Conformity And Obedience : Obedience Flashcards
What is obedience
A change in behaviour as a result of a request from an authority figure
- it involves doing something we are told , or following a rule or instruction.
How does obedience differ to conformity
- obedience results from pressure from an authority figure , rather than from people similar to ourselves
- it typically results from a direct order , conformity is usually unspoken
- it usually involves doing something different from the person giving the order , rather than doing the same thing as someone as in conformity
- people are generally happy to admit to obeying , but deny that conformity that has affected them
Key study milgram
Aim
Method
Findings and conclusion
Milgram (1963))
Aim : milgram wanted to known if there was something uniquely obedient about the nazi soldiers and concentration camp guards who had carried out the holocaust. He aimed to discover whether ordinary American citizens would obey an authority figure when asked to inflict pain on another person.
Method : recruited 40 volunteers through newspaper advert. Volunteers were paid $4.50 to take part. Study began by the participants being introduced to a man named mr Wallace who they thought was a real participant but was in fact a confederate. They were also introduced to an authority figure- in this case a man in a white lab coat-mr Wilkins. They were told they were taking part in a study into the effect of punishment in learning. They were told one of them would be the “teacher” and one the “learner” and the teacher would have ti give an electric shock to the learner each time they got an answer wrong. The pair drew lots - but this was fixed so the confederate mr Wallace was always the learner and the true participant the teacher. The experimental apparatus had a series of switches the first of which was labelled 15 volts and the last 450 volts. Participants were asked to increase the shock level with each wrong answer. The confederate deliberately got many wrong answers - and the participant was under pressure to keep giving stronger shocks.
Findings - if the true participant hesitated, the researcher prompted them to continue. Many showed signs of stress but every participant went to at least 300 volts. The confederate yelled shouting he didn’t want to take part further - despite this , 26 participants (65%) continued to maximum 450 volts.
Conclusion : ordinary American civilians will obey unjust orders of asked to do so by an authority figure. This study could explain some of the atrocities performed in warfare such as the persecution of Jewish people in WW2
Ethical concern me of milgram experiment
- there was no clear right to withdraw as the experimenter kept encouraging saying things like you must go on
- this study wasn’t carried out very ethically as milgram deceived his participants and caused them much stress. -they technically didn’t have the chance to give informed consent as they didn’t fully know what the stud was for
- however in his defence milgram did try to debrief and follow up his participants - and 84% of them said later that they were glad to have been in the experiment.
Evaluation of milgram experiment
Strengths
- lab study meant high control , meaning milgram could make small changes to investigate their effect on obedience and he discovered many factors that affect obedience
- most participants were actually convinced of the cover story / actually believed they were delivering extremely painful shocks to people
Weakness
- they were paid - maybe they would be more likely to obey since they were paid
- included only males
- hard to reflect onto real life
Hofling et al. - suggesting milgram findings can be reflected in the real world
Hofling et al (1966) conducted a field experiment in a hospital in which nurses received a phone call from an unknown doctor calling himself dr smith. The doctor told the nurse to prepare and administer a drug with double the indicated maximum dosage
Despite having oppurtunity to refuse , 21 out of 22 nurses were going to administer it until stopped by experiment
- this suggests that milgram findings are applicable to real situations
Factors affecting obedience
- Proximity
- location
- wearing a uniform
How does proximity affect obedience
- proximity to authority figure is how close or far the participant is to the authority figure. Thus affects obedience as the closer the participant is to the authority figure the higher the level of obedience.
This was shown in a variation of milgram experiment in which the authority figure gave initial instructions and then left the room and gave rest of instructions over the phone. The findings id this showed that the level obedience dropped from 65% (original experiment) to 21%. - this shows that people are more likely to obey an authority figure when they are present , suggesting that the presence of an authority figure is very important as it can influence a person to be more obedient as they will feel the power of the authority figure over them.
How does location affect obedience
- the prestige of a location of an experiment can add a sense of authority
- milgram original research was carried out in lab in Yale uni, a very prestigious ivy leage uni. Milgram conducted a variation in a run down office building in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
- in this variation , the percentage of participants who administered the full 450 volts dropped from 65% to 47.5%
How does the authority figure wearing a uniform affect obedience
- wearing a uniform increases the sense of authority and make people more likely to obey
- milgram examined the power of wearing a uniform in a variation where the experimenter was called away and replaced by another participant in ordinary clothes who was actually a confederate
- in this variation the man in ordinary clothes came up with the idea of increasing the voltage every time the learner made a mistake. The percentage of participants who administered 450 volts dropped from 65% to 20%
How does proximity affect obedience : participant to learner
- close the participant is to the learner (who they have to give shocks to) the lower the obedience
- this is because the participant (teacher) will see how much pain the learner is in and it’ll induce guilt
- milgram showed thsi in one ot his variations where he put the learner and teacher in the same room - levels fell from 65% to 40%
