Factors affecting obedience and dissent: Individual differences Flashcards
what is one of the factors that affects obedience and dissent?
PERSONALITY
what theory does Adorno explain?
THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
Explains high levels of obedience is because of harsh parenting styles, which lead to development of traits like toughness and destructiveness (authoritarianism).
what does he use to measure authoritarianism?
and explain how it works
F-SCALE (facism)
Adorno believed this parenting style meant children would grow to be submissive to authority but harsh to those seen as subordinate to them.
A more permissive parenting style centred around unconditional love might mean children grow to adults scoring lower on the F-scale and more likely to show resistance to destructive orders
what idea did Rotter present?
INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL LOCUS OF CONTROL (LOC)
Internal LOC= greater responsibility of actions and believe they’re in control of their actions
External LOC= take less responsibility for actions and believe what happens to them is governed by other people and chance
how do internal and external LOC’s differ?
an example?
internal= show dissent and defy orders
externals= more likely to be obedient
EG. MILLERS STUDY
where high or low status exp told ptcp to grasp live electric wires, externals obeyed high status more than low and internals were unaffected by status
what is another factor that affects obedience and dissent?
GENDER
are women or men more obedient?
and give an example study?
Sheridan and King’s ptcps were asked to give electric shocks to live puppy
FOUND,
100% females were obedient compared to 55% men
Females sobbed and showed grave distress through the study
BUT,
Mann replicated Milgrams study in Australia and found a low obedience rate of 28%.
males= 40% obedient
females= 16% obedient
what did Gilligan suggest?
MORAL REASONING
suggested moral decision making is guided by differing principles in men and women.
explain moral reasoning
Ethic of justice= more common in males and includes values of equality and requires detached outlook to avoid bias
Ethic of care= women use to guide decision making and relates to interpersonal relationships and supporting those in need
We might expect males to be more obedient due to their feelings of obligation, whereas females may be less due to desire to support those being harmed
personality: supporting evidence?
RESEARCH SUPPORT
Milgram used F-scale with ptcps from his studies testing 20 fully obedient and 20 disobedient ptcps.
Obedient= scored higher and reported other characteristics of of authoritarian personality - less closeness to dad
SHOWS,
obedience is related to authoritarianism
BUT…?
cannot claim theres casual relationships between childhood experiences and authoritarianism and obedience.
Other factors might be involved > low levels of education
evaluate LOC
DOES NOT PREDICT DEFIANCE
Similar to Milgrams, Austrian ptcps instructed to give painful doses of ultrasound to female student
FOUND,
those who obeyed did not differ significantly to those who resisted in terms of their scored on questionnaire measuring LOC
SUGGESTS,
personality has little affect
application of LOC?
FIELD OF HUMAN RESOURCES
Different jobs require different levels of obedience
EG. following procedures needs= obedient employees
To select suitable applicant, HR can use scale assessing LOC
Using personality tests result sin more successful matches, leading to greater productivity
evaluate Gilligans idea
QUALITATIVE DATA - Gilligan
M and F ptcps interviewed about real life moral dilemmas and found men favoured a justice orientation and women favoured care.
Differences were highly significant
SUGGESTS,
there are gender differences in moral orientations which may affect decision making in situations relating to destructive obedience
weakness?
MANY STUDIES FIND NO GENDER DIFFERENCES
Blass summarised findings of 9 Milgram style studies that included both F and M and found in all but 1 case, there was no sig. difference in levels of obedience
SO,
gender may not affect obedience
