Obedience Flashcards
What does social psychology investigate ?
Social psychology investigates aspects of human behaviour that involve individuals relationship to other people, groups and society; including cultural influences on behaviour.
What are the 4 key assumptions of social psychology ?
1) The approach assumes that other people can effect our behaviour, thought processes and emotions.
2) It also suggests that the social situation can affect our behaviour, thought processes and emotions.
3) Being in groups in society also effects behaviour. We respond differently to people depending on the group they are in and we tend to favour people who are members of groups to which we belong.
4) The roles that we play in society also affect our behaviour.
Define social influence ?
When an individuals behaviour, attitudes or emotions are affected by someone else.
Define obedience ?
Obedience is a form of social influence. It means following direct orders from someone in authority.
Define compliance ?
Compliance is part of obedience, it means going along with what someone says, while not necessarily agreeing with it.
Define dissenting ?
Dissenting is where the orders are rejected, the person doesn’t do what they are told to .
Define Internalising ?
Internalising means that you obey with agreement.
Define conformity ?
Conformity means that you adopt the behaviour and attitudes of those around you.
To what extent can obedience been deemed useful ?
Obedience can be deemed useful as it allows society to function smoothly for example to ensure people do not engage in criminal activity by abiding the law to keep society safe.
Alternatively obedience can have serious negative consequences, this can be seen in World War 2 where concentration camp guards followed instructions to murder innocent people.
Who conducted a behavioural study of obedience in 1963 ?
Milgram conducted a Behavioural study on obedience in 1963.
Why did Milgram conduct his studies ?
Milgram wanted to test the idea that Germans were different to other people, in that they were obedient in carrying out orders to slaughter millions of Jews and other minority groups in concentration camps in World War 2.
What was the aim of Milgrams research ?
To see if volunteer participants would be similarly obedient to inhumane orders: how far would they go in giving electric shocks to someone who they believed to be just another participant.
How did Milgram recruit his participants ?
Milgram used advertisement and direct mail to recruit a sample of 500 men.
What was the sample of Milgrams study ?
From the 500 men recruited he chose 160 men, balanced across his 4 initial study variations; meaning 40 men took part in each study. They were a mix of ages, occupations and educational levels. Milgram paid them a small sum of $4 for their participation. Each participant was then invited to an individual meeting at interaction laboratory at Yale University.
What were the participants told the study was investigating ?
On arrival, an experimenter told each participant that the experiment was aimed to see how punishment affected learning. With each study involving one teacher and one learner.
How was it decided who would be be the teacher and learner in Milligram’s study.
The participants were introduced to another “participant” who was actually a confederate. Lots were drawn to see who would be the teacher and who would be the learner. The drawing of lots was rigged so the real participant was always the teacher and the confederate was the learner.
How was the teacher convinced they electric shock was real ?
The learner and teacher were taken to the experimental room in Yale University. In order to convince the teacher that the shock machine was real he was given an example shock of 45 volts.
Did the learner receive any electric shocks ?
During the experiment the learner didn’t actually receive any electric shocks.
Describe the procedure of Milgrams study ?
The teacher was taken to another room where he could hear the learner but not see him. The teacher was asked to read a series of word pairs to the learner and then after he had read all the pair to the learner the teacher read the first word of the pair along with four terms. The learner had to indicate which of the four terms were correct. If the learner got the wrong response, the teacher give them an electric shock. Every time the learner made an error, the voltage was increased by 15 volts.
The shocks started at 15 volts and went up to 450 volts. The switches of the shock machine had labels like “slight shock” and “danger” so the teacher knew that the shocks would be painful. The final two switches were labeled “XXX”. the responses by the learner were pre set, the learner didn’t protest until 300 volts was reached; at this stage he pounded on the wall. After this he didn’t respond at all to the questions but remained silent. He pounded the wall again at 315 volts but remained silent.
The teacher was told to treat no response as a wrong response and to continue increasing the voltage to 450 volts. If the teacher asked the experimenter for advice, if the learner might suffer or if the teacher wanted to stop he responded with standardised prods.
After the procedure, all participants were interviewed using open questions and attitude scales. After this procedures were undertaken to ensure that the participants would leave the laboratory in a state of well being. As part of the debriefing process, a friendly reconciliation with the interviewer was arranged. Most participants thought the study was real rating the shocks as a 14 on a scale where 14 meant extremely painful.
What were the 4 Standardised prods used by the experimenter ?
Prod 1: Please continue
Prod 2: The experiment requires you to continue
Prod 3: It is absolutely essential you continue
Prod 4: You have other choice, you must go on.
