P1 Section A (Social Influence - Obedience)

Question 1

What is obedience

Answer 1

Obedience is the change of an individuals behaviour to comply with a demand by an authority figure

Question 2

Why do people obey

Answer 2

People obey to avoid consequences if they do not

Question 3

What was Milgram’s (1963) obedience study method

Answer 3

Milgram’s (1963) study method was recruiting 40 male volunteers who believed they were in study about memory and they were shown how to use a device that would elicit an electric shock and they were told to use it if the confederate gave a wrong answer to a question and the voltage would increase up until 450 volts

Question 4

Milgram’s (1963) obedience study results

Answer 4

Milgram’s (1963) obedience study results were that 100% of participants elicited up to 300V and 65% of participants elicited the full 450V shock to confederates and 3/40 had seizures and many others showed distress

Question 5

What happened to percentage obedience rate in Milgram’s (1963) study when the experiment was moved from university to a rundown office building

Answer 5

The percentage obedience rate when Milgram’s (1963) experiment was moved from university to a rundown office building dropped to 48%

Question 6

What happened to percentage obedience rate in Milgrams (1963) study when the researcher gave orders to the participant over the phone

Answer 6

The percentage obedience rate in Milgrams (1963) when the researcher gave orders to the participant over the phone dropped to the lowest of 23%

Question 7

What happens when authority of the experimenter decreases in Milgrams (1963) study

Answer 7

when authority of the experimenter decreases in Milgrams (1963) study, so does obedience.

Question 8

What is a strength of Milgram’s (1963) study

Answer 8

A strength of Milgram’s (1963) study is that it was done in a laboratory allowing for variables to be controlled and it has real-life application in explaining how ordinary German soldiers obeyed authority figures despite the wrongdoings

Question 9

What is a weakness of Milgram’s (1963) study

Answer 9

A weakness of Milgram’s (1963) study is that participants were deceived and so unable to give informed consent since they didn’t know the real nature of the experiment and they were not told they could withdraw from the experiment and when they showed signs of distress they were told to carry on

Question 10

What is Milgrams agentic state

Answer 10

Milgrams agentic state is a state in which an individual behaves as if the they are the agent of another person so they can deny responsibility for their actions

Question 11

What is Milgram’s autonomous state

Answer 11

Milgrams autonomous state is when people have control and act according to their own wishes

Question 12

How did Milgrams obedience study (1963) show agentic state

Answer 12

Milgrams obedience study (1963) showed agentic state as participants noted they felt under moral strain but still obeyed, during the de-brief

Question 13

How did Milgrams obedience study (1963) show autonomous state

Answer 13

Milgrams obedience study (1963) showed autonomous state as when researchers were not in same room as participant and gave instructions via telephone, obedience fell from 65% to 23%

Question 14

What is agentic shift (in Milgrams study)

Answer 14

Agentic shift is when individuals transfer from the autonomous state to the agentic state like Milgrams participants when they started taking orders

Question 15

What are Milgrams 3 factors to cause people to stay in the agentic state

Answer 15

Milgrams 3 factors to cause people to stay in the agentic state are insistence of authority (experimenter telling participants to continue), pressure of location (study was done in a university so see experimenter as a legitimate authority) and unwillingness to disrupt (participants felt they couldn’t leave experiment as they’d been paid).

Question 16

What are the three factors affecting likelihood of obedience according to Milgram

Answer 16

The three factors affecting likelihood of obedience are location, proximity and uniform according to Milgram

Question 17

What happened to obedience levels in Milgram’s study when proximity between participant and confederate got closer and why

Answer 17

obedience levels dropped to 40% when proximity between participant and confederate increased in Milgram’s study as they were in same room so closer to consequences

Question 18

How did Bickman prove uniform affected obedience

Answer 18

Bickman proved uniform affected obedience as he found 38% of people would loan a coin to person in security guard costume and only 14% would to a milkman

Question 19

What did Adorno et al (1950) propose and what is it caused by

Answer 19

Adorno et al (1950) proposed authoritarian personality which is caused by strict childhood and leads people to have higher levels of obedience and discipline

