Social Influence

Annotations:

• - Cultural relativism - It would have been difficult for the confederates to act as if they were seeing the line wrong convincingly enough - 2/3 of the participants stuck to their original opinion despite being faced by an overwhelming majority expressing a completely different view - There wasn't a massive moral decision to make, if the decision was more of a moral decision then maybe the participants would have made a different decision

Annotations:

• Bullying Garandeau and Cillessen have shown how groups with a low quality of interpersonal friendships may be manipulated by a skillful bully so that the victimisation of another child provides the group with a common goal, creating pressure on all group members to comply

1. Ambiguous
2. Crisis
3. Others are experts

Annotations:

• The development of social stereotypes Witternbrink and Henly found that ppts exposed to negative comparison information about African Americans (which they were led to believe was the view of the majority) later reported more negative beliefs about a black target individual

Annotations:

• Milgram deceived his ppts by telling them that they were involved in a study of the effects of punishment on learning, rather than telling them the true purpose of the experiment.

Annotations:

• Part of giving informed consent is allowing ppts the right to withdraw at any point during the study. In Milgram's study it was not clear to what extent ppts felt that they had the right to withdraw.

Annotations:

• Baumrind said that Milgram's study placed ppts under great emotional strain, causing psychological damage that could not be justified. Milgram defended himself by saying that he did not know that such high levels of distress would be caused. Second, he asked ppts after if they has found the experiment distressing, and interviewed them again a year later. 84% felt glad to have particiapted and 74% felt they had learned something of personal importance
• Darley suggested that the experience of adminstering shocks (even though they were not real) may activated a previously dormant aspect of their personality such as they feel more able and more motivated to repeat actions. Lifton reported that physicians in the Nazi death camps started out as ordinary people but became killing machines.

1. Monocausal emphasis

   Annotations:

   • Mandel suggests that by focussing solely on obedience as an explanation for atrocities carried out in the Holocaust and other crimes against humanity, Milgram ignored many other more plausible explanations. Goldhagen identifies anti-Semitism as the primary motivation for the actions of those involved, rather than obedience. 
2. Agentic shift

   Annotations:

   • Milgram's ppts experienced no more than half an hour in the lab and were subjected to constant pressure from the experimenter during that time
3. The consequences of an obedience alibi

   Annotations:

   • Mandel believes that the use of an 'obedience alibi' to explain the holocaust has a number of negative consequences. The conclusion that obedience had a key rol in the Holocaust is unjustified given an analysis of the historical record. The suggestion that the Holocaust perpetrators were 'just obeying orders' is distressing for those who are or were affected by the Holocaust. Such an explanation effectively exonerates war criminals of their crimes.

1. High internal locus of control
   1. People believe their behaviour is caused by their own decisions. Within their control
2. High external locus of control
   1. People believe their behaviour is caused by fate or luck. Beyond their control

1. They see themselves or the situation as the cause

1. They see the situation as either changeable or not changeable

1. They see the situation as relevant to all events or just the current one