Obedience

Question 1

Milgram obedience study- procedure

Answer 1

• Investigated whether in certain circumstances a normal person would give someone a potentially lethal electric shock if told to do so by an authority figure
• 40 male volunteers were paid $4 50 on arrival
• There was a learner and a teacher. The participant was always the teacher and a confederate being the learner
• The learner was wired with electrical wiring to be shocked when giving a wrong answer. It started at 15 volts and rose 30 levels to 450 volts (severe shock). At 300 volts, the learner pounded on the wall and stopped responding

Question 2

Milgram obedience study- results

Answer 2

• 100% of participants went to 300 volts
• 5 out of the 40 stopped at 300 volts
• 65% continued all the way to 450 volts
• The participants showed signs of extreme tension, sweat, trembling, stutters

Question 3

Explanations for obedience

Answer 3

• Agentic state
• Legitimacy of authority

Question 4

Agentic state

Answer 4

• A mental state where we feel no personal responsibility for our behaviour because we believe ourselves to be acting for an authority figure

Question 5

Legitimacy of authority

Answer 5

• This suggests that we are more likely to obey people who we perceive to have authority over us
• This authority is justified by the individual’s position of power within a social hierarchy

Question 6

Autonomous state

Answer 6

• People behave voluntarily and are in control of their actions
• They take responsibility for the consequences of their actions

Question 7

Holfing et al (1966)- research support for Milgram

Answer 7

• He studied nurses on a hospital ward and found that levels of obedience to unjustified demands by doctors were very high
• 21 out of 22 nurses obeying
• This suggests the idea of obedience to authority can be generalised to other situations in real life

Question 8

Situational variables that influence obedience

Answer 8

• Location
• Proximity
• Uniform

Question 9

Situational variables: location

Answer 9

• When the study was conducted in a run down office instead of at Yale University, obedience rate dropped from 65% down to 48%
• When the experimenter’s association with a prestigious university was removed, the authors of the experimenter seemed less legitimate, so the participant were more likely to question it

Question 10

Situational variables: proximity of the learner

Answer 10

• When the learner band teacher were in the same room, obedience dropped to 40%
• It dropped to 30% when the teacher had to force the learners hand directly onto the shock plate
• Proximity made the learner’s pain harder to ignore

Question 11

Situational variables: proximity to the experimenter

Answer 11

• When the experimenter gave promos from a phone from another room, obedience rates dropped to 21%
• When the authority figure was not close by, the orders were easier to resist

Question 12

Bickman et al (1974)- research support for legitimacy of authority

Answer 12

• He carried out a field experiment on 150 randomly occurring participants
• The experimenter was dressed as a security guard, milkman and ordinary clothes
• He gave members of the public whilst dressed in these different outfits
• On average, the guard was obeyed on 76% of occasions, the milkman on 47% and pedestrian 30%
• These results all suggest that people are more likely to obey, when instructed by someone wearing a uniform. This is because the uniform infers a sense of legitimate authority and power