Social Influence - Obedience SS2 PDF

Milgram- Situational Variables Milgram’s Baseline Study Proximity aim: to see how far participants obeyed an unjust order from authority figure to inflict pain onto an individual teac...

Milgram- Situational Variables Milgram’s Baseline Study Proximity aim: to see how far participants obeyed an unjust order from authority figure to inflict pain onto an individual teacher & learner in same room (obedience dropped from 65% to 40%) procedure: 40 male volunteers (different occupations & backgrounds) responded to paper in advert- $4.50 to take part in study for ‘punishment on learning’ teacher forced learners hand onto shock plate (30%) lab experiment, role of teacher always given to participant, confederate played learner (who always had a heart condition), teacher & learner in seperate rooms experimenter left room & gave instructions by phone (20.5%/ 21%) Location word association test, naive participant instructed to give electric shock for every wrong answer run down building in Bridegport (65% down to 47.5%) 15V-450V, increase voltage by 15V for every wrong answer (450V = deadly/ fatal & was understood by participants) Uniform findings: all participants gave shocks up to 300V experimenter called away & replaced by ‘ordinary’ clothed member of 65% of participants went to 450V public (confederate) (dropped to 20%) participants showed signs of extreme stress and guilt conclusion: direct orders from authority figures affects obedience P+ research support E Bickman- uniform affects obedience (milkman, guard, civilian) E increases validity & reliability P+ lab study E proximity, location, uniform one at a time E increases P+ lab study E removal of extraneous variables to ensure obedience was the only influencing factor E increases internal validity & replicability validity P- androcentric study E 40 males- bias sample E lack generalisability to females, can’t say if females obey the same P- lab study E not reflective of real life, artificial materials (word P- lab study E not reflective of real life, artificial materials (word association test) E lacks ecological validity association test) E lacks ecological validity P- ethical issues E no right to withdraw (‘you must continue’), no protection from harm (psychological harm, stressed & guilt), deception E lowers credibility of research P- ethical issues P- adrocentric sample P+ practical application E obedience to authority figures does occur E increases usefulness to society P+ practical application E policeman (uniform), teachers (location- school) E increases usefulness Obedience = individual acts in response to direct order from an authority figure Social Influence- Obedience SS2 Situational Explanation- Agentic State Situational Explanation- Legitimacy of Authority Dispositional Explanation- Authoritarian Personality social psychological explanation social psychological explanation Adorno (1950), after WW2 psychological state most societies are hierarchical- tells us who has authority over us investigated cause of obedience there is always someone ‘in charge’ in most groups- we defer to this authority figures have social power, have power to punish 2,000 middle class white Americans person & obey most people are accepting of this questionnaire about unconscious attitudes, compared it to other racial groups Autonomous State give up our independence & obey people we trust to exercise their ‘F - Scale’ measured authoritarian personality free, independent, feel responsible for actions authority appropriately- understand it’s needed for society to run strong correlation between authoritarian personality & prejudice Agentic Shift smoothly presence of authority figure, this person has greater position & power we learn this societal structure from a young age- parents, teachers and traits: fixed stereotypes, identify with the strong & disrespect the weak, in social hierarchy other adults black & white thinking, uncomfortable with uncertainty Agentic State some obedience can be destructive- charasmatic and powerful leaders feel no responsibility for obeying & wrongdoing, does feel guilt & high authoritarian personality = more obedient anxiety but is powerless to take action On the whole, we obey because we feel the authority figure is legitimate occurs as a result of strict & critical parenting need a strong and powerful leader to obey Evaluation: Evaluation: Evaluation: P+ research support E Bickman- investigates degree of social power uniform P+ research support E Milgram’s baseline study & variable of proximity P+ research support E Milgram & Elms- conducted interviews on fully obedient has on people (civilian, milkman, guard) using 3 tasks: pick up bag, dime & show- people obeyed as they had no power to stop, but still felt guilty E participants in electric shock experiment- they scored highly on F Scale, meter, bus stop E increases validity of legitimacy of authority as he found supports Agentic state as people feel guilt in this state, increases validity studies reflect Adorno’s findings E increases validity of authoritarian guard was obeyed to the most P- problems with research support E lack ecological validity- extreme personality explanation P+ large sample E 153 participants aged 18-61 E increases generalisability P- research support is correlational E Milgram & Elms study only showed situation & not reflective of day to day situations, ethical implications, P+ practical application E schools & prisons will be aware of their power due to obedience correlated with high F Scale scores E correlation doesn’t show androcentric bias sample, lacks cross cultural validity- American inform and should know not to be a destructive authority figure E increases causation & reduces reliability of research participants usefulness in society P- theory based on flawed research E self report questionnaire, unreliable as P- individual differences in Milgram’s study E some people don’t obey, 35% P- individual differences E some people may be more willing to obey than participants show social desirability bias which produces unreliable results E didn’t go to full 450V even in an agentic state E decreases reliability of others- people still said no in Bickman’s study E decreases validity theory is invalid and not useful to explain obedience explanation P- alternative explanation E authoritarian personality- dispositional P- highly bias E F Scale only measures right wing ideology- many left wing P- alternative explanation E authoritarian personality- dispositional explanation of obedience extremism emphasise importance of obedience (may be a socially sensitive explanation P- Bickman’s research lacks population validity E only studied people in topic) E invalid explanation & not representative of all personalities, less Brooklyn E lacks cross cultural validity generalisable