Obedience

Question 1

What is obedience?

Answer 1

Obedience is when someone complies with orders given by an authority figure

Question 2

What is the difference between obedience and blind obedience?

Answer 2

Obedience- This is complying with the orders of an authority figure
Blind obedience- This is complying with the orders of an authority figure without questioning it

Question 3

What prevents blind obedience?

Answer 3

Social support- Dissgussing orders with someone before acting on them
Distance- With distance to the authority figure you have time to think and are less likely to obey
Education- Being educated on blind obedience males you more aware of it, so you are less likely to obey

Question 4

What personality factor leads to obedience?

Answer 4

An Authoritarian personality- when you are more likely to obey an authority figure

Question 5

What experiment is linked to obedience?

Answer 5

Milgram’s Electric Shock Experiment

Question 6

What is the aim of Milgram’s study?

Answer 6

To investigate if individuals would obey the orders of an authority figure even if it leads to negative consequences

Question 7

What was the sample that Milgram used in his experiment?

Answer 7

40 American males aged 20-50

Question 8

What was his method?

Answer 8

Laboratory experiment at Yale University

Question 9

What was Milgram’s procedure?

Answer 9

• Milgram placed an advert in a newspaper seeking volunteers for an experiment supposedly researching memory on learning and they were paid $4.50
• Once the ppt arrived, they were introduced to the confederate who they thought was another ppt. They drew lots(rigged), the real ppt was assigned the role of ‘teacher’ and the confederate was the ‘learner’
• The teacher’s job was to administrate a learning task and deliver ‘electric shocks’ to the learner if they got the question wrong
• The shocks began at 15V and increased by 15V to a maximum of 450V
• The experimenter used PROMPTS if the ‘teacher’ refused to continue (this tested the obedience to authority)

Question 10

What are the 4 prompts that Milgram used in the experiment?

Answer 10

1. “Please continue (or Please go on)”
2. “The experiment requires that you continue”
3. “It is absolutely essential that you continue”
4. “You have no other choice; you must go on”

If they still say no the experiment would stop there

Question 11

What did Milgram find from his experiment?

Answer 11

All ppts went to at least 300V with only 12.5% stopping at this point
65% of ppts continued to the maximum of 450V, showing high levels of obedience

Question 12

What did Milgram conclude from his study?

Answer 12

Ordinary people are obedient to authority when asked to behave in an inhumane way. It is not necessarily evil people who commit evil crimes but ordinary people who are just obeying orders

Question 13

What are the situational factors affecting obedience?

Answer 13

• Proximity
• Location
• Power of uniform

Question 14

Variable 1: Proximity

Answer 14

How near/far the ppt(teacher) is from the victim(learner) or authority figure

• The teacher couldn’t see the learner, only hear them and obedience was 65%. Obedience fell to 40% when the teacher and learner were in the same room because the teacher could directly see how their behaviour was having an unpleasant consequence on the learner
• When the teacher had to force the learner’s hand onto the electric shock plate(touch proximity)obedience dropped to 30%
• The experimenter left the room and gave the teacher’s instructions over the phone, leading to obedience to fall to 20.5% suggesting that the closer an authority figure is to an individual, the more obedient they will be

Question 15

Variable 2: Location

Answer 15

Whether the place that the experiment is being held at is formal or informal

• Yale University- Run-down offices
• Obedience fell to 48% from 65% when it was completed again in a run-down office
• This was because when the experiment was conducted in a ‘seedy office’ the amount of perceived legitimate authority of the experimenter was reduced

Question 16

Variable 3: The Power of Uniform

Answer 16

Wearing a uniform can give a perception of added legitimate authority to the individual giving orders.

• The researcher wore a grey lab coat, which gave him an ‘air’ of authority
• The experimenter in the lab coat was called away from the experiment to answer a phone call, he was then replaced by an ‘ordinary member of the public’ who wore normal clothes
• Obedience dropped to 20%. This suggests that uniform does act as a strong visual authority symbol and a cue to act in an obedient way