Core Studies - Bocchiaro Flashcards
What are 3 aims of the study
To investigate how people deal with unjust authority
Difference between how people think they will behave and how they actually behave
Personality characteristics of people who obey/disobey or whistle-blow
What is the background of the study
Milgram found people have strong inclination to obey legitimate authority so what happens when the authority is unjust
What is the key theme
Responses to people in authority
What was the research method
It was a laboratory study at VU University in Amsterdam
What was the sample method
Self selected sample
How many people were in the sample
How many were male and female
149 undergraduate students
53 men and 96 women
What was the mean age of the sample
What did they receive for taking part in the research
20.8
They were paid 7 euros or received course credit
Describe the procedure of the study
- Eight pilot tests were conducted to check how believable the study was and to gain ethical approval
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Describe 3 main results
76.5% obeyed (114) only 3.6% thought they’d obey
14.1% disobeyed (21)
9.4% whistle-blowed (14) 64.5% thought they’d be whistle-blowers
What were the differences in terms of the tests done before the experiment in those who obeyed or disobeyed
No significant difference in terms of religion or gender
No significant difference in any ofthe6 personality factors
There was a significant difference in faith
What was faith defined as
A confident belief in a transcendent reality
What are 2 pieces of qualitative data / results
- Participants obeyed due to external forces (entered agencies state) “ I co operated because the Experimenter told me to”
- Disobedient participants felt responsible for their actions
“ I didn’t want to do unethical things”
What are 3 conclusions from the experiment
People behave differently than expected when they are in situations that are unfamiliar / somewhat extreme- so what they believe they’ll do us quite different to what they actually do
Whistle-blowers have more faith than either obedient ot disobedient individuals
People tend to obey authority even if the authority is unjust
What is a strength and weakness of the research method
It was a laboratory study so they had high control of extraneous variables which increases internal validity as you can be sure you’re measuring what you intend to measure for example all the participants were tested in the same rooms and were given the same instructions to follow
Participants could have guessed the true aim of the study which could lead to demand characteristics and therefore reducing validity / the participants volunteered and tested in unfamiliar environment so show diff behaviours to what they would irl so low ecological validity
Sampling bias
No gender bias as there were both men and women included in the sample
Age bias - all undergraduate students they could either be more likely to be disobedient than the general public
All from Amsterdam