Question 20

What was Adorno et al (1950) measurement of authoritarian personality

Answer 20

Adorno et al (1950) measurement of authoritarian personality was an F-scale questionnaire

Question 21

What is anti-conformity

Answer 21

Anti-conformity refers to a consistent movement away from the social conformity

Question 22

What is resistance to social influence

Answer 22

resistance to social influence is when individuals disobey and don’t conform

Question 23

What helps people resist social influence

Answer 23

Social support such as a dissenter helps people resist social influence as they create a strong sense of defiance

Question 24

What happened in Aschs study when the dissenter said the correct answers part way of study

Answer 24

In Aschs study when the dissenter said the correct answers part way of study, conformity levels dropped from 32% to 8.5%

Question 25

How did Rotter (1966) measure internal and external locus of control

Answer 25

Rotter (1966) measured internal and external locus of control in a 13 part questionnaire and scores ranged from 0-13, 0 being internal control and 13 being external control

Question 26

What is internal locus of control

Answer 26

Internal locus of control is belief that things happen as a result of own choices and decisions

Question 27

What is External locus of control

Answer 27

External locus of control is the belief that things happen because of fate or external forces beyond control

Question 28

How does locus of control affect social influence

Answer 28

Locus of control affects conformity as Internal locus of control means a person is less likely to conform than those who have external locus of control

Question 29

What did Spector (1983) find about locus of control

Answer 29

Spector (1983) found about locus of control that those with high external locus of control would conform more but only by normative social influence, there was no difference in conformity by informational social influence showing that resistance to conformity increase when we don’t feel the need to to be accepted into a social group

Question 30

How did Moghaddam (1988) show cultural differences in locus of control

Answer 30

Moghaddam (1988) shows cultural differences in locus of control as found Japanese people conform more easily and have higher external locus of control than Americans

Question 31

How did Holland and Blass (1967 and 1991) support Rotter’s locus of control

Answer 31

Holland and Blass (1967 and 1991) support Rotter’s locus of control by finding that those with higher internal locus of control were better at resisting obedience

Question 32

How did Schulz (1985) criticise Rotter’s locus of control

Answer 32

Schulz (1985) criticised locus of control by finding there was no relationship between locus of control and obedience but people with higher internal locus of control would be responsible for their actions more often

Question 33

What is minority influence

Answer 33

Minority influence is a type of social influence whereby individuals reject established majority group norms by a process of conversion

Question 34

What is conversion

Answer 34

Conversion is the process where the majority group gradually adopts a new minority viewpoint and then it becomes accepted publicly and privately

Question 35

What type of social influence is conversion

Answer 35

Conversion is a type of internalisation and happens through informational social influence

Question 36

What is cryptomnesia (minority, without)

Answer 36

Cryptomnesia is a process by which minority views become majority held views without a cognitive understanding of where it came from

Question 37

What is Van Avermaet’s (1966) snowball effect

Answer 37

Van Avermaet’s (1966) snowball is the idea that when a small number of people converge to the minority, they will then pass it on to others until everyone changed their views

Question 38

Why is consistency required in minority influence

Answer 38

consistency is required in minority to attract attention to their views.

Question 39

Why is commitment required in minority influence

Answer 39

commitment is required in minority influence as the minority need to prove they can resist pressure and show they are committed to their cause by doing something extreme

Question 40

Why is flexibility required in minority influence

Answer 40

Flexibility is required in minority influence as the minorities need to show they can moderate, be co-operative and be reasonable to be seen as more persuasive

Question 41

what is systematic processing in minority influence

Answer 41

Systematic processing in minority influence is when minority is consistent and committed leading to majority to consider their views but if the view is instantly dismissed, it undergoes superficial processing

Question 42

What is social change

Answer 42

Social change is when society develops via shifts in peoples beliefs, attitudes and behaviours which then becomes the norm

