Obedience Flashcards
What was Milgrams key research?
40 male participants were recruited through ads. There were 3 roles in the experiment, teacher (gave electric shocks), learner and experimenter. There were two confederates and one participant. The two confederates were learners and experimenters. The participant was the teacher. They were told that every time they got a question wrong they had to increase the voltage applied from 30 to 450 (xxx) volts.
Results of milgrams study?
65% of participants went to 450 volts
No participants stopped below 300
Evaluation of Milgram’s study?
Ethical issues, deception of true nature of the study therefore could not give informed consent.
They also were not informed of the right to withdraw from the study. In fact were prompted to continue.
Milgram’s study lacks ecological validity as the task was very artificial and not real life like, however because it was a laboratory experiment it had good control over extraneous variables, results in the ability to establish cause and effect.
What are the 3 situational variables affecting obedience?
Proximity
Location
Uniform
What are the social-psychological factors?
Agentic state:
This explanation states that we act on behalf of another person, we become an agent for then. In the agentic state the person feels no responsibility for their actions, this is done through binding factors that are used to minimise their actions or placing responsibility on the victim.
Legitimacy of authority:
This states that we obey people people at the top of the social hierarchy. This is affected by the situational factors e.g uniform
Dispositional explanation of obedience?
Authoritarian personality:
Have an exaggerated respect for authority and submissiveness to it.
Develops during childhood, harsh/ strict parenting and characterised by conditional love. This creates hostility towards parents but cannot act on it through fear of punishment, they therefore unleash there anger on socially inferior people.
