Obedience Flashcards
What does obedience mean?
A form of social influence in which an individual follows a direct order, even if it goes against ones conscience
What is the dispositional explanation of the German atrocities?
Germans are different, perhaps more obedient
What is the situational explanation of the German atrocities?
People would commit atrocities if required to by an authority figure
What year was Milgram’s study?
1963
What was Milgram’s aim?
Wanted to test factors thought to affect obedience, such as whether proximity had an effect
To test what level of obedience would be shown by ppts when told by authority figure to administer electric shocks to another person
How did Milgram carry out his study?
Recruited 40 male ppts, 20-50 years, through ads in newspaper, ad said looking for ppts for learning and memory study
Ppts paid $4.50
Real ppts ‘randomly’ assigned to be teacher and confederate assigned to be learner, would be given prods by experimenter to shock the learner
Learner would pound on wall for last time at 315V
What did Milgram find?
No ppts stopped before 300V and 65% went all the way to 450V
Many signs of stress, most objected but continued anyway
Who were the two confederates?
Experimenter played by a 31 year old biology teacher dressed in lab coat
Learner played by 47 year old accountant who tells experimenter and learner he has a heart condition
What convinced the ppts that shocks were real?
They were given a sample shock of 45V
What happened afterwards?
They were debriefed and assured that their behaviour was normal
They met the learner
84% reported that they were happy to participate in follow up questionnaire
Ecological validity?
Hofling et al(1966)- nurses in hospital phoned by ‘Dr Smith’ and told to give double maximum dosage of astroten to patient, told that Dr Smith would be there in 10 mins, 21/22 nurses did as told
Supports Milgram’s research in more realistic setting
Controlled?
Highly controlled observational study, same confederates, standardised prods, etc.
Replicable, scientific so increased reliability
Demand characteristics?
Orne and Holland argued that Milgram’s ppts behaved the way they did because they didn’t believe the setup
This is a weakness because it reduces validity
However, 70% of Milgram’s ppts believed shocks were genuine
Ethics?
Ppts were deceived about almost everything, especially the idea that they were giving shocks to other ppts, and also exposed to a great degree of stress.
This could have caused ppts psychological harm
