Bocchiaro Flashcards
What was the aim?
A) Who are the people that disobey or blow the whistle?
B) Why do they choose the challenging moral path?
C) Do they have personal characteristics that differentiate them from those who obey?
What was the research method?
A laboratory study in the VU university in Amsterdam.
What was the sample?
149 undergraduate students took place in the research in exchange for either 7 euro or course credit. A total of 11 participants were removed from the initial sample of 160 because of the suspiciousness about the nature of the sample.
What is it valid?
It used 8 pilot tests, including 92 undergraduates from the VU university in Amsterdam, that were conducted to ensure the procedure was also credible and morally acceptable. These tests also served to standardise the experimenter authority throughout the experimental period.
Procedure 1?
Each PP was greeted in the laboratory by a male Dutch experimenter who was formally dressed and stern.
Requested for each participant to provide a few names of fellow students and then presented the cover story.
After the cover story the experimenter left the room for 3 minutes for thinking time. Participants were then moved to a second room where there was a computer for them to write their statement. and had to use two adjectives among ‘exciting’, ‘incredible’, ‘great’ and ‘superb’.
What was the cover story?
The experimenter and an Italian colleague were investigating the effects of sensory deprivation on brain function. A recently conducted study on six PPs in Rome who spent some time completely isolated, unable to see or hear anything, had disastrous effects - all panicked their cognitive abilities and were temporarily impaired. Some experienced visual and auditory hallucinations. Two participants asked to stop because of their strong symptoms but were not allowed to do so because invalid data may have been collected. The majority said it had been a frightening experience.
Procedure 2?
If a participant believed the proposed research on sensory deprivation violated ethical norms he/she could anonymously challenge it by putting a form in the mailbox. The experimenter told participants to begin and left the room for 7 minutes. After the 7 minute interval the experimenter returned and invited the participant to follow him back to the first room where he/she was administered two personality tests. The 60 item HEXACO-PI-R measuring 6 dimensions of personality: honestly, humility, emotionality, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness to experience. The other was the SVO which classified participants as prosocial, individualistic or competitive. They were then debriefed and asked to sign a second consent form, this time fully informed. The entire session lasted approximately 40 minutes.
Bocchiaro results?
Of the 149 participants in the actual laboratory situation: 114 (76.5%) obey the experimenter, 21 (14%) disobeyed and 14 (9.4%) blew the whistle.
Bocchiaro conclusions?
Behaving morally appears to be challenging even when it appears to be easy.
Strengths of Bocchiaro?
Only collected quantitative data which allowed direct comparisons of obedience, disobedience and whistle blowing.
Weaknesses of Bocchiaro?
Using students from a Dutch University meant that the sample was unrepresentative of the general population and other age and cultural groups.
