Social Psychology: topic 5 ‘research into obedience by Milgram’

Question 1

What is obedience?

Answer 1

• a type of social influence whereby someone acts in response to a direct order
• this order comes from a perceived figure of authority
• there is also the implication that the person receiving the order is made to respond in a way that they would not otherwise have done (eg change their behaviour)

Question 2

What are the differences between obedience and conformity? [3]

Answer 2

• obedience involves a direct order to change behaviour (explicit), whereas in conformity behaviour changes in order to go along with group norms (implicit)
• obedience usually involved people of different social status’s whereas conformity usually occurs within groups whose members have similar status’s (eg peer groups)
• obedience occurs because those who give the orders have the power to ensure that their instructions are followed, whereas conformity occurs mainly because of the psychological need to be accepted by others in the group

Question 3

What was Milgram’s research into obedience?

Answer 3

• aimed to test the ‘germans are different’ hypothesis (the theory that germans are somehow more likely to obey to harm others)
• 40 american male volunteers invited to yale university (prestigious setting) to take part in a study they thought was about the effects of punishment on learning
• ppts tested individually along with a confederate
• selection of ropes were fixed so that the confederate was always the learner and ppt always the teacher
• ppt instructed by authority figure to punish confederate by flicking switches in electric shock generator for incorrect responses on a memory test of remembering series of word pairs
• ranged from 15V - 450V
• if ppt refused to continue, research would give verbal prods
• found that many of the ppts showed signs of extreme tension (shaking, sweating and stuttering) and many repeatedly argued with the researcher
• found obedience rate of 65% (the number of ppts who continued all the way to 450V)
• this was unexpected as before the study Milgram had asked a range of people to predict how the ppts would behave and they predicted only 1 in 1000 would continue to maximum level
• concluded that germans are not different and in fact we are all capable of blind and ‘destructive’ obedience to unjust orders

Question 4

What does proximity refer to?

Answer 4

• refers to the physical closeness or nearness of an authority figure to the person they are giving an order to
• it is thought that being in close proximity to an authority figure increases the pressure to obey them

Question 5

How did the variable of proximity affect obedience in Milgram’s study?

Answer 5

• in Milgram’s research, when the researcher left the room and gave orders over the telephone, the obedience rate dropped from 65% to 21%

Question 6

What does location refer to?

Answer 6

• refers to the place an order is issued and the status / prestige associated with the location

Question 7

How did the variable of location affect obedience in Milgram’s study?

Answer 7

• Milgram’s original study was conducted in the prestigious setting of Yale university where the obedience rate was 65%
• in Milgram’s variation study where participants were tested in the less prestigious location of a run down office, the obedience rate dropped to 47.5%

Question 8

What does uniform refer to?

Answer 8

• people in positions of authority often have a specific outfit that is a symbol of their authority
• this indicates to the rest of us that they can expect our obedience

Question 9

How did the variable of uniform affect obedience in Milgram’s study?

Answer 9

• in Milgram’s variation study, the experimenter was called away at the start of the procedure and was replaced by an ‘ordinary member of the public’ (a confederate) in everyday clothes rather than a lab coat
• the obedience rates dropped from 65% to 20%