Module 1- Social Influence Obedience

Question 1

Define obedience

Answer 1

Behaving as instructed by an authority figure

- because authority figures have status and/ or power over others

Question 2

When did the Milgram experiment take place

Answer 2

1963

Question 3

Procedure of Milgram experiment (pt 1, setting it up)

Answer 3

• advert in newspaper for male volunteers to take part in study about effect of punishment on learning
• met by experimenter man in lab coat (confederate)
• introduced to 47yo confederate (learner) Mr Wallace, told he had a weak heart
• pick notes to determine teacher learner, but participant always teacher
• naive told role are teacher was to shock learner of mistake made on memory test by electric shock, increasing voltage every mistake.

Question 4

Procedure of Milgram experiment (pt 2 what was going to happen/ actual experiment)

Answer 4

• teacher thought learner was hooked up to electric shock machine
• teacher and learner in different rooms ( physical barrier, psychological buffer)
• fake electric shock machine
• labelled 15V-450V with labels ‘slight shock’ to ‘XXX’
• more severe shocks caused Wallace to demand to be released, screamed, kicked wall, complained about weak heart, refused to answer questions and went silent
• experiments ensured teacher continued despite distress- using one of 4 statements as prompts

Question 5

What are some of the statements experimenter used to prompt the teacher to continue

Answer 5

‘ please continue’
‘The experiment requires that you continue’
‘you have no choice, you must continue’
‘It is absolutely essential that you continue’

Question 6

Findings of Milgram experiment

Answer 6

• 100% shocked to 300V
• 65% shocked to 450v
• participants showed stress and symptoms including sweating, trembling and sometimes anxious and hysterical laughter
• most were obedient and willing to inflict potentially lethal shocks to man with weak heart

Question 7

Evaluation of Milgram (Weaknesses)

Answer 7

• ethical issues- deception, lack of informed consent (true nature of investigation , believed they delivered real shocks, believe Wallace was real with weak heart) psychological harm ( distressed, but Milgram did not expect participants to obey so could not be anticipated), violated right to withdraw ( told they weren’t allowed), deception necessary to prevent demand characteristics and increase validity
• unrepresentative sample - gender bias generalised to women, cultural bias , but study has been replicated with women and similar results

Question 8

Evaluation of Milgram (Strengths)

Answer 8

+ cost-benefit analysis- valuable knowledge outweighs harm of study, know that most ppl could potentially do the same thing - leads to more ppl taking responsibility and not blindly following orders

+ 84% participants happy to taken part, learnt something

Question 9

Situational variables affecting Obedience

Answer 9

Proximity, location, uniform

Question 10

When did Milgram conduct variations of his original study

Answer 10

1974

Question 11

Why did Milgram conduct variations of his original study

Answer 11

To determine which situational variables lead to high levels of obedience, and which reduce obedience.

Question 12

Study l6

Answer 12

L6

Question 13

What are the situational explanations of obedience?

Answer 13

Agentic state and legitimate authority

Question 14

What is agentic state?

Answer 14

• When people ‘unthinkingly’ carry out orders and perceive themselves as merely the instrument of an authority figure.
• diffusion of responsibility- believe authority figure is responsible for their actions, so do not feel guilt

Question 15

Why is agentic state a situational explanation?

Answer 15

• Milgram argued that people can obey horrific orders not because of their own personalities, but because of the situation they are in
• He suggested that people following orders go through an agentic shift

Question 16

Define agentic shift

Answer 16

When people following orders go from an autonomous state into an agentic state.

Question 17

Why do people go into an agentic state?

Answer 17

• people perceive authority figures as usually trustworthy
• orders seem reasonable at first before becoming more aggressive (gradual commitment)
• people are psychologically protected from the consequences of their actions (buffers).

Question 18

Give explanations for why people adopt an agentic state.

Answer 18

-maintain positive self-image. It does not matter what negative behaviour they show, because they are not responsible for their actions.

Question 19

Give a reason for why people stay in an agentic state

Answer 19

-they are concerned that breaking their commitment to the authority figure would seem arrogant and rude.

