Bocchiaro: Responses to People in Authority (Social)

Question 1

When was Bocchiaro’s study?

Answer 1

2012

Question 2

What theories was Bocchiaro’s study based on?

Answer 2

-Authority positions have social power
-People are likely to obey authority
-Independent behaviour involves the rejection of social influence
-Whistleblowing
-Dispositional factors impact whether someone will obey or disobey authority

Question 3

What is whistleblowing?

Answer 3

Involves informing the appropriate authorities about unethical practice, in particular unethical professional practice

Question 4

What was the background to Bocchiaro’s study?

Answer 4

-Milgram’s study found that people are highly likely to obey authority
-However, whistleblowing had not been investigated
-Wanted to understand more about the role of dispositional factors

Question 5

What is the research method of Bocchiaro’s study?

Answer 5

Controlled observation described as a ‘scenario study’ by Bocchiaro

Question 6

What was the sample in Bocchiaro’s study?

Answer 6

-All were undergraduate students from the VU university of Amsterdam
-92 took part in the pilot study and 149 in the main procedure (96 women and 53 men with a mean age of 20.8)
-138 different participants were surveyed on how they thought they would respond and how they thought the average student would respond

Question 7

How was the sample obtained in Bocchiaro’s study?

Answer 7

Volunteer sampling method using flyers in the uni cafeteria

Question 8

What was the procedure of Bocchiaro’s study?

Answer 8

-Greeted by a stern experimenter who told them they were doing an experiment on sensory deprivation and in previous studies, participants panicked, some asked to stop, some had hallucinations, and cognitive abilities were temporarily impaired.
-Participants asked to write a letter convincing other students to take part in sensory deprivation in a room alone using 2 adjectives from a selection and to not mention any of the negative side effects
-They were also left with Research Committee forms which they could sign if they thought the experiment was unethical.
-Taken to another room to take a test on dispositional factors
-Debriefed and signed a consent form for their data to be used
-Separately, 138 different participants were asked what they would do and what they think others would do

Question 9

How long were the different parts of Bocchiaro’s study?

Answer 9

-Left in the room to write their statement for 7 minutes
-The whole procedure was about 40 minutes

Question 10

How many pilot studies were there for Bocchiaro’s study?

Answer 10

8

Question 11

What is a pilot study and what is its purpose?

Answer 11

A small scale study in advance to the main study to be sure that the procedure was credible (participants didn’t realise they were being deceived) and ethically acceptable to participants.

Question 12

What were the options of adjectives participants were told to use in Bocchiaro’s study?

Answer 12

exciting, incredible, great, and superb

Question 13

What dispositional factors were investigated in Bocchiaro’s study?

Answer 13

Personality test, social values, and religiosity

Question 14

What was the data collected from the 138 who were asked what they would do and what they though others would do?

Answer 14

3.6% believed they would obey, 64.5% believed they would whistleblow, and 31.9% believed they would disobey.
They estimated 18.8% of the average student would obey, 43.9 would disobey, and 37.3% would blow the whistle

Question 15

What were the actual results of Bocchiaro’s study?

Answer 15

-In reality, 76.5% obeyed, 14.1% disobeyed, and 9.4% blew the whistle.
-There was no correlation of any of the behaviour with personality traits, social values, religious affiliation, nor frequency of worship
-There was a moderate relationship with depth of faith and being more likely to whistle blow

Question 16

What conclusions can be made from Bocchiaro’s study?

Answer 16

-People are obedient and whistle blowing is uncommon
-People are a lot more likely to obey and less likely to whistleblow than they think they are
-There is little to no data suggesting dispositional factors affect obedience
-People think they are less destructively obedient than they are
-The lack of accuracy of estimates of behaviour means that scenario-based research lacks validity

Question 17

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the research method used in Bocchiaro’s study?

Answer 17

-Very well controlled so can remove extraneous variables
-Lacks ecological validity (task and environment) to some extent
-However, procedure was life-like because the situation investigated was that of a psychologist carrying out a study, which is what happened
-Questionnaires so standardised
-However, they may think they are better than they are or get bored and not fill out properly

Question 18

What are strengths and weaknesses of the type of data collected in Bocchiaro’s study?

Answer 18

-Quantitative data
-No bias
-No context so it doesn’t show any internal battle
-Can be compared easily between people with different dispositions

Question 19

What are the ethical considerations for Bocchiaro’s study?

Answer 19

-They were debriefed and consented after the debrief for their data to be used
-Deceived for some of the time
-Low stress because not ordered to inflict direct harm
-Not prompted by an experimenter to continue
-Extensive pilot studies
-Could withdraw if they thought it wasn’t ethical
-Overall ethical

Question 20

What is the validity of Bocchiaro’s study?

Answer 20

-Low ecological validity
-However, despite the artificial surroundings, it was set up as a real life scenario would be set up
-Face validity
-Doing a pilot study makes it more valid as it tests for demand characteristics

Question 21

Is Bocchiaro’s study reliable?

Answer 21

-Same questionnaires so consistent
-Internal reliability as the study conditions were well standardised and participants had a similar experience

Question 22

Was there a sampling bias in Bocchiaro’s study?

Answer 22

-149 undergraduate students from a Dutch uni so mostly similar age
-Large sample size for a lab procedure so it reduces the probability that results are affected by extraneous participant variables
-Can’t be generalised to other age groups and cultures
-Both men and women so no gender bias
-Volunteer sampling leads to an unrepresentative sample as most people don’t volunteer

Question 23

Can Bocchiaro’s study be considered ethnocentric?

Answer 23

-Took place in a university in Amsterdam so likely from the Netherlands
-Could be international students
-Religiosity was assessed and religion is strongly associated with culture and the study found there was no difference between the behaviour of different religious groups
-However, it is overall ethnocentric

Question 24

What is an example of a practical application of Bocchiaro’s study?

Answer 24

Whistleblowing is under-researched and of great interest to people in many fields. There has, for example, been considerable publicity recently about whistleblowing over poor quality care provided in the health service.