Forsyth Group Dynamics 6e IMTB Ch08 PDF

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8 Power People routinely influence other people, but in some cases this influence can be extraordinarily strong. Rather than subtly influencing members’ opinions and choices, powerful people and groups can change members in dramatic ways. This chapter uses the concept of power to explore obedience to authority, bases and sources of power, and the metamorphic effects of power. Learning Objectives 8.1. Use the concept of power to explain the events surrounding the tragedy at Jonestown and the People’s Temple. 8.2. Describe the methods used by Milgram in his studies of obedience, and state the percentage of people who obeyed in his initial study. 8.3. Summarize the results obtained by Milgram when he decreased the distance between the teacher and the learner, placed subjects in three person groups, and varied the authority’s social power. 8.4. Review the results of attempts to replicate Milgram’s study, including Berger’s 2009 partial replication. 8.5. List, define, and give examples of the 6 bases of power identified by French and Raven. 8.6. List and give an example of at least 5 influence strategies or tactics (other than the power bases, such as reward and referent power), and classify each one in terms of soft/hard, rational/nonrational, and laterality. 8.7. Use the concept of a compliance tactic to explain obedience to authority and brainwashing. 8.8. Explain why some individuals rise to positions of authority and others do not. 8.9. Describe at least 2 personality factors that predict who will seek and use power to influence others. 8.10. Use the concept of status generalization to make predictions of status allocations in a group. 8.11. Review evidence that indicates stable patterns of authority in groups are adaptive. 8.12. Summarize the approach-inhibition model of power. 8.13. Critically examine the maxim “Power corrupts” from a group dynamics perspective. 8.14. Describe three common ways that individuals act when resisting an authority’s influence. 8.15. Summarize Kelman’s theory of conversion. 8.16. Summarize the methods used and results obtained in Zimbardo’s prison study. 8.17. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of Milgram’s theory of agentic states. 8.18. Use the fundamental attribution error to explain people’s everyday explanations of cult conversion. Key Terms agentic state approach/inhibition theory Bathsheba syndrome bullying charisma coercive power compliance tactics diffuse status characteristic

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expectation-states theory expert power foot-in-the-door technique fundamental attribution error (FAE) informational power

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interpersonal complementarity hypothesis iron law of oligarchy legitimate power Lucifer effect pecking order power bases

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power tactics referent power revolutionary coalition reward power

social dominance orientation (SDO) social power solo status

specific status characteristics status generalization

Activities 8-1. Everyday understanding of power. Help students achieve a more objective perspective on obedience to authority by having them ask people who are not members of the class questions about Milgram’s experiment. Instructions. People often overlook social determinants of actions but they overestimate the causal role played by internal, personal factors. When we read about Milgram’s subjects or the members of radical religious groups, we assume that they were weak, gullible people who were easily influenced. Yet, these individuals’ actions were largely a consequence of the powerful situations in which they found themselves. 1. Talk to people about the Milgram experiment. Ask them if they are familiar with the research, and if necessary clarify the procedure and findings for them. Ask them:  Why do you think so many people obeyed the experimenter?  If you had been a subject in the study, would you have obeyed the experimenter? 2. Talk to people about radical religious groups, generally called cults. Ask them:  Why do people join such groups?  Do the leaders of cults wield special psychological powers over the members?  If, by some chance, you found yourself in a meeting of a cult-like group, what would you do? 3. Do people’s comments about the Milgram experiment and cults reveal the fundamental attribution error? Do they blame the individuals for their actions and underestimate the power of the group? 8-2. Obedience to Authority: Assign a short 1 page paper on some topic. On the due date tell students “Please take your papers out, but do not pass them up.” Once everyone has them in hand, tell them “In order to facilitate discussion today, I’d like you to rip up your papers now.” At this point, several confederates should tear up what appear to be their papers. As the rest of the class begins to comply with the order, intervene and ask them to stop. Lutsky (1986) found that 64% of his students ripped, or were about to rip, their papers. After passing around a tape dispenser for the students to repair any torn pages, draw out some important points throughout the discussion. The presence of confederates in the class encourages obedience, and the “mindless” justification encourages conformity. Lutsky also found it instructive to discuss how other people, outside of class, would react if they were told about the paper-tearing incident. Students may find this activity upsetting; therefore you may wish to use a milder version that involves having students complete a short attitude survey or questionnaire that you pass out in class. Then ask them to tear up their responses. Because the questionnaire has less value to them, they are less likely to become hostile. [Source: Lutsky, N. (1986, September). Inducing academic suicide: A classroom demonstration of social influence. Paper presented at the Annual Meetings of the American Psychological Association.] 8-3: Obedience to Authority II. Hunter (1981) demonstrates obedience with the help of a colleague who is not known to the students (such as a fellow instructor). Instead of going to class yourself, send in your colleague, who acts as an authority(X). X enters the room as class is about to start and, with a

