Bocchiaro

Question 1

Assumptions

Answer 1

Behaviour changes due to social context/environment/setting.

People’s thoughts, feelings and behaviours are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of others.

Question 2

Method

Answer 2

Controlled observation conducted in laboratory.
No IV.
DV was the P disobeying, obeying or whistle blowing. The HEXACO-PI-R-TGIS test was used in this study.

Question 3

Strength and Weakness

Answer 3

+: EVs can be controlled. Accurate response to authority and levels of obedience.
-: The social situation is limited so it doesn’t completely represent the reality of a complex social setting. Artificial setting may cause Ps to display demand characteristics.

Question 4

Procedure

Answer 4

• 138 students were asked ‘what would you do?’ and ‘what would the average student do?’.
• 8 pilot tests took place. Standardise the experimenter’s behaviour and ensure it was ethically sound.
• Ps signed consent forms and to volunteer friends’ names.
• Given a cover story. Experimenter left the room for 3 minutes.
• Moved to a second room, told not to mention negative effects of a study they had time to whistle blow by filling a form and putting it in a mailbox while the experimenter left the room.
• They were then administered a personality test and fully debriefed.

Question 5

Data

Answer 5

Data gathered was quantitive. It was in the form of %s of Ps displaying obedience, disobedience and whistle blowing behaviour. Strength because they could compare rates.

Question 6

Ethics broken

Answer 6

• Informed consent: Ps believed they were nominating friends to take part in an unethical study
• Protection of Ps: Some were mentally harmed or distressed.

Question 7

Guidelines adhered to and justifications

Answer 7

Informed consent-demand characteristics would have been demonstrated. Debriefed-returned to starting state. They had the right to withdraw.

Question 8

Practical applications

Answer 8

To encourage whistle-blowing in certain organisations e.g. NHS. To show whistle-blowing is very difficult and organisations this should encourage it by removing the possibility of a person losing their job as a result.

Question 9

Population validity

Answer 9

Good sized volunteer sample. samples are biased, university samples are more likely to be based in terms of age, experience and cognitive ability.

Question 10

Internal validity

Answer 10

11 were removed as they were suspicious and would lead to demand characteristics, no order effects and few situational variables.

Question 11

Ecological validity

Answer 11

Experimental realism is high and mundane realism was moderate.

Question 12

Reliability

Answer 12

Controls are likely to mean there was a similar experience across the Ps and possible to replicate.

Question 13

Aim

Answer 13

To investigate the rates of obedience, disobedience and whistle-blowing in a situation where no physical violence was involved but the instructions are clearly ethically wrong.

Question 14

Controls

Answer 14

Cover story, same authority figure, timings, personality tests and questions on religion were all the same.

Question 15

Results

Answer 15

3.6% of Ps believed they would obey, 64.5 believed they would blow the whistle. 31.9% believed they would disobey. In relation to the students estimates 18.8% obey, 43.9% disobey and 37% whistle blew. In fact, 76.5% obeyed, 14.1% disobeyed and only 9.4% whistle blew. 6% of the whistleblowers wrote message.

Question 16

Key theme

Answer 16

Responses to people in authority.

Question 17

Sample

Answer 17

Volunteer sample. In the main same there were 149 undergraduates (96 women + 53 men). The mean age was 20.8 years. 11 Ps removed because they didn’t believe it.

Question 18

Conclusions

Answer 18

People overestimate the tendency to blow the whistle and underestimate obedience little or no evidence to suggest dispositional factors affect obedience or whistle-blowing.

Question 19

Background summary

Answer 19

There were unanswered questions after milligram’s study, there was no information about disobedience.

Question 20

Ethnocentrism

Answer 20

Single western country but attempts have been made to look at religion in cultures as it may affect the results

Question 21

Usefulness

Answer 21

The practical applications and controls make the study very useful. It was ecologically valid, reliable and ethnocentrism.

Question 22

First debate

Answer 22

Individual/situational: Milgram explored situational, Bocchairo investigated individual explanations. Situational was most dominant as 76.5% obeyed. Depth of religion affected whistle-blowing.

Question 23

Second debate

Answer 23

Freewill/determinism: Majority of Ps obeyed and this was determined by the authority figure’s request.

Question 24

Link to area

Answer 24

A: Behaviour changes due to social context
L: Situational factors were important i.e. authority figure
E: 76.5% obeyed.

A: Behaviour is influenced by imagined, actual or implied
L: Experimenter had clip board and white lab coat
E: Only 9.4% whistle blew

Question 25

Link to key theme

Answer 25

Milligram used lab to test destructive obedience showing people are surprisingly likely to obey orders to do immoral acts. Bocchiaro also found they're very unlikely to whistle blow

Question 26

Changing understanding

Answer 26

Bocchiaro confirmed people are surprisingly likely to obey unethical instructions. He added that they're very unlikely to whistle blow.