line experiment description

Answer 13

Aim: To see if people will conform togrouppressure when they do know
thecorrectanswer​

Method: He got 50 participants in a roomtodo an ‘eye test’ in groups of 5-8.
They judgedthelength of a line, but the rest of thegroupwere actors who
would say thewronganswer. The real participant went attheend to see if
they would conform. He alsogot a control group of 36 participants whowere
tested individually to examine howaccurate individual judgements were.​

Results:The control group had an error rate ofonly 0.04 per cent.Conformity
happened 1/3of thetime. 75% of participants conformedatleast once.​

Question 14

Strengths of Asch’s line experiment

Answer 14

The study could be easily replicated, giving the results high reliability. It was conducted in a lab environment meaning the results are qless likely to be impacted by any extraneous variables giving it high internal
validity.

Question 15

Weaknesses of Asch’s line experiment

Answer 15

The study had low external validity as it only used male participants meaning the results cannot be generalised to females. The
participants were all American which means the results cannot be generalised
to the rest of the world, giving it low external validity. The participant may
have guessed that confederates were acting and therefore changed their
answer accordingly, giving the results low internal validity. The task has very
low external validity as it is not something which you would do in your normal
daily life.

Question 16

Mori and Arai description

Answer 16

Aim: To reproduce the Asch experiment, but without a needfor confederates.​

​Method: They used 104 Japanese undergrads (40 males and64 females).
Same-sex groups of 4participants wore glasses(told it was to protect them
from the glare) to look at alinetask. The 3rdin the group saw a different
image. Theywereasked a question to see if they would conform​

​Results: For women only, the results matched closely totheresults of Asch,
with the minority being swayed 4.41times outof 12. The male participant
results were not of asignificant level.

Question 17

Mori and Arai evaluation: strentghs

Answer 17

Evaluation – Strengths; The study could be easily replicated, giving the results
high reliability. Using familiar people makes the study more external valid

creating more important results. Using both genders mean the results can be
generalised giving them high external validity.

Question 18

Mori and Arai evaluation: weaknesses

Answer 18

Only conducted in Japan therefor cannot be
generalised to other cultures, low external validity. The task also isn’t a realistic
task, this is not something we would be asked to do on a day-to-day basis,
making it have low external validity.

Question 19

What are the factors affecting obedience?

Answer 19

percieved legitimate authority, socialisation, authoritarian parenting, autonomous and agentic levels

Situational factors: proximity, location and wearing a uniform.

Question 20

What is percieved legitimate authority?

Answer 20

One of the most important of these factors is the authority figure
concerned must be perceived as credible. Otherwise, it is likely that we will
disregard their requests. Authority figures generally have high status with their
roles being defined by society and therefore have legitimate social power.

Question 21

Explain autonomous vs agentic and agentic shift

Answer 21

• As autonomous individuals where they act according to their own values
  and beliefs.
• On an agentic level where individuals see themselves as acting as agents
  on behalf of somebody else and therefore not responsible for their own
  actions.
  It is possible for an individual to move from an autonomous state into an
  agentic state (agentic shift).

Question 22

What is socialisation?

Answer 22

In society there are many rules and regulations that exist to reinforce
obedience. These are instilled in us from a very early age.

Question 23

What is authoritarian parenting?

Answer 23

Authoritarian parents teach their children that being obedient and
having respect for authority figures is top priority. They do not allow
rules to be discussed and make punishments very clear if rules are not
obeyed. These types of parents are thought to produce individuals who
will be more likely to become obedient adults as this is something which
has been instilled from a young age.

Question 24

What is democratic parenting?

Answer 24

Democratic parents allow their children to think for themselves and
encourage them to make their own rational choices. They do not suggest
that rules are absolute and encourage their children to negotiate terms
that are not happy with. These types of parents are thought to produce
individuals who will be less likely to become obedient adults as they are
more likely to question commands which they do not agree with.

Question 25

Milgram description

Answer 25

Aim:​Milgram (1963) was interested in researching how far people would go in obeying an instruction if it involved harming another person. ​ Stanley Milgram was interested in how easily ordinary people could be influenced into committing atrocities, for example, Germans in WWII Method: Volunteers were recruited for a controlled experiment investigating “learning”. Participants were 40 males, aged between 20 and 50, whose jobs ranged from unskilled to professional, from the New Haven area. They were paid $4.50 for just turning up. An experimenter introduced each participant to ‘Mr Wallace’. Who they were told was another participant – but who was actually a confederate working for Milgram. The pair was then told that one of them would take the role of a ‘teacher’ and one would be a ‘learner’ in the memory experiment. The teacher, they were told, would have to give an electric shock to the learner each time they got an answer wrong. The participant was given a mild 15-volt electric shock as an example. The pair drew lots – but this was fixed; Mr Wallace was always placed in the role of learner and the true participant placed in the role of teacher. The electric shock apparatus had a series of switches, the first of which was labelled 15V, and participants were asked to increase the shock level with each wrong answer. There were labels below the switches, for example, 375V – ‘Danger, severe shock’. The last switch was labelled 450V. The confederate deliberately got many answers wrong and the participants found themselves under pressure to give stronger and stronger shocks. The confederate participant grunted with pain at first, and as the faked shocks continued, began to shout in protest, including saying that he had a heart condition and refusing to take any further part. After 315V, he was silent. If the true participant hesitated, the experimenter could use a verbal prod such as ‘the experiment requires that you continue’, or ‘you have no choice teacher – you must go on’. Results: Twenty-six out of 40 (65%) continued up to the maximum shock level of 450 volts. Many showed signs of becoming highly stressed but nobody stopped before 300V.

Question 26

Milgram strengths

Answer 26

This was a ground-breaking and highly influential study that was well controlled in a lab giving it high internal validity. Milgram was able to replicate his study several times to give his results high reliability.

Question 27

Milgram weaknesses

Answer 27

However, it can be criticised on ethical grounds, as participants were both stressed and deceived, in his defence Milgram stated that in a subsequent survey, 84% of participants said that they were ‘glad to have been in the experiment’ and that participants showed no signs of long- term harm in psychiatric assessments. There were also claims that it lacked external validity as this is not something which we would be asked to do in our day-to-day life.

Question 28

Who found that uniform influences obedience

Answer 28

bickman