Social Psychology Flashcards
Define obedience
Following direct orders from an authority figure
Define conforming
Acting in a certain way to match the behaviour of the majority.
Define compliance
Going along with what someone says while not necessarily agreeing with it
Define internalising
Obeying with agreement
What were the aims of Milgram’s original study? (1963)
Investigate to what extent people would obey an authoritative figure if it involved harming another person.
Describe the participants of Milgram’s original study
- 40 white males aged 20-50
- A range of jobs from businessmen to factory workers
- Volunteer sampling; pps responded to an advertisement and were payed $4.50 an hour
Describe the procedure of Milgram’s original experiment
- Participants 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 laboratory coat, played by an actor (not Milgram)
- Two rooms in the Yale Interaction Laboratory were used – one for the learner (with electrodes attached) and another for the teacher and experimenter with an electric shock generator.
- The learner was strapped to a chair with electrodes. After he has learned the list of word pairs the teacher tests him by naming a word
- 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).
Describe the results of Milgram’s study
- 65% of participants went up to the maximum of 450 volts
- All participants went up to 300 volts
What reasons did the participants give for administering the shocks in Milgram’s original study? (3)
- The authority figure seemed trustworthy
- The cause was good (scientific research)
- They believed that they wouldn’t be responsible if anything went wrong
Strength of Milgram’s original experiment (reliability)
- Standardised procedures: confederates followed a script
- Controlled variables: the confederates were same
Strength of Milgram’s original experiment (application)
- World War 2: understanding the Adolf Eichmann trial
- Vietnam War - soldiers were told to kill Viet Cong people but blindly followed orders and killed 800 innocent people
This can be explained by this study as the soldiers obeyed the authority figure, the same as the 65% of ppts that continued to 450v in Milgram’s study.
Weakness of Milgram’s original experiment (generalisability)
- Andocentric and Ethnocentric = not reflective of obedience in females of different collectivist cultures.
- Voluntary sampling method
Weakness of Milgram’s original experiment (validity)
- Low ecological validity = lab setting
- Low task validity = unusual tasks
Weakness of Milgram’s original experiment (ethics)
- 14 people experienced nervous laughter
- 3 participants experiences seizures
- Milgram didn’t protect his participants from harm
Conclusions of Milgram’s original study:
Social influence is strong and people obey orders from authority figures even if it causes distress
What was the aim of variation 7 of Milgram’s study?
Investigate whether proximity of the experimenter in relation to the pps would affect levels of obedience (over the telephone)
What were the results of variation 7 of Milgram’s study?
22.5% obeyed to 450 volts
What was the conclusion of variation 7 of Milgram’s study?
- The physical presence of an authority figure was an important influence.
- Obedience to destructive commands is somewhat dependant on the proximity of the authority figure
What was the aim of variation 10 of Milgram’s original study?
To see if the setting impacted obedience (run-down office block), compared to Yale university
What were the results of variation 10 of Milgram’s study?
48% obeyed to 450 volts
What was the conclusion of variation 10 of Milgram’s study?
The setting can have a slight influence on obedience to authority, but context may play a more important part.
What was the aim of variation 13 of Milgram’s study?
To investigate how obedience would be affected if an ordinary man gave the orders.
How were the roles picked for variation 13 of Milgram’s study?
- Drew slips of paper
- Rigged so that pps were the teachers and confederates got the role of 1 learner and 1 accomplice
What were the results of variation 13 of Milgram’s study?
20% obeyed to 450 volts
What were the conclusions of variation 13 of Milgram’s study?
That visible authority is an important influence on obedience.
What is the autonomous state?
When an an individual acts according to his own free will and follows his conscience. He takes responsibility for his own actions.
What is the agentic state?
When we give up our free will in order to follow the orders of an authority figure. We become an ‘agent’ of the authority figure and feel like they take responsibility for our actions.
Define moral strain
Negative feelings we experience when pressured to do something that goes against our values and moral compass.
What happens when we experience moral strain?
We use defence mechanisms like denial and repression in order to avoid distress.
Evaluate the strengths of Milgram’s Agency Theory
Supported by Hofling’s nurses:
21/22 nurses obeyed the instructions of a doctor, over the telephone, to administer a lethal dose of medication to patients even when they knew it could do serious harm.
Evaluate the credibility of Milgram’s Agency Theory
- Strength: Milgram carried out empirical research to support his theory, which was repeated by Burger in 2009.
- Can be falsified using scientific evidence.