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professional air, writes the name Dr. G. Zilstein on the board. X should then begin ordering the students about, telling students to move up and fill empty seats near the front. If students do not move, then X should take a more commanding tone and say such things as “I cannot continue unless I get cooperation.” If time, X can make additional requests, which escalate from the surprising to the ridiculous. X can order students to clear their desks and place their hands flat on their desktops, with thumbs touching, turn off cell phones, or assign particular roles to students. For example, X can ask one to be the timer, who must say “5 minutes” out loud—and ask him or her to practice that. After 3-5 minutes, enter the room, explain you were held up at a meeting, and then ask what is going on. You can, for example, pretend that you do not know who X is, and ask X who s/he is. X can then claim a false confusion about a room number and a guest lecture in the wrong place (e.g., “I’m Zilstein, isn’t this Room 129 in Business? No? Sorry.”), and then leave. Then, turning to your students, ask them what happened. Review their behavior in a careful debriefing session—and be sure to thank your authority figure. [Source: Hunter, W. J. (1981). Obedience to authority. In L. T. Benjamin, Jr., & K. D. Lowman (Eds.), Activities handbook for the teaching of psychology (pp. 149-150). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.] 8-4: Obedience to Authority III. Snyder (2003), recognizing that many students feel that they would never obey an authority, has developed a number of compelling exercises that help students recognize their own tendency to obey. For example: 

Obedience to an arbitrary command. Snyder places on his syllabus, on the day when he will show the Milgram film the statement “Bring an Empty Soda Can to Class!” After the film he asks all students who brought a can to place it in their left hand. He then asks all students who feel that they would refuse to obey to raise their right hand. He then asks the students to also raise their left hands, and asks them “Why are you holding an empty soda can?”

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Late bloomers. After discussing the Pygmalion effect (the tendency for students who are labeled latebloomers to gain in terms of academic performance) Snyder then says he will conduct the rest of the class to illustrate this effect. He explains that he has noticed that better students sit on the right side of the room, and so he moves the podium that part of the room, and proceeds to ignore students on the left side of the room. Even though these actions are recognized as only a simulation, students nonetheless feel the powerful effects of this labeling.

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Blue eyes/brown eyes. Snyder ends the class in which he reviews the blue-eyes/brown-eyes simulation conducted with school children by asking the blue-eyed students to stand. He then tells them to leave. He then packs up his own materials and prepares to exit, leaving the brown-eyed students in the room. When they ask what is going on, Snyder replies “obedience.”

Several methods he uses for demonstrating conformity are examined in the preceding chapter. [Source: Snyder, C. R. (2003). “Me conform? No way”: Classroom demonstrations for sensitizing students to their conformity. Teaching of Psychology, 30, 59-61). 8-5: Who has the power in the group? Examine the use of power tactics in everyday situations by asking students to identify their power bases and the power tactics that they most frequently use. Instructions: Examine the power structures of a group to which you belong. This group can be one that meets regularly in a work or social setting, a class, or a subgroup of the students within a class. 1. Describe the group briefly: its composition, structure, dynamics, and tasks. Who is influential in the group, and who is not?

