Week 8 - Perspectives on Obedience and Authority

Question 1

What was Asch’s line judgement experiment?

Answer 1

Got a confederate to say the wrong answer

Findings:
- When a person is by themselves and asked to determine which line matched the standard, there was only a 1% error rate but when there was a confederate who gave an incorrect answer, 75% of the subjects conformed at least once in 12 trials
- Negative of this experiment was that it was artificial

Question 2

Describe the milgram experiment

Answer 2

• No one would administer the lethal level of shock.
• 40 male participants aged between 20-50, whose jobs ranged from unskilled to professional.
• Confederate and participant drew straws to determine their roles – learner or teacher, although this was fixed (confederate = learner)
• The learner was strapped to a chair in another room with electrodes.
• After the learner learned a list of word airs given to learn, the teacher tested him by naming a word and asking the learner to recall its pair from a list of four possible choices.
• The learner gave mainly the wrong answers on purpose.
• The teacher administered one electric shock every time the learner made a mistake, increasing the shock each time.
• When the teacher refused to administer a shock, he was given the standard instruction consisting of 4 prods, please continue, the experiment requires you to continue, it is absolutely essential that you continue, you have no other choice but to continue.

Question 3

What does it mean to be autonomous?

Answer 3

It means to be responsible for their own actions

Question 4

What does the agentic state mean?

Answer 4

• Milgram argued that obedient individuals make a transition (called the agentic shift) from being in an autonomous state - in which they are free to act according to their own principles - into an agentic state.
• In the agentic state, people perceive themselves as the instrument for carrying out another person’s wishes. This explains obedience as people no longer see themselves as responsible for their actions.

Question 5

What are binding factors?

Answer 5

Social pressures that act as subtle barriers to disobedience - helped trap participants in the agentic state for example encouraging participants not to take responsibility

Question 6

To ease moral strain, participants coped through?

Answer 6

Strain reducing mechanisms

For example shifting responsibility of their actions onto experimenter, or becoming completely absorbed in the technical aspects of the task

Question 7

What were the ethical concerns with milgram’s study?

Answer 7

• Many participants were severely distressed, despite being debriefed
• Deception, however illusion was necessary to set the stage for the revelation of certain difficult to get all truths
• The significance of the experiment outweighed the stress caused to participants

Question 8

What was Milgram’s small world problem experiment?

Answer 8

To deliver a letter to a recipient whom you don’t know personally. You can forward the letter to people you think are somewhat linked.

6 contacts on average

Question 9

What is altruism?

Answer 9

Disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others

Question 10

What was Milgram’s study on altruism?

Answer 10

• The lost letter technique
• He hid and watched people after dropping a letter
• Would they post it? Read it? Trash it?
• He manipulated the address on the envelope

Question 11

What was Zimbardo’s deindividualization theory?

Answer 11

Being in the presence of others can cause deindividualization

a) Inputs: Feelings of anonymity, diffusion of responsibility, and heightened state of physiological arousal

b) Internal changes: A reduced sense of self-awareness and altered cognition

c) Behavioural outcomes

Question 12

Zimbardo conducted a variation on Milgram’s experiment. What was it?

Answer 12

Group 1 - Wore lab coats and identity concealing hoods

Group 2 - Wore name tags and no hoods

Results: Group 1 shocked for longer and more readily complied

Question 13

What was Zimbardo’s famous prison experiment?

Answer 13

Extensive testing to screen out anyone with psychological problems or criminal backgrounds

Informed consent - Told about the general nature of the study and that they might experience some violations of their personal privacy and civil rights

Placed ads in local papers offering 15 dollars a day

Randomly assigned 24 college age men to the assigned role of a prisoner or guard

Wanted to see if people would conform to their roles

Question 14

What happened to the prisoners during the prison experiment?

Answer 14

Were surprised at their homes on a sunday morning

Each participant was arrested for armed robbery, search, handcuffed and whisked off to the station

Booked, fingerprinted, thrown blindfolded into a holding cell

Transported to the county jail

Question 15

What happened to the guards during the prison experiment?

Answer 15

They worked 8 hour shifts, three guards to a shift

Went on with normal lives when not on duty

Guards were given identical uniforms, nightsticks, and reflective sunglasses designed to give them a menacing and anonymous appearance

Gave each prisoner a 4-digit number, rubber sandals, a nylon stocking to cover their hair at all times, and a chain and padlock around their ankle

Question 16

What behaviours did the guards exhibit?

Answer 16

Used demeaning, degrading language

Frequently used push-ups as punishment for minor offenses

Appeared to enjoy. the sadistic control over prisoners

Placed prisoners in solitary confinement for entire nights

Shot a fire extinguisher at prisoners to quell a rebellion

Made visiting the bathrooms a privilege

Stripped prisoners naked to achieve order following exposed escape plane

Forced prisoners to clean toilets with bare hands

Positioned a confederate to spy on prisoners

The more extreme violence described as degrading and pornographic, took place while the guards thought they were not being filmed

Question 17

What behaviours did the prisoners exhibit?

Answer 17

Quickly became docile, subservient, and conformed to the rules set by the guards

Showed clear and early signs of trauma and depression

Begged to be paroled

Agreed to forfeit all payment in exchange for release

Experienced uncontrollable crying and rage and disorganised thinking

Designed an elaborate escape plan

Planned a rebellion

Assumed an every-man-for-himself attitude. abandoning solidarity

After 6 days, all became completely passive and dehumanised, robolike

Emotional breakdown and stress reactions of 5 of the prisoners were so extreme that they became depressed, were unable to think clearly, and had stopped eating

Question 18

Recent criticisms of Zimbardo’s study were?

Answer 18

• Not all participants conformed to the role
• Many guards refused to assert their authority
• For many participants, then, it appears that being given a role was not sufficient to elicit the type of behaviour for which the study has become well known for
• Such variability requires a more nuanced interpretation of the experiment than is typically provided in media and textbooks

Question 19

What were the practical applications of Zimbardo’s study?

Answer 19

Widespread shock and disgust at abuse and torture of Iraqi prisoners of war by American soldiers

Question 20

What was the study by the BBC?

Answer 20

It was a repeat of Zimbardo’s study

Results:
1) Will the participants accept their roles uncritically?
Guards did not develop a group identity, prisoners were a tighter group

2) Will those given power abuse it?
They did not abuse the power in the way that was expected. Guards disagreed about how to manage their role and reluctant to use power

3) Will those with no power accept their position without complaint
Prisoners rebelled. Prisoners and guards decided to work together as a commune although the prisoners who had led the challenges were less co-operative

Break down led to new, harsher guard system being implemented

Question 21

What was Zimbardo’s research into shyness?

Answer 21

Shyness was a self-imposed prison of silence and social confinement

40% of respondents reported being chronically shy; 5% reported never being shy

Used a multi-method programme employing case studies, in depth interviews and experimental and observational techniques

Developed a very successful intervention programme for shy adults

Question 22

What did Zimbardo’s time research lead to?

Answer 22

Time perspective therapy - How we view time impacts how we want to live