obedience: burger (2009) Flashcards
what were the aims of burger’s study?
- to replicate milgrams research in an ethical way and to see if there is a difference in the levels of obedience
- to see if personality influences obedience, or of only influenced by situational factors
- to investigate if observing someone refuse to obe influences obedience
describe the sample of burgers study
- 70 ppts
- 29 males
- 41 females
- 40 in base condition, 30 in the modelled refusal condition
- aged 20-80 years old
- paid $50 for taking part
describe the controls for the sample
- all ppts passed screening fot Mental Health, Anxiety Issues and Drug Dependency - asked 6 questions to check well-being
- checked that they were unfamiliar with Milgrams original study- if they had taken more than 2+ they were excluded.
- variety of occupations, educations and ethnicities
describe how ppts were allocated to each condition
ppts were randomly allocated to either the base condition or the modelled refusal condition.
describe the procedure for burgers base condition
- burger used an exact replica of milgrams experiment 5.
- the learner had a ‘heart condition’ which was mentioned to the teacher whilst the learner was being strapped into the chair
- rest of procedure same as original variation
- 150v- ppts heard the confederates protests
- 150v was called the point of no return
describe the procedure of burgers modelled refusal condition
- two confederates were used in the modelled refusal condition- one as the learner, other posing as another ppt- same gender as ppt.
- both teachers watched learner being strapped into the chair, both given a sample electric shock.
- teacher one was assigned as the confederate and this was to begin administering the electric shocks for incorrect answers to the word pair list.
- at 75v upon hearing the learners ‘ugh’ there was a slight hesitation, at 90v the confederate glanced at experimenter and said “i dont know about this”.
- experimenter then asked the real ppt to continue the test and pick up were the other had left off.
describe the results of the base condition
- burger- stopped at 150v or less = 30%
- milgram - stopped at 150v or less = 17.5%
- burger - went to continue past (obedient) = 70%
- milgram - went to continue past (obedient) = 82.5%
describe the conclusion from the base condition
- obedience was lower BUT not statistically significant
describe the results of the base condition
- stopped at 150v = 37%
- went to continue past = 63%
describe the conclusions of the modelled refusal condition
- obedience was lower- BUT not statistically significant
- however, in the modelled refusal condition more dissent was shown as they received their first verbal prompt earlier.
explain how burgers replication of milgrams variation 5 was more ethical
- experiment only went up to 150v - this is when most ppts looked to the researcher to stop the exp, but were prompted to continue.
- ppts were screened to check they were emotionallly stable enough to cope with the experiment
- ppts told at least 3 times they were able to withdraw from the study
- sample shock was 15v and not 45v- so protected them from harm
- the experimenter himself was a clinical psychologist and so addressed issues of competence
results on gender differences
- base condition obedient- males = 67%
- base condition obedient - females = 73%
NEITHER CONDITION SHOWED A SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE - modelled refusal condition - males = 55%
- modelled refusal condition - females = 68%
IN THIS CONDITION WOMEN SHOWED MORE DISSENT
describe burgers overall conclusions
- cultural changes over time have not affected obedience levels
- same situational factors apply
- no gender difference, but women may feel more moral strain.
evaluate generalisabilty of burgers study (PEECA)
a strength of burger is the high levels of generalisabilty. this is because he used a larger sample than milgrams original variation of 70 ppts, aged between 20-81 years old, and also included women- with the sample consisting of 29 males and 41 females in the sample. therefore, burgers results on obedience can be generalised to a wider range in society as they are more representative of the wider population. however, burger removed around 30% of the original respondents, and so may have removed a swathe of people from his sample who may have been more or less obedient. This means that the results may not be generalisable to people who answered ‘yes’ to any of the questions relating to anxiety and depression or those who chose to study psychology at college
evaluate burgers study in terms of reliability
standardised procedure, e.g. same prompts used for all ppts, can be replicated to test for consistency- ability to replicate as more ethical than milgrams original variation.
application
reduces prejudice
evaluate burger in terms of validity
- low mundane realism
- produced quantitative data which is objective, no bias in statistical analysis which increases internal validity.
