Obedience Basics
What is obedience?
Following a direct order from someone perceived to have authority.
According to Milgram's agency theory, what are the two states a person can occupy?
Autonomous state and agentic state.
What was the maximum voltage apparently administered in Milgram's original obedience study?
450 Volts
What are the three types of conformity?
Compliance, Identification and Internalisation
What is minority influence?
When a smaller group influences the attitudes, beliefs or behaviour of the majority.
Name TWO situational factors that can increase obedience.
Proximity of the authority figure, legitimacy of authority, institutional setting, or gradual commitment.
What is an agentic state?
A state in which a person sees themselves as an agent carrying out another person's wishes.
What percentage of participants continued to the maximum shock level in Milgram's original study?
65%
Which type of conformity involves publicly changing your behaviour while privately disagreeing?
Compliance
What does consistency mean in minority influence?
The minority maintains the same position over time and across situations.
What does social power theory suggest about why people obey?
People obey because social relationships involve different levels of power, with some individuals having greater power or authority than others
What is the agentic shift?
The process of moving from an autonomous state into an agentic state.
Which variation involved the experiment taking place in a rundown office block?
Run-down Office Building (Ordinary Office Building) variation. Experiment 10
Which explanation of conformity is associated with the desire to be accepted and avoid rejection?
Normative social influence
Why might a minority that is completely rigid and refuses to consider any alternative views be less persuasive?
They may appear unreasonable or extreme, making the majority less willing to consider their position. Flexibility can make a minority more persuasive.
Give TWO individual differences that may affect obedience.
Personality and gender
What psychological mechanism allows a person to avoid feeling personally responsible for their actions in the agentic state?
Responsibility is shifted to the legitimate authority.
In which variation were instructions given by telephone rather than face-to-face?
Experiment 7 - Telephonic instructions
Which explanation suggests people conform because they believe the group has more accurate information?
Informational social influence
Approximately what percentage of participants conformed at least once in Asch's original study?
75%
A person refuses to continue following an order because they believe the authority figure is no longer legitimate. Which aspect of obedience is this demonstrating?
Resistance/dissent from obedience.
Explain how agency theory could explain why a participant continued obeying an experimenter despite believing that continuing was wrong.
The participant may have experienced an agentic shift, viewing the experimenter as the legitimate authority and themselves as responsible for carrying out the experimenter's instructions rather than personally responsible for the consequences.
In Experiment 13, an ordinary man gave the orders instead of the experimenter. What happened to obedience, and what does this demonstrate?
Obedience decreased substantially. It demonstrates the importance of legitimacy of authority as a situational factor affecting obedience.
A student initially disagrees with their classmates but eventually accepts the group's answer as genuinely correct, even after leaving the group. What type of conformity is demonstrated, and which explanation is most likely?
Internalisation, caused primarily by informational social influence.
Asch found that conformity was reduced when there was an ally who gave the correct answer. What does this demonstrate about majority influence?
Unanimity is important. Breaking the majority's unanimity reduces conformity because the individual no longer feels completely isolated.