SOCIAL INFLUENCE Flashcards
(46 cards)
What is Obedience
A form of social control where someone complies with the demands given from an authority figure.
What are the 2 explanations for obedience
- The agentic state
- Legitimacy of authority
what is a dispositional explanation for obedience
The Authoritarian personality
Who carried out research into obedience
Stanly Milgram
What was the aim of Stanly Milgram’s study
Whether ordinary people would obey an unjust order from a person in authority to inflict pain on another person.
What was the Proceudre into Milgrams study into obedience
- 40 male volunteers each paid $4.50 descieved into thinking they were giving patients eletric shocks
- The voluneteers would then shock them every time the leaner got a question wrong
- thsi continued up to 450v or to the point where the volunteers woudl refuse to go on.
What did stanly milligram find
- All participants went to 300v.
- 65% went to 450v.
- Most participants found experiment stressful and wanted to stop.
What did Millgram conclude from his study
When people feel they have felt they have a subordinate position they begin to lose feeling of empathy and compassion & become blind towards obedience
What is the Agentic state
Where an individual carries out the orders of an authority figure, acting as their agent
What is an Agentic shift
Where people can start off acting in an autonomous way, but then become obedient
What is Legitimacy of authority
Where your More likely to obey a person who has a higher position or status in a social hierarchy
What are the 3 situational variables that can affect Obedience investigated by Milgram
- Proximity
- Location
- Uniform
How did location affect obedience levels
If they were in a seedy office obedience levels began to drop
How did proximity affect obedience levels
- room dropped to 40%
- phone dropped to 21%
- touch proximity dropped to 30%
How did unifrom affect obedience levels in Milgrams study
Fell from 65% to 20% when the wore his own clothes rather than lab coat
What is an authoritarian personality
A person who has extreme respect for authority and is very obedient.
who came up with the Authoritarian Personality
Adorno et al (1950)
What is the F scale
measures responses on several different components of authoritarianism.
What did Adorno find in his research
Individuals who scored highly on the F-scale identified with ‘strong’ people and showed disrespect towards the weak
What is a Strength of the Dispositional explanation for obedience
Supporting research for the authoritarian personality as a dispositional explanation, E.g., Milgram found participants who were highly obedience scored significantly higher in F scale= supports link between Ap and obedience
What is a limitation of The Dispositional explanation for obedience
The link between Authoritirian personality and obedience is just a link, E.g., research and conclusions about role of this dispositional factor are only correlational= Cannot establish casuality
What are the 2 reasons of resisting Social Influence
- Social Support (Gamson)
- Locus Of Control (Rotter)
Who studied into social support as a explanation as resistance to social influence
Gamson at al 1982
What was the Aim of Gamsons study
To create a situation in which particpants were encouraged to rebel againt an unjust authority
