Core Studies - Social Area Flashcards
What is social psychology about? How does milgrams study fit into the social area?
Social psychology is about how our behaviour is affected by other people. Milgrams’ study is in the social psychology area as it studied now people’s behaviour and obedience is affected by legitimate authority figures.
Define obedience
Obedience is when you follow orders given by a person with authority over you. For example, a policeman
What was the aim of Milgram’s study?
To see whether people will obey an authority figure to cause harm to another.
What was the sample of Milgram’s study?
40 male participants aged 20 to 50 years old in USA. Volunteer sample recruited via an advertisement in a local newspaper.
Procedure in milgram’s study?
Participants were shown an electric shock generator and asked to give increasing levels of electric shocks to the learner if he got any words incorrect on a word pair task.
What was the research method in milgram’s study? What was the DV?
Laboratory study (pre-experiment as it only had one condition). Standardised procedure was used such as everyone using the same shock generator. the DV was the level of shocks participants gave on the shock generator
What were the results of milgram’s study?
65% of participants went to 450V
100% of participants went to 300V
Give on conclusion from Milgram’s study
People will obey an authority figure even if it means causing harm to another
What were some methodological and ethical issues with Milgram’s study?
G - the sample consisted of 40 American males making it androcentric and ethnocentric, not generalisable of the wider population
R - it is a laboratory study (pre experiment) therefore has good control of extraneous variables, making it replicable and reliable
A - could be used in training to avoid destructive obedience and question immoral orders.
V - lacks ecological validity as the nature of the task is not an everyday activity, strong internal validity as it the shocks do measure obedience
E - deception, participants thought the experiment was on the effects of punishment, not obedience, therefore they did not give informed consent. Participants were given verbal prods like “it is essential that you must continue” this gave them the feeling that they did not have the right to withdraw
What is a whistleblower?
Someone who exposes another person or organisation engaging in immoral activity
What were the aims of the bocchiaro study?
- to see whether participants obey, disobey or whistleblow on an unethical study when given the option to
- to see what personal and social factors are related to disobedience and whistle blowing
Research method of the bocchiaro study
It is a laboratory pre experiment has there was only one condition, no IV was manipulated.
What did bocchiaro do to test the effectiveness and make sure the study was morally acceptable?
They did 8 Pilot studies - small trial of a proposed study
What was the sample of the study?
149 undergraduate students, 96 women and 53 men
Self selected sample
What was the procedure for the bocchiaro study?
Participants were greeted with a stern male experimenter, they were then told to write a statement encouraging others to take part in an experiments that was unethical as the side effects were hallucination and impaired cognitive abilities. The experimenter left the room to give participants the option to either write the statement, not write it, or whistleblow on the experiment by putting a form in the mailbox in the room.
What happened after the experimenter came back in Bocchiaros study?
The participants were given dispositional measures (someone’s personality or social values/beliefs) such as a personality test. Religious it was assessed by asking participants the extent of their faith.
What were the results of the bocchiaros experiment?
76.5% obeyed
14.1% disobeyed
9.4% whistleblew
Conclusions of the bocchiaro’s study
- people tend to obey authority figures, even if authority is unjust
- disobedience or whistleblowing in the face of an unethical situation is difficult but those with strong faith find it easier
Evaluation of bocchiaro study
G- 149 uni students. Generalisable because it is mixed gender but not generalisable as uni students are not representative of the wider population
R - they were asked to write a statement with the same words like “superb”. This makes it easily replicable therefore more reliable
A - help people to understand that whistleblowing is important because we want people to be able to whistleblow against immoral behaviour in an organisation
V - high ecological validity as participants thought it was a real life situation - that they were actually asked to write a statement supporting an experiment on sensory deprivation
E - participants were deceived however, they were debriefed at the end of the experiment.
What are the social area features?
- How we are influenced by other people and the social context we are in
- how we are influenced by the real or imagined presence of others
how does bocchiaros study fit into the social area?
It is in the social area because it looks at situational factors that determine whether we obey or disobey or whistleblow. All participants were affected by a stern experimenter who is the authority figure - even when he wasn’t in the room, the participants were influenced by his imagined presence leading to a high obedience rate (75.6%)
Similarity between bocchiaro and milgram
Both milgram and bocchiaro used quantitative data
Milgram measured what percentage of people would go to 300v (100%)
Bocchiaro measured how many people would write the statement (76.5%)
This made it easier to compare whether participants obeyed the ordered to shock people further or write a statement asking people to take part in an unethical experiment making it objective.
Differences between Milgram and bocchiaro
Bocchiaro had higher ecological validity
Bocchiaro was more generalisable
why do people find it hard to whistleblow?
people are inclined to obey legitimate authority figures so they find it hard to whistleblow on people in authority who are engaging in unlawful or immoral activities
What was the comparison group for in Bocchiaro’s study?
