bocchiaro Flashcards
define whistle blowing
whistle blowing involves reporting an unethical incident to higher authorites, therefore making it a more difficult option than simply obeying instructions as challenging your immediate superiors.
prior to bocchiaros study, little was known about how whistle blowers think or feel and whether they have certain psychological characteristics in common e.g personality
what were the aims of bocchiaros study
- to investigate whether we are likely to whistle blow on an unethical request
- to see if predictions of whistle blowing match actual rates of whistle blowing
what are pilot studies
pilot studies are small scale practice studies to test whether the procedure works before testing hundreds of people
how many pilot studies did bocchiaro carry out and why
bocchiaro carried out a total of 8 pilot studies involving 92 participants to ensure the procedure was credible (i.e the participants didnt know they were being decieved) and that it was ethically acceptable to participants
who were the participants of the study
all participants were undergraduate students from VU university in Amsterdam.
volunteers were recruited from flyers in the university cafeteria
149 (96f/53m with a mean age of 20.8) in the experimental procedure
138 different participants were surveyed on what they think they would respond in the experimental condition and how they think the average student would respond
what method did bocchiaro use
controlled observation but bocchiaro also calls this a ‘scenario study’
describe the procedure
participants were greeted at the university lab by a male researcher who was dressed formally and had a stern demeanor and were asked to provide some names of fellow students, before being told the cover story
the cover story:
italian researchers carried out a sensory deprivation study on older participants which had frightening and disastrous effects. the effects were meant to be more severe on young people.
the university wanted to redo this study to see the effects on young people so wanted the participants to write a supporting statement in favour of carrying out the research to convince students to take part so it would be accepted by the ethics board. these statements would then be sent to the names given at the start
participants were left for 3 minutes to digest this information and were then taken to a new room with a computer and an ethics box clearly in view.
they were told the statement had to be enthusiastic and contain 2 adjectives out of ‘exciting, incredible, great and superb’ and could not mention the negative effects of sensory deprivation.
they were given 7 minutes to write
they could therefore either:
1. obey andwrite the statement
2. whistle blow and fill in the ethics box
3. disobey and just not write anything
after the 7 minutes the experimenter took the participants back to the initial room and 2 personality tests were administered
participants were then fully debriefed on the true aims of the study
describe the procedure for the comparison group
participants were told the whole procedure for the experimental procedure and were asked to fill out a questionnaire which included the following questions:
-what would you do?
-what do you think the average student would do?
describe the results of the study
in the comparison group:
3.6% believed they would obey
31.9% thought they would disobey
64.9% believed they would whistle blow
they thought for the average student:
18.8% would obey
43.9% would disobey
37.3% would whistle blow
in the experiment:
76.5% obeyed
14.1% disobeyed
9.4% whistle blew
what dispositional links did bocchiaro find
none of the 6 personality traits tested was associated with levels of obediene, disobedience or whistleblowing.
in terms of religion, neither religious affiliation or frequency of worship predicted behaviour. however there was a moderate relationship between depth of faith, with those expressing strong religious faith being more likely to whistle blow
what did bocchiaro conclude
people believe they are more motal than they actually are when asked to do an unethical task by an authority figure
most people are reluctant to whistle blow
people believe they will behave better e.g whistleblow more than the average student
people are very obedient to people they percieve as being of higher authority than them
dispositional factors have minimal effects on obedience
comment on the usefulness of the study
comment on the ethics of the study
+ ethical as participants volunteered to take part as consent was gained
-arguably unethical as participants were decieved on the true purpose of the study e.g were told a cover story
comment on the validity of the study
+ internally valid as they conducted 8 pilot studies that ensured the procedure was credible
comment on the method used
+controlled observation is standardised which is good as extraneous variables are reduced so we can be more sure of results e.g all told the same cover story and left alone for the same amount of time
in what ways is this study biased
- age biased- everyone is quite yound (average age for the experimental procedure 20.8 years) and may not feel like they cant say something or whistle blow
-gynocentric- sample is mainly women, perhaps men would give different results
-ethnocentric- perhaps people in amsterdam are more/ less likely to whistleblow than other areas
all of these affect generalisability of the study
comment on the sample
-self selected sample can be biased e.g only people pleasers volunteer an obey to be helpful to the study
comment on the reliability of the study
-individual differences- perhaps the actual participants wouldve predicted what they wouldve done to a more accitae degree than the 138 in the comparison group
