Obedience
How were participants of Milgram and Zimbardo's studies selected?
Recruited through advertisements - Convenience Sampling
Define conformity.
Aligning actions and beliefs to fit into a group.
Leo is online shopping and on the checkout screen a pop up arises, asking Leo if he would like to add a pair of socks to his order. This is an example of:
Foot in the door.
How are prejudice, discrimination, and stereotyping linked?
By the ABC model. Affective is prejudice, Behaviour is discrinimation, and Cognative is stereotyping.
List three factors (besides Deindividuation) that influence obedience.
What are the 2 reasons for conformity? Define each.
Normative social influence = conforming to fit in with a group and to be liked
Informational social influence = conforming because you think others are correct or wanting to gain knowledge
Potential answers:
- Adding a new cognition, like 'there were not that many cars when I crossed, so it is safe'
- Changing behaviour and not jaywalking
- Ignoring or denying information, like deliberately ignoring the red pedestrian light
How do unintentional biases, exposure and learning lead to prejudice?
Prejudice is an attitude that can be caused by mistakes in the brains unconscious processing resulting in unconscious biases such as confirmation bias, halo effect and gender biases. Prejudice can also be formed through exposure and experience, and can be learned.
Prior to the experiment, Milgram hypothesised that ___% of participants would reach 300 volts. During the study, ___% of participants delivered 300 volts.
4%, 100%
How does group size impact conformity, and what are the figures related to it?
Conformity increases up to 4-5 participants before plateauing.
Potential advantages:
- Less susceptible to social desirability bias because it is more focused on reaction time.
- Reveals implicit attitudes and unconscious biases which may be more difficult to reveal via other attitude measurement methodologies.
Potential disadvantages:
- Low test-retest reliability, as subsequent retakes of the test can be influenced by practice effects.
- Due to the occasional inconsistency between attitudes and behaviours, it can be a poor predictor of behaviour such as discrimination.
What are the effects of social stigma and internalisation?
Shame, hopelessness, reduces asking for help, self-doubt, fewer oppertunities, and self-fulfilling prophacy.
What was the aim of the Stanford Prison Experiment?
To determine whether brutality reported amongst prison guards was due to situational or dispositional factors
Who is the most recognised researcher of conformity, and what was his methodology?
Solomon Asch.
He gave confederates and one participant different lengths of lines to look at to determine which were equal. All participants had to call out which line matched which. It was found that a majority of participants conformed to the opinion of the other participants, even though they could see it was wrong.
Explain how self perception theory was demonstrated in the Stanford Prison Experiment.
As the guards assumed their roles and began mistreating their prisoners, they likely did not possess attitudes towards the prisoners which were strong, accessible, or specific. Thus, according to self perception theory, the prison guards likely relied on their own level of self perception to guide the formation of a negative attitude towards the prisoners which was in alignment with their negative behaviours towards the prisoners.
How can someone change their attitudes to reduce prejudice?
Educational programs, intergroup contact, superordinate goals, and direct experience.
Explain deindividuation and list three factors that may lead to it
Individuals in a group are less likely to make decisions for themselves because they lose their individual identity and personal responsibility.
Anonymity, Diffused or shared responsibility, Group size, Physiological or emotional arousal, Novel or unstructured situations, Altered states of consciousness (drugs and alcohol)
What are the 3 types of conformity, and how do they differ?
Compliance = public change, privately disagree
Identification = public change and private change only while associating with a group
Internalisation = public and private change without a group needing to be present
Envision an advertisement where Santa Claus is pictured holding a can of Coca Cola. Explain how classical conditioning can be used to form an attitude towards the beverage.
The neutral stimulus (NS) is Coca Cola, as it initially produces no response. The unconditioned stimulus (UCS) is Santa Claus, which produces an unconditioned response (UCR) of warmth/happiness/excitement. During acquisition, the repeated association of the UCS of Santa Claus with the NS of Coca Cola yields an UCR of warm/happiness/excitement. During performance, the NS of Coca Cola becomes the CS, yielding a conditioned response (CR) of warmth/happiness/excitement.
Therefore, the audience is likely to demonstrate attitude change towards Coca Cola, and is likely to have positive emotions and thus a positive attitude towards the beverage.
Explain reluctance to help, tokenism, and reverse discrimination, and how they differ from explisit forms of discrimination.
Reluctance to help - reluctance to help other groups achieve equal access or improve their position in society by not providing assistance.
Tokenism - Deliberately giving trivial assistance to be seen as inclusive or avoid accusations of prejudice and discrimination.
Reverse discrimination - Creating prejudice in favour of a minority group.