138 comparison students at the VU university were provided with a detailed description of the experimental setting and asked what they thought they would do and what the average student would do. This was to make a comparison between how obedient people think they will be compared to how obedient they actually are in the main experiment.
what is the diffusion of responsiblity?
Diffusion of responsibility is where the responsibility for the situation is spread amongst the people present. The more people that are present, the less they feel responsible and the less likely they were to help someone.
What was the aim for pilliavins study?
to see whether the bystander behaviour is affected by: race of the victim, size of the group, effect of modelling on help behaviour, and the victims responsibility of being in the situation where they needed help.
what was the research method in pilliavins study?
A field experiment on a New York train using participant observation –> covert
what was the sample of pilliavins study?
4,450 men and women who used the subway. 45% black 55% white.
IVs of pilliavins study
type of victim - drunk or cane
race of victim
size of the witnessing group (naturally occuring)
DVs of Pilliavins study
frequency of help
speed of help
race of helper
Procedure for pilliavins study
There were teams of 4, two females record experiment, one male was the model helper, one male was the victim. the victim would collapse in the critical area about 70 seconds into the train journey with the model helper helping either at 70 seconds or 120 seconds. the observers notes the no. passengers who came to the victim’s assistance, race, sex and how long it took for help to arrive.
what materials were used in pilliavins study
they all wore eisenhower jackets and old slacks. In the drunk condition, they used a bottle of alcohol in a paper bag and in the cane condition, they used a cane.
what were the results of Piliavins study?
- cane victim was helped 95% of time despite race
- more male helped than female
- no evidence of diffusion of responsibility
conclusions of Pilliavins study?
- an ill person is more likely to recieve help than a drunk person.
- men are more likely to help another man than women are.
Applications of Pilliavin
- if someone was in trouble, they need to move to an enclosed area as that is the place that they are more likely to get help
Evaluate Pilliavins study
G - there were men and women, representative of both genders, BUT ethnocentric as it only took place in America
R - standardised procedure, carefully controlled IVs, victim only fell after 70s
A - if someone was in trouble, they need to move to an enclosed area as that is the place that they are more likely to get help
V - study has high ecological validity as it was in a natural environment
E - Lack of informed consent, no protection from psychological harm, no debriefing, etc.
How does pilliavin fit into the social area.
The social area investigates how peoples behaviour is influenced by the social context that they are in. Pilliavin looks into how people help the victim in need based on several factors that influence the social context such as the race of the victim, etc.
how is a collectivist culture different to an individualist culture?
individualist cultures emphasise the importance of personal freedom and focus more on themselves. Collectivist culture place more emphasis on the community and wider social group.
what is simpatia? what cultures have it?
simpatia is about having concern for the wellbeing of others, with an obligation to be friendly and helpful. it is a cultural value particularly associated with spanish or latin american societies
what was the aim of Levines study?
to see if variables like population size, economic wellbeing, cultural values etc affect helping behaviour,
research method and design in levines study
Quasi experiment in the field, independent measures design
sample of Levines study
1200 participants from 23 countries eg. india, brazil, USA
IVs in Levine
- Helping behavior in 3 situations: dropped pen, person with leg brace drops magazines, blind person needing help with crossing the street.
procedure in Levine
male experimenters, played role of the victim in different cities around the world. And they would play out the three scenarios , dropping the pen, or dropping magazines while having a leg brace or needing help to cross the street if they were blind.
Dvs in Levine.
- whether the subject would call out to the person or help them when they dropped their pen.
- whether the subject offered to help or helped the person who dropped the magazines
- whether the person helped or atleast told the person that the light is green.
Results of Levines study
- 93.3% in brazil helped
- 44.6% helped in New York USA
conclusions of Levines study
- helping cultures is inversely proportional to a countries’ economic productivity
- countries with the cultural tradition of simpatia are on average more helpful than countries with no such tradition.
evaluation of Levine
G - generalisable - large sample of a wide range of cultures
R - standardised procedure –> more replicable and reliable
A - useful application for travellers, we need to be more prepared in cities that are less likely to offer help.
V - high ecological validity as it took place in their natural environment.
E - ethical issues as no informed consent and deception.
how does levine fit into the social area
The social area looks at how our behaviour is influenced by the social context we are in. Levine looks at how simpatia which is the social context influences other people to help others in need.
Similarities between Levine and piliavin
- they both use quantative data in recording their results. Piliavin recorded that the victims in the ill condition were helped 95% of the time despite race. In Levine, it was recorded that 93.3% of people in Brazil.
- they both have high ecological validity - Pilliavins study took place in a subway, and levines took part in different countries which are natural environment
difference between Piliavin and Levine
- Levine is more representative sample than piliavin, Piliavin only takes place in America whereas Levine takes place in 23 countries.
strengths of the Social area
- useful applications - can be used to change behaviour for the better
- good range of research methods
weaknesses of the social area
- often has ethical issues
- reductionist
