Obedience Flashcards
What is obedience
type of social influence which causes a person to act in response to an order given by another person. The person who gives the order usually has power or authority
What are the reasons for obeying
❏ Human nature – dispositional (innate)
❏ Experience teaches us authorities are generally trustworthy
❏ Do as you’re told
❏ Personality/ Upbringing
❏ Assume people have more knowledge or expertise
❏ Don’t see consequences of actions
❏ People dislike confrontation
❏ Scared of consequences
❏ Rules
Who is the psychologist that studied obedience
Mil gram
What was the procedure of Milgrams obidience study
Forty American volunteers participated in a study, ostensibly about memory. Upon arrival, each volunteer met another participant, who was actually an accomplice of the researcher, Milgram. They drew lots to determine roles: “Teacher” (T) and “Learner” (L), but the draw was rigged so the volunteer was always the Teacher. An “Experimenter” (E), also an accomplice, explained the procedure while wearing a grey lab coat.
The study aimed to investigate obedience to authority. The Experimenter instructed the Teacher to administer increasingly strong electric shocks to the Learner, located in a different room, whenever the Learner made an error. The shocks, ranging from 15 to 450 volts, were fake, but the Teacher was unaware of this.
What is the findings and conclusions of milgrams study
❏ No participants stopped below 300 volts. ❏ Five (12.5%) stopped at 300 volts.
❏ 65% continued to 450 volts.
Observations (qualitative data) indicated that participants showed signs of extreme tension, sweating, trembling, biting their lips, groan and digging their fingernails into their hands.
Three participants had ‘full blown uncontrollable seizures.
What is the range of the shock levels
15- 450 volts
How many stopped below 300 volts
None
What percentages of ppts stopped at 300 volts
12.5%
What percentage of people continued to 450 volts
65%
What was the prediction of how may would continue to 450 volts
14 psych students estimated that no more than 3% of them would continue to 450 volts
