Social Psychology Flashcards
What is meant by the term obedience?
Following a direct order from someone we believe to be an authority figure.
What is a confederate?
Someone in on the experiment.
Social influence is…?
The process by which individuals and groups change each other’s attitudes and behaviours.
What was a common explanation from the German’s when they were asked to explain their killings?
That they were just following orders from their superiors.
Name two of Milgram’s aims.
- To research how far people would go in obeying an instruction if it involved harming another person.
- To see how easily ordinary people could be influenced into committing atrocities (for example the Germans in WW2).
Name 8 facts about Milgram’s procedure.
Volunteer sampling was used It was a lab experience by Investigating “learning” 40 makes Aged between 20-50 Jobs ranged from unskilled to professional From New Haven area Paid $4.50 just for turning up
What happened at the beginning of Milgram’s experiment?
They were introduced to another ppt who was actually a confederate. They drew straws to determine roles (the learner or the teacher) but it was fixed so the confederate was always the learner.
Besides the participant and confederate, who else was at Milgram’s experiment and name one fact about this person.
There was an “experimenter” who was dressed in a gray lab coat (an actor).
Name three facts about how the setting of Milgram’s actual experiment was arranged.
Two rooms were used
In Yale University
With an electric chair for the learner and electric shock generator for the teacher
Outline the basics of what the learners and teachers roles were in the Milgram’s experiment.
Learner is strapped to the chair with a list of words to learn, after the teacher tests him by naming a word and asking the learner to pick its pair from 4 possible choices. And the teacher must administer an electric shock every time the learner makes a mistake and increasing the shock levels each time. The learner gave mainly wrong answers on purpose.
Give two pieces of information about the shock generator in Milgram’s experiment.
There were 30 switches on it marked from 15 volts to 450 volts (danger/severe shock)
When the teacher refused to give the electric shock in Milgram’s experiment he was given the standard instruction, consisting of 4 pride, saying…
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
What percentage of ppts continued to 300 volts in Milgram’s experiment?
100%
What percentage of ppts continued to the highest level of 450 volts in Milgram’s experiment?
65%
The participants showed moral strain, but felt powerless to disobey. What 4 psychological reactions did ppts show in Milgram’s experiment?
Sweating, shaking and groaning. Three participants had a seizure.
How many variations did Milgram do of his study? And what was the difference in all of them?
18 variations.
He altered the IV (situation) to see how it affected the DV (obedience).
What did Milgram believe he would find by altering the IV to see its affect on the DV?
He believed he could show it was the situation people found themselves in (not their natural evil) which made them obedient. So by changing he environment it would change the likelihood that they would obey.
Name 4 things Milgram concluded from his experiment.
Ordinary people are likely to follow orders given by an authority figure even to the extent of killing a human being
Obedience to authority is ingrained in us all from the way we are brought up.
People tend to obey orders from other people if they recognise their authority as morally right or legally based.
There was nothing NATURALLY evil about the Germans.
Why was it a disadvantage that Milgram used a laboratory study for his experiment?
A highly controlled situation would have been set up so ppts would know they are being tested so may act differently so there may have been demand characteristics.
Why might some critics say that the ppts in Milgram’s study had probably guessed the aims and were just going “along with it”?
Because they had been paid and didn’t want to upset the experimenter.
Why is it a problem if ppts didn’t believe they were administering real electric shocks?
Because it wouldn’t be a valid test of how obedient someone would be when asked to inflict harm on someone else. (Lacks credibility)
What percentage of people said after Milgram experiment that they didn’t believe it was real?
75%
What evidence was there to suggest that ppts did actually believe that the shocks they administered were real?
People had seizures/panic attacks.
Why did Milgram’s experiment lack ecological validity?
Because it was such an artificial situation so it wouldn’t be fair to say that people would have behaved the same way in real life. (The nazi soldiers situation)
What is the name of the study that tried to do Milgram’s hypothesis in more natural settings from a field study of 22 nurses in 22 different hospitals?
Hofling at al
What is a field study?
When we conduct our research in a natural environment when we can’t control what happens.
Who was involved in Hofling et al’s experiment?
22 real night nurses
Dr. Smith a confederate
What was the doctor to do in Hofling et al’s study?
Ring up nurses at a hospital on 22 desperate occasions and ask them if they have the drug astrofen.
