Social Influence Flashcards

Question

Milgram - Procedure

Answer 1

Advertised his study of obedience as a memory experiment to avoid any biases. His sample consisted of 40 american males who were greeted by a scientist and another ppt who acted as confederates. The naive ppt was always the teacher although to them it seemed randomly allocated. The ppt was told to administer the learner a shock for each incorrect answer increasing the voltage by 15v each mistake - the voltage went up to 450 The ppt heard responses to the shocks and after 300v complete silence suggesting severe harm to the learner The ppt was told that the scientist was fully responsible for any harm and was given prompts such as 'the experiment requires that you continue' and 'you have no other choice; you must go on

Answer 2

100% of ppts administered shocks upt to 300v 65% administer the maximum voltage of 450v Ppts showed visible signs of distress

Answer 3

A mental state in which an individual sees themselves as an agent (acting on behalf of) for an authority figure. The individual doesn't feel guilt or responsibility for their actions as they believe responsibility for their actions lies with the authority figure

Answer 4

An individual acts acoording to their principles and feels responsible for their actions.

Answer 5

The movement from an autonomous state to an agentic one in the presence of an authority figure

Answer 6

Through socialisation, people learn their position within the social hierarchy. Individuals understand their position relative to those above and below them It is communicated through visible symbols such as uniforms and settings

Answer 7

Proximity: Authority figure gave instructions over the phone - obedience dropped to 21% (less likely to remain in an agentic state) Location: Originally at Yale, replicated at run-down block office - obedience dropped to 47.5% (location decreased legitimacy of authority) Uniform: Researcher made an excuse to leave and was replaced by a confederate in regular clothes - obedience dropped to 20% (legitimacy of authority decline)

Answer 8

The task using a shock generator lacks mundane realism. The study also lacks ecological validity as the environment of Yale university was not normal for ppts. Additionally findings may not be generalisable to the wider population especially women because of the sample used (40 men)

Answer 9

35% resisted the authority figure which cannot be explained by situational factors of agentic state and legitimacy of authority alone as each ppt has the same experience. However, Adorno's 'authoritarian personality' theory acknowledges that willingness to obey an authority figure may vary from person to person, offering an explanation as to why there are variations in Milgram's participants

Answer 10

Milgrams methods were considered highly unethical as participants had limited rights to withdraw and suffered emotional distress during the experiment. Ppts were also deceived about the type of study that was taking place, so they were unable to give informed consent. However, it can be argued the decisions made were necessary to conduct his research with limited inteferences. The temporary harm of ppts was worth it considering Milgram's impact on our understanding of obedience, from a cost-benefit perspective

Answer 11

Conducted a field experiment in a hospital in which 22 real nurses were called by an unfamiliar voice claiming to be dr Smith and were ordered to administer a dose of an unfamiliar drug to a patient (dangerous order). The drug was a placebo, 21/22 nurses administered the drug suggesting even with a situation with ecological validity and mundane realism, people are still obedient to those who they feel have legitimacy of authority.

Answer 12

Obedient people have a set of internal traits shaped in childhood by strict parenting and harsh punishments | They displace anger felt towards parents onto other minority groups.

Answer 13

High respect for people with higher social status (leading to obedience. Hostile to people they see as having a low status Fixed stereotypes of about groups of people Conformists with conventional beliefs and behaviours Views on morality are dogmatic - clear ideas on what is right or wrong

Answer 14

Questionnaire - people who scored high had fixed stereotypes, were dogmatic and dislike weak people F-scale measure 9 factors including authoritarian submission and powe/toughness | Created by Adorno

Answer 15

x Adorno's theory of link between an abusive childhood, the development of an authoritarian personality and obedience can only be studied using correlation. Whereas, agentic state and legitimacy of authority are supported by experimental research.

Answer 16

Authoritarian personality can lead to stereotypes, where complex historical events like WW2 are overly simplified into personality flaws of the people involved. This approach risks reducing the accountability of social structures and leaders. It ignores how societal factors, laws and peer pressure lead people with non-authoritarian personalities to feel they need to participate in widespread obedience.

Answer 17

The ability of individuals to oppose the pressure to conform to a majority or obey an authority figure by maintaining personal autonomy and integrity in their thoughts, decisions and actions

Answer 18

The presence of others who defy authority figures or go against the majortiy opinion gives the individual the confidence to stand against majority pressure or authoritarian commands.

Answer 19

It is associated with the diffusion of responsibility, the more people who obey/dissent , the less severe the consequences are likely to be. It counters feelings of isolation, legitimising resistance.