Question 43

What are the six stages of social change

Answer 43

The six stages of social change are drawing attention, consistency, deeper processing, augmentation principle, the snowball effect and then social cryptomnesia

Question 44

What is advantage of minority social change

Answer 44

An advantage of minority social change is that it is a gradual process and so doesn’t have a great disruptive impact on society and also means new ideas can be tested to see if they fit to society

Question 45

What was Moscovici et al (1969) blue-green slide study method

Answer 45

Moscovici et al (1969) blue-green slide study method was 192 blind female participants were split into six groups with 2 confederates in each group and asked to identify the colour of 36 different slides which were all actually blue

Question 46

What were Moscovicis et al (1969) blue-green slide A and B conditions

Answer 46

Moscovicis et al (1969) blue-green slide A and B conditions were the confederate was consistent and said all the slides were green and another condition was where the confederates were inconsistent and said 24 out of 36 slides were green.

Question 47

What were the results of Moscovici (1969) condition A

Answer 47

the results of condition A were that 32% of participants identified at least 1 slide as green and 8% of participants identified all the slides as green

Question 48

What were the results of Moscovici (1969) condition B

Answer 48

the results of condition B were that only around 1% of participants would identify all the slides as green

Question 49

What did Moscovici et al (1969) conclude

Answer 49

Moscovici et al (1969) concluded that minority groups would have greater influence when they behaving consistently

Question 50

how did Wood et al (1994) support Moscovici’s consistency

Answer 50

Wood et al (1994) support Moscovici’s consistency by a meta-analysis of 100 similar studies finding consistent minorities were most influential

Question 51

What is a weakness of Moscovici et al (1969)

Answer 51

A weakness of Moscovici et al (1969) is that there is low generalisability because all participants were women

Question 52

What was Adorno et al (1950) study

Answer 52

Adorno et al (1950) study was measuring 2000 middle class white Americans and their attitudes to other racial groups

Question 53

What did Adorno et al (1950) find

Answer 53

Adorno et al (1950) found that authoritarian people were much more likely to be highly obedient and have conservative views on gender, race and sex

Question 54

What are weaknesses of Adorno et al (1950)

Answer 54

Weaknesses of Adorno et al (1950) are that it was open to social desirability bias as homophobia and racism was fashionable and also there is beta bias as male study is applied to women

Question 55

What are Kelman and Hamiltons (1989) 3 factors for obedience

Answer 55

Kelman and Hamiltons (1989) 3 factors for obedience are legitimacy of system, legitimacy of authority within the system and legitimacy of demands or orders given

Question 56

What is legitimacy of system according to Kelman and Hamilton

Answer 56

Legitimacy of system is the extent to which the body is a legitimate source of authority like a school or a family or a government according to Kelman and Hamilton

Question 57

What is legitimacy of authority within the system according to Kelman and Hamilton

Answer 57

legitimacy of authority within the system is the extent to which an individual has authority in a system based on their position in hierarchy according to Kelman and Hamilton

Question 58

What is legitimacy of demand or orders given according to Kelman and Hamilton

Answer 58

legitimacy of demand or orders given is the extent to which the order given is deemed legitimate for the field of the authority figure like a teacher telling you to clean their car according to Kelman and Hamilton

Question 59

What is destructive authority

Answer 59

Destructive authority is when an authority figure uses their power for destructive purposes like Hitler

Question 60

how does Hofling support obedience of authority figure

Answer 60

Hofling supports obedience of authority figure by finding 21/22 nurses were about to administer a lethal dosage of an unauthorized medicine when given orders by a doctor over the phone - it was a placebo

Question 61

How did Nemeth et al (1986) support role of flexibility in minority influence

Answer 61

Nemeth et al (1986) supported role of flexibility in minority influence as when confederate had to convince 3 ppts to lower compensation amount of an accident victim, the majority refused to change their position to lower the amount when the confederate was consistent in arguing, but when confederate was flexible and compromised to a higher amount, the ppts were influenced to lower their demand slightly to confederate’s view - supporting the need of the minority to be flexible in order to influence majority