Obedience - Milgram (Social Influence) Flashcards
What is obedience?
Following orders from a perceived authoritative figure
What is conformity?
Yielding / giving into group pressure
What is the rationale behind Milgram’s obedience research?
- Milgram’s initial interest in obedience was sparked by the trial of Adolf Eichmann in 1961 for war crimes during the Second World War.
- Eichmann had been in charge of the Nazi death camps.
- His defence in trial was that he ‘had only been obeying orders’.
What is the procedure of Milgram’s study?
- 40 males (all from USA) —> volunteered
- Yale university
- Told research was how punishment impacted on learning (memory)
- Participants = teacher
- Confederates (fake/actor) = learner (rigged)
- Participants to give confederate a question and every time they got it wrong —> a ‘shock’ was to be given
- Voltage went up in 15 volts until 450V (lethal)
- Participants could not see the confederates but could hear him
What are the quantitative data findings for Milgram?
Quantitative Data:
- 100% pps went to 300V
- 65% pps went to the full 450V
What are the qualitative data findings of Milgram?
Qualitative data:
From observations made pps were found to display:
- Lip biting
- Sweating
- Digging fingernails into palms
- 3 pps have seizures
What is the strengths of Milgrams methodology?
- Can be easily replicated, therefore reliability can be assessed.
- It is easier to control the variables, so that it is only the independent variable that is being manipulated.
- Can determine whether the IV does cause the DV to change, casual conclusions can be drawn.
What is the limitations of Milgram’s methodology?
- As the situation is often artificial, there is a loss of external (ecological) validity.
- Demand characteristics may cause participants to behave in ways that are not normal —> some have argued the pps did not believe the shocks were real.
- Sample —> all males, all American, gender bias, culture bias
What are the AO3 ethical guidelines to Milgram’s study?
- Deception
- Informed consent
- Psychological harm
- Right to withdraw
- Debrief > this was followed by a follow up questionnaire also - 84% were pleased they took part.
What is the AO3 evaluation research support for Milgram’s study?
- Milgram’s findings were replicated in a French documentary that was made about reality TV.
- This documentary (Beauvois et al. 2012.) focused on a game show made especially for the programme. The participants in the ‘game’ believed they were contestants in a pilot episode for a new show called Le Jeu de la Mort (the Game of Death).
- They were paid to give (fake) electric shocks (ordered by the presenter) to other participants (who were actually actors) in front of a studio audience. 80% of the participants delivered the maximum shock of 460 volts to an apparently unconscious man.
- The behaviour was almost identical to that of Milgram’s participants —> nervous laughter, nail biting, and other signs of anxiety.
- This supports Milgram’s original findings about obedience to authority, and demonstrates that the findings were not just due to special circumstances.
Charles Hoffing et al study for evaluation of obedience
- Charles Hoffing et al (1966) arranged for an unknown doctor to telephone 22 nurses and ask each of them (alone) to administer an overdose of a drug that was not on their ward list (‘Astrogen’).
- A startling 95% of nurses (21 out of 22) started to administer the drug (they were prevented from continuing).
- The nurses obeyed without question.
- Rank and Jacobson replicated Hoffing et al’s study but altered some aspects of the original procedure that might have maximised obedience.
- E.g. being given an order over the telephone was unusual. It was also unusual to be asked to administer an unknown drug. In the Rank and Jacobson study, the nurses were told by a doctor to administer an overdose of Valium, a real drug, that the nurses would have been familiar with. The doctors name was also known to the nurses and they all had the chance to discuss the order with each other.
- In these more realistic circumstances, only 2 out of 18 nurses obeyed the doctor’s order (before they were prevented from carrying it out).
What is a situational variable?
- External to the pps > e.g. a factor in the environment that affects behaviours
What is a dispositional variable?
- Internal to the pps
- E.g. the personality of the individual that affects behaviour
What is the situational variables affecting obedience?
1.) Proximity:
a.) Between learner and teacher -
i.) same room
ii.) touch proximity
b.) Between ‘experimenter’ and teacher - Remote proximity (telephone)
2.) Location
3.) Uniform
What happened when Milgram changed the proximity between the teacher and learner?
i.) Teacher and learner are now in the same room:
- Obedience rate decreased from 65% to 40% of pps who administered the whole 450V.
ii.) Teacher had to put the learner’s hands on the electric shock plates - touch proximity:
- Obedience rate decreased from 65% to 30% of pps who administered the whole 450V.