What was the maximum dosage to be given in Hofling et al’s study?
10mg
How much of the drug in Hofling et Al’s study did Dr Smith tell the nurses to administer to a patient?
20mg
What did doctor smith say he would do later on that day, in Hofling et Al’s study?
He said he would come in and sign the authorisation form later on when he came to visit mr Jones.
What were the three hospital rules the nurses would have broken in Hofling et Al’s study?
They weren’t allowed to accept instructions over the phone
They gave double the maximum dosage stated on the box
They didn’t have the doctors authorisation signature for the medication.
What was the drug actually in Hofling et Al’s study?
It was a harmless sugar pill
How many nurses obeyed the order in Hofling et Al’s study and administered the drug?
21/22
In Hofling study other nurses were asked what they would do in a similar situation (control group), how many nurses said they wouldn’t follow this order?
21/22 nurses said they wouldn’t have complied with this order.
What did Hofling conclude from this study?
That people are very unwilling to question supposed authority even when they may have a good reason.
Why is Hoflings study often used to support Milgram’s findings?
Because the conclusions are the same even away from the laboratory setting and so it has even more ecological validity!
Why is Milgram’s study criticised for lacking population validity and being ANDROCENTRIC? But having said this…
Because he tested Americans and drew conclusions from them onto Germans.
Because Milgram’s original sample was males.
Having said this…Hofling’s experiment in nurses only involved women and cane to the same conclusions suggesting his theory may be equally as valid for women and men.
Why was Milgram able to do his research when it is now considered unethical?
Because there wasn’t a code of ethics like there is today.
What were the three ethical issues that Milgram’s work raised?
Deception
Lack of informed consent
Protection from harm
Why did Milgram’s work raise the issue of deception? (5 examples)
Because he lied about what the experiment was about.
He was in control of who was the teacher/learner
He said the shocks were real
The screams were a recording
The other person was a confederate
Why was there a lack of informed consent in Milgram’s experiment?
Although he asked ben to sign a consent form it wasn’t actually what he wanted them to do
Why weren’t ppts protected from harm in Milgram’s experiment?
He exposed ppts to a lot of stress as three of them had seizures and others were sweating and shaking
What is fully informed consent?
When consent is gained from ppts before the research begins, ppts are given a consent form which tells them the purpose of the study and details of what they will be asked to do so they can decide whether to take part or not.
What is prior general consent?
When ppts are aware the true nature of the research is withheld from them until the end of the experiment.
What is debriefing?
When at the end of the experiment the true aims of the research are revealed and you check the well being of the ppts.
When must parental consent be gained?
When ppts are under the age of 16
What 4 things can be done in a study to protect a ppt from harm?
Be made aware they have the right to withdraw
Personal info should be kept confidential
Debriefing should take place after research
Psychologists must stop research that is causing any unexpected stress
What were the three situational variables Milgram said that put us under pressure to obey?
Proximity
Location
Uniform
What happened to obedience levels when the teacher and learner were in the same room? (Proximity)in Milgram’s variation?
Lower levels of obedience because physical presence and contact leads to greater empathy making the suffering harder to ignore
What happened when the experimenter gave instructions over the phone to the teacher?(Proximity) in Milgram’s variation?
Resulted in reduced obedience, some ppts even pretended to continue the experiment and deceived the experimenter.
What’s the real life application to proximity and obedience in Milgram’s variation?
Is arguably much easier to press a button and send a missile a long distance than it is to shoot someone at close range.
What happened to obedience levels when the location changed from a university laboratory to a run down office block in Milgram’s variation?
Authority figure seemed less credible in the office block which made it harder to say no because we use cues in the environment to decide how legitimate the authority figure is.
What happened to obedience level in Milgram’s variations when he swapped the white coat to everyday clothes?
The white coat added legitimacy.
What study supported Milgram’s idea that we use cues from the environment to judge whether someone has authority or not?
Bickman
Why do we feel pressure to obey an authority figure?
Because we think they have the right to give us an order or they know best or know something that we don’t.
Cross cultural studies show different things.
What percentage of ppts went up to 450 volts in Australia and Germany. And what does this show?
16%- Australia
85% Germany
Showing that there are differences in the way children are brought up to view authority figures.
