SOCIAL APPROACH- Milgram et al (OBEDIENCE)

Question 1

What is the psychology being investigated

Answer 1

-Obedience:compliance with an order from an authority figure
- Agentic state: When we give up our free will to serve as an agent to authority
- Autonomous: When we act on our own free will and chose whether to be obedient or not
- Destructive obedience:When people obey orders to cause harm to others.
- moral strain: when we follow the rules of an authority figure but we do not agree with it
- The effect of the prods

Question 2

What is obedience

Answer 2

The following of an authority figures rules to maintain order and discipline

Question 3

what was the main background of the Milgram study

Answer 3

• was investigating the holocaust and how different kinds of punishments were carried out even if they were inhumane and harmful and to what extent people would obey such orders.
• whether germans are ‘different’ from the rest of the population in terms of dispositional factors such as personal conscience

Question 4

AIM:
*2 AIMS

Answer 4

Investigate how obedient individuals would be to orders from an authority even if it meant harming someone
OR
To see how large an electric shock would be given to another person when ordered to by an experimenter

Question 5

What was the ‘fake aim’ given to participants

Answer 5

To investigate the effects of punishment on memory/learning

Question 6

How were the papers rigged

Answer 6

Each paper was written ‘Teacher’, so they had an equal chance of becoming a teacher and not a learner

Question 7

How many participants took part, their ages and examples of occupations

Answer 7

40 male (Androcentric)
-20-50 years
-Professors, clerks, unskilled workers
-All from New Haven Connecticut

Question 8

what type of sampling method was used

Answer 8

-volunteer sampling
-direct mail/ Newspaper adverts- stating it will take 1 hour

Question 9

weaknesses of this sampling method

Answer 9

-expensive
-time consuming
-not fully representative as it targets a specific group of people

Question 10

Ways in which validity was shown in the experiment
*mention 5

Answer 10

-The machine had verbal designations
-Participants were given a 45V shock before administering shocks
-an electrode paste was applied to ‘avoid blisters’
-The company name of the machine
-a buzzing is heard every time the machine is pressed for shocking/ various relay clicks are heard
-Voltage energiser would blink blue light
-Learner confessed they had a heart issue (not true)

Question 11

Describe what took place in the preliminary run

Answer 11

there were 10 words which the learner had answered 3 correctly while 7 were answered incorrectly. The maximum shock given in this run was 105V

Question 12

What took place when level 300 of the shocks had reached

Answer 12

-the learner pounded on the wall
-No answers were then given
-the researcher was told to treat silence as a wrong answer and to administer a shock
-They were told to wait 5-10 seconds and then shock.
-another pounding is heard at 315 V and there’s no response again.

Question 13

How much was each participant given

Answer 13

$4.50

Question 14

Describe the characteristics of the Learner and Experimenter

Answer 14

Learner: MR. Wallace
- 47 years
- Mild mannered
- likeable

Experimenter:
- stern & impassive manner
- 31 years old
- wore a grey technician coat

Question 15

What was the quantitative data collected

Answer 15

-rated how painful the shocks were from 0-14 with the mean being 13.42
-levels of obedience were measured through the amount of shocks administered

Question 16

What was the Qualitative data collected

Answer 16

• Some went through seizure
• Nervous laughter
• Pulling their ears
• comments “ These are terrific shocks!”
• interview

Question 17

How was the data collected

Answer 17

Photographs
note taking
one way mirrors
an unstructured interview was carried out investigating how they felt about obeying.

Question 18

They used controlled observations, what are the strengths of using these

Answer 18

-Cause and effect
-consent
-Replicable

Question 19

Give examples of verbal designations and the range of voltage administered

Answer 19

-slight shock(15V-60V)
-moderate shock (75-120V)
-Intense shock (255V-300V)
-Extreme intense shock (315V-360V)
-dangerous severe shock (375-420V)
-XXX (450V)

Question 20

what was the primary dependent variable of the study

Answer 20

the maximum shock he administers before he refuses to go any further

Question 21

What were the results found

Answer 21

• 100% Of all participants reached 300V
• 26 participants reached the 450V (65%)
• 14 participants were defiant (left after 4th prod) (35%)
• Modal score on questionnaire was 13.42

