Paper 1 - Social Influence Flashcards

Question

Evaluate the situational variables for Obedience

Answer 1

One strength is that other studies ahve demonstrated the influence of situational variables on obedience. In a field experiment in NYC, Bickman (1974) had three confederates dress in different outfits. The confederates individually stood in the street and asked passers- by to perform tasks such as picking up littler or handing over a coin. People were twice as likely to obey the assistant dressed as a security than the one dressed in jacket and tie. This supports the view that a situational variable, such as a uniform, does have a powerful effect on obedience However, a weakness of Milgram’s research findings is that by supporting a situational explanation of obedience the perspective has been criticised by Mandel (1988) who argues that it offers an excuse or ‘alibi’ for evil behaviour. In his view, it is offensive to survivors of the Holocaust to suggest that the Nazis were simply obeying orders. Milgram’s explanations also ignores the role of dispositional factors (such as personality), implying that the Nazis were victims of situational factors beyond their control

Answer 2

1. Agentic State- Milgram suggested that the Solider/Nazis experienced a shift from the AUTONOMOUS state to an AGENTIC state where they feel no personal responsibility for their action (through binding factors as they allow a person to ignore or minimise the damaging effects of their obedience actions). People obey because they feel that they are an AGENT of another person ( An AGENT Is someone who acts in place of another) - They feel as if the person they are being obedient of is a Legitimate authority figure This is done through: * Graduated COMMITMENT - this is where orders/ tasks start small and gradually increase. This contributes to obedience because small order get you hooked to obedience; milligram done this by starting off with small shocks * Buffers- there are aspect which create a real or perceived psychological or psychical distance between the person following orders- Milgram used a psychical buffer -the wall 2. Legitimacy Authority Figure- -Most societies are structed in a Hierarchical way, meaning some people hold Authority over others. Policeman, teachers etc have Legitimate authority. This means that people are more likely to obey people whom they perceive to be LEGITAMATE AUTHORITY FIGURES and have the power to punish.

Answer 3

There is also research evidence to support the roles of both location and uniform in obedience. Bickman (1974) found that 92% of pedestrians obeyed an order to give a stranger money for a parking metre when the person giving the order was dressed as a security guard, compared to only 49% when he was dressed in ordinary clothes, supporting the view that wearing a uniform leads to increased obedience. Both of these factors can be linked to the concept of legitimate authority. A uniform, or a prestigious location and the status associated with it, both increase the impression of legitimacy of the authority figure and, in turn, increase obedience. One limitation is that the agentic shift doesn't explain many research findings about obedience. For example, It does not explain the findings of Rank and Jacobson’s (1977) study. They found that 16 out of 18 hospital nurses disobeyed orders from a doctor to administer an excessive drug dose to a patient. The doctor was an obvious authority figure. But almost all the nurses remained autonomous, as did many of Milgram’s participants. This suggests that, at best, the agentic shift can only account for some situations of obedience

Answer 4

Adorno was one of the first psychologists to suggest that obedience could be due to a person having a certain personality, what he called an AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY To measure an authoritarian personality, ADORNO developed the ‘F-SCALE’ questionnaire. He argued people with an authoritarian personality possess a number of distinct traits, an are PRE-DISPOSED towards fascist including- including extreme respect of authority figures, strong favouritism of their own ethnic group. ADORNO found out that people with AP are more likely to be OBIDENT TO FIGURES OF AUTHORITY which could be due to harsh parenting as a child Clinical interviews found out that people with AP stems from harsh parenting, involving strict discipline, impossibly high standards and severe criticism of failings. They would experience resentment and hostility to their parents. However these feelings cannot be expressed directly towards the parents therefore the feelings are repressed into the child's unconscious

Answer 5

Procedure * Adorno et al. (1950) developed a questionnaire called the F-Scale (fascist scale) to test whether someone had an authoritarian personality. He studied more than 2000 middle-class, white Americans and their unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups. * Some examples from the F-Scale are: Obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues for children to learn Homosexuals are hardly better than criminals and ought to be severely punished Findings * Those who scored high on the F-Scale identified with strong people, had contempt for the weak, admired high-status individuals and exhibited 'black and white' views. There were strong positive correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice