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2. Is power based on experience, age, position, and so on? Is power fairly distributed? Are some people who should be influential slighted by the group? 3. Trace the power in the group back to French and Raven’s bases of power: coercive, reward, referent, legitimate, expert, and informational. 4. How do you typically influence other people in this group? Do you prefer to use rational methods? Irrational ones? Do you rely on some methods more than others? Review the list in Table 8.2 (pp. 255-256) and identify your favorites and least favorites. Essay 8.1. Why did people obey Jones at Jonestown? 8.2. Critique the methods used by Milgram in his studies of obedience, identifying strengths and weaknesses. 8.3. What did Milgram find when he decreased the distance between the teacher and the learner, placed subjects in three person groups, and varied the authority’s social power? 8.4. Describe 5 variations Milgram used to study factors that may influence obedience, and summarize his findings and conclusions. 8.5. Discuss the change that occurred when Milgram’s participants worked in small groups rather than alone. 8.6. Address the validity of this statement: Obedience to authority may be one of the universals of human behavior. 8.7. If you were the manager of a large staff of people in a manufacturing company, which bases of power would you rely on most heavily and why? 8.8. Compare the professor’s power to the student’s power in terms of French and Raven’s concept of power bases. 8.9. Sociologist Max Weber used the term charisma to explain the sheer magnitude of the power wielded by leaders such as Hitler, Lenin, and Mussolini. Draw on the concept of power bases to explain charisma. 8.10. You must convince your professor to grant you an extension on a project. What power tactics will you use and why? 8.11. Explain why some individuals rise to positions of authority and others do not. 8.12. Do online groups allocate status more fairly than face-to-face groups? 8.13. Edwina is the only woman in a work group. She has many good ideas, but the group members ignore them. How would expectations-states theory explain her dilemma? What would you tell Edwina to do to improve the situation? 8.14. You must design a group. Will you make the authority structure hierarchical and why. 8.15. Use the approach-inhibition model of power to explain how teachers (those with power) and students (those without power) often change their actions over time. 8.16. Is there any truth to the expression “Power corrupts?” 8.17. What steps would you take, if a very powerful person, to minimize negative reactions to your use of power over others? 8.18. Use Kelman’s three-stage theory of conversion to explain why people followed Jones’ orders at Jonestown.

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8.19. A tragedy of such magnitude as the Holocaust, in which millions of Jews were killed by Hitler’s regime, defies explanation. But does a social-psychological analysis that draws on the concepts of conformity, obedience, and power yield some—although admittedly incomplete—insight into this terrible chapter in human history? 8.20. When a sample of Americans was asked, “Why do you think people become involved in cults?” the most frequently mentioned causes were “need for leadership or father figure,” “unhappiness, feeling of hopelessness,” “gullibility,” “need to have a sense of belonging,” and “mental illness.” Please give your own answer to this question, and offer an interpretation of the responses given by the individuals sampled in this survey. True/False 8.1. Obedience was high in all conditions of Milgram’s study but one: When the victim said “Let me out of here,” 82% of the participants refused to administer any more shocks. (F) 8.2. Participant in the Milgram study seemed to be more sensitive to the victim’s rights rather than his suffering. (T) 8.3. Milgram found particularly high levels of obedience when participants were members of a group whose members all obeyed. (T) 8.4. The distress Milgram’s subjects displayed suggests that they were struggling to resist the experimenter’s orders. (T) 8.5. Milgram’s findings have been replicated in the U.S. and Germany, but not in Eastern and Latin American countries. (F) 8.6. Differences in power result when a person's experience of positive and negative outcomes depends on another who is not similarly dependent. (T) 8.7. According to French and Raven, power comes from two sources: rewards and punishment. (F) 8.8. Because they control fewer resources, the rewards low people give are viewed as more valuable than the same rewards given by powerful individuals. (F) 8.9. The effectiveness and reaction to power tactics depends on three factors; directness, rationality, and bilaterality. (T) 8.10. People who are extraverted tend to use a wider variety of power tactics than do introverts. (T) 8.11. Compliance tactics, such as the foot-in-the-door technique, work by disrupting the target’s capacity to think about what they are being asked to do. (T) 8.12. Social dominance orientation is the tendency to follow others orders, even in situations where the orders may cause harm. (F) 8.13. Diffuse status characteristics, such as gender and race, do not play a role in status allocation. (F) 8.14. Solo status (a role of key importance that no other member can fill) is desired by most group members. (F) 8.15. One of the tenets of the interpersonal complementarity hypothesis is dominant behaviors elicit submissive behaviors and vice versa. (T) 8.16. Giving power to a person increases the likelihood that they will adopt a wait and see attitude since their need for power has been satisfied. (F) 8.17. Kelman’s three-stage theory of conversion is malnutrition, brain washing, and torture. (F) 8.18. Milgram suggested an agentic state occurs when individuals become so submissive to authority that they feel little responsibility for their actions (T)

