Obedience To Authority- Milgram Flashcards
(11 cards)
What is the background to Milgram’s study
Disagreed that ordinary Germans obeyed during the holocaust because they have a more obedient personality and wanted to readership why they did obey
What was the procedure of Milgrams study
Role of teacher and learner “randomly allocated” and participants was always teacher. Participant and confederate explained the study and participant given low level electric shock. learner strapped into chair with electrotrode and participant taken to opposite room with device showing the switches from 15 to 450V. Teacher had to give learner quaestions and electric shock them if they got them wrong. This escalates by 15V each time. Participant could hear learner’s unhappy reactions and then they went silent at 300v. Throughout the experimenter would continue a series of unscripted prompts and took responsibility for the experiement if the participant resisted.
Results of milgrams study
65% of participants continued to 450 volts and they showed signs of stress
What is the agentic state
A mental state where Individuals see themselves as act as agents for the authority figure. They don’t feel responsible or guilty
What’s the opposite state to the agentic state
The autonomous state
What is the agentic shift
The movement from autonous state to agentic state in the presence of an authors figure
What situational variables affect obedience
Proximity, uniform, location
How did milgram investigate proximity
Milgram used a telephone for the experimenter to give instructions and this caused obedience rates to drop to 20%. This is because participants are more likely to stay in the autonomous state
How did Milgram investigate uniform
Milgram completed the study using an experimenter wearing regular clothes. This caused a drop in obedience to 20%.
How did Milgram investigate location
Milgram completed the experiment in a run down office block and obedience dropped to 47.5%
A03 for milgram
Standardised procedures allows for replications. Blass found results to be reliable across 8 additional countries
Lack ecological validity- orne and Holland argue that participants had figured out they are not shocking participants and are showing demand characteristics
Unethical- deception and psychological harm- cost benefit analysis shows the temporary harm to be justified
Hofling 21/22 nurses gave harmful drug showing agentic state
Sheridan and king- electric shocks to puppy. 100% female participants went to maximum and 54% male went to maximum
Bickman- field experiment where an individual dressed as guard, milkman and no uniform asked civilians to pay parking meter. For guard uniform obedience rate was 89%. Showing how uniforms are visible symbols of authority
