Obedience and conformity Flashcards
What is the definition fo obedience?
When a person accedes to the demands of another, typically a person in authority.
Briefly what did Milgram do in his 1963 experiment?
- Conducted at Yale
- Used an ad in paper
- Teacher, student, experimenter in room
- Electroshock if answer is wrong.
What was used to encourage obedience in Milgram’s experiment?
Prods from experimenter such as “please continue” “the experiment requires that you continue” “you have no other choice you must go on”
What were the initial findings of Milgram’s experiment?
80% (32/40) prepared to give up to an extremely strong shock.
65% (26/40) obeyed up to 450 volts when learner fell silent.
Subjects all visibly upset.
No gender differences observed
Why was Milgram’s study criticised?
- Ethical issues of harm initially but APA decided it was ethical as 84% of participants reported to be glad they took part.
- Arguments that demand characteristics created high rates of obedience, highly artificial at a prestigious location.
- Zimbardo defended Milgram claiming his work to be the most generalised in all of social science.
What is the Hofling et al (1966) study?
Unknown doctor called nurses and asked to administer 20 mg of the drug ‘Astroten’ to a patient which violated hospital protocol.
21/22 (95%) were going to do it before being stopped by the researchers and debriefed.
What is the agentic theory?
When we act as an agent of someone’s authority and do not consciously take responsibility unto ourselves (lacking autonomy) when doing something commanded by another.
E.g. Nazi soldiers.
What is the role of buffers?
The person who is responsible not seeing the consequences of their actions, or the consequences not directly affecting their life. E.g. releasing a weapon of mass destruction on a country on the opposite side of the world to you is more likely than pulling the trigger of a gun on someone right in front of you.
What was the aim of Sherifs Auto-Kinetic effect study in 1935?
Demonstrating that people conform to group norms when they are put in an ambiguous situation.
What was Sherif’s method?
Used a lab experiment including auto-kinetic effect which is small spots of light projected onto a screen in a dark room that will appear to move even though they are still. Asked participants to estimate for far they moved. Put participants into groups of 3, 2 of the three had similar answers to the estimate whereas the others was completely different.
What did Sherif find?
That when the groups went through 3 sessions of light estimating their answers all converged to be the same showing conformity.
Briefly what was the method of Asch’s 1955 experiment?
50 participants, 1 naive participant and 7 confederates in a room.
Line judgement task presented with a clear answer. For 6 trials the confederates said the correct answers, for the other 12 they purposely all said the wrong answer.s
What were the results of Asch’s experiment?
25% refused to be influences.
75% conformed to the incorrect answer on one or more trials.
50% conformed for 6 or more trials
5% conformed for every trial.
What are norms?
What a group accepts as their general way of thinking, feeling or behaving.
What are explicit norms?
Laws, legislation or sanctions.
