Social Influence : Obedience Flashcards
Obedience
A type of social conformity where an individual follows another (normally an authority figure)
Key characteristics of obedience
• direct request to change behaviour
• request from authority figure
• authority figure has higher status and power over individual
Milligrams study - Aim
To see if individuals would follow orders from an authority figure just because they were being told to
Milligrams study - Sampling Method
40 US males 20-50 y.o. paid $4.50
Milgrams study - Procedure
• learner was a confederate (Mr Wallace)
• experimenter wore grey lab coat
• teacher and learner selected “randomly” but P was always teacher
• teacher told to read word pairs and asked learner to choose one of 4 possible answers. Learner buzzed 1 of 4 lights that flashed in front of P
• when learner gave wrong answer, P was to give them a shock increasing by 15V each time from 15V to 450V (no real shocks were given and P only heard voice recording from other room of learners reaction - fell silent at 330V / 300V when learner had heart condition)
• experimenter gave verbal ques to carry on when P wanted to check on learner/ quit
Milgrams study - Findings
Quantitative - 65% of Ps (26/40) went to 450V, no one stopped before 300V
Qualitative - many Ps showed signs of stress. 3 had seizures. Some showed little signs of distress and carried on
Milgrams study - Conclusion
People will obey authority and go against their conscience and can lose empathy, compassion and morality
3 variables affecting obedience
• Proximity
• Location
• Uniform
Proximity
Physical closeness/ distance between authority figure and person receiving orders
Location
The place where an order is issued - the status or prestige of the location
Uniform
Authority figures often have a uniform that’s symbolic of their power
Proximity studies
• teacher and learner in same room
• obedience fell to 40% when teacher could see effect of shock
• teacher made to force learners hand on shock plate
• obedience dropped to 30%
• Experimenter absent variation where orders were given over the phone
• obedience dropped to 21% (many teachers cheated and gave lowest shock level)
Location study
• study carried out in a run down office
• obedience dropped to 48%
Uniform study
• variation where experimenter in grey lab coat was called away due to an inconvenient phone call and was replaced by men mover of the public in everyday clothes (confederate)
• obedience dropped to 21%
• Bickman (1974) conducted a field experiment in NYC where confederates wearing different uniforms stood on the street and asked members of the public to pick up a piece of rubbish. Results show that Ps where twice as likely to obey police officer over suit (supporting Milgram)
• Police officer - 76%
• Milkman - 47%
• Suit + tie - 30%
Milgrams study - disadvantages
• lacks ecological validity
• MANY ethical issues
• not cross-culturally valid
Milgrams study - advantages
• high internal validity
• low demand characteristics
• high experimental realism
• high temporal validity
Milgrams study - ecological validity
Hofling’s (1966) field study supports Milgrams findings as 21/22 nurses obeyed an unknown doctor over the phone and gave drugs to a patient
Milgrams study - Internal validity
Sheridan & King used a puppy instead of a learner. P’s lead to believe that puppy’s shocks got more intense each time (SAME small shock given to puppy each time - for reaction). Eventually puppy was given anaesthetic and Ps thought they’d killed it. 54% males and 100% females gave puppy shocks to max - there was no way the Ps saw through the cover story here as puppy received real shocks.
Milgrams study - ethics
• informed consent - Ps volunteered for research but weren’t told true aims
• deception - Ps told it was a memory test, were not aware learner was a confederate and didn’t know no real shocks were given
• right to withdraw - Ps encourage by experimenter (authority figure) to continue you MUST go on
• personal distress - all Ps experienced stress as a result of their behaviour both during and after the procedure
• debrief - Milgrams used full debriefing and provided long term support to those who needed it so their self image was not affected
• cost-benefit - Milgrams demonstrated the situation ca induce obedience (not expected at the time)
Milgrma study - Cross cultural evidence
Kilman and Mann (1974) replicated the study in Australia but only 16% of Ps went to 450V.
Mantel (1971) found in 85% did in Germany.
- this shows that different societies follow different hierarchical structures