Answer 6

One strength is evidence for Milgram supporting the Authoritarian Personality. Milgram, together with Alan Elms, interviewed a small sample of people who had participated in the original obedience studies and been fully obedient. They all completed the F-scale as part of the interview. These 20 obedient participants scored significantly higher on the overall F-scale than a comparison group of 20 disobedient participants. The two groups were clearly quite different in terms of authoritarianism. This finding supports Adorno et al's view that obedient people may well show similar characteristics to people who have an Authoritarian Personality. One limitation is that authoritarianism cannot explain obedient behaviour in the majority of a country's population. For example, in pre-war Germany, millions of individuals displayed obedient and anti-Semitic behaviour. This was despite the fact that they must have differed in their personalities. It seems extremely unlikely that they could all possess an Authoritarian Personality. An alternative view is that the majority of the German people identified with the antisemitic Nazi state, and scapegoated the 'outgroup' of jews, a social identify theory approach. Therefore Adorno's theory is limited because an alternative explanation is much more realistic Another limitation is that the F-scale only measures the tendency towards an extreme form of right-wing ideology. Christie and Jahoda (1954) argued that the F-scale is a politically-biased interpretation of Authoritarian Personality. They point out the reality of left-wing authoritarianism in the shape of Russian Bolshevism or Chinese Maoism. In fact, extreme right-wing and left-wing ideologies have a lot in common. This means Adorno's theory is not a comprehensive dispositional explanation that accounts for obedience to authority across the whole political spectrum

Answer 7

35% of participants in Milgram's study did not fully obey and actually most people in Asch's study did not conform. They fall in two categories- Situational explanations and Dispositional explanations

Answer 8

Resisting conformity - The pressure to conform can be reduced if there are other people who are not conforming. We saw this in Asch research, the people who is not conforming does not have to be giving the correct answers, rather simply just opposing the majority group. A dissenting non conformist sows other people that they too don't have to conform Resisting obedience - Social support also helps people resist obedience as the pressure to obey is reduced if there is a either person who is sent to disobey. In one of Milgram’s variations, obedience dropped by 65% to 10% if the real participants was joined by disobedient confederate. Some psychologists argue the presence of a disobedient individual removes a person from an agentic state as itmake them question the obedient behaviour

Answer 9

* ROTTER proposed the idea of the locus of control- personality continuum that is concerned with what people believe directs the events of their lives. A person's locus of control is measured on a continuum - INTERNAL LOCUS OF CONTROL- who believe that the things that happen to them are largely controlled by themselves - HIGH EXTENRAL LOCUS OF CONTROL- who believe that the things that happen to them are out of their control

Answer 10

There is plenty of research evidence that shows that both situational factors can lead to resistance to social influence. ALLEN AND LEVINE (1971) found that conformity decreased when there was a dissenter in an Asch-type conformity producer. This occurred if the dissenter wore thicker glasses and said he had difficulty with his vison. However, the study also showed that soical support does not alwasy help. This is because when the dissenter had obviously poor eyesight (thick glassess) resistance was only 36%. There is a strength of research evidence to support the link between LOC and reistance to obedience. HOLLAND (1967)- repeated Milgram's bassline study, but additionally measured the locus of control of the participants. he found that 37% of people with a high INTERNAL LOC did not obey and continue it the highest shock whereas only 23% of externals did not obey. This shows that resistance is at least partly related to LOC, which increases the validlity of LOC as an explanation of disobedience Locus of control is measured using questionnaire, these may not be completed accurately as pole may feel pressured to give certain response (demand characteristics: social desirability) therefore the questionnaire may not accurately reflect a persons actual loc which reduces the validity of the dispositional explanations

Answer 11

When a minority of people influences others to adopt their beliefs, attitudes, behaviours This is distinct from conformity where the majority is influencing and thus conformity is sometimes called the majority influence. In both cases the people being influenced may be just one person, a small group or a large group of people. Minority influence is most likely to lead to internalisation - both public behaviour and private beliefs are changed by the process