Answer 20

Individuals with a dissenter (non-conformist ally) are more likely to resist conforming as the ally breaks the group's unanimity and creates and alternate group to belong to

Answer 21

Individuals with a disobedient role model are more likely to resist obeying commands from an authority figure as the role model undermines/challenges their legitimacy of authority

Answer 22

Milgram conducted a variation of his original study in which he gave the teacher (naive participant) social support - two extra confederates that acted as teacher. One of the teachers refused to continue at 150v and the other at 210v. In this variation conformity dropped from 65% to 10%. Milgram argues this reduction was due to the defiant actions of the peers, reducing the legitimacy of authority of the scientist.

Answer 23

Rotter: What people consider to be the causes of their experiences and the factors that influence their successes or failures which influences how people perceive and interact with their environment

Answer 24

Believe they have personal control over their lives and the outcomes of their actions. They are more likely to take responsibilty for their actions

Answer 25

Believe external factors (luck, fate, powerful others etc.) control their lives. Less likely to feel responsibility for their actions.

Answer 26

Holland replicated Milgram's study, but also assessed ppts on their LOC. 37% of ppts with a internal loc refused to shock to the maximum voltage in comparison to 23% of those with an external loc. However, not all resisted, so this is only a partial explanation of resistance to SI.

Answer 27

The relationship between SI and LOC is correlation, there are other related factors that affect resistance to SI such as level of social anxiety, personal morality. Individuals who see an action as morally wrong are more likely to resist regardless of social pressures and social status.

Answer 28

When members of a majority a converted to the views of a majority

Answer 29

Consistency: If members of the minority repeat the same message over time (diachronic) and all the members give the same message (synchronic) Commitment: If members of a minority are willing to suffer for their views but still hold them, majority will take their views seriously (augmentation principle) Flexibility: If seen as dogmatic, minorities will not be persuasive, they need the ability to appear to consider counterarguments and show they are reasonable by compromising (snowball effect)

Answer 30

If someone performs an action despite the costs and risks, the underlying motive driving the action is considered strong

Answer 31

Minorities changing majority opinions starts as a slow process as each person only converts a few members. The rate of conversion speeds up more as the minority view improves in its acceptability.

Answer 32

36 blue slides of different shades were shown to 4 naïve participants and 2 confederates. When the minority (confederate) consistently claimed every slide was green, participants agreed on 8% of trials but only on 1% of trials when the minority was inconsistent which suggests consistency has been shown to help minorities influence members of the majority. However, 68% of ppts never conformed this may mean that few people are receptive to the influence of a consistent minority group Task is highly artificial so therefore lacks mundane realism. It may not be valid when generalised to real world minority influence

Answer 33

There are examples of minority groups using consistency, commitment and flexibility to influence the majority. For example the suffragettes showed commitments by going on hunger strike and the leaders of the civil rights movement delivered speeches with a consistent message of equality. The LGBTQIA+ rights movement campaigned for civil partnerships a strategic (flexible) compromise that ultimately led to their initial goal, the full legalisation of same-sex marriage.

Answer 34

When a view held by a minority group challenges the majority and is eventually accepted. The whole society not just individuals adopt new attitudes, beliefs or behaviours

Answer 35

Members of the government are a minority group that enact dramatic social change by creating laws. When laws are created, societies change to avoid punishment. Examples include making smoking indoors illegal, anti-discrimination laws and regulating behaviour during a pandemic.

Answer 36

NSI: Behaviour or views can become the norm within a minority group, such as recycling, vaping or fitness in young people; those who go against this norm risk rejection. This norm can then spread to the broader society. ISI: Members of a minority can provide information to the majority, such as the effects of climate change. Wider society changes its behaviour because it accepts the new evidence.

Answer 37

Describes how society adopts ideas from a minority group; however, once the mainstream accepts these ideas and they become the norm, the sacrifices made by the minority group in initiating these positive social changes are not acknowledged but forgotten over time.

Answer 38

It helps governments understand how to change people's behaviour. For example, persuade people to eat healthy or take sensible distancing precautions during a pandemic. In these cases, understanding social change can help the economy by reducing society's healthcare costs.

Answer 39

Social change often occurs over extended periods, deals with highly sensitive topics, such as inequality, discrimination or social unrest and is the sum of the interactions of millions of members of society; for this reason, highly controlled experimental lab research on social change is not possible, meaning clear cause and effect relationships can't be established. Instead, researchers depend on natural experiments, case studies and correctional studies to understand social change.

Social Influence Flashcards

(63 cards)