Obedience Flashcards
Who researched into obedience of authority?
Stanley Milgram
What did Milgram do in his study?
Lab experiment
Advertised through an advert, volunteers, 40 males ages 20-50 years old
‘Mr Wallace’ confederate
$4 to take part
Wallace will always be learner - rigged
Identical instructions, sample shock - participants believe it’s real
Word pair task - if Mr Wallace gets answer wrong teacher asked to give a shock
Participants hear Mr Wallace say he’s got a slight heart problem.
Voltage goes 15-450
Every participant got to 300 volts
65% obeyed standardised prompts and reached 450
Repeated with women and got the same results
What are the strengths of Milgram’s study?
• influential - RWA - the Holocaust
• controlled experiment
What are the weaknesses of Milgram’s study?
• ethical issues -
D they weren’t told what was really happening
R had their rights but standardised prompts kept pressuring them
I no informed consent
P massive psychological harm with no protection
What did Hofling do?
Rang nurses
told to give 20mg of Astrogen to patients ( life threatening )
20/21 nurses obeyed
stopped before they could do anything
what is the Authoritarian personality?
describes a type of person who is comfortable being the strong ruler but if not they display complete obedience to the person who is
Who created the f-scale?
Adorno
What did Adorno do?
investigate the disposition that may encourage excessive obedience
2000 students and other USA citizens, all white, non jewish
found those who score high are more likely to be obedient to authority figures
What is the f-scale?
intended to measure authoritarian and anti-democratic trends in personality
these people would be susceptible to fascist propaganda
What are 3 traits of people with an Authoritarian Personality?
• hostile to people with inferior status
• rigid and inflexible
• unwilling to introspect on their feelings
How can the Authoritarian Personality develop?
growing up in such a family system that encourages obedient behaviour and views this as normal
What does Elms and Milgram do in there study that supports Authoritarian Personality?
20 obedient participants from original study
20 defiant ones
completed the f scale
higher levels of authoritarian personality in the obedient group
What are the weaknesses of the Authoritarian personality?
• methodology - the use of a questionnaire may bring up issues with validity (self report: social desirability effect, misinterpretation
• deterministic - Adorno says that everyone who scores high is Authoritarian, which may not be true
• reductionism
