What are the four factors that influence obedience to an authority figure?

-

What are the four factors that influence obedience to an authority figure?



1. Emotional distance of the victim: the further the victim was removed from the site of the teacher, the more shocks were administered. Indeed, in Milgram's pilot study the learner did not scream out in pain. In this version of the study everybody went to 450V. In one version of the study Milgram actually created the situation where the teacher had to take the learner's hand and place it on a shock plate for the learner to actually get a shock. In this case, where the violence and pain was so close, only 35% of participants went to 450V.

2. Closeness and legitimacy of the authority: the closeness of the authority figure was very important. When the authority figure was another participant, they were obeyed much less. In addition when the authority figure gave their instructions by phone or via a tape recorder, obedience was substantially reduced.

3. Institutional authority: Milgram tried various versions of the research where instead of being at Yale, it was done in a storefront in the middle of a Connecticut town. Here obedience dropped somewhat, but was still around 50%.

4. Group influence: perhaps most frightening was the impact of group. If the participant was simply a member of the group who was recording the events, 95% went all the way to 450V. Interestingly however, as soon as one person in the group disagreed, or disobeyed, all members of the group disobeyed -- obedience was 0%. The presence of others can actually be a good thing.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Discuss the seven characteristics of useful information.

-
Discuss the seven characteristics of useful information. Answer: The seven characteristics of useful information are: relevant, reliable, complete, timely, understandable, verifiable and accessible. These characteristics are qualities that information should possess to be useful in a business environment. Briefly stated, in order for information to be useful it must be: 1) relevant, meaning that it reduces uncertainty and adds to the decision-making process; 2) reliable information is information that is free from error, and is accurate in its nature; 3) complete information is information that does not omit any important data, facts, or aspects about events or activities; 4) information is timely when it is fully available to enable the decision-making process to proceed; 5) understandable information must be both in an intelligible and useful format; 6) information is considered verifiable if two people, acting independently of each other, produce the same inform
Read more

Why have accounting software packages been designed with separate transaction modules?

-
Why have accounting software packages been designed with separate transaction modules? Answer: : Since every organization does not necessarily use all of the transaction cycles in its operations, it is to the advantage of the organization to be able to "pick and choose" from among various software modules that track and record different transaction cycles. For example, a law firm would have no need to implement a production cycle module. Also, the nature of a transaction cycle varies across the broad spectrum of business organizations. Again, a law firm would have a revenue cycle, but it would not involve the purchase, receipt, and payment for products or merchandise; likewise a retail store chain may not sell any consulting services to its customers.
Read more

A laboratory assistant prepared solution of 0.8 M, 0.6 M, 0.4 M, and 0.2 M sucrose, but forgot to label them. After realizing the error, the assistant randomly labeled the flasks containing these four unknown solutions as flask A, flask B, flask C, and flask D.

-
A laboratory assistant prepared solution of 0.8 M, 0.6 M, 0.4 M, and 0.2 M sucrose, but forgot to label them. After realizing the error, the assistant randomly labeled the flasks containing these four unknown solutions as flask A, flask B, flask C, and flask D. Design an experiment, based on the principles of diffusion and osmosis, that the assistant could use to determine which of the flasks contains each of the four unknown solutions. Include in your answer (a) a description of how you would set up and perform the experiment: (b) the results you would expect from your experiments: and (c) an explanation of those results based on the principles involved. (Be sure to clearly state the principles addressed in your discussion.)
Read more