Social Influence - Obedience

Question 1

Obedience

Answer 1

Act in response to a direct order from another person

Question 2

Milgram’s study of obedience

Answer 2

40 American males volunteer to take part in a memory study, all were teacher roles (fixed) & were told to give the students electric shocks when they got a wrong answer + increasing the voltage -> prompted by an experimenter
Findings: 100% obeyed at 300V, 65% at maximum 450V

Question 3

Strengths of Milgram

Answer 3

Reliability (Le Jeu De La Mort -> French reality show showed 80% delivered maximum shock -> replicated with similar results)
Generalisability (Hofling et al -> if nurses were told to break hospital rules, 21/22 would do so -> not limited to just a lab setting)

Question 4

Limitations of Milgram

Answer 4

Lack internal validity (Orne & Holland -> participants didn’t always believe the shocks were real, Perry -> expressed doubts on reality of shocks -> results are inaccurate)
Ethics (causes participants distress having to administer harm to others as many believed they were real)

Question 5

Situational variables affecting obedience

Answer 5

Location of study (Milgram - 47.5% obedience), proximity (Milgram - 40% in same room as learner, 30% in touch proximity, 20.5 remote), uniform of the experimenter (20% when experimenter dressed as member of public)

Question 6

Strength of situational variables in Milgram’s research

Answer 6

Replicated in other countries (Miranda -> 90% obedience rate amongst Spanish students -> valid across cultures)

Question 7

Limitations of situational variables in Milgram’s research

Answer 7

Demand characteristics (Orne -> more likely to appear with variations due to the manipulation -> agreed with by Milgram -> lack of internal validity)
Offers excuses for behaviours (Mandel -> offensive to survivors of Holocaust by saying Nazis were simply obeying orders & were victims themselves)

Question 8

Agentic state

Answer 8

Mental state where no responsibility is felt due to acting for an authority figure (free from conscience)

Question 9

Autonomous state

Answer 9

Free to behave according to their own principles

Question 10

Legitimacy of authority

Answer 10

Appearing authoritative gives the right to exert control over others

Question 11

Strength of agency theory

Answer 11

Credible (Blass & Schmitt -> showed a film of the study, asked who was responsible for harm -> most identified the experimenter as responsible due to authority)

Question 12

Limitation of agency theory

Answer 12

Does not explain every aspect of the findings (35% did not obey in original study -> must be another explanation for why some remained autonomous)

Question 13

Strength of legitimacy of authority

Answer 13

Cultural variations (replicated -> Kilham & Mann in Australia, 16% went to 450v -> Mantell in Germany, 85% -> some cultures have authority accepted as legitimate & entitled)

Question 14

Dispositional variables of obedience

Answer 14

Personality characteristics -> authoritarian personality proposed by Fromm to explain right-wing conservative views (characterised: belief in absolute obedience, submission to authority, domination of minority)

Question 15

How authoritarian personality is formed

Answer 15

Hierarchal parenting, strict discipline, impossibly high standards, anger displaced onto those seen as weaker as child builds resentment

Question 16

How to assess authoritarian personality

Answer 16

F-Scale questionnaire (Adorno -> 2000 middle-class white Americans & unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups -> strong positive correlation)

Question 17

Milgram & authoritarian personality

Answer 17

Participants who were most obedient = higher authoritarian rating on F-scale

Question 18

Strengths of authoritarian personality

Answer 18

Supporting evidence (Elms & Milgram -> those w/obedient tendencies scored higher -> supports link between authoritarian personality & obedience -> increases validity)

Question 19

Limitation of authoritarian personality

Answer 19

Reductionist (Middenthorp & Meleon -> less educated were more likely to display authoritarian characteristics -> not sufficient to look at only personality traits but also education levels)