Social Influence Flashcards
Define the term obedience
A form of social influence in which a person follows a direct order. The person issuing the order is usually authoritative who has the power to punish those who present disobedient behaviour.
Describe the procedure for Milgram’s original obedience study
- recruited 40 male ppts through newspaper and flyers (volunteer sampling)
- stated it was a study about memory
- 20-50 yrs old, jobs ranging from unskilled to professional
- were offered money for participating, and were paid at the outset
- rigged draws for role. confederate always was a learner while the real ppt. was a teacher.
- another confederate who was an experimenter dressed in a lab coat played by an actor
- ppts told they could leave at any time
- objective was to match word pairs. severe electric shocks were given to wrong answer on learning task. the shocks were shown to teacher but were actually fake
- started at 15V up to 450V (danger-severe). when the teacher got up to 300V (intense) the learner pounded on the wall and gave no response to the next question.
- after 315V they pounded on the wall again but there was no further response from learner.
- experimenter gave a standard instruction to teacher ‘absence of response -> direct shock’. if the teacher felt unsure about continuing the experimenter would prod to carry on, which were repeated if necessary “please continue -> requires you to continue -> absolutely essential -> no other choice but to go on”
What were Milgram’s findings in the original study?
- No one stopped below 300
- 12.5% (5 ppts) stopped at 300.
- 65% continued to 450V
- qualitative data also collected, such as observations: extreme tension, sweating, trembling, stuttering, biting lips etc. 3 has uncontrollable seizures
- prior to study Milgram asked 14 psych students to predict behaviour. they estimated no more than 3% would continue to 450 but the findings contrasted that
- all ppts. were debriefed and sent a follow up questionnaire. 84% glad they participated.
Why wasn’t Milgram breaking any official ethical guidance at the time?
- no guidance existed. but it was because of him and Zimbardo that ethical issues became urgent
- In Milgram’s study: deception and psychological harm
- However there was a debrief after the study and a follow up questionnaire
- It can be suggested to be highly successful but the negative effects from the minority have a great impact and require counselling. Many ppts. objected but still carried on based off of the experimenter
Evaluation of Milgram’s original obedience study
- Low Internal Validity - ppts. may have guessed the shocks were not real, therefore Milgram was not testing what he intended. Gina Perry study highlights this as she reported many expressed doubts about the shocks. Sheridan and King conducted a study on real puppies w/ shocks and despite real shocks, around 54% male and 100% females delivered what they thought was real. This suggests effects in study were genuine since ppl behaved the same with real shocks + Milgram himself reported 70% thought the shocks were real.
- Good External Validity - central feature = relationship between authority (experimenter) and ppt. the lab environment reflected wider society in real life according to Milgram. Hofling studied nurses on hospital ward and found obedience levels to unjustified demands by docs were high (21/22) which emphasises generalisability to in real life and shows value to obedience in real situations around us.
- Ethical Issues - Diana Baumrind was very critical of the ways Milgram deceived his ppts. Milgram led ppts to believe that allocations of roles was random but it was fixed. Deception in whether the shocks were real also there, and Baumrind objected because she saw deception as a betrayal of trust that could damage reputation of psychologists and their research.
What was the conclusion to Milgram’s original obedience study?
Milgram concluded German people are not different. The American ppts. were willing to obey even when they might harm one another
Describe Hofling’s study with nurses
- He arranged for an unknown doctor to telephone 22 nurses and asked them alone to administer an overdose of a drug not on their ward list.
- 95% of the nurses started to administer the drug and were prevented from continuing. The nurses obeyed without hesitation
What is the definition of a situational variable?
Features of the immediate physical and social environment which may influence a person’s behaviour such as proximity, location and uniform). the alternative is dispositional variables where behaviour is explained in terms of personality.
What is meant by proximity?
Physical closeness or distance of an authority figure to the person they are giving an order to. Also refers to the physical closeness of the teacher to the learner in Milgram’s studies.
