1. SOCIAL INFLUENCE
Social Psychology
Miss Bird

2. AQA A Psychology Specification 2015: Social Influence
Types of conformity: internalisation, identification and compliance.
Explanations for conformity: informational social influence and normative social influence, and variables affecting conformity including group size, unanimity and task difficulty as investigated by Asch.
Conformity to social roles as investigated by Zimbardo.
Explanations for obedience: agentic state and legitimacy of authority, and situational variables affecting obedience including proximity, location and uniform, as investigated by Milgram.
Dispositional explanation for obedience: the Authoritarian Personality.
Explanations of resistance to social influence, including social support and locus of control.
Minority influence including reference to consistency, commitment and flexibility.
The role of social influence processes in social change.

3. Explanations of why people obey
People may obey because the situation they find themselves in somehow puts pressure on them to be obedient.

4. Situational explanations of why people obey
A legitimate authority
Gradual commitment
The agentic state

5. 1. Legitimacy of authority
Societies structured in hierarchical way meaning that people in certain positions hold authority over the rest of us.
E.g. – parents, teachers, police officers, bouncers.
Their authority is legitimate in the sense that it is agreed by society.
Most of us accept that authority figures have to be allowed to exercise social power over others as it allows society to function smoothly.
Personal experience has taught us that authorities are generally trustworthy and legitimate and so obedience to authority is appropriate and expected.

6. 2. Gradual commitment
I.e. ‘Foot-in-the-door’ technique used by salespeople – start with a minor request and then gradually make larger requests. How did gradual commitment play a role in Milgram’s original study? HINT: Think about what participants were asked to do.

7. Gradual commitment
Participants started off giving lower-level shocks (45v).
As the experiment went on participants had to increase the level of shock each time an incorrect answer was given (by 15v).
Participants’ found it harder to resist the experimenter’s requirements to increase the shocks as the experiment went on.
As participants had already committed themselves to a particular course of action (i.e. giving shocks), it became more difficult for them to change their minds.

8. The Agentic State
Agentic state: the ‘condition a person is in when he sees himself as an agent for carrying out another person’s wishes.’ I.e. “I am not responsible because I was ordered to do it.” Autonomous state (independent): the ‘condition a person is in when he sees himself acting on his own.’ I.e. Aware of consequences of actions and feel in control of own behaviour plus responsible.

9. The Agentic Shift
Milgram (1974) argued that people shift between an ‘agentic state’ and an ‘autonomous state’ = AGENTIC SHIFT!
This occurs when a person perceives someone else as a figure of authority with power due to their position in the social hierarchy.
In most social groups when one person is in charge, others defer to this person and shift from autonomy to agency.
The individual no longer views self as acting out own purposes but comes to see self as an agent for executing the wishes of another (removal of personal responsibility).

10. Evaluation (A03) Legitimate authority: Cultural differences
A strength of the legitimacy of authority explanation is that it is a useful account of cultural differences in obedience.
Mantell (1971) – German PTS, M, 19-49, – 85% to 450V.
This shows that in some cultures authority is more likely to be accepted as legitimate and entitled to demand obedience from individuals (65% vs. 85%).
This reflects the ways that different societies are structured and how children are raised to perceive authority figures.
Such supportive findings from cross-cultural research increase the validity of the explanation.

11. Evaluation (A03) Legitimate authority: supporting evidence
There is research to support this explanation of obedience.
Blass and Schmitt (2001) – showed film of Milgram’s study to students and asked them to identify who they felt was responsible for the harm to the learner.
The students blamed the ‘experimenter’ rather than the PT i.e. ‘teacher.’
The students also indicated that the responsibility was due to legitimate authority (top of hierarchy) and expert authority (scientist).
They recognised legitimate authority as the cause of obedience, increasing validity of explanation.

12. Evaluation (A03) Agentic state: Limited explanation
Doesn’t explain many of the research findings.
E.g. doesn’t explain why some of the PTs in Milgram’s study did not obey (all humans involved in social hierarchy so should all obey).
Also cannot explain Hofling et al’s findings – agentic shift explanation predicts that, as the nurses handed over responsibility to the DR, they should have shown levels of anxiety similar to Milgram’s PTs, but they did not.
This suggests that, at best, agentic shift can only account for some situations of obedience.

13. Independent task Dispositional explanations for obedience
Read pages in the textbook.
Answer the 9 associated questions.
You have 20 minutes.
Q&A.

14. Answers 1. What is the definition of an authoritarian personality?
A type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority. Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.
2. According to Adorno’s conclusions, there are 5 factors that make up an authoritarian personality, what are these?
Tendency to be especially obedient to authority.
Extreme respect for authority and submissive to it
Contempt for people with inferior social status (& highly conventional attitudes to sex, race and gender)
View society as ‘going to the dogs’ and we need strong leaders to enforce traditional values
Inflexible in their outlook – everything is either right or wrong, no ‘grey’ areas

15. Answers
3. What was the name of the scale used to measure authoritarian personality?
F scale
4. Give an example of an item on this scale.
Obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues a child can learn

16. Answers
5. What were Adorno’s findings from his investigation of over 2000 white Americans?
People scoring high on the F scale (i.e. authoritarian) identified with ‘strong’ people and showed contempt for ‘weak’ people.
They were conscious of their own and others’ status and showed excessive respect for those of higher status.
Strong positive correlation between authoritarian personality and prejudice.
6. Why is the authoritarian personality explanation based on flawed methodology?
All the items in the scale are worded in the same direction
Therefore can get a high score for authoritarianism just by ticking the same line of boxes – people agreeing with the items on the scale may NOT be authoritarian but just ‘acquiescers’s
Therefore the scale may just measure the personality style of whether people are willing to agree to everything!
So it may lack……..

17. Answers
7. Although research shows a link between the authoritarian personality and obedience (Milgram and Elms, 1966 – PTs who were fully obedient scored highly on the F scale), what might be a third factor involved in this relationship?
Lower levels of education could be associated with both obedience and also authoritarian personality
8. Why, then, is the explanation limited?
It is based on a correlation between authoritarian personality and obedience and therefore causation cannot be concluded
9. Why are personality/dispositional explanations limited when trying to explain obedient behaviour in the majority of a country’s population?
It is extremely unlikely that all members of a population could all possess an authoritarian personality
Yet in pre-war Germany, millions of people displayed obedient, racist behaviour despite probably having different personalities
Therefore dispositional explanations cannot account for all obedience
It is more likely to be an alternative explanation……

18. Exam practice 
When you are a passenger on a train, you are much more likely to move to another seat if the ticket collector tells you to move rather than if another passenger tells you to do so.
Use your knowledge of why people obey to explain this behaviour. (4 marks)