Research into obidience

Question 1

what is obedience?

Answer 1

A form of social influence in which an individual follows a direct order from a perceived authority figure. There is an implication that the person would not respond in this way without the order.

Question 2

what was Milgram’s aim? (1963)

Answer 2

-wanted to investigate the power of an authority figure and find out if only people obey to the demands of perceived legitimate authority figure even if the demands were morally wrong
-To test the Germans are different hypothesis

Question 3

what was Milgram’s procedure?

Answer 3

-Laboratory Experiment, yale, to see how punishment affects learning
-volunteer sample of 40 male aged 20-50,paid $4.50
-participant- teacher -2 confederates- learner(mr wallace) and experimenter(white lab coat)
-learner gave wrong answers and revived fake shocks 15-450v (15v increments)
-learner in diff room and cried out after each
-participant want to carry on the experimental would say prods please continue(foot in the door)

Question 4

What were Milgram’s findings?

Answer 4

-all participants obedient, give shots up to at least 300 V
-12.5 of the participants stopped at 300v
-65% of participants continued all the way to 450v

Question 5

what was Milgram’s conclusions?

Answer 5

-Ordinary people will obey authority, even though they know that what they are doing is wrong- so it isn’t just evil people who commit evil crimes, but ordinary people who are obeying orders

Question 6

Who are the situation variables (external factor) that affect obedience?

Answer 6

Proximity
Location
Uniform- bickman investigated this

Question 7

what are the explanations for obedience?

Answer 7

-Agentic state
-Legitimacy of authority
-Authoritarian personality- dispositional

Question 8

What is proximity?

Answer 8

-physical closeness or distance of an authority figure to the person they are giving an order to
-In the original study, experimenter and teacher were in the same room

Question 9

how did Milgram investigate proximity?

Answer 9

Reduced proximity- gave orders to the teacher via a telephone in a different room

Question 10

how did reduce proximity affect obedience rates?

Answer 10

Dropped to 20.5% from baseline, 65.%

Question 11

why did reduced proximity influence obedience

Answer 11

-participants are more likely to obey the authority figure in the original study as they were in the agentic state
-in this variation when the orders were given by the authority figure file the phone, the participants were in the autonomous state (less likely to obey)

Question 12

what does the location do?

Answer 12

-The location or setting of a situation or environment can affect the way a request is viewed, and therefore the likelihood of obedience
-og was conducted at Yale University (high status)

Question 13

How did milligram investigate location?

Answer 13

repeated the study in a rundown office block

Question 14

how did the location affect obedience rates?

Answer 14

dropped to 48% from 65(baseline)

Question 15

why did location influence obedience?

Answer 15

-Location of original experiment adds to the legitimacy of authority figure giving the order
-Several participants remarked, that the location of the study gave them confidence in the integrity of the people involved
-When repeated- fewer people obey the instructions given to them as they did not valued experiment with the same integrity as they did at Yale (credible)

Question 16

What is uniform?

Answer 16

Clothing, worn by an authority figure can affect the perception of person has of them and would change whether or not they would obey

Question 17

how did bickman (1974) investigate uniform?

Answer 17

-carried out field experiment in New York, passers-by given one of three orders: pick up paper bag, lend money to stranger for a parking meter, stand at another place at bus stop
-one condition experimenter dressed as security guard.
-another, wore normal clothes

Question 18

how did uniform affect obedient rates?

Answer 18

SG- 82% obeyed request to lend money
NC- 36% obeyed

Question 19

Why did uniform influence obedience?

Answer 19

-easily recognisable and convey power and authority, they offer a sense of legitimacy to those who wear them

Question 20

why did Orne and Holland criticise Milgram’s research into situational variables affecting obedience and claim that participants were going along with the act when they shocked the learner?

Answer 20

• ppts did not believe and weren’t distressed
  -pretending, to please learner (demand characteristics)

Question 21

why would orne and Hollands criticism question the internal validity of the research?

Answer 21

because milgram is measuring how the participants play along with the requests, rather than measuring the effects of situational variables directly (obedience to authority)

Question 22

why did Milgram dispute the claims made by orne and holland?

Answer 22

• He provided evidence: from debriefing session (of participants who admitted, they had believed they were giving shocks)
  -through film evidence where participants appeared in considerable distress when delivering the shocks
  CANT FAKE QUALITATIVE DATA

Question 23

why is there low external validity (ecological) in Milgram’s research into situational variables?

Answer 23

Ecological: highly controlled lab experiments-
baumrind suggested: impossible to generalise his findings to real life because the study was carried out at yale uni (ivy league) and the conc can only be about obedience to a researcher in a laboratory

Question 24

why is there low external validity (population) in Milgram’s research into situational variables?

Answer 24

-Study used paid male, volunteers and in psych it is know that volunteers, are not representative of the population
-Gender differences- between how males and females respond to authority e.g. women= more obedient in 1960s
-individual differences limited

Question 25

What is the link for the external validity evaluation?

Answer 25

suggests milligrams research into situational variables affect obedience, lacks both , ecological and population validity and caution, he needs to be taken with generalising obedience.l findings

Question 26

what is supporting evidence (research) for Milgram’s research?

Answer 26

-Hofling et al (1996) field experiment
-Hofling et al (1996)- suggests obedience = observable in other settings so studied it in a hospital
-Nurses telephoned by fictional doc to give high dose of dangerous drug to patient (if obeyed would break hospital rules)
-95% of nurses (21/22) followed order

Question 27

what does hoflings research demonstrate?

Answer 27

The demands of an authority figure just as powerful regardless of whether the setting is artificial or occurring in a more natural setting, such as the hospital (ecological validity)

Question 28

when were the nurses less obedient in Hofling’s research?

Answer 28

when they could discuss the actions with other nurses open, the drug was well known (only 11% obeyed) showing that other situational variables influence obedience levels

Question 29

what does holfling’s research mean?

Answer 29

Milgram’s study is reliable

Question 30

What is another strength of Milgram’s research?

Answer 30

-been repeated many times, since it was first completing yielding very high levels of obedient like the original study- (evidence=reliable)
-one e.g. le jeu de la Mort

Question 31

what happened in the game of death?

Answer 31

-Participants believe they were contestants in a pilot episode for the new game show
-Asked to give electric shocks to contestants (actors) when ordered by the presenter in front of the studio audience
-80% gave a maximum shock 460v shot to an apparently unconscious man

Question 32

what were the many of the same behaviours as those in Milgram study that were shown and how does this support original findings and conclusions?

Answer 32

Nailbiting and other signs of anxiety- shows that it was not a one-off occurrence, meaning the study has good reliability