Question 22

How can there be usefulness of this study

Answer 22

• can be applied in certain jobs i.e the military which can show blind obedience, ensuring activities are carried out in an orderly way
• can raise awareness in the workplace “whistle blowing policies”
• teachers at school can use verbal prods to have students listen
• Advertisements can have doctors wear official lab coats to ensure that a new vaccine MUST be taken
• can give out commands in a firm tone
• lifeguards can have a whistle to show authority

Question 23

What are limitations to the usefulness of the study

Answer 23

-this was carried out in an artificial setting and cannot be completely applicable in real life situations
-it being carried out in America alone causes it to be ethnocentric

Question 24

what 5 situational factors lead to high amount of obedience

Answer 24

• the location- Yale university
• Obedience was used as an instrument for the research
• They are being paid
• assured that the shocks administered won’t cause permanent damage
• felt obligated to continue since they had given their time to participate

Question 25

what 2 individualistic factors led to high amounts of obedience

Answer 25

-believes he is not in a position to complain since he believes he ‘got his position by chance’
-at shock level 20 the learner continues to answer which the participants believe he is ‘willing’ to continue
-participants may have seen themselves as part of the same group as the researcher due to being in the same room.
- 14 participants stood by their principles and chose NOT to continue

Question 26

what were 4 conflicts experienced in the Milgram study

Answer 26

• disposition not to harm people Vs Obeying authority figures
• Prods Vs Prompts
• The victims cries Vs the legitimacy of the research
• Time Vs the demand of the victim

Question 27

Describe the procedure up until the learning task begun.

Answer 27

• The learner was taken to an adjoining room where he was strapped onto an electric chair
• the straps were to remove any excessive movements
• they were given an electrode paste to avoid blistering and were told the electrode was attached to the shock generator from their wrist
• The learner then stated that he had a “heart condition”
• Afterwards the real participants were taken to the adjoining room and were given a sample shock of 45 volts
• the researcher remained in the room the entire time.

Question 28

how was the study ethically weak

Answer 28

-No informed consent
-deception
-psychological harm- distress
-physical harm were administered a 45v shock

Question 29

How was the study ethically strong

Answer 29

-a full debrief

Question 30

state the conclusions found in the study

Answer 30

>

• people find it stressful to follow destructive obedience
• people are willing to harm someone if the responsibilities are taken
• people will follow the orders from an authority figure even if it means harming them and oppose their moral values

Question 31

What was the preliminary notion of the study and result of it.

Answer 31

-Before beginning the experiment milligram asked 14 Yale students who majored in psych as well as other professional colleagues about how many people would administer the 450v shock when ordered to
-Produced a mean of 1.2% or less

Question 32

How was the study standardised

Answer 32

• After sometime the stooge left and a tape recording was instead used so that the same exact responses and tone would be given for each participant
• All participants were exposed to the same stooge’; Mr. Wallace
• All went through the preliminary run and took the sample shock of 45V which they believed to be between 75-105V instead.
• Sequence of verbal prods given stayed the same
• Mr Wallace pounded on the wall at 300v and 315v
• same word pair

Question 33

What were the 4 prods used

Answer 33

Prod 1: Please continue
Prod 2: The experiment requires you to continue
Prod 3: It is absolutely essential for you to continue
Prod 4: You have no choice, You must go on.

Question 34

State the 2 special prods given

Answer 34

Special prod 1: “Although the shocks are painful, they will not result to any permanent tissue damage so please continue”

Special prod 2: “Whether the learner likes it or not, you must continue till all the word pairs are completed”

Question 35

PRE TEXT: What 2 things were the participants told on the effect of punishment on learning by the researchers

Answer 35

• They were told that they do not know how much punishment is best for learning and whether it is beneficial for learning
• They want to also know what effect different people will have on each other as teachers and learners

Question 36

Describe the shock generator

Answer 36

• It increased every 15V levels
• it contained 30 lever switches
• it had verbal designations
• every time a shock was administered a blue light by the voltage energiser was lit and a buzzing sound went off (various relay clicks)

Question 37

Examples of occupations from the study

Answer 37

(40%): white collar workers,
sales, business
(38%):unskilled and skilled workers
(22%): professional workers

Question 38

Describe the Learning task

Answer 38

• it was a paired associate task
• the teacher read out a series of word pairs to the learner
• they then read out one word and 4 terms
• the learner had to indicate which word had been originally paired with the corresponding word
• They had to press one of the 4 switches which lit up one of the 4 quadrants in the answer box