1.3 studies (social)

Question 1

what was the aim of burger in 2009?

Answer 1

• to investigate whether there is a difference in the level of obedience in modern day compared to milgram
• to investigate if personality factors such as empathy and desire for control affect obedience

Question 2

who were the participants in the burger study?

Answer 2

• 29 men and 41 women aged 20-81
• asked if they had taken any psychology courses
• people who found study distressing were excluded based off interviews by clinical psychologists

Question 3

what was the procedure of the burger study?

Answer 3

• participants told multiple times verbally and in writing they were allowed to leave at any point
• participant and confederate both signed consent forms agreeing to partake
• researches informed participant they had to move one shock level up each time the learner got an answer wrong
• pre recorded sounds played after 75V and 150V from the learners side
• experiment ends after 150V or researcher ran out of prods

Question 4

what was the aim of sherif’s study?

Answer 4

to investigate what factors make two groups develop hostile relationships and how the hostility can be reduced

Question 5

what was the stage 1 procedure for sherif?

Answer 5

• boys randomly split into 2 groups of 12, and started to develop a group identity
• researchers spent 300 hours matching the boys into groups
• boys did activities like hiking, swimming, camping and making flags
• formed informal social hierarchies and roles within their groups

Question 6

what was the stage 2 procedure of sherif?

Answer 6

• groups of boys competed with games like baseball, treasure hunts and tug of war
• there were rewards for winners and nothing for losers
• rewards included a pocket knife

Question 7

what was the procedure of stage 3 sherif?

Answer 7

• 2 groups were brought together and watched movies, set off fireworks, and eat together
• this did not reduce the prejudice
• they then worked together in activities such as tug of war against a truck and fixing a water tank
• this reduced the prejudice

Question 8

what were the findings of sherif?

Answer 8

• in stage 2, there was a lot of prejudice
• the “rattlers” called the “eagles” pigeons as an insult
• the rattlers also burned the eagles’ flag
• only 8% of people from the other group were considered friends
• after stage 3, this went up to 36%

Question 9

what’s the conclusion of sherif?

Answer 9

with competition, comes prejudice but if competition decreases, prejudice also decreases

Question 10

what is a strength of burgers study?

Answer 10

• high internal validity
• no participants had knowledge of milgrams research and people who had taken psych courses were excluded
• shows environmental factors had no affect on the findings and obedience was seen as a direct response to the authority

Question 11

what is a weakness of burgers study?

Answer 11

• low population validity
• anyone who found the study distressing was excluded and general population may be less psychologically robust than the sample
• therefore, this may have led to different levels of obedience reducing generalisability of findings on obedience rates

Question 12

what is a strength of sherifs study?

Answer 12

• tasks had high mundane realism
• activities such as tug of war, baseball are reflective of real life competitions of 12 year old boys
• therefore, findings that competition increases prejudice helps us understand intergroup conflict in society

Question 13

what is a weakness of sherif’s study?

Answer 13

• low population validity
• participants were middle class, white, 12 year old boys
• therefore, findings of increased prejudice due to competition may not be applicable to other cultures or groups of women as it might be unique to their social group