factors affecting obedience

Question 1

Situational: Momentum of Compliance which is when

Answer 1

Requests start small and trivial but increase and make the participants feel duty bound to continue ,e.g Milgram’s shocks increased with 15V

Question 2

Situational: Proximity

Answer 2

the closer the authority figure, the higher the level of obedience

Question 3

Situational: Status of Authority

Answer 3

Authority figures must be percieved to be legit as well as the location

Question 4

Situational: Personal responsibility

Answer 4

Milgram believed that if personal responsibiliy was removed and placed on the authority figure, obedience would be higher - variation of Milgrams -92.5%, when they knew they were responsible it was 40%

Question 5

Personality: Blame

Answer 5

Compliant participants in follow up investigations blamed the learner 25% compared to disobedients who blamed 12%

Question 6

Personality: Locus of Control - Rotters (1966)

Answer 6

Internal LOC- believe they are responsible for their own actions
External LOC- believe their behaviour is beyond their control and down to fate and other people

Question 7

supporting evidence of LOC

Answer 7

Miller 1975- conducted a study with a low status and a high status experimenter asking participants to grasp live electric wires. externals obeyed the high status experimenter more than the low. internals were unaffected by status

Question 8

refuting evidence of LOC

Answer 8

schurz 1985- used a smilier task to milligrams original study. Austrian ppts were asked to give painful doses of ultrasound to a female student, there was no difference in scores for LOC between those two obeyed and those who didn’t.

Question 9

Personality: Authoritarian Personality - Adorno et al (1950)

Answer 9

authoritarians - submissive to authority but harsh to those seen as inferior to themselves
measured on F-Scale

Question 10

supporting evidence for Authoritarian Personality

Answer 10

elms & milgram 1966- used f scale with ppts from milligrams studies to compare those who were fully obedient and those who were not, those fully obedient scored higher on f scale

Question 11

refuting evidence for Authoritarian Personality

Answer 11

Hyman & Sheatsley 1954- stated we cannot claim there is a casual relationship, there is only correlation, could be other factors, obedience and authoritarian personality type may be caused by a lower income in families

Question 12

gender

Answer 12

agreement that males and females do differ with regard to obedience but a disagreement about which is more obedient.

Question 13

supporting evidence for gender

Answer 13

Sheridan and King (1972)
Same as Milgram but live puppy, genuine shocks, all 13 females were more compliant and gave maximum shock levels ( 100% f agreed, 54% m agreed)

Question 14

refuting evidence for gender

Answer 14

Blass (1999)Analysed 9 milgram- style studies, obedience for males and females was consistent across all studies, there was no significant difference

Question 15

culture

Answer 15

the ideas , customs and social behaviour of particular people or society.
hofstede 2011 compared countries in regard to their cultural values

Question 16

supporting evidence for culture

Answer 16

Individualist - UK and USA, behave more independently and resist conformity
Collectivist - China or Israel, behave as a collectivist group based on interdependence

Question 17

refuting evidence for culture

Answer 17

blass 1999 Analysed many obedience studies, found average US obedience 60.94%, other countries 65.94% Blass suggests it is one of the universals of social behaviour