topic 5 - obedience to an authority figure Flashcards
what is the defintion of obedience?
obedience refers to following orders from an authority figure
what are examples of authority figures?
parents, teachers, police (anyone with a higher position or holds more power and control than yourself)
what is the definiton of blind obedience?
this refers to complying with orders of an authority figure without questioning their authority. this tends to have a negative outcome
what was the study which investigated blind obedience? what was the background to that study, what was it called etc?
Milgram developed a study based on his thoughts and questions about the Nazi regime in Germany during World War 2 where many soldier committed despicable acts against the Jews, Gypsies and people who did not support the Nazi government. These soldiers were complying with the orders of superior officers without question, no one would argue and this blind obedience was the cause of anti-Semitic attitudes.
What was the background to Milgram’s shock experiment? what were the participants told? what was the procedure? etc
- Participants were told that they were participating in a memory and learning study.
- participants were invited to Yale University and introduced to another participant ‘Mr Wallace” who was a confederate in the study.
- Mr Wallace was place in a chair and electrodes were placed on his arm to give him a ‘shock’
- Each participant was asked to give Mr Wallace an increasingly higher level of electric shock if he failed to learn and remember word pairs that were read out to him
- Mr Wallace was in another room when participants gave the shock so they could not see him but they could hear his protests from being shocked.
- If the participants stopped shocking there was an experimenter in the room with the participant and gave instructions for the participants to continue.
why was a confederate used? What did the confederate have to do?
Since the study was fake, the participants were told it was a study for learning and memory but it was actually for obedience. A confederate was used in order to play a role as a participant as it was unethical to make a participant be strapped to an electric shock machine. They kept the real study a secret and the participants could not know that the electric shocks weren’t actually shocking Mr Wallace or it would ruin the entire study.
what were the different situational factors affecting obedience to an authority figure?
proximity of the victim, proximity of the authority figure, authority figure, legitimacy of the context, personal responsibility, and support of others
elaborate on the factor, ‘proximity of the victim’
Mr Wallace was in a different room, therefore, it was much easier for participants to obey the order to continue with the shocks because the consequences of their actions were not visible. Mr Wallace was not in close proximity with the participant
In a variation of the experiment, Mr Wallace was in the same room as the participant and as a result the rate of obedience fell to 40%. When asked to force Mr Wallaces hand on a shock plate, obedience fell to 30%
elaborate on the factor, ‘proximity of the authority figure’
when the experimenter, Mr Williams was in the same room, 65% of participants gave the highest amount of shock, however, when Mr Williams gave the instructions over telephone, 20.5% of participants have the highest amount of shock
elaborate on the factor ‘authority figure’
Mr Williams gave orders wearing a lab coat, therefore, he looked and gave the impression that he was an official, a professional and legitimate.
When Mr Williams was replaced by an ordinary member of the public, obedience fell to 20%. This demonstrates that the level of authority affects whether or not we obey orders.
elaborate on the factor ‘legitimacy of the context’
the original study was conducted at Yale University which is a prestigious school. The variation of the study took place at a run down office block and obedience fell to 47.5 %. Removing the legitimacy and prestige of the context, lowered the rate of obedience.
elaborate on the factor, ‘personal responsibility’
When the participant was able to work with another person who gave the shock, rather than themselves, obedience rose to 90%. This is because they took less personal responsibility for their actions as they did not have to press the button/ switch themselves so were more inclined to follow orders.
elaborate on the factor, ‘support of others’
in bystander behaviour and conformity research, we tend to be influenced by the behaviour of others. Milgram placed two participant confederates alongside the genuine participant. One of these participants refused to continue at 150 volts and the second refused at 210 volts. This seemed to offer social support to the genuine participant as there was higher disobedience from the confederates. Only 10% of participants continued to 450 volts.
what were the weaknesses of the experiment? what was unethical etc?
deception was done. the shocks were fake as well as the ‘participant’ who they were shocking was a confederate.
right to withdraw was not obeyed. When the participant didn’t shock Mr Wallace straight away they were pushed to continue using words such as, “You have to continue, You have no choice but to continue” and so forth. This led participants to believe that they had no choice and no way out.
what were the other factors that influenced obedience?
elaborate on two examples which you can give.
- participants were told the shocks were painful but not harmful, therefore, participants may have believed that they were not causing long-term damage
- participants were part of an important study and had volunteered to take part. This may have led to a sense of obligation to continue with the shocks for the sake of the study. Participants were also paid to take part so this may have increased the feeling of obligation.
- participants had not taken part in any psychological research before so they may have little to no understanding of the procedures involved and their right tot withdraw from the study. This may have placed them in an unfamiliar situation leading to greater compliance.
- momentum of compliance, this is when we begin something we feel obliged to see it through to the end. Pressing the next shock-generator switch only increased the shock level by a small amount (15 volts). This would have encouraged our momentum of compliance.
