Obediance

Question 1

What is obedience to authority?

Answer 1

A type of social influence where somebody acts in response to a DIRECT ORDER from an authority figure.

Question 2

What is agentic shift?

Answer 2

It is where an individual may shift from an autonomous state ( taking responsibility for their own actions) to an agentic level ( they act as agent for another and not take their own initiative). The responsibility for their own actions is given to the authority figure.

Question 3

Describe Hoffling’s study.

Answer 3

He tested nurses at a hospital, a Dr. gave instructions over the phone to give drugs to a patient. The order contravened hospital regulations not to take instructions over the phone from an unknown doctor and the dosage would have resulted in an overdose! 21 out of 22 nurses complied.

Question 4

Describe Milgram’s study.

Answer 4

• 40 males responded to ad in paper to take part in a memory study and be paid $4.50.
• At Yale university they were greeted by a ‘researcher’, given status with a lab coat and told it was to test the role of punishment on learning. They were introduced to another.
• The researcher ‘fixed’ the draw for roles so that the participant was always the teacher and the confederate was the learner in the word pair test.
• The participant was told that they must give increasingly strong electric shocks to the learner each time that they got a question wrong.
• To add credibility, the participant saw ‘Mr. Wallace’ attached to the ‘shock generator’ in the next room and was given a sample shock.
• He gave mainly wrong answers and received shocks in silence. At 300 volts he pounded on the wall and then gave no response to the next question. From then on he said nothing.
• If the teacher asked to stop, the experimenter used a set of prompts. e.g. ‘You have no other choice, you must go on’
• All participants went to 300 volts, 65% went to the maximum of 450 volts – beyond what was marked ‘Danger: severe shock’

•The conclusion was that situational factors contributed to the individuals obedience to authority and suspension of their capacity to make individual decisions

Question 5

name the advantages of Hoffling’s study?

Answer 5

Field experiment: Validity is likely to increase as the experiment takes place in the natural environment.
• Demand characteristics are reduced as there is usually limited contact with the researcher.

debrief, not a real drug so no one could have been harmed.

Question 6

name the advantages of Milgram’s study?

Answer 6

Laboratory experiment: As all variables have been controlled the results are thought to be reliable.
• It can be easily checked for reliability as others can replicate the procedure.
• Conclusions can be drawn about cause and effect relationships.
• The pace of research can be forced – you can simulate the conditions you want to investigate.

Question 7

name the disadvantages of Hoffling’s study?

Answer 7

Field experiment: As only the iv is manipulated control is reduced and the results become less reliable through likelihood of extraneous variables and sources of bias. E.g. the sample.

only done on women, small sample size 22 women, one type of job in one location. so results can’t be generalized.

Question 8

name the disadvantages of Milgram’s study?

Answer 8

laboratory experiment: As events do not occur in the natural environment the research may have low validity and it is not possible to generalise from the laboratory situation to naturally occurring events.
• The laboratory situation means more likelihood of demand characteristics
• The more variables and people are manipulated the more likelihood of ethical dilemmas.

ethical issues: couldn't withdraw, weren't given informed consent and were deceived. 
only men (40 of them), small sample size so can't generalize.  

volunteer sample; not likely to be representative – are volunteers ‘different’, more cooperative etc? can be more costly.