Lesson 1.1.1

1.1.1 Theories of obedience: agency theory and social impact theory Quiz: Pearson Edexcel Psychology, Unit 1

20 questions

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Lesson 1.1.1, Theories of obedience: agency theory and social impact theory: 20 multiple choice questions for the Pearson Edexcel Psychology (9PS0), Unit 1: Social psychology, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. According to Milgram's agency theory, what happens when a person accepts an authority figure's legitimacy?

    • They move from an agentic state into an autonomous state, taking full personal responsibility for their actions
    • They move from an autonomous state into an agentic state, acting as the agent of the authority figure
    • They move from a situational state into a dispositional state, so personality decides how they behave next
    • They move from a moral state into an amoral state, ignoring the consequences of what they are asked to do

  2. In agency theory, what is the agentic shift?

    • The reduction in personal responsibility felt when a task is divided between several people working together
    • The process by which a person's moral values change slowly over many years of exposure to a dominant culture
    • The move from acting on one's own judgement to acting on an authority figure's instructions when that authority is perceived as legitimate
    • The gradual increase in the number of people who follow a crowd's emotional mood when a leader gives a speech

  3. Which three factors does social impact theory (Latane, 1981) say determine the impact of social influence?

    • Length of exposure, size of reward and degree of personal control
    • Gender, age and social class of the sources
    • Strength, immediacy and number of sources
    • Cultural norms, legal authority and the presence of a uniform

  4. According to social impact theory, how does the number of sources of influence affect the impact on an individual?

    • Impact falls as sources grow, because responsibility for the outcome is spread across more people
    • Impact rises in direct proportion, so doubling the number of sources always doubles the impact
    • Impact rises as the number of sources grows, but each extra source adds less than the one before
    • Impact is unchanged once two sources are present, because a pair is enough to create full pressure

  5. A soldier fires on civilians and says, 'I was only following orders.' Which theory best explains this behaviour?

    • Agency theory, because the soldier has moved into an agentic state under legitimate authority
    • Social identity theory, because the soldier has adopted the in-group identity of the unit
    • Realistic conflict theory, because the soldier was competing with civilians for scarce resources
    • Social impact theory alone, because the number of soldiers in the unit is the only relevant factor

  6. A protest of 2,000 people has more social impact on a bystander than a protest of 200 people in the same place. Which theory predicts this?

    • Social identity theory, because a larger crowd always increases the bystander's sense of group membership
    • Social impact theory, because a larger number of sources increases impact, though with diminishing returns
    • Agency theory, because a larger crowd signals a more legitimate authority to the bystander
    • Realistic conflict theory, because a larger crowd always increases competition for resources

  7. In social impact theory, which factor is most directly shown when a pressure source is physically close and present in the room?

    • Number of sources
    • Immediacy
    • Legitimacy of the source
    • Duration of exposure

  8. A participant says, 'The experimenter is responsible for what happens, not me.' Which concept does this statement illustrate?

    • Diffusion of responsibility, in which blame is shared equally among a large group of people
    • Cognitive dissonance reduction, in which a person changes their attitude to match their behaviour
    • Self-serving attribution bias, in which a person blames external events for their own failures
    • The agentic shift, in which responsibility is handed to the authority figure

  9. Which statement best describes the autonomous state in agency theory?

    • A person acts in a crowd and takes on the shared emotional mood of the group around them
    • A person acts according to their own conscience and judges what is right and wrong for themselves
    • A person acts according to the orders of a legitimate authority and does not consider the consequences
    • A person acts only when rewarded, and changes behaviour in response to expected rewards

  10. Which of these is a limitation of agency theory as an explanation of obedience?

    • It relies on a computer model that cannot be tested with human participants in any experimental design
    • It claims that obedience is caused only by genetic factors, which cannot be changed by the environment
    • It predicts that obedience is always the same for every person in every situation, leaving no room for variation
    • It gives limited account of why some individuals resist authority, so it does not explain all variation in obedience

  11. A researcher reports that obedience falls when the authority figure is less legitimate. How does this support agency theory?

    • It shows that participants were simply tired and therefore less willing to continue with the task
    • It shows that obedience depends only on the personality of the participant and not on the setting at all
    • It shows that obedience is caused by group size, since a less legitimate authority attracts fewer people
    • It shows that perceived legitimacy of the authority is a key trigger for moving into the agentic state

  12. In social impact theory, what is meant by 'strength' of a source?

    • How many people are physically in the room at the time of the influence
    • How loudly the source speaks when it attempts to influence the person
    • How long the person has been exposed to the influence over the past year
    • How important and powerful the source is to the person being influenced

  13. Latane's social impact theory is mainly concerned with which level of explanation?

    • The genetic transmission of personality traits from parents to their children
    • The chemical processes in the brain that produce conformity to group norms
    • The impact of others on an individual's behaviour and attitudes in a social situation
    • The economic consequences of group decisions in large organisations and markets

  14. Which pair correctly matches a concept with its theory in the topic of obedience?

    • Strength with agency theory; autonomous state with social identity theory
    • Realistic conflict with agency theory; agentic state with social impact theory
    • Agentic state with agency theory; diminishing returns with social impact theory
    • Positive distinctiveness with agency theory; immediacy with realistic conflict theory

  15. In agency theory, which factor is most likely to make a person enter the agentic state?

    • The person is anonymous to the authority and cannot be identified in any later record of the event
    • The person is offered a large financial reward for each action they carry out in the task
    • The authority figure appears legitimate and the person accepts that the authority has the right to direct them
    • The person is alone and has no one to share responsibility with at the time of the request

  16. A researcher wants to test social impact theory directly. Which manipulation should she use?

    • Vary the colour of the room while keeping all sources identical in strength, immediacy and number
    • Vary the amount of sleep the participant had while keeping the group size constant for everyone
    • Vary the participant's age while keeping the number of sources and their immediacy the same across groups
    • Vary the number of people delivering the same message while keeping the message and their strength constant

  17. Which conclusion is best supported by agency theory when a participant keeps administering shocks while protesting?

    • The participant has no moral sense at all and feels no discomfort or distress during the procedure
    • The participant has been hypnotised by the experimenter, so their own judgement no longer operates at all
    • The participant's behaviour is entirely random because the agentic state removes all emotion from decisions
    • The participant is in the agentic state, feeling responsible to the experimenter while still experiencing conflict

  18. A student evaluates agency theory: 'It explains obedience in hierarchies but not why people sometimes refuse.' What kind of evaluation is this?

    • An ethical criticism, since the theory involves deception of participants about the nature of the study
    • A strength of the theory, showing that it predicts every instance of obedience with complete accuracy
    • A limitation of the theory, pointing to an aspect of obedience that the theory does not explain well
    • A methodological criticism of the sample, since the participants were not representative of a population

  19. Social impact theory predicts that doubling the number of sources will produce what effect on an individual?

    • No change at all, because only the strength of the first source determines the individual's behaviour
    • A larger increase than the first source did, because more sources always add more impact at each step
    • A reduction in impact, because each source divides the pressure and so weakens the effect on the person
    • A smaller increase than the first source did, because impact shows diminishing returns with more sources

  20. Which theory of obedience would predict that a person obeys less when the instruction comes from someone with no status or legitimacy?

    • Realistic conflict theory, since obedience depends on competition for scarce resources between groups
    • Social impact theory alone, since obedience depends only on the number of people who are watching
    • Social identity theory, since obedience depends on how strongly a person identifies with their own group
    • Agency theory, since legitimacy of the authority is the trigger for the agentic state

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