SOCIAL - OBEDIENCE Flashcards
What does obedience mean?
Obedience means to obey a direct order from an authority figure, even when obeying means going against one’s own moral code: an example is a soldier obeying orders.
Obedience is a form of social influence.
Yielding to these demands is considered to be obedience,
Rejecting the demands is known as dissent.
Dissent can produce relief from moral strain once an individual has removed themselves from the situation.
MILGRAM 1963 BASIC STUDY
What was the aim of this study?
Milgram aimed to test the idea that ‘Germans were different’ when they carried out orders to persecute Jews and others during the Second World War. He asked how far ‘ordinary people’ would go if ordered to administer what they bought were electric socks to someone else.
Explain the social approach as a whole.
The social approach is about people, both as individuals and as part of a group or groups, and how people live together comfortably - and when they do not.
MILGRAM 1963 BASIC STUDY
What was the procedure of this study?
Volunteers were recruited for a controlled experiment investigating “learning” (re: ethics: deception).
Participants were 40 males, aged between 20 and 50, whose jobs ranged from unskilled to professional, from the New Haven area. They were paid $4.50 for just turning up.
At the beginning of the experiment, they were introduced to another participant, who was a confederate of the experimenter (Milgram).
They drew straws to determine their roles – learner or teacher – although this was fixed and the confederate was always the learner. There was also an “experimenter” dressed in a gray lab coat, played by an actor (not Milgram).
Two rooms in the Yale Interaction Laboratory were used - one for the learner (with an electric chair) and another for the teacher and experimenter with an electric shock generator.
The “learner” (Mr. Wallace) was strapped to a chair with electrodes. After he has learned a list of word pairs given him to learn, the “teacher” tests him by naming a word and asking the learner to recall its partner/pair from a list of four possible choices.
The teacher is told to administer an electric shock every time the learner makes a mistake, increasing the level of shock each time. There were 30 switches on the shock generator marked from 15 volts (slight shock) to 450 (danger – severe shock).
The learner gave mainly wrong answers (on purpose), and for each of these, the teacher gave him an electric shock. When the teacher refused to administer a shock, the experimenter was to give a series of orders/prods to ensure they continued.
There were four prods and if one was not obeyed, then the experimenter (Mr. Williams) read out the next prod, and so on.
Prod 1: Please continue.
Prod 2: The experiment requires you to continue.
Prod 3: It is absolutely essential that you continue.
Prod 4: You have no other choice but to continue.
MILGRAM 1963 BASIC STUDY
Name 5 issues (criticisms) of this study, why is this a problem?
(see page 8 in the student guide)
MILGRAM 1963 BASIC STUDY
What were the results of this experiment?
100% - 300V
65% - 450V
Many Ppt were very distressed.
One had a full-blown seizure.
MILGRAM 1963 BASIC STUDY
What were the conclusions of this study?
Milgram concluded that an ordinary person would obey orders from an authority to an extreme extent even when they were very uncomfortable about doing so.
MILGRAM 1963 BASIC STUDY
GRAVE this study.
Some strengths and weaknesses are on page 8 and 9 in the student guide.
Explain each reason, why does this affect the validity etc?
How many variation studies did Milgram carry out?
19
only need to know 7, 10 and 13
MILGRAM EXPERIMENT 7 VARIATION
What was the variation?
What were the results?
What was the conclusion?
EXPERIMENTER ABSENT
The experimenter is out of sight and giving orders over the telephone.
22.5% obeyed to the full voltage.
Concluded that if someone wants to be obeyed, they are better being face-to-face than giving orders over the shine or from a distance.
MILGRAM EXPERIMENT 7 VARIATION
Give two strengths and two weaknesses of this study.
(see page 9 in the student guide)
MILGRAM EXPERIMENT 10 VARIATION
What was the variation?
What were the results?
What was the conclusion?
INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT
Set up the study in a run-down office block.
47.5% were fully obedient
Setting did not have as much impact as other factors.
MILGRAM EXPERIMENT 10 VARIATION
Give two strengths and two weaknesses of this study.
(see page 10 in the student guide)
MILGRAM EXPERIMENT 13 VARIATION
What was the variation?
What were the results?
What was the conclusion?
ORDINARY MAN ORDERS
When the experimenter leaves the room, another person who was in the room takes over - in charge but without the grey coat. The other person suggests going up one switch at a time and so is the one giving the orders.
20% were fully obedient.
The uniform or the role of the person giving orders lead to high obedience.
MILGRAM EXPERIMENT 13 VARIATION
Give two strengths and two weaknesses of this study.
(see page 10 in the student guide)
Briefly name 7 other variations of Milgram’s study other than 7, 10 + 13. (can use these in evaluation points)
(see page 10 in the student guide)
What are 12 ethical issues arising from obedience studies?
for use in evaluation and discussion
(see page 11 in the student guide)
