Situational variables affecting obedience Flashcards
What is obedience to authority?
Type of social influence whereby someone acts in response to a direct order from a figure with perceived authority.
Who studied situational variables affecting obedience?
Milgram.
Outline Milgram’s procedure.
Participant given role of teacher - confederate learner through ‘random’ allocation. Teacher asked questions, delivered electric shocks when wrong/no answer. Shock level increased by 15V each time up to 450V with 330V marked as lethal. Shocks not real, acted by confederate, falsely proven to be real at start of experiment. Participant assessed on how far they would go - experimenter prompted them to continue when asking to stop.
What were Milgram’s findings?
All participants went to 300V, 65% went to 450V. 12.5% stopped at 300V.
What were the 3 other conditions that Milgram used to assess the factors affecting obedience?
Proximity, location and the power of uniform.
How did Milgram investigate proximity and what did he find?
Teacher and learner in same room - 40%.
Teacher had to force learner’s hand onto electric plate - 30%.
Experimenter gave instructions over phone - 21%.
How did Milgram investigate location and what did he find?
Run-down office with no association with Yale (rather than prestigious, trustworthy Yale University) - 48%.
How did Milgram investigate the power of uniform and what did he find?
Experimenter wore a lab coat - obedience increased. Normal clothes - decreased.
(AO3) What is a clear issue with Milgram using a lab study?
Lack of mundane realism. Very unrealistic tasks, never seen in real life. May explain obedience in extreme scenarios, but not in day-to-day obedient scenarios. Lacks external validity.
(AO3) Discuss ethical issues with Milgram’s study.
Breaches guidelines of deception, informed consent and potentially protection from psychological harm. Cost-benefit analysis may be needed. Thorough, careful debrief post-study. Majority happy they took part.
(AO3) Explain the application here to real life, and why the proximity factor may be inaccurate.
May explain behaviour of Nazi-German police officers in Poland. Atrocities committed against Jews (mass killings). Despite close proximity to victims, still took place. Shows ‘obedience’ may just be an excuse to mask antisemitism.
(AO3) Describe additional research evidence for the power of uniform.
Bushman. Female researcher dressed as policewoman, businesswoman or beggar asked participant to give parking money to male confederate. Uniform - 72%, business - 48%, beggar 52%. Obeyed uniform due to authority.
