Social Psychology Flashcards
What’s the assumption of the social area?
That other people and the surrounding environment are major influences on an individuals behaviour, thoughts processes and emotions
What is the key theme for social psychology?
Responses to people in authority
What are the 2 studies in social psychology?
Classic= milgram
Contemporary= Bocchiaro
What is one strength and weakness of the social area?
S= Useful applications- could identify who would obey/disobey in real world
W = Often has ethical issues
Why did Milgram want to study obedience?
People were shocked at events of WW2 and worried it would happen again
What does dispositional hypothesis mean?
It suggests that a persons obedience depends on their character rather than the situation they’re in
What does the situational hypothesis mean?
Suggests the situation they’re in can influence whether they obey
What is agentic theory?
When we act as the agent of someone in authority as we find it easy to deny personal responsibility for our actions
What was Milgrams aim?
To find out if people would show obedience to an authoritative figure who told them to administer electric shocks on another person
Where was the study conducted?
Yale Uni in America
How were Milgrams participants recruited?
Volunteer as through adverts in local papers and leaflets
How much were participants payed to take part?
$4.50
How many participants did Milgram have? Describe them
40 Ps
All male ages 20-50
Describe the confederate (Experimenter)
High school teacher who wore a lab coat and remained stern throughout
Describe the confederate (Victim)
Accountant who most observers found likeable
What were the participants told the study was about?
The effect of punishment on leading and memory
How many switches did the shock generator have?
30
What increments did the shock generator go up in?
15V
What did the generator range in from volts?
15-450V
What kind of labels accompanied the volts?
Slight shock - XXX
How did Milgrams procedure start?
Participant and a confederate drew roles from a hat which was rigged so p always got role of the teacher
What happened after roles were drawn from hat in milgrams study?
Learner was strapped to an electric chair and participant was told this was to prevent excessive movement. An electrode was attatched to learners wrist with electrode past to avoid blisters and burns
What was the participant given before the experiment took place?
Sample shock of 45V
What did the teacher in Milgrams study have to do?
Teacher went to room next door and was asked to read a series of word pairs.
If the answer was wrong the participant had to tell the learner the correct answer and then give the level of punishment
What happened if the teacher didn’t want to continue in Milgrams study?
Experimenter was trained to give prods which were standardised e.g
The experiment requires that you continue
Give 2 quantitative results of Milgrams study?
100% of p’s went up to 300V
65% p’s went all the way to 450V
Give 2 qualitative results of Milgrams study
14 ps displayed nervous laughter
3 ps had uncontrollable seizures
What can you conclude from Milgrams study?
Found that in general individuals will obey a legitimate authoritative figure eve if asked to go against their ethical and moral beliefs
What research method did Milgram use?
Lab
What was the dependent variable in Milgrams study?
To measure obedience levels of participants through how many volts each p went up to
What are the 3 ways we can respond to authority?
Obey
Disobey
Whistleblow
What was Bocchiaros aim?
They wanted to investigate how p’s would respond to dilemmas which gave them the chance to obey, disobey or whistleblow
How many participants were in the pilot tests?
92
What was the pilot tests?
To test if the study worked properly and whether people would believe the situation
How many participants were in Bocchiaro’s main study?
149 (originally 160 but 11 removed due to suspiciousness)
Where were the participants from in Bocchiaro’s study?
VU University in Amsterdam
How many participants did they use for the predicted results?
138 from VU
How did Bocchiaros study start?
Experimenter introduced themselves and asked for names of fellow students to take part in a study
What did the experimenter say about the study they would be replicating in bocchiaro’s study?
They were replicating a study done in Rome where people were in total isolation unable to see or hear anything
What were P’s first asked to do in Bocchiaros study?
To write a statement to persuade the students earlier indicated to take part in the study. Experimenter then left p’s for 3 minutes
What happened after p’s were asked about writing the statement in Bocchiaros study?
They were taken to another room and told to be enthusiastic in their statement and not mention anything negative.
He then left for 7 minutes
What was in the room with p’s who were writing statements in bocchiaro’s study?
A mail box and a research committee form giving p’s option to report the study.
What did P’s do after the 7 minutes in Bocchiaro’s study?
Taken back to the first room to do a personality test called the HEXACO-PI-R
(measured 6 personality variables)
and the SVO.
How many p’s in the prediction task predicted they would whistleblow?
64.5% which shows when people predict their own behaviour they think they would blow the whistle
Give 2 findings from the actual study in bocchiaro’s experiment
Obeyed = 76.5%
Whistleblowers= 9.4%
We’re the results due to personality in bocchiaro’s study?
Apparently not as no significant differences were found.
The only difference found was that whistleblowers had more faith than other p’s
What can you conclude about Bocchiaro’s study?
What we think we’ll do and what we actually do are different.
People obey authority
What research method did Bocchiaro use?
Lab
What data did Bocchiaro collect?
Quantitative (percentages) and Qualitative (comments made by p’s in debrief)
Give 3 similarities between Bocchiaro and Milgram’s studies
Volunteer Sampling
Lab experiment
Independent measures
Give 3 differences between Milgram and Bocchiaro’s study?
Milgram= obedience bocchiaro = personality
Milgram= All male Bocchiaro = male and female
Milgram= low E.V Bocchiaro= fairly high E.V
