Obedience Flashcards
Define obedience
A type of social influence which causes a person to act in response to an order given by another person
What was the aim of Milgram’s study
To see how far people would go in obeying an instruction if it involved harming another person
What was Milgram’s sample
Participants were 40 males between ages of 20 and 50 whose jobs ranged from unskilled to professional from New Haven area
What was the method of Milgram’s experiment
Participants were put into a room with an electric shock generator ranging from 15 to 450 volts with an experimenter in the room with them and a ‘learner’ attached to an electric chair
Participant is told to test the learner and told to administer a shock every time the learner made a mistake and to increase the shock every time by 1 switch out of 30.
If the participant failed to administer a shock, the experimenter would use a ‘prod’ (please continue) to ensure they continued
What were the results of Milgram’s study
65% of the participants continued to the highest level
What happened when the experimenter left the room
obedience dropped to 25%
What happened when the experimenter was replaced by a member of public in ordinary clothing
Obedience dropped to 20%
What happened to obedience when the teacher were given two buddies telling them not to do it
Obedience dropped to 10%
What were the Strengths of Milgram’s study
Some generalisability- good age range and occupation range, Use of deception- to hide and prevent demand characteristics leading to more valid results
What were the weaknesses of Milgram’s study
Artificial environment, Low generalisability due to demographical data, very unethical- no protection from psychological harm- sweating and anxiety and 3 also suffered seizures, Deception means there was no informed consent
What is the Social Psychological explanation for Obedience
Agentic Shift theory
What is Agentic state
The condition a person is in when they see themselves as an agent carrying out another person’s wishes
What is agentic shift
Moving from being in an autonomous state to acting as an agent for another person
What keeps a person in agentic state
binding factors which are aspects of the situation that allow the ‘agent’ to deny the effect of their actions on the victim
What is moral strain
a state of mental discomfort or anxiety that occurs when a person’s actions conflict with their personal morals