What is the definition for location in terms of situational variables
the place where an order has been issued - the relevant factor is associated with the status or prestige associated with the location
What is meant by the uniform as a situational variable?
people in authority often have a specific outfit symbolic of their authority such as police officers and judges, showing indication that they are entitled to expect our obedience.
Describe the proximity variation of Milgram’s study and what it shows
- Teacher and learner were in the same room. Obedience rates dropped from 65% originally to 40%
- Touch proximity: teacher forced the learner’s hand onto an electroshock plate when he refused to answer a question and obedience further dropped -> 30%
- Remote instruction variation: experimenter left the room and gave instructions to the teacher by telephone and obedience was further reduced to 20.5%. Participants also pretended to give shocks
- Decreased proximity enables psychological distance from the consequences of actions. In Milgram’s study originally the teacher and the learner were separate therefore less aware of the harm they caused -> more obedience
Describe what happened in the location variation
- conducted in a run down office block rather than the prestigious Yale university. Obedience fell to 47.5%
- prestigious university gave Milgram’s study legitimacy and authority. Ppts were more obedient in this location as the experimenter shared this legitimacy and obedience was expected
- but obedience in the office was still high since the ppts. perceived the scientific nature of the procedure
Describe the uniform variation for the study
In the baseline study, the experimenter wore a lab coat as a symbol of authority. In one variation the experimenter was called away due to an inconvenient phone call at the start of the procedure. The role of experimenter was taken over by a member of the public (confederate) in everyday clothes rather than a lab coat. the obedience rate dropped to 20% the lowest of these variations
- uniforms encourage obedience since they are widely recognised symbols of authority and entitled to expect obedience due to legitimate authority compared to someone without uniform.
Evaluate the situational variable studies
- Research Support - a strength is that other studies have shown influence of situational variables on obedience. In a field experiment in NYC, three confederates dressed in different outfits: a jacket and tie, a milkman’s office and security guard;s uniform. they individually stood in the street and asked passersby to perform tasks such as picking up litter or handing over a coin for the parking meter. people twice as likely to obey the assistant dressed as a security guard than the one in jacket and tie. hence this shows support as uniform does have an impact to a great extent on obedience
- Cross-cultural Replications - his findings have been replicated in other cultures. One study that was more realistic than Milgram’s used Dutch ppts. who were ordered to say stressful things to a confederate desperate for a job. 90% obeyed and the findings replicated Milgram’s regarding proximity. When the person orders was not present, obedience decreased dramatically. Therefore the findings are not just limited to Americans or males but are valid across across cultures and apply to females too.
A counterpoint: not very cross cultural since smith and Bond identified two replications between 1968-1985 that took place in non-western countries (India and Jordan). Other countries involved Spain, AUS, Scotland but were not that culturally different from US. Therefore it may not be appropriate to conclude Milgram’s findings apply to people in all or most cultures - Low internal validity: one limitation is that ppts. may have been aware of the fake procedure. Milgram was criticised for his baseline study that it is even more likely in his variations due to extra manipulation of variables. E.g variation where the experimenter replaced by a member of the public, even Milgram recognised that this situation was so contrived that some ppts. may have worked out the truth. Therefore it is ambiguous whether the findings were genuine from manipulation of variables or because the ppts. saw through deception and just play acted. (responding to demand characteristics)
What is the definition for Agentic state?
a mental state where we feel no personal responsibility for our behaviour because we believe ourselves to be acting for an authority figure i.e as their agent. this frees us from the demands of our consequences + allows us to obey even a destructive authority figure.
What is legitimacy of authority
Explanation for obedience which suggests we are more likely to obey people who we perceive to have authority over us and it is justified by the individual’s position of power within a social hierarchy
What is an agent?
someone who acts for or in place of another - not unfeeling as they feel anxiety when they realise what they are doing is wrong but feel powerless to disobey.