Evaluate other explanations of Milgram’s Agency Theory
Weakness:
- Does not explain dispositional factors like gender or personality type
- Elms and Milgram’s showed that the fully obedient participants scored higher on the F-scale, showing greater authoritative personality traits
Evaluate debates surrounding Milgram’s Agency Theory
Weakness
- Ethical issues: remove’s the person’s responsibility for their actions which can be used as an excuse when committing a crime.
- Socially sensitive research: applied to social issues like the ethnic cleansing of minority groups
Evaluate the application of Milgram’s Agency Theory
Strength
- Can be applied to a variety of military struggles
- The military uses dehumanising language to refer to the enemy, reducing moral strain and therefore ensuring obedience
What were the aims of Burger’s 2009 replication of Milgram’s study?
To investigate obedience by partial replication of Milgram’s study almost 50 years later to examine whether situational factors affect obedience to an authoritative figure.
Describe the participants of Burger’s 2009 replication of Milgram’s study
29 males
41 females
Range of backgrounds
Random sampling ($50 for participating)
Santa Clara University
Describe the screening of participants for Burger’s 2009 replication of Milgram’s study
Volunteers who were familiar with Milgram’s work were excluded
Remaining participants were screened based on mental health and drug dependency
Describe the procedure of Burger’s 2009 replication of Milgram’s study
- The same as Milgram but the experiment only went up to 150 V
- 15 V real shock instead of Milgram’s 45 V shock
- Pps were randomly assigned to 2 groups
Describe the standardised procedures of Burger’s 2009 replication of Milgram’s study
- Same procedure and verbal prods as Milgram’s study
- Pre-recorded voice feedback grunts after 75 V for standardisation
Describe the baseline condition of Burger’s 2009 replication of Milgram’s study
The learner revealed a ‘heart condition’ at the beginning of the experiment, and at 150 V they shout: “get me out of here my heart is starting to bother me now!”
What was the modelled refusal condition in Burger’s 2009 replication of Milgram’s study?
The confederate ‘Teacher 1’ is used to model refusal, stating “I don’t know about this”, at 90 V and stopping the experiment.
‘Teacher 2’ is the real participant who was then asked to continue the experiment
What were the results of Burger’s 2009 replication of Milgram’s study?
Base condition: 70% continued to 150 V
Model refusal condition: 63.3% continued to 150 V
What were the conclusions of Burger’s 2009 replication of Milgram’s study?
- The same conclusion at Milgram, 46 years later
- Obedience rates are still similar with no statistical difference concluded
- No gender, age, race, education or personality difference between obedience rates
What is the biggest criticism of Burger’s replication of Milgram?
- Burger makes the assumption that those who stopped at 150 V would have gone to the full 450 V.
- He cannot be certain = lower internal validity
- Cause and effect cannot be established
Evaluate the generalisability of Burger’s replication study
STRENGTH
+ More representative sample (29 males, 41 female)
+ Generalised to the wider population
Evaluate the reliability of Burger’s replication study
STRENGTH
+ Standardised procedures
+ Same verbal prods
+ Pre-recorded voice feedback at 75 V for standardisation
Evaluate the applications of Burger’s replication
+ Burger found evidence for Milgram’s theory which says that people will obey an authority figure even when they’re asked to harm someone else
+ This can be applied to war crimes
+ WW2: soldiers in the agentic state took order from an authority figure (Hitler) even when they were asked to harm millions of innocent people.
Evaluate the validity of Burger’s replication study
WEAKNESS
- Burger makes the assumption that pps who went to 150V would go to 450V
- Cause and effect cannot be established, therefore internal validity is low
Evaluate the ethics of Burger’s replication study
+ 15V real shock instead of 45V
+ Pps screened for anxiety and depression using the Beck scale
- Verbal prods may cause stress
- Deception to reduce demand characteristics
Who proposed the Social Impact Theory?
Bibb Latané
Outline Latané’s Social Impact Theory
SIT uses a mathematical equation to predict the level of social impact created by specific social situations.
Every person is potentially a “source” or a “target” of social influence – sometimes both at once.
According to Social Impact Theory, what is a target?
The people who are impacted
According to Social Impact Theory, what is a source?
The person who influences others
What 3 factors make up social forces?
- Strength
- Immediacy
- Number
Outline ‘strength’ in relation to Social Impact Theory
How much power you believe the person influencing you has
Outline ‘immediacy’ in relation to Social Impact Theory
How recent the influence is and how close to you