Social: Obedience Flashcards
What is obedience?
A form of social influence where behaviour changes as a result of an order from a person who is a position of authority over us.
What did Milgram study about obedience in 1963?
whether normal Americans would obey an unjust order from an authority figure to inflict pain on another person. What factors led them to obey. (Lab experiment)
IV: voltage (e.g. 15,30,45).
DV: if ptps obeyed (shocked the person)
What was Milgrams procedure?
40 male volunteers paid were deceived into thinking they were giving electric shocks
Ptps were told it was a role of punishment in learning study. The genuine ptp always had the teacher role, meaning the confederate was the learner who was being strapped to a chair and had to memorize pairs of words, and when tested, had to indicate choice using lights. The teacher had to give a shock every wrong answer, the teacher sat infront of a shock generator board with 30 levers. Volts started at 15 and rose to 450 (in 15’s). If teacher hesitated then researcher would encourage to continue. No shocks were actually administered and the study continued intill teacher reached 450 volts 4 times or refused to continue. Ptp then debriefed.
What were the findings of milgrams study?
all participants went to at least 300 volts. 65% went to 450 volts.
Most ptps found it very stressful and wanted to stop, with some showing signs of extreme anxiety. Although dissented verbally, they were prodded to keep going.
What are the conclusions from milgrams results?
under certain circumstances, most people will obey orders that go against their conscience.
Crimes, such as the torture or murder of people, are caused by situational factors not the underlying characteristics of those who carry out evil acts.
What’s the argument for milgram having low internal validity?
- Orne says: The PPs were not really fooled. They were just playing along with the demand characteristics of the situation.
—> however, If the PPs weren’t really fooled, why did they get so stressed? This would suggest that they thought the shocks were real.
Orne: The stress came from having to play along with the situation. They still didn’t believe they were hurting confeds really.
—> If they didn’t believe that confeds were really getting hurt, why did they ‘cheat’ when the experimenter was absent?
What’s the argument for low ecological validity in Milgrams study?
- Milgram’s study involved a bizarre task and an artificial situation. People don’t really behave that way in real life.
—> But Hofling et al found that nurses would obey an order to hurt a patient. This shows that authority can make people do bad things - But the nurses were only doing their job. They thought it was for the patient’s benefit, and most didn’t notice the incorrect dosage
—> but Bickman (1975) showed that just wearing a uniform increases people’s obedience. That’s what Milgram showed. REAL LIFE Examples too
Whats the argument for low population validity for Milgrams study?
- only used men in his research. That means that we cannot generalise his results to women. We cannot wholly trust his results.
—> But Milgram did a later study with female ptps and found that the rate of obedience was 65% - exactly the same as in male samples. - Milgram only used 40 Fs – a small sample. Kilham & Mann (1974) found only 16% of Fs obeyed – less than the Ms in their study (40%)
—> That’s a freak finding. The experiment has been done many times, and usually M & F don’t differ, regardless of the culture of the PPs.
What’s some general evaluation of Milgrams study?
+ It had good external validity
+ Replications have supported his findings
- It lacked internal validity
- Ethical issues
What was the aims of Bickmans (1974) study?
- Aimed to see if the appearance of the person will have an effect on obedience
- Carried out a field experiment
- Used independent groups
- Ptps were 153 pedestrians in New York
What was Bickmans procedure?
- Experimenters dressed as either a civilian (in a sports coat and tie), a milkman or a guards uniform (which looked like a police officer)
- The experimenter then gave one of the following orders to the pedestrian
—> Picking up the litter – he pointed at a bag lying on the ground and said ‘Pick up this bag for me’
—> Nodded in the direction of a man and said ‘This man is over parked at the meter but doesn’t have any change – give him a dime’.
—> When the pedestrian was waiting for a bus he exclaimed ‘Don’t you know that you have to stand on the other side of the pole? This sign says “no standing”’ .
What were Bickmans findings?
People are nearly 3x more likely to obey an order given by an experimenter dressed in a guard uniform.
- 89% obeyed the guard
- 57% obeyed the milkman
- 33% obeyed the civillian
What is some evaluation of Bickmans study?
- Lacked control of extraneous variables – because it was a field experiment street variables could have affected the results such as noise, crowding, the weather etc.
- The opportunity sample could have been an issue as people might have been in a hurry, depressed or absent minded. So they may not be representative of all people.
- Unethical – it was not possible to gain consent from the ptps and were not debriefed after. could cause them distress or embarrassment.
- All the experimenters were male and this could have affected the results as we don’t know if they would behave the same for a woman.
- carried out in 1 city/country so it is culturally biased - not generalisable beyond this.
What is Agency theory for explaining obedience?
sees people as socialised to obey authority to keep stability in society.
- Sees obedience as occurring in hierarchical social systems, where individuals act as agents for those of higher social ranks.
- E.g. – Adolf Eichmann, responsible for Nazi exterminations of millions of people, said ‘I was only following orders’ – he saw himself as an agent of higher authority.
What is Agentic State in Agency theory for explaining obedience?
where an individual obeys an authority figure who is seen as responsible for the consequences of the action.
- Individuals thus become deindividuated (lose their individuality) and obey orders that go against their moral code.
- Milgrams study supports this as Ptp all asked ‘who is responsible for this man’ and the experimenter said- ‘I am responsible’ meaning they then gave more shocks
