Bocchario Flashcards
Aims
investigate rates of obedience, disobedience and whistle-blowing.
Qualitative Data
“it was expected of me, that’s why I continued”
“I cooperated because the experimenter asked me to”
“that was the task, so I executed that”
Method - Strength
One strength of using a controlled observation is that you have high control over extraneous variables.
This means that you should only be measuring what you intended to measure and therefore nothing else should confound the results
In Bocchiaros study they tested all participants in the same rooms and were given the same instructions to follow which meant they had high control meaning there was little room for other variables to influence the results.
Method - Weakness
A weakness of a controlled observation is that they can still be low in ecological validity.
This means it might be hard to compare the results to real life as p’s are tested in artificially contrivedenvironments.
In Bocchiaros study the participants had volunteered for a study and were being tested in an unfamiliar environment which could lead them to show more/less obedient behaviours compared to a real lifeexperience.
Data - Strength
Bocchiaros study collected both quantitative data and qualitative data.
This is a strength as it improves the validity of the research as we can compare statistics in terms of behaviours observed as well as gaining insight into why p’s behaved in this way.
Bocchiaros collected quantitive data in terms of percentage of p’s who obeyed, disobeyed and whistleblowed as well as recording down comments made during the study and in the debriefing. This allows us to understand clearly how and why they behaved in this way in the study.
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Ethics
Signed a consent form giving consent to take part before the study (NOT informed) cover story was read out
Participants were deceived they did initially think this was a real study to be carried out.
All participants were debriefed and fully informed consent was gained after the research. Participants were given a written debriefing form that outlined the reason for the fake cover story, as well as an email address to contact in case they wanted to complain or ask further questions about the study. During the debrief they made sure that participants did not feel uncomfortable about their obedience and about the fact they had been deceived
Participants were told they could withdraw at any time - before or after being asked to write the supporting statement - without penalty
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Reliability
A strength of this study is that it is high in reliability
This study used standardization to ensure the procedure could be replicated and also it used psychometrics (personality measures) which have been shown to be high in reliability.
In Bocchiaros study all ps were told the same cover story and given the same instructions/timings during the experiment. They were also given the Hexaco personality test which has high internal consistency as it uses a number of statements so consistency of responses can be checked and also the decomposed games has been shown to have good test retest reliability.
Ethnocentrism
Research which only focuses on one cultural perspective is called ethnocentric as it might presume that this cultural perspective is ‘normal’.
This means it can be hard to generalise the findings of the research to other cultures.
Bocchiaros study was carried out in the Netherlands and the authority figure was Dutch. Research suggests we are more likely to obey someone of similar ethnicity so it might of been lower if the authourity was from a different ethnicity. This studies findings could be seen as ethnocentric as they are only looking at the Dutch but it allows us to see that it is not only Americans which show a high level of obedience (Milgrams) but other cultures also do.
Sample
149 undergraduate students (96 women, 53 men, mean age = 20.8, SD = 2.65) took part in the research in exchange for either €7 or course
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Results
76.5% obeyed the experimenter (n = 114), 14.1% disobeyed (n = 21) and 9.4% (n = 14)
Procedure
Validity- weakness
A weakness of a controlled observation is that they can still be low in ecological validity.
This means it might be hard to compare the results to real life as p’s are tested in artificially contrivedenvironments.
In Bocchiaros study the participants had volunteered for a study and were being tested in an unfamiliar environment which could lead them to show more/less obedient behaviours compared to a real lifeexperience.
Sampling Bias
Both males and females so has population validity
Cognitive bias as they were all students so specific standard of understanding – maybe they were more authoritative
