obedience- social influence Flashcards
what was milgrams baseline procedure
40 american men volunteered take part in study supposedly on memory
each volunteer arrived he was introduced to another pp (confederate)
drew lots to see who would be teacher and who would be learner, draw fixed so pp always teacher
experimenter also involved
study aimed to assess obedience in situation where authority figure ordered pps to give increasingly strong shock to learner located in different room (15 volt steps up to 450) shocks were fake but T did not know
what were the baseline findings
every pps delivered all shocks up to 300V
12.5% stopped at 300
65% continuted to 450V- fully obedient
collected qualitative data including observations- showed signs of extreme tension seen to sweat tremble stutter bite lips groan and dig fingernails into hands
what was other data
before study milgram asked 14 psychoogy students to predict pps behavior
students estimated that no more than 3% pps would continue to 450V
findings unexpected- underestimated how obedient people actually are
all pps debriefed and assured behaviour was normla
sent follow up questionnaire 84% glad to have partiipated
what were the conclsiosn
german people not different
american pps willing to obey orders even when they might harm another person
certain factors in situation encouraged obedience so decided to conduct further studies investigate these
what is research support (eval)
findings replicated in french doc that was made about reality tv
doc focused on game show
pps in game believed contestants in pilot ep for new show
paid to give fake electric shoskcs to other pps in front of studio audience
80% pps delivered max shock 460V to unconcsious man
behaviour identical to that of milgrams pps
supports original findings about obedience to authority and demonstrates findigs not due to special circumstances
what is low internal validity (eval)
procedures may no have been testing what he intended to test
reported 75% pps said believed shocks genuine
orne and holland- pps behaved as they did because didnt blieve in setup so play acting
perry research confirms this- listened to tapes of milgrams pps and reported only half believed shocks were real
twpo thirds pps disobedient
suggests pps may have been responding to demand characteristics trying to fulfil aims o study
sheridan and king- conducted study using same prpcdure
pps all students gave real shocks to puppy in response to orders from experimenter
54% of men and 100% gave what they thought was fatal shock
suggests effects were genuine becuse people behaved obediently even when shocks were real
what is alternative interpretation of findings (eval)
conclusions about blind obedience may not be justified
haslam- milgrams pps obeyed when experimenter delivered first 3 verbal prods
every pps given 4th prod disobeyed
social idnetity theory- pps only obeyed when identified with scientific aims of research
when orderewd to blindly obey they refused
shows SIT may provide more valid interpreation of milgrams findings
identifiying with science reason for obedience
