Bocchiaro

Question 1

Define legitimate authority figure
Define whilsteblowing

Answer 1

legitimate authority figure = someone who has social power

whistleblowing = someone who exposes another person/organisation engaging in unlawful or immoral activity.

Question 2

Why is whislteblowing difficult?

Answer 2

as legitimate authority figures have power over us and there may be negative consequences
= lose job or demoted
= may be criticised

Question 3

Describe background to bocchiaro’s study

Answer 3

People find it difficult to whilstle-blow on unethical organisations and bad practice. A

Also, people find it difficult to disobey authority figures.
Bocchiaro’s study wanted to look at whether personality and religious faith affect destructive obedience and whilst blowing

Milgram said that situational factors affect obedience. He said the reason for high levels of obedience was because of the authority figure was close

But dispositional factors ( personality) may affect how obedient people are

Question 4

What were bocchiaro’s aims

Answer 4

! too see whether participants obey, disobey or blow the whistle on an unethical experiment

too see what personal and social factors are related to disobedience and whistle blowing

Question 5

What was the research method of bochiarro’s study

Answer 5

Pre- Experiment/ Laboratory study
= no IV was manipulated
= took place in a laboratory at VU University in Amsterdam under controlled conditions

Question 6

Was there pilot studies? Why?

Answer 6

Pilot study = small trail of a proposed study to test its effectiveness and make improvements

Eight pilot tests carried out

= to ensure procedure was credible and morally acceptable
= helped researchers standardise the experimenter-authority behaviour

Question 7

What were the results of the comparison group

Answer 7

138 comparison students from the VU University, Amsterdam were provided with detailed description of setting and asked what they though they would do and what the average students would do

3.6% thought they would obey the experimenter and thought 18.8% of other students would

Question 8

What was the sample of bocchiaro’s study

Answer 8

149 undergraduate students. male and female, at VU University in Amsterdam.

Self-selected sample as volunteers recruited via flyers posted in the campus cafeteria

Given 7 euros/ course credit for taking part

Question 9

Describe the procedure of Bocchiaro’s study

Answer 9

Participants were told by stern male experimenter was to investigate the effects of sensory deprivation on brain function and that in a recent study participants had experienced hallucinations and impaired cognitive abilities.

They were then told that the experimenter wanted to replicate this study at VU, but needed positive feedback from students in order to get approval from the University Research Committee.

Participants were then asked to give their approval on Research Committee form and to write a statement to convince other students to take part. They had to use two words from ‘exciting’ ‘incredible’ ‘great’ and ‘superb’ and not mention negative effects

Participants could anonymously challenge it by putting form in the mail box.

After 7 minutes, the participants did dispositional tests

Question 10

What were the dispositional measures given to the participants

Answer 10

HEXACO-OI-R personality test
= measures six personality traits

Values Test
= measure social values (extent people value community over the individual)

Questionnaire on Religiosity
=frequency of worship and extent of faith

Question 11

What were the results of bocchiaro’s study

Answer 11

76.5% of participants obeyed the order to write a statement encouraging others to take part in unethical experiment

9% whistle-blew on experiment,

Religiosity was the personal factor most linked to the ability to whistle blow

Only 4% of comparison group thought they would obey

Question 12

What was the conclusion of bocchiaro’s study

Answer 12

Although most people think they will disobey instructions to do something unethical most people will obey

People with strong religious faith are more likely to disobey and whilst blow on unethical practices

Question 13

Assess the generalisability of Bocchiaro’s study

Answer 13

large sample 149 students, males and females

only on students in netherlands at dutch university

Question 14

Assess reliability of Bocchiaro’s study

Answer 14

Standardised procedure
All students were given the same cover story, same amount of time to make decisions and same dispositional tests

Question 15

Applications of Bocchiaros study

Answer 15

understanding factors that help people to whistle-blow is important to help people whistle-blow against immoral behaviour in an organisation eg. poor quality care in carehome

organisations can improve their whilst-blowing procedures eg. making it easier for people to whistle blow on unethical activities

Question 16

Assess the validity of Bocchiaro’s study

Answer 16

GOOD ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY

Cover story involved students being asked about psychological experiment

Participants thought it was a real life situation. They thought they were giving approval for a real experiment on sensory deprivation at the university

Question 17

Assess ethics of Bocchiaro’s study

Answer 17

DECEPTION
told it it was to encourage an experiment to investigate the effects of sensory deprivation on brain function

RESPECT
right to withdraw their data
leaving participants alone when they were making decisions about whether to obey or not

PROTECTION FROM HARM
making sure they were happy with the study once they were aware of the aims

Question 18

How does Bocchiaro’s study fit into the social area

Answer 18

The social area is about how we are influenced by other people and the social context we are in

because it looked at situational factors that determine whether we obey,disobey or whistle-blow.
All participants were greeted by stern experimenter at the university.
The fact that the experimenter seemed to be a legitimate authority figure probably led to the high obedience rate (76.5)

Question 19

How does Bocchiaro’s study relate to the key theme of responses to people in authority.

Answer 19

looked at whether people would follow the orders of an authority figure to write a statement encouraging others to take part in an unethical experiment
destrictive obedience to people in authority

Question 20

How has bocchiaro’s study improved our understanding of destructive obedience to authority figures relative to Milgram’s study

Answer 20

Bocchiaro study investigated whistleblowing on an unethical experiment, not just obedience. It also looked at how personality and religious faith affected obedience and whistleblowing

improved understanding of destructive obedience as it showed it is similar in both genders and another culture (holland)

Question 21

How does bocchiaro support situational explanation

Answer 21

= showed we are all likely to obey destructive orders given by legitimate authority figure (stern experimenter)

= shows we are unlikely to whistle-blow on a legitimate authority figure (experimenter doing experiment at uni)

Question 22

how does bocchiaro support individual explanation

Answer 22

= found depth of faith was related to whilst-blowing

Question 23

How does bocchiaro’s study change understanding of individual, social and cultural diveristy

Answer 23

INDIVIDUAL
= didn’t find personality affected obedience level (none)
= people with strong religious faith were more disobedient and more likely to whilsleblow (yes in terms of faith)
= changes our understanding compared to milgram as it showed religious faith could affect obedience

SOCIAL
= milgram only looked at males wheras bocchiaro used males and females
= bocchiaro found no difference between them in obedience levels
= shows m&f both likely to show destructive obedience
= demonstrates that both genders are obedience to authority figures

CULTURAL
= bocchairo found high levels of obedience in netherlands like milgram in US
= cultural background is not a dimension on which people differ in terms of levels of obedience
= doesn’t add to our understanding