obedience

Question 1

What is obedience

Answer 1

• Form of social influence where an individual acts in response to a direct order from another individual, usually an authority figure
• It is assumed that without such an order the person would not have acted in this way
• Obedience involves a hierarchy of power/status
• Person giving order has a higher status than the person receiving order
• FACTORS:
• Social proximity of the victim
• Social proximity and legitimacy of the person giving the order
• Diffusion of responsibility
• Group pressure
• persuasion

Question 2

Milgram study on obedience 1965

Answer 2

65% of the participants in this version of the experiment continued to administer shocks all the way to the end
* researcher present made them obey- e.g. please continue, the experiment requires you to continue, it is essential you continue, you have no other choice you must go on (these prompts were not used consistently between different ppts)
* ethical issues
* just men
* no right to withdrawal with payment
what breeds obedience? (In the experiment)
* Victims emotional distance- in the experiment it varied how loud the person receiving the shocks were, and if we could see them or not
* Authority closeness and legitimacy- The experimenter when close it was more effective
* Whether the authority is institutionalized- ppts thinking its legit
* Disobedient fellow participant- when disobedient fellow ppts it was easier to disobey

Question 3

presence of others on obedience

Answer 3

• Triplett’s study (1898)- found social facilitation= presence of others improves performance of simple tasks (cyclists)
• Zajonc- explained people perform worse when others are present- he proposed its due to arousal, arousal enhances whatever response tendency is dominant. This means increased arousal can improve performance in easy tasks in which the dominant response is the correct one. Increased arousal decreases performance in complex tasks for which the correct response is not dominant.

-sanders et al., 1978- ppts performing a easy or difficult task alone or co-acting with someone. Ppts in the distraction condition (not alone) made more mistakes on the difficult task

 Self awareness theory (Carver1981)= when ppl focus attention on themselves, they make comparisons between their actual self and their ideal self. The self discrepancy between actual and ideal self increases motivation and effort to bring actual into line with ideal, so on easy tasks performance improves.

Question 4

the mere presence of others

Answer 4

• Even a supportive crowd/Audience can affect performance negatively
• The effect of other people increases with their number and a large audience may influence even automatic behaviors like speaking
• Being in a crowd intensifies both positive and negative reactions

Question 5

the minority influence

Answer 5

• Numeric or power minorities change the attitudes, beliefs or behaviors of the majority
• E.g., suffragettes’ movement
• Determinants of minority influence;
• Consistency- sticking to one’s position, being persistent
• Self-confidence- consistency and persistence convey self-confidence-
• Defection from the majority- destroying the illusion of unanimity

Question 6

physical proximity

Answer 6

• Physical proximity influences our perception:
• Evaluation apprehension- maybe we are anxious we are being evaluated
• Distraction- there is a conflict between paying attention to others and paying attention to the task overloads our cognitive system causing arousal
• Mere presence- even without evaluation or
  distraction, the mere presence of others affects our arousal