Answer 12

Moscovici (1969) found there were three main processes of minority influence. These are: Consistency * The minority has to be consistent in their views as this increases the amount of interest from others and gets people to start to rethink their own opinions. This is due to types of consistency: Synchronic consistency: They're all saying the same thing Diachronic consistency: They've been saying the same thing for a long period of time Commitment * The minority has to show full commitment to their views and show this through their actions, which can be extreme in some cases taking part in extreme actions or having extreme views makes the majority think that the minority group must truly believe what they are doing. This then may cause them to rethink their own opinions. This is called the argumentation principle Flexibility * The minority has to be able to adapt their point of view and accept reasonable and valid counter opinions, the minority have to be able to have a balance between both consistency and flexibility. They cannot be dogmatic in their views. The three factors, consistency, commitment and flexibility, make people think about the minority cause

Answer 13

A strength of this is that there is research support for consistency. Moscovici's 'blue slide, green slide' study showed that a consistent minority group had a greater effect on changing the views of others. Wood (1994) carried out a meta-analysis of almost 100 similar studies and found that minorities who were being consistent were most influential. This suggests that being consistent is the minimum requirement for a minority trying to influence a majority. Another strength is evidence showing that a change in a majority's position does involve deeper processing. Martin et al. (2003) presented a message and measured the participants' agreement. One group of participants heard a minority group agree with the initial view, while another group heard a majority agree with the view. People were less willing to change if they had listened to a minority group than if they had listened to a majority. This suggests that the minority message had been more deeply processed and had a more enduring effect. However, research studies make clear distinctions between the majority and minority. Doing this in a controlled way is a strength. But real life situations are more complicated. In the real world, majorities have more power and a higher status than minorities. Minorities are very committed to their cause, this is because they face a very hostile opposition. Therefore, Martin et al's findings are very limited in what they can tell us about minority influence in real world situations.

Answer 14

When whole societies, rather than just individuals, adopt new attitudes, beliefs and ways of doing things.

Answer 15

1. Minority influence challenges dominant ideologies- e.g. Millicent Fawcett founded the National Union of Women’s Suffrage 2. MINORITY behaves CONSISTENTLY to draw attention- e.g. Fawcett argued consistently for women’s rights in parliament and led some peaceful protests 3. Other people take notice and conform cease they agree - e.g. People (including Emmeline Pankhurst and Emily Davison) noticed Fawcett’s protests. Suffragette group formed 4. Augmentation principle- e.g. Extreme acts to draw attention to plight – Pankhurst disrupted meetings, attacked politicians, hunger strikes, went to prison… Davison… 5. Snowball effect- e.g. People noticed, momentum grew - more people joined the suffragettes 6. Social Cryptoamneisa- People recognise the suffragettes but forget Fawcett and the NUWS 7. Social change - Representation of peoples act 1918 – Women given right to vote

Answer 16

There is research support for the role of majority influence in social change. Nolan et al (2008) hung messages on the front doors of houses in San Diego, California that either told them that most residents were trying to reduce their energy usage, or asked them to reduce their energy usage, but made no reference to other residents. Nolan found significant decreases in energy usage in the first group only. This implies that residents were more willing to change their habits if they believed a majority of others had done so too, and thus demonstrated how majority influence can play a part in bringing about social change. The theory of the snowball effect helps us to understand how minority and majority influence work together to bring about social change. According to Moscovici, minority and majority influences are thought to work through different processes. Minority influence involves individuals being persuaded away from the majority, and therefore is more likely to result in internalisation, whereas majority influence is more associated with normative social influence and compliance, in other words, changing your behaviour and attitudes to fit in. This means that in the early stages of social change we can expect to see true conversion as members of the majority are genuinely persuaded away from their former view or behaviour. However, once a tipping point is reached, the minority then becomes the majority and we can expect others to follow to avoid social disapproval. This can explain why the process is slow to begin with, but gathers momentum as more people shift towards the minority position.

Paper 1 - Social Influence Flashcards

(40 cards)