If the teacher asked whether the learner might suffer from harm what prod was used by the experimenter?
If the teacher asked whether the learner might suffer from harm the experimenter said “ Although the shocks might be painful, there is no permanent tissue damage, so please go on”
If the teacher said that the learner wanted to stop what prod was used by the experimenter ?
If the teacher said that the learner wanted to stop the experimenter said “ Whether the learner likes it or not, he must continue until he has learnt all the word pairs so please go on.
In the pilot study Milgram conducted what was the predicted results of his experiment ?
In a pilot study, where Milgram described the experimental situation to a sample of psychiatrist, students and middle-class adults and asked them to predict how 100 hypothetical participants would behave. The participants predicted most Americans would stop before the 150 volts shock level, and no more than 4% of participants would continue to 450 volts.
What was the quantitative results from Milgrams study ?
In Milgrams actual study, 100% of the participants obeyed to 300 volts. 14 participants stopped before 450 volts. 26 out 40 men (65%) who participated in the experiment continued to obey to the maximum of 450 volts.
What was the qualitative results from Milgrams study ?
During the experiment, many participants showed visible signs of distress: Milgram says that they were observed to protest, twitch nervously and laugh nervously. Milgram noted down comments from some of the participants that indicated their stress such as “ I think he’s trying to communicate, he’s knocking” , “well its not fair to shock the guy” , “these are terrific volts I don’t think this is very humane “ and “ oh I can’t go in with this” however some participants remained calm throughout.
What were the conclusions of Milgrams study ?
Social influence is strong and people obey orders even when this causes them distress. Milgram was suprised by the level of obedience shown as the opinion of students and colleagues had been maximum 4% of people would continue to the end.
In Milgrams conclusions what features were believed to lead to obedience ?
1) Yale university is a prestigious insitution and unlikely to allow anything unethical to occur.
2) The study seemed to have a worthy cause- to learn about punishment and learning.
3) the victim was willing and had agreed to take part.
4) they participant had volunteered and had made a commitment.
5) The participant was paid and so felt an obligation.
6) The learner was there by chance; he could have been the teacher
7) This was a new situation for the participant, who had no idea of what was suitable behaviour.
8) It was thought that the shocks were painful but not dangerous
9) Up to 300 volts the learner plays the game and seems will and the use of a gradual increase of voltage means there isn’t a clear place to stop.
How generalisable are the results of Milgram study?
The results could be seen as generalisable because of the use of a volunteer sample collecting a large range of men of ranging ages, jobs and educational levels.
Alternatively the generalisability could be seen as low as the participants were recruited using an advertisement so only people who saw the advert could make up the sample and were all from one area with America . Furthermore the use of a volunteer sample could lower the generalisability because those who volunteer for studies could have different characteristics to those who don’t. Also the sample consists of only males so it doesn’t apply to females and took place in 1963 so may not be the same as obedience levels today.
How reliable are the results of Milgrams study?
Milgrams results could seen as reliable because it was a laboratory study allowing for standardised procedures to be carried out for example the prods used by the experimenter and the learners pre-set response to the teacher. This makes the study easy to replicate increasing its reliability.
How applicable is Milgrams study ?
Milrams study was ground breaking because it showed that obedience levels of society was much higher than predicted as well as identifying potential factors that effect obedience levels which could be useful for authority figures like police officers to ensure laws are abided by. Additionally the study identified that events like the holocaust could still occur allowing for methods to be developed to prevent this.
How valid are the results of Milgrams study ?
The study could been seen to have high internal validity as researchers controlled all extraneous variables for example not revealing the true aim of the study controlled for demand characteristics and the example shock of 45 volts given to the teacher ensured they believed the electric shocks to be real. this means the study accurately measures what it intends to; obedience increasing face validity. Furthermore the collection of both qualitative and quantitative data provides rich and detailed data that can also be considered objective and statistically analysed increasing the scientific credibility of the study, thus increasing validity.
Nevertheless the use of a Laboratory experiment lowered the ecological validity as the environment was fake along with the task being unsual reducing mandane realism. However it can be argued their is no specific place obedience takes place and the event of massacre to a whole religion through concentration camps would have been deemed unusual yet it still took place. Furthermore participants showed they felt distressed giving the study high experimental realism as it shows they thought the situation was real.
Did Milgram adhere to ethical guidelines ?
Milgrams study didn’t adhere to ethical guidelines because the participants were not protected from harm as they showed clear signs of distress as most twitched and laughed nervously. Participants were also deceived as they didn’t know the true aim of the study, this also causes problems with informed consent because if they were unaware of the intentions of the study they could not provide informed consent. Additionally the prods used by the researcher such as “it is essential you continue” and “you have no choice, you must go on” make it difficult for participants to believe they have the right to withdraw.