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8.19. Zimbardo, in his study of college students who were either prisoners or guards in a simulated prison, concluded that the participants felt compelled to act consistently with their roles. (T) 8.20. The fundamental attribution error occurs when a person believes that others’ actions are a product of their internal beliefs and personalities and overlooks the role of the group and environment. (T) Multiple Choice 8.1. Social power implies A. social influence. B. forces operating in opposition to one another. C. inducing change in another person. D. resisting other’s influence attempts. E. all of the above. Answer: E (Obedience to Authority) 8.2. The researcher who conducted the well-known study of obedience to authority was A. Stanley Milgram. B. Stanley Schachter. C. Philip Zimbardo. D. Solomon Asch. E. Herbert Kelman. Answer: A (Obedience to Authority) 8.3. Milgram found that A. very few people are willing to obey another person if it will lead to harm. B. only authoritarian persons are willing to obey. C. approximately 65% of his subjects were highly obedient. D. most people who obeyed did so happily. Answer: C (Obedience to Authority) 8.4. Obedience rates in Milgram’s studies were lowest in the ____ condition. A. voice-feedback B. women only C. remote D. touch-proximity E. proximity Answer: E (Obedience to Authority) 8.5. Which is true? A. About one quarter of Milgram’s subjects “saw through” the deception and were suspicious. B. Participants stopped when they realized they were hurting the learner. C. Initially, Milgram expected that very few of his participants would be fully obedient. D. Milgram asked participants to judge the length of nearly identical lines in groups. E. About 10% of Milgram’s refused to give even the mildest shock. Answer: C (Obedience to Authority) 8.6. Which is false? A. In the standard condition about 65% of the subjects obeyed to the 450 volt level. B. In the standard condition 100% of the subjects obeyed up to the 300 volt level. C. Individuals were more obedient when part of an obedient group. D. When the victim complained of a heart condition only 12% were obedient.

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E. Having to touch the victim reduced, but did not eliminate, obedience. Answer: D (Obedience to Authority) 8.7. Milgram recorded the least obedience when A. he replicated the study away from Yale (in downtown Bridgeport). B. the shocks were being given to the experimenter who insisted he be released. C. part of a group that refused to continue. D. when the authority left the room. E. when the victim complained of a heart condition. Answer: B (Obedience to Authority) 8.8. Most of the participants in the Milgram experiment A. did not take the situation seriously. B. did not think they were harming the learner. C. struggled to resist the orders of the experimenter. D. did not notice the harm they were causing. E. enjoyed the part the played in the research study. Answer: C (Obedience to Authority) 8.9. From a group dynamics perspective, obedience was high in the Milgram experiment because of the A. immorality of the participants. B. persuasiveness of the experimenter. C. power of the experimenter in the situation. D. ambiguity of the situation. E. frustration and anger of the subjects. Answer: C (Obedience to Authority) 8.10. Subsequent studies of obedience in situations like that studied by Milgram suggest that A. Milgram’s findings apply only to that period in American history, and cannot be replicated. B. most of the participants were not taken in by his deceptions. C. the people he studied were unusual—their personalities prompted them to obey. D. the obedience to authorities he documented is common in military and organizational settings. E. obedience is higher in the U.S. and Germany than in other countries. Answer: D (Obedience to Authority) 8.11. Which is true? A. Because of ethics issues, Milgram’s study has never been replicated. B. Participants in Milgram’s study were not aware that their actions were harming another person. C. Cross-cultural research suggests obedie...