Question 20

Why has agentic state developed?

Answer 20

• developed during human evolution
• is necessary for hierarchies to function in society, which prevents chaos
• . We live in a society where we are constantly submitting to authority figures such as parents, teachers, the police and doctors and so obedience is essential.

Question 21

Evaluation of agentic state

Answer 21

+ close proximity to Mr. Wallace in pain(no buffer) = prevention of agentic state
Participants in Milgram’s experiment less likely to shock Mr. Wallace when in the same room as him and could see the consequences of their actions (no buffers) - supports agentic state

• other hand, Mandel (1998) reported the case of Major Wilhelm Trapp.
  In 1942, Major Trapp given orders to take group of Jewish people and have them shot. members of his battalion were given the chance to say no, and be assigned to other duties, few did, and the massacre went ahead. occurred despite the victims being in close proximity to the soldiers - goes against agentic state

Question 22

Give a dispositional explanation of obedience

Answer 22

Authoritarian personality

Question 23

Define dispositional expansion of behaviour

Answer 23

claim that individuals’ personality characteristics determine their behaviour, not situational influences in the environment.

Question 24

Who proposed the idea of an authoritarian personality and when

Answer 24

Adorno (1950)

Question 25

What personality traits make authoritarian personalities more likely to obey authority figures?

Answer 25

• servile towards higher status
• hostile towards lower status
• preoccupied with power,
• inflexible in their beliefs and values
• conformist and conventional (e.g. rule following),
• likely to categorise people as ‘us’ or ‘them’,
• dogmatic (intolerant of ambiguity).

Question 26

What did adorno think people developed authoritarian personalities because of?

Answer 26

• Extremely strict/ rigid parenting involving physical punishment
• feelings of hostility displaced onto weaker ‘safe targets’
• cannot take anger out on parents due to fear, so repress and act submissively towards them
• extend this submission to all authority figures

Question 27

What measures authoritarian personalities

Answer 27

F (fascism) scale

- asked to rate agreement with statements such as ‘rules are there to follow, not to be changed’

Question 28

Evaluation of Authoritarian Personality ( strengths)

Answer 28

+ Miller (1975) -high scorers on F scale = more likely to obey an order to hold onto electric wiring while working on an arithmetic problem

+Altemeyer (1981) - ordered participants to give themselves increasing levels of electric shocks when they made a mistake on a learning task- higher scores on F scale = more willing to shock themselves

Question 29

Define legitimate authority

Answer 29

It claims that we recognise our own and other people’s positions in the social hierarchy and obey orders of those higher than us, but not those of those lower than us

Question 30

How is legitimate authority increased

Answer 30

• visible symbols of authority (uniform)

- order, system and location (eg university or prison), esp if commands are harmful

Question 31

Evaluation of legitimate authority

Answer 31

+ Hofling (1996)- nurses obey dangerous order from doctor due to location (hospital)

• unknown doctor called, administer 20mg of drug, max dose (said on bottle)
• 95% nurses did because doctor has legitimate authority

+ bickman (1974) - ordered civilians to pick up litter, 90 % obeyed guard, 50% obeyed civilian
- guard uniform more likely to be perceived as legitimate authority figure

• Legitimate authority does not explain why some people are able to resist the order of authority figures.
• 35% of people in Milgram’s (1963) study refused to obey the experimenter, even though he had legitimate authority in that situation.

Question 32

Evaluation of Legitimate authority (weaknesses)

Answer 32

-Situational variables may be more important than dispositional ones:
Milgram (1974) -Obedience 100% when Mr Wallace made no noise, obedience rate 0% when there were disagreeing authority figures

• Dispositional explanations cannot explain obedience in entire societies as authoritarian personalities are not common (fewer than 65%)- cannot be the only explanation for the level of obedience found in the original Milgram (1963) study.
• possible that rather than authoritarian personality causing obedience, a lack of education causes an authoritarian personality AND obedience. Middendorp and Meleon (1990) have found that less educated people are more likely to have an authoritarian personality and Milgram (1974) found that participants with lower levels of education were more obedient.