Describe Milgrams Experiment 7, telephonic interactions variation study ?
In experiment 7, the telephonic Instructions Study, Milgram wondered if having the experiment physically present in the room effected the levels of obedience so he changed the proximity of the experimenter. After Initially giving the instructions the learner face to face, the experimenter left the room and gave further instructions over the phone. everything else in the variations procedure was kept the same as the original study. Milgram found that the number of participants giving maximum voltage dropped to 22.5%. He also observed that some participants chose to repeatedly administer lower voltage shocks rather than increasing the voltage and sometimes lied to the experimenter about doing this.
What are the strengths of Milgrams Experiment 7, telephonic interactions variation study ?
1) Only one variation in the procedure from the orginal study- all other variables remained the same- which makes it possible to compare the effects of manipulating the independent variable so we can see cause and effect links between obedience and proximity of experimenter.
2) Milgrams results in this variation are supported as, in another variation of this study, Milgram found that if the experimenter returned to the office after a period of giving telephonic instructions, the participants would become obedient again.
What is the weaknesses of Milgrams Experiment 7, telephonic interactions variation study ?
Participants may not believe the shocks are real, as they would expect scientists from a reputable university to protect participants and not leave them alone with a potentially danger machine. this means the validity of the study may be low.
Describe Migrams Experiment 10, the rundown office block variation study ?
In experiment 10, the rundown office block study, Milgram wondered if the setting of the original research - Yale university - might have influenced obedience. His evidence for this was during the interviewing part of the debrief of his original study many of the participants trusted the experimenter because of their association to Yale University a very prestigious institution. Therefore Milgram changed the setting to a run down office block, he also disassociated the study as a whole from Yale University. He did this by telling participants that the study was being conducted by a research body called Research Associates of Bridgeport, a private company conducting research in the commercial industry. The same procedure was followed during the experiment as in the original study. Milgram found a slight reduction in in obedience as 47.5% gave the maximum voltage. this suggested that the less reputable setting reduced the legitimacy of the study.
What are the strengths of Migrams Experiment 10, the rundown office block variation study ?
1) Only one variation in the procedure from the orginal study- all other variables remained the same- which makes it possible to compare the effects of manipulating the independent variable so we can see cause and effect links between obedience and location of the study.
2) Use of an office block instead of a university may have increased the mandane realism of the study as it an environment more closely associated to everyday life increasing the validity.
What is the weakness of Migrams Experiment 10, the rundown office block variation study ?
Despite the more naturalistic setting , the study is still low in mandate realism, due to the use of shock generator and the controlled verbal prods.
Describe Migrams Experiment 13, an ordinary man gives orders variation study ?
In Experiment 13, an ordinary man gives orders Milgram wondered if the authority and status of the experimenter influenced obedience. In the procedure for the experiment 13, three people arrived at the laboratory: one participant and two confederates. As usual, a rigged draw meant that the participant was chosen to be the teacher, the first confederate was given the role of the learner and the second confederate was given the role of recording the times from the experimenter’s desk. The usual procedure was followed until the experimenter then received a rigged phone call and left the room. On leaving he told the teacher to carry on with the assigned task however, he didn’t mention what level of shock to give. The second confederate then suggested that the teacher should increase the shock level event time the learner got an answer wrong. So, the instructions were being given by an ordinary man who lacked any scientific authority. Milgram found that the obedience rate of reaching the maximum voltage fell to 20%. Therefore Milgram concluded that the authority level of the experimenter does affect obedience.
What are the strengths of Migrams Experiment 13, an ordinary man gives orders variation study ?
1) Only one variation in the procedure from the orginal study- all other variables remained the same- which makes it possible to compare the effects of manipulating the independent variable so we can see cause and effect links between obedience and the status of experimenter.
2) The participants saw the confederate learner draw lots, just as they had done- this reinforces the idea that he is just an ordinary man and therefore increases the validity of the study.
What are the weaknesses of Migrams Experiment 13, an ordinary man gives orders variation study ?
1) a problem with this variation was that the withdrawal of the experimenter seemed staged and artificial. This might have undermined the credibility of the experiment.
2) Participants may have still felt that the overall authority lay with the prestigious Yale University.
What was the overall conclusions of the variation studies ?
The level of obedience was the highest in the basic experiment: all the variations led to lower level of obedience. The setting had the least effect; the status of the experimenter had the greatest effect.
