Social Psychology Flashcards
(140 cards)
Define obedience
Following direct orders from an authority figure
Define conforming
Acting in a certain way to match the behaviour of the majority.
Define compliance
Going along with what someone says while not necessarily agreeing with it
Define internalising
Obeying with agreement
What were the aims of Milgram’s original study? (1963)
Investigate to what extent people would obey an authoritative figure if it involved harming another person.
Describe the participants of Milgram’s original study
- 40 white males aged 20-50
- A range of jobs from businessmen to factory workers
- Volunteer sampling; pps responded to an advertisement and were payed $4.50 an hour
Describe the procedure of Milgram’s original experiment
- Participants drew straws to determine their roles – learner or teacher – although this was fixed and the confederate was always the learner
- There was also an ‘experimenter’ dressed in a laboratory coat, played by an actor (not Milgram)
- Two rooms in the Yale Interaction Laboratory were used – one for the learner (with electrodes attached) and another for the teacher and experimenter with an electric shock generator.
- The learner was strapped to a chair with electrodes. After he has learned the list of word pairs the teacher tests him by naming a word
- The teacher is told to administer an electric shock every time the learner makes a mistake, increasing the level of shock each time. There were 30 switches on the shock generator marked from 15 volts (slight shock) to 450 (danger – severe shock).
Describe the results of Milgram’s study
- 65% of participants went up to the maximum of 450 volts
- All participants went up to 300 volts
What reasons did the participants give for administering the shocks in Milgram’s original study? (3)
- The authority figure seemed trustworthy
- The cause was good (scientific research)
- They believed that they wouldn’t be responsible if anything went wrong
Strength of Milgram’s original experiment (reliability)
- Standardised procedures: confederates followed a script
- Controlled variables: the confederates were same
Strength of Milgram’s original experiment (application)
- World War 2: understanding the Adolf Eichmann trial
- Vietnam War - soldiers were told to kill Viet Cong people but blindly followed orders and killed 800 innocent people
This can be explained by this study as the soldiers obeyed the authority figure, the same as the 65% of ppts that continued to 450v in Milgram’s study.
Weakness of Milgram’s original experiment (generalisability)
- Andocentric and Ethnocentric = not reflective of obedience in females of different collectivist cultures.
- Voluntary sampling method
Weakness of Milgram’s original experiment (validity)
- Low ecological validity = lab setting
- Low task validity = unusual tasks
Weakness of Milgram’s original experiment (ethics)
- 14 people experienced nervous laughter
- 3 participants experiences seizures
- Milgram didn’t protect his participants from harm
Conclusions of Milgram’s original study:
Social influence is strong and people obey orders from authority figures even if it causes distress
What was the aim of variation 7 of Milgram’s study?
Investigate whether proximity of the experimenter in relation to the pps would affect levels of obedience (over the telephone)
What were the results of variation 7 of Milgram’s study?
22.5% obeyed to 450 volts
What was the conclusion of variation 7 of Milgram’s study?
- The physical presence of an authority figure was an important influence.
- Obedience to destructive commands is somewhat dependant on the proximity of the authority figure
What was the aim of variation 10 of Milgram’s original study?
To see if the setting impacted obedience (run-down office block), compared to Yale university
What were the results of variation 10 of Milgram’s study?
48% obeyed to 450 volts
What was the conclusion of variation 10 of Milgram’s study?
The setting can have a slight influence on obedience to authority, but context may play a more important part.
What was the aim of variation 13 of Milgram’s study?
To investigate how obedience would be affected if an ordinary man gave the orders.
How were the roles picked for variation 13 of Milgram’s study?
- Drew slips of paper
- Rigged so that pps were the teachers and confederates got the role of 1 learner and 1 accomplice
What were the results of variation 13 of Milgram’s study?
20% obeyed